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Entry 1 – Getting Started/Routing

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Due to COVID-19 restrictions, I was forced to work from home on this project, using the workaround method detailed by my lecturer, Paul Wilson. Initially, I found this method to be incredibly difficult to understand. However, after watching lecture videos back and speaking with Paul, I soon understood exactly how I could work in stereo, with a view to translate my sessions into 5.1 in a suitable studio. 

 

For each session I created 3 atmos masters – front, mid (surround) and rear. In order for my mixing and routing decisions to be applicable to a 5.1 setup, I would set up new busses, and use these to route atmos audio/fx to the appropriate masters depending on where I wanted them to be spatially placed. With reference to the brief, I also set up and utilised appropriate reverb auxiliaries for each audio asset type. This meant that I could apply different amounts/kinds of reverb to different types of audio, automating this effect if necessary. As soon as I understood how the workaround works, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. Part of my misunderstanding was around the fact that any of the panning decisions I was making were not audible to me, which of course is obvious in a stereo set up. However, getting to grips with this new way of working was really fun and a massive learning curve.  

 

 

 

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Entry 2 – BBC Horizon

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As well as understanding the general workflow of this workaround method, I also had to think about how I would adapt this particular session to make sure it is compliant and in line with broadcast standards and expectations. 

 

I set up a ‘centre’ send for the VO and SYNC tracks with a +3db adjustment, meaning that these will be heard appropriately in a 5.1 setup, utilising the centre speaker. I also thought about the conventions of TV in terms of spatial audio. I initially routed the first few tracks to atmos front, the next few tracks to atmos mid and the last few tracks to atmos rear. I then went through each clip and made an informed decision on where exactly I wanted these sounds to be heard. This meant I had to move the audio clip to other tracks in some cases, or change the routing of the overall track in some cases. 

 

I decided to route most sounds in the session to the front atmos master, alongside all of the VO, sync and music. It just didn’t make sense to me to have these types of sounds routed anywhere else, as this would make the viewing/listening experience odd and uncomfortable compared to TV/broadcast conventions. I did, however, route some sounds into the rear and mid (surround) masters. Audio such as rumbles, wind and other weather based sounds that weren’t visually present, I would tend to route to surround, and in some cases rear. This would add to the overall surround experience, whilst making room sonically and drawing focus towards sounds in the front L+R if they were happening on screen.

 

I utilised the reverb aux send on one specific track where a woman is talking in a cave. This helped to place the listener/viewer in this location, making it a lot more realistic feeling. 

 

The final step was to create stems for each individual audio asset, which I then re-imported into the session and muted. This way they don’t affect the output in any way, but they can be found easily by any collaborative or future dubbing engineer if necessary. 

 

 

 

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Entry 3 – Desert Chartreuse

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Similar to Horizon, I started this session off by organising my atmos tracks into groups - routed to atmos front, atmos mid and atmos rear. Despite this session being a bit more open to interpretation due to its artistic nature and intended output, I decided to keep things pretty simple and conventional. I noticed when I opened the session that there had already been some panning automation done. I decided to clear all of this automation to start from scratch. Even though I couldn’t hear what it would sound like in 5.1, I wanted to make sure none of my panning would clash with existing panning, so the best way to do this was to clear it and start to think about where I wanted sounds to be routed. 

 

I started by routing the music to the front L+R, concentrating more on the spatial experience of the atmos/fx tracks. I went through each track individually, soloing sounds and then blending them back in with the overall mix for context. I found that a lot of the sounds in the first 8 atmos tracks were suited to being in the atmos front master, as they were happening on screen. These were sounds such as rain, drops, church bells and water flowing. There were various instances, however, where I decided to double up sounds, copying and pasting them to other tracks. One example of this was a wind sound that also had tree/leaf sounds within it. I decided to copy this from atmos mid to atmos front, adjusting the gain to be slightly louder in the atmos front. This meant there would be a surround element to this to place the viewer in the scene, but the focus was still on the trees blowing in the wind on screen. 

