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Surround Sound: 5.1

                    Atmos and Beyond

5.1 surround sound is the most challenging project for this year.

We need to do a 5.1 mix on a non-HD environment and without being able to monitor the audio. I am a bit worried, but Paul looks excited about this new challenge in our first zoom call, and he made me feel much better. Since last year I was looking forward to this class because I wanted to deepen my knowledge to surround sound. I always believe that surround sound has more technological substance, but I can see from the assessment brief that it also has a theoretