Q for Steve on multichannel mixes

Steve,

To recap, you were enthusiastic about making some new surround mixes on an undisclosed project (or maybe you were just experimenting), then frustrated at what to do as far as whether to have ambience or high music content in the rear channels.

Then some of us on this forum weighed in with our thoughts and prejudices.

Did you ever decide what way to go, or is this going to be decided on a per case basis?

Have you heard any surround stuff with a lot of discrete music on the rears that you actually like a lot?

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

Amen!!

 

Steve,

You just scared the hell out of me. I figured if ANYONE would remix to 5.1 and use the rears strictly for ambience to flesh out the front channels and fill the room with 'real' sound, it would be YOU. In real life, "interesting stuff" does NOT come from behind your head. In 46 years, I've only heard dedicated multi-channel live sound twice that made ANY sense - on the ELP "Brain Salad Surgery" tour and Pink Floyd's "Animals" tour. These were interesting experiences, but seemed contrived even on the songs it worked on. I saw ELP again a couple of years later without the multi-channel setup, and even the Brain Salad songs were MUCH more enjoyable with the 'normal' sound system.

I can't even LISTEN to the multi-channel mix on the Band's Last Waltz DVD because of all the "interesting stuff" they put in the rears. The 5.1 mixes on the Eagle's "Hell Freezes Over" and Fleetwood Mac's "The Dance" are OK, but I have to cut 3-5 db out of the rears to make them disappear.

I listened to the SACD 5.1 mix of Miles' "Kind of Blue" when shopping for an SACD player, and except for the rare occaisions when there was "interesting stuff" in the rears, it blew the 2 channel mix out the door and down the street. I didn't even realize I was listening to multi-channel at first. I thought it was just SACD. (I'd never heard SACD.) On the multi-channel mix, every instument seem localized with pinpoint precision, and it was closer to the sound of real music than anything I've ever heard. The 2-channel mix sounded fake and compressed in comparison. But every time there was "interesting stuff" in the rears it ruined the illusion.

PLEASE don't use the rear channels for "interesting stuff, unless it's included as a bonus track. In my opinion, good multi-channel should sound exactly like INCREDIBLE 2-channel. Just my $0.02.