 

Another tool I used when doubling up audio was EQ. In one instance I copied audio of the inside of a car from atmos front to atmos surround. I added an EQ to one of the tracks, boosting the low end and cutting the high end to portray the claustrophobic feeling of being inside a car with such beautiful nature outside.

 

I also utilised the atmos rear routing, to include subtle weather sounds or birds/insects if they weren’t on screen at that time. These decisions were all based around creating a narrative for the scene and placing the viewer within that world through sonic manipulation and spatial reproduction. 

 

As previously mentioned, I decided to keep things simple in this session. One of the main reasons for this was that because I couldn’t hear the changes I was making, it was difficult to imagine how it would sound in surround. I took a pragmatic approach and applied my understanding of conventional techniques to try and make the most of this workaround technique. I’m sure if I was working in a 5.1 studio, my approach would be a bit more open, experimenting with placement and hearing the session come to life in real time. 

 

 

 

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Entry 4 – Final Thoughts/Reflections

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I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience of routing, adjusting gain and generally mixing these sessions. However, throughout the process I was left feeling frustrated and a bit restricted by the fact that I could only hear in Stereo, so all the work I was doing would not be audible until I could open my session in 5.1. I can imagine this would be a very satisfying project if done properly in a 5.1 studio. I would have loved to have heard things like the subtle blending of surround weather sounds, with focus on louder sounds in atmos front as they happen on screen. 

 

This is the nature of working during the Covid-19 pandemic however, and I am extremely grateful to have learned this workaround. I can see in the future how this might become a popular way of working. It allows the dubbing engineer to be proficient, creating a rough mix in their own time, routing things to roughly where they want it to be. Time spent in a 5.1 studio thereafter would be very pragmatic, fine-tuning these panning decisions, and placing yourself in the context of the viewer/listener. I also really appreciated completing things like the session logs, invoicing and jobsheets. This gave me a real understanding of how the industry works, and the correct way to conduct business within it. 

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APPENDIX 1 - HORIZON MIXING + ROUTING NOTES

 

The below notes are mainly kept as part of a journal for my own reference to keep things organised and help me understand the workaround process. 

 

MASTERS CREATED

  1. ATMOS FRONT

  2. ATMOS MID

  3. ATMOS REAR

 

BUSSES CREATED

  1. SYNC MASTER – TAKES SYNC AUDIO TO SYNC MASTER (FRONT L+R+C)

  2. ATMOS BUS 1 – TAKES AUDIO TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER FRONT

  3. ATMOS BUS 2 – TAKES AUDIO TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER MID

  4. ATMOS BUS 3 – TAKES AUDIO TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER REAR

  5. MUSIC MASTER – TAKES MUSIC TRACKS TO MUSIC MASTER (FRONT L+R)

  6. VO MASTER – TAKES VO TRACK TO VO MASTER (FRONT L+R+C)

  7. BUSSES SET UP FOR EXTRA REVERB TRACKS FOR EACH AUDIO ASSET GROUP (i.e., 1x STEREO REVERB MUSIC BUSS + 1x MONO REVERB BUS – WHICH CONNECTS REVERB TO RELATIVE TRACK AND OUT TO MASTER)

 

  • ALL MASTERS SENT VIA ‘ALL TO OUT’ BUSS TO ‘FINAL OUT’ WHICH IS MONITORED BY HEADPHONES IN THIS STEREO CIRCUMSTANCE. 

 

  • CENTRE SEND SET UP (+3DB) FOR SYNC AND VO FOR 5.1 SITUATION.

 

WHERE AM I SENDING SOUNDS?

