SURROUND SOUND

ciarrochi wrote on 4/21/2007, 8:25 PM
Who wants to help me take my first baby steps in videotaping, editing and authoring a wedding ceremony mixed for SURROUND SOUND?

I use the Canon XL-1S and have mixers and mics at my disposal. (It's handy to work at a radio station)

I have some ideas of how I want to proceed, but I want to hear from others on what ideas they have on mic placement, etc etc etc

Comments

Steve Mann wrote on 4/21/2007, 10:32 PM
Watch a movie done in surround sound and mute each set of speakers while watching the same scene over and over.

Dialog is almost always mono out of the center speaker only.
Most sfx are done in stereo - front left & right only. (An off-camera phone ringing, or a door outside slamming shut).
Room tone and some SFX are all you ever hear out of the rear speakers. (Rain, an A/C humming, random room tone).

The only speaker good enough for dialogue is the center speaker. Any attempt of putting voices - especially on-screen voices on anything but the center speaker will sound bad. Or at least, not right.
riredale wrote on 4/21/2007, 11:02 PM
I've done about a half-dozen documentary movies with a self-contained 4-channel surround-sound rig over the past couple of years. This is an entirely different kind of shooting than mentioned above; I'm pulling in the ambient audio environment from 4 quadrants as I shoot.

I've used a pair of Sony 908c stereo microphones mounted atop the camera, with the front stereo pair feeding the tape and the rear stereo pair feeding a Sharp Minidisc recorder attached to the back of the camera.

The effect is dramatic. At first it sounds unsettling, because normally one doesn't hear sounds coming from behind in a video. After a little while, it sounds very natural, and in fact if one cuts out the rear two channels at that point it sounds very artificial, similar to the disconcerting effect of cutting a stereo presentation down to just a mono center.

It's much more work in editing, of course, particularly in my situation because I'm not recording timecode on the rear channels. I not only need to sync the rear to the front but I also first need to find the particular rear audio clip that matches the particular front clip. In addition, the Minidisc runs very slightly slower, so I need to compensate at the rate of 1 frame every 4.5 minutes. Still, to me, the results are well worth it.

Here is an older photo of Yours Truly and the microphone setup as it was on my trusty old VX2000 several years ago in Prague. The current rig uses the same microphone layout but with MiniWindjammer mitts on the microphones in addition to the foam. Also, the current camera is an FX1, enabling me to now shoot HDV surround. The resulting DVDs are encoded with DolbyDigital 2/2. The microphones sound surprisingly good once the frequency response curve is flattened out a bit.
rique wrote on 4/30/2007, 1:38 PM
Maybe you'll be interested in this "5.1" recorder.

http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1916&brandID=4
ciarrochi wrote on 5/10/2007, 6:17 PM
Is there any special set up in mixing in surround? I've shot the wedding. I have a sound card capable of 5.1 and all the speakers attached. Any ideas? It still sounds stereo.

Paul
riredale wrote on 5/10/2007, 6:34 PM
Options/Preferences/Audio Device/Audio Device Type.

Choose "Direct Sound Surround Mapper." It's the only driver on my setup that puts the rear channels in the rear. The go to File/Properties/Audio/Master Bus Mode and choose Surround, and you'll get the little mappers on each audio track.
johnmeyer wrote on 5/10/2007, 7:58 PM
Also, make sure, in Control Panel, that the "Sound and Audio Devices" has the Audio hardware set to 5.1.
MarkFoley wrote on 5/11/2007, 4:00 AM
Actually, from, an equipment standpoint, it is pretty easy to do...as it has already been stated, send all of the vows (vocals) to the center channel. Any music/instuments/etc..goes to your front left/right and use an audio track from one of your back camers as your surround...(room tone/crowd noise/applause...etc)
JJKizak wrote on 5/11/2007, 7:53 AM
rique:
I just ordered that H2 from B & H for $199.00. It does look sweet.
JJK
rique wrote on 5/11/2007, 2:10 PM
Cool. Let us know how good it is.