Turning The Beat AroundTurning A 10-Year-Old Stereo Mix Into A 5.1 Surround MixBy David Frangioni

With the advent of DTS and Dolby Digital consumer formats (soon to be joined by the forth-coming DVD-Audio standards), surround sound is reaching the masses. Last year saw the release of some great music titles in the DTS format (FYI: DTS is a 5.1 discreet digital standard used to encode audio onto CD, DVD, and LD). Pop, rock, and country music DTS titles were abound, but what about other styles of music? Enter Brad Miller of HDS. Brad was familiar with the album called Global Beat by drummer Steve Smith (formerly of the band Journey). The album was over 10 years old and sounded fantastic. Not only was the recording great, but (more importantly) the music contained musical influences of jazz, Caribbean, fusion, and Latin, to name a few. Brad asked me to contact Kevin Elson (the engineer on the record) and see if we could remix it in 5.1. Kevin thought it was a great idea and, after a few phone calls, we had the master tapes on their was to Audio One studios in Delray Beach, Florida for the remix. In fact, Steve Smith was going to fly in for the remix to join Kevin and me. It's never as easy at it looks, is it? As soon as the tapes arrived, it was clear that they were one ""play"" away from completely shredding. The 2-inch looked as if someone had gone mad with black pencil erasers! Fortunately (and I mean very fortunately), New River Sound in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida had the answer. They not only restored the tapes (six 2-inch reels in all), they transferred them to ADAT for the remix. The tapes sounded incredible. This mixing session had its share of ""firsts."" Kevin was remixing in surround sound for the very first time. Steve, on the other hand, had never even heard music in surround sound! When everyone arrived, ready to mix, the studio was completely set-up and properly calibrated. Kevin and I started by getting basic sounds on each of the instruments for the first song on the record. This process included EQ, light compression, and any necessary repair work. After getting the basics sounding good, we started the placement of each of the tracks/instruments into the front and back, left and right. I have found that the most critical aspect of good, balanced surround tracks is the blend among the four main speakers. The key is to have a 360-degree soundfield, not four independent speakers. Obtaining that musical balance has to do with the level, EQ, and effects that are distributed among the four speakers. At this point in the mix, both the center channel and the subwoofer were not being used - yet. The mix was starting to take shape as it began to have nice energy and feel. We then added effects to each instrument as necessary. The drums were processed with a Lexicon 480L and TC M5000. The guitars had some internal Yamaha 02R effects in addition to a RolandR880 and Korg A1. The bass had a TC M5000 and an Eventide DSP4500, while the percussion had PCM81 and some Pro Tools|24 plug-ins. As a side note, we used the Pro Tools|24 system for a lot of effects (both as digital inserts and send/returns). It made for an incredible outboard gear rack, providing for Drawmer compressors, Focusrite EQs, Lexicon reverbs, and TC Chorus. All patching was done via AES digital and clocked to an Aardvark Mastersync II word clock generator. The balance of the effects were complete, and we were not ready for the ""extras."" This is where Steve and Kevin would listen to the mix and create the moving elements. For instance, there is a swirling sound at the beginning of each bridge section. We panned the sound among all four speakers four times to create a rapidly moving swirl. Of course, after writing a move like that, the level has to be adjusted (again). The 02R makes it so easy to edit, update, and overwrite automation, that it was a breeze to make changes. In the middle of the song, there was a break in the music, a big snare drum hit, and then the music returned. I set up a reverb to send to a PCM91 that would trigger from the snare hit, pan front to back, and land in the middle of the circle when it finally decayed. It worked great and added a much more decisive feel to the break section. Finally, it was time to add the sub and center. I've never been a big fan of center channel for music. The sub can sound great (if used properly), but the center always sounds awkward to me. First, I dial the BD, Bass Guitar, and any other very low instruments (deep table or gong bass drums, for instance) into the sub channel (typically channel 6 of 6 on the master destination tape). I will add just enough so that when I mute the sub, you definitely feel the difference. I never rely on the low end of the mix to be dependent on the sub. The translation of the sub (and center) channel when played through a multitude of home systems works best with this level balance. The center is used for three reasons: [1] to center images such as the snare drum and other center-placed instruments at a low volume level, [2] add effects for one or two instruments in the mix that sound natural only playing through the center channel, and [3] because you have to use the center in order for it to be 5.1! Really, the center is not a big deal to have to use; it's just not a necessary element of great surrounding sound music. At the end of the mixing session, we loaded the 6-channel masters into ProTools|24 at 20-bit resolution and mastered the entire project. David Frangioni mixed the first-ever DTS music tracks in 1996 and, since then, has worked on several major music surround sound releases. Global Beat is dedicated to the memory of Brad Miller.