Sound Studio, Week 10 (October, 2007) "Surround Formats"

Format	Mixing Format	Channel/Track Layout	Brief Technology Overview	Release Format
Dolby Stereo SR (Spectral Recording)	4.0		Developed in 1986 to assist in overall dynamic range of analogue media. Used predominantly for 35mm film soundtracks. Sound information is recorded to 35mm film, which is the interpreted by a solar cell, converted as voltage information, and finally amplified.	35” film
Quadraphonic	4.0	L/R/Ls/Rs	Introduced in 1970. Quadraphonic recording used an ‘Out of Phase Stereo’ (OOPS) signal which was overlayed onto the existing stereo track, just 90° out of phase. It was then up to a specifically designed ‘matrix’ decoder to recognise this and send the out of phase signal to the surround speakers.	Vinyl, 8 track cartridges, reel to reel releases
Dolby Pro Logic II	5.1	L/C/R/Ls/Rs + 1 LFE channel	Introduced in 2000. Expands any two channel audio and extracts the information into a 5 channel full bandwidth signal. Mainly used for television broadcast, and only compatible with labelled Dolby Pro Logic home theatre systems.	Mainly TV broadcast
Dolby Digital	5.1	L/C/R/Ls/Rs + 1 LFE channel	Industry and commercial standard for most cinemas and home theatre systems. It is also a film standard, used on 35” film.	DVD, TV broadcast, game consoles, 35” film
DTS (Digital Theatre System)	5.1			DVD, 35mm film, game consoles
SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound)	8.0	L/Lc/C/Rc/R Ls/Rs + 1 LFE channel	In competitive film sound format by Sony, using 8 channels to enhance the experience of film. The format, while useful, hasn’t taken off and Sony has discontinued its support for it, however some films are still recorded with the SDDS track.	35” film
Dolby Digital Surround EX	5.1	L/C/R/Ls/Cs/Rs + 1 LFE channel	The same as Dolby Digital, however, with the addition of a matrixed centre surround channel. Most likely in competition with DTS-ES.
DTS ES (Extended Surround)	5.1/6.1		There are two versions on DTS-ES (discrete, or matrixed). ES Discrete provides 6.1 channels, with an extra centre surround channel, where as the matrixed version has 5.1 channels with an extra matrixed centre surround channel.	DVD, 35mm film, game consoles, television broadcast
IMAX	6.0	…	Six channel, “multi-digital” system to enhance the overall experience of IMAX. Utilizes an array of 44 speakers, and uncompressed audio.	70” film format only in IMAX theatres

Dolby Digital SR

Quadraphonic

Dolby Digital EX

SDDS

DTS

Dolby Digital

IMAX

Dolby Pro Logic II

Matrix Audio Recording

MTF, Week 10 (October 11th, 2007) "Timms Tunes"

It seems our tour this semester have been somewhat divided into two categories; we first visited studios and music production facilities. Now we appear to have finished what seemed like the second half made up of entirely film production content. Completing our travels, we visited a jingle studio, owned and managed my Sean Timms.

Greeted with guest lollies and a comfy lounge, it really felt I was at home ready to begin watching predominantly garbage advertising, then again I mainly watch ABC, however the facilities at ‘Timms Tunes’ were quite advanced. And Sean, gave some really great insight into not just how he makes jingles, but also how to make it in the music production industry, something which we haven’t heard a lot of in our travels.

He began with asking us what we would like to do in the future, as engineers… This created somewhat of a dubious feeling in my mind; I wasn’t exactly sure what I want to do, but I do know I would love to do everything that I can. Moving on though, Sean had a lot of outboard gear, which to my surprise he said he doesn’t really use anymore because digital is much quicker and easier to use, particularly in creating music.

We were then introduced to two of his employees, who both had different personalities, but both shared the qualities that Sean specifically looks for in a person when making selections. We were also given the oppurtunity to hear how exactly Sean creates his jingles.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, and it gave me a better understanding of the advertising industry, but most importantly the aspects which you need in order to make it in the music industry.

Sound Studio, Week 8 (September, 2007) "Automation Modes"

Auto-Off:
…Doesn’t read automated data at all. Useful for making comparisons of the difference to audio with and then without automation.

Auto-Write:
…Writes automation. This is somewhat of a destructive mode, as is over writes any previous automated data.

Auto-Read:
… Simply reads automation data while in playback.

Auto-Touch
…Applies automated data while the fader is held, once the fader is released, the fader will reset to the previous position prior to automation being written. Handy for when you want to control automation but have it automatically return to the exact previous value. Across a song, this would become useful for things such as changing elements between choruses and verses, etc.

Auto-Latch
…Is the same as Touch mode however rather then returning to the previous position, the fader latches to the last specified position of the fader. Most suitable for human controlled in fades.

Trim modes allow a user to keep the shape of written automated data, but vary its position value. There are various modes which apply to trim which follow a similar path to automation modes. These are useful when you want to keep your automation data, but wavy its value without varying its shape.