  1. MONO FX 1 – SUN ROUND EARTH – FRONT L+R (SYNC MASTER)

  2. MONO FX 2 – ASTRONAUT VOCALS – FRONT L+R (SYNC MASTER)

  3. AUDIO 1 – RISERS – ATMOS FRONT - 

  4. ATMOS 1 – THUNDER ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  5. ATMOS 2 – OUTER SPACE ATMOSPHERE – (ATMOS FRONT + DUPLICATED AND SENT TO ATMOS REAR AT -8db

  6. ATMOS 3 – ADDITIONAL WIND/RUMBLE/ATMOSPHERE – ATMOS FRONT

  7. ATMOS 4 – ADDITIONAL WIND/RUMBLE/ATMOSPHERE – ATMOS MID

  8. ATMOS 5 – ADDITIONAL WIND/RUMBLE/TIMELAPSE – ATMOS MID

  9. ATMOS 6 – SHARP TIMELAPSE SOUNDS – ATMOS FRONT

  10.  ATMOS 7 – SHARP TIMELAPSE SOUNDS – ATMOS MID

  11.  ATMOS 8 – SHARP TIMELAPSE SOUNDS – ATMOS REAR

  12.  ATMOS 9 – ADDITIONAL TIMELAPSE SOUNDS – ATMOS FRONT

  13.  ATMOS 10 – ADDITIONAL TIMELAPSE SOUNDS – ATMOS FRONT

 

  • ALL SYNC & VO SENT TO FRONT L+R (additional centre channel set up (+3db) for 5.1 setup. 

  • ALL MUSIC SENT TO FRONT L+R VIA MUSIC MASTER 

 

 

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APPENDIX 2 - DESERT CHARTREUSE MIXING + ROUTING NOTES

 

MASTERS CREATED

  1. ATMOS FRONT

  2. ATMOS MID

  3. ATMOS REAR

 

BUSSES CREATED

  1. ATMOS MASTER FRONT – TAKES ATMOS TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER FRONT

  2. ATMOS MASTER MID – TAKES AUDIO TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER MID

  3. ATMOS MASTER REAR – TAKES AUDIO TRACKS TO ATMOS MASTER REAR

  4. MUSIC MASTER – TAKES MUSIC TRACKS TO MUSIC MASTER (FRONT L+R)

  5. BUSSES SET UP FOR EXTRA REVERB TRACKS FOR EACH AUDIO ASSET GROUP (i.e., STEREO REVERB MUSIC BUSS – WHICH CONNECTS REVERB TO RELATIVE TRACK AND OUT TO MASTER – EVEN IF NO REVERB IS BEING USED THIS IS HANDY TO INCLUDE)

 

  • ALL MASTERS SENT VIA ‘ALL TO OUT BUSS’ TO ‘FINAL OUT’ WHICH IS MONITORED BY HEADPHONES IN LIEU OF 5.1 SETUP.  

 

WHERE AM I SENDING SOUNDS?

 

MY PROCESS WAS TO SOLO EACH TRACK AND RELATE EACH AUDIO CLIP TO WHAT IS HAPPENING ON SCREEN, OFTEN FLIPPING BETWEEN SOLO AND BLENDING WITH OTHER TRACKS TO GIVE EACH CLIP CONTEXT. VERY CONVENTIONAL APPROACH BUT I DIDN’T SEE ANY REASON TO HAVE CHURCH BELLS COMING FROM BEHIND ME WHEN THEY WERE VISIBLY RINGING ON SCREEN. ANY APPROACH OTHER THAN THIS I THOUGHT WOULD MAKE THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE ODD AND UNCOMFORTABLE. INITIALLY SET UP ATMOS 1-5 AS ATMOS FRONT TRACKS, ATMOS 6-10 AS ATMOS MID TRACKS AND ATMOS 11-16 AS ATMOS REAR TRACKS. AFTER FLICKING THROUGH EVERY TRACK, I DECIDED TO MOVE SOME OF THESE CLIPS TO OTHER TRACKS SO THEY WOULD BE ROUTED ACCORDINGLY. IE AT 25:45 THERE WAS AN ANIMAL TWEETING SOUND IN ATMOS 2, BUT IT WASN’T VISIBLE AND I LIKED THE IDEA OF ENHANCING SURROUND EXPERIENCE BY PLACING IT INTO ATMOS MID SO I MOVED JUST THIS CLIP INTO ATMOS 6 (ROUTED TO ATMOS MID MASTER). SEVERAL INSTANCES OF COPYING CLIPS AND USING THE FADE TOOL TO GIVE IMPRESSION OF THE SOUND MOVING FROM REAR TO FRONT. 

 

  1. ATMOS 1 – VARIOUS WEATHER/DROPS/BELLS ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  2. ATMOS 2 – VARIOUS WEATHER/DROPS/RAIN/LEAVES ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  3. ATMOS 3 – VARIOUS WEATHER/DROPS/BELLS/GONGS ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT 

  4. ATMOS 4 – WATER, FIRE, CRACKLING, MACHINERY ALL ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT 

  5. ATMOS 5 – WATER, FIRE, WOOD CRACKLING ALL ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  6. ATMOS 6 – WATER, MACHINERY, RUSTLING NOISES ALL ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  7. ATMOS 7 – MORE ATMOS/ENVIRONMENT SOUNDS SHOWN ON SCREEN – ATMOS FRONT

  8. ATMOS 8 – ENVIRONMENTAL/SECONDARY SOUNDS I.E WATER/RAIN CONTEXT TO COMPLIMENT PRIMARY ATMOS FRONT SOUNDS HAPPENING ON SCREEN. MAKES FOR FULLER/WARMER SURROUND IMAGE. – ATMOS MID

  9. ATMOS 9 – MORE ENVIRONMENT SOUNDS THAT GIVE FULL SURROUND ATMOS FEEL. GAINS ADJUSTED TO SUIT WHATS HAPPENING IN FRONT. – ATMOS MID

  10.  ATMOS 10 – ANOTHER SURROUND TRACK USED TO GIVE GENERAL FEEL TO OVERALL AUDIO MIX. NOTHING TOO OVERT HAPPENING, MAINLY SERVING AS A COMPLIMENT TO FRONT R+L (+C in 5.1) – ATMOS MID

  11.  ATMOS 11 – A VARIETY OF SOUNDS, MOSTLY COMPLIMENTING THE SURROUND IMAGE SUCH AS ANIMALS, WEATHER, REVERBERANT BELLS – ATMOS 

  12.  ATMOS 12 – MORE ENVIRONMENTAL/WEATHER SOUNDS, PLACED AT BACK TO GIVE DEPTH TO FULL SURROUND EXPERIENCE – ATMOS 

  13.  ATMOS 13 - MORE ENVIRONMENTAL/WEATHER SOUNDS, PLACED AT BACK TO GIVE DEPTH TO FULL SURROUND EXPERIENCE – ATMOS 

  14.  ATMOS 14 - MORE ENVIRONMENTAL/WEATHER SOUNDS, PLACED AT BACK TO GIVE DEPTH TO FULL SURROUND EXPERIENCE – ATMOS 

  15.  ATMOS 15 - MORE ENVIRONMENTAL/WEATHER SOUNDS, PLACED AT BACK TO GIVE DEPTH TO FULL SURROUND EXPERIENCE – ATMOS 

  16.  ATMOS 16 - MORE ENVIRONMENTAL/WEATHER SOUNDS, PLACED AT BACK TO GIVE DEPTH TO FULL SURROUND EXPERIENCE – ATMOS 

 

 

  • ALL MUSIC SENT TO FRONT L+R VIA MUSIC MASTER (AUTOMATED REVERB SENDS TO GIVE IMPRESSION MONKS WERE SINGING IN CHURCH)  

  • NO SYNC OR VO IN SESSION. IF THERE WAS I WOULD SET UP ‘CENTRE’ SEND ON BOTH OF THESE MASTERS FOR USE IN 5.1 SETUP, ADJUSTING GAIN +3db FOR CENTRE DUE TO INDUSTRY STANDARDS. 

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