What The Artist Intended
In the usual ritual, I eagerly tore into Widescreen Review (Issue 134, September 2008). In the LETTERS section I was surprised to see a comment made by a fellow reader Claude Barsalo, St-Janvier about one of my previously published letters. My original letter was seeking clarification regarding DVD/Blu-ray titles that may not require the use of ReEQ because they were remastered/remixed by Mi Casa. Mr. Barsalo scoffs at my question with apparent distain. He writes “...who cares???? Doesn’t he have ears...can’t he tell if his sound system sounds good or not????”
Needless to say, I was shocked at this response to what I thought was a very important and interesting technical question. Well, I have an answer for Mr. Barsalo...
Like many of your readers, I have been involved in this hobby long before “home theatre” meant picking up a $199 package at Wal-Mart. During my journey, I have educated myself with everything I could get my hands on (including Widescreen Review). I am interested in the most accurate audio and video possible and I do not like to compromise. To this end, I like to stick to standards that make sense to me. As technology evolves, standards change and I change my approach accordingly to make my system the best it can be. Over the years I have applied these standards, and I have found that I end up enjoying my system more when I am able to experience a film the way it was intended to be experienced.
I can remember a time many, many years ago when I didn’t like the black bars associated with widescreen LaserDisc. I had eyes, I could tell the difference, and I still preferred pan-and-scan. The problem was that I was uneducated and did not know that without those black bars I was potentially missing a significant portion of the picture. I soon realized that pan-and-scan and similar techniques dramatically damaged the composition and emotional impact of a film. Once I understood this concept, I immediately began to purchase video in its original aspect ratio. I bring up this example to illustrate a couple of things:
1) Translating films to the home environment has historically been challenging and often resulted in compromises to the original intention of the artist.
2) Advances in technology and education are the keys to breaking this cycle of compromise so that our systems can be transparent vehicles to convey an artist’s true intention.
The use of ReEQ in the home has always been a hack. In the early days, it was arguably a necessary evil to counter harsh mixes that did not translate well to the home environment. When ReEQ first started showing up in audio/video receivers, special home theatre mixes were not widely available and were not even discussed by many people “in the know.” From the moment Widescreen Review came on the scene, Gary Reber has been advocating creating such mixes in order to achieve far better results then are possible if mixing for a large venue like a commercial theatre. Due to technological advances and an increased awareness, we are currently enjoying a significant portion of video releases mixed specifically for the home theatre environment from New Line, Lionsgate Films, Disney, and Sony. Obviously, at this point, even the original mixers of a film are well aware that their work has an impact beyond commercial exhibition and it will live forever on home video. It is my understanding that many mixers attempt to counter the issues experienced in translating their soundtracks to a non X-curve, near field environment. The truth is that even without remastering/ remixing, most films from the last several years do not exhibit the same problems that were encountered on older titles.
The reason why I asked my original ReEQ question is because this is an evolving industry, and it is interesting to me to see how things are progressing. I don’t think it is best to simply turn on the THX® Ultra2 Cinema mode on every film and forget about what the processing is doing to the soundtrack. I also don’t want to have to listen to every film with and without ReEQ in order to decide which is more subjectively pleasing. I want to understand the technical details of what is happening and above all, when it comes to my system, I want to get it right.
Back to Mr. Barsalo's rhetorical question––“Who cares?” Most people don’t care about all this technical stuff, but I am one of the few who do. I suspect a lot of other Widescreen Review readers care too. If someone is happy watching a display where everyone looks like an Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka, that is fine with me, but I don't want that. If someone wants to crank the subwoofer up until it drowns out the rest of the audio experience, that is okay as long as I don’t have to sit through it. If someone wants to use the old-style loudness button and set their EQ in a pretty lighted pattern, so be it. If someone just plain doesn’t care about ReEQ or can’t tell a difference either way, I don’t have a problem with that. However, I am not a complacent person and I will never have the “who cares” or “good enough” attitude. I have ears, and believe it or not, I can tell the difference when ReEQ is engaged. At this point, my system is quite transparent and it outperforms any commercial theatre I have ever been to––with or without the ReEQ engaged. Sometimes ReEQ makes the sound dull and removes sparkle. Other times, ReEQ seems to make things sound more “correct.” These days, I am using it less and less, but I still have quite a few older titles in my collection, so I think it is still a relevant and valuable feature. It would be nice if we didn’t have to guess whether ReEQ was necessary or not for a particular disc. It would be nice if studios would indicate in a standard way on the packaging that the film was specifically mixed for home theatre. It would be nice if the consumer was armed with the information needed to experience as closely as possible what the artist truly intended.
Mike Smith
Managing Editor Danny Richelieu Comments:
Yes, Mike, it would be nice. Thankfully, the studios are realizing more and more that the audio experience from their movies can be enhanced by remixing specifically for the home theatre environment and have stepped up their efforts of late to promote these new mixes. There are even some titles now that label it on their packaging. Hopefully this trend continues and “hacks” like ReEQ will be a thing of the past for good.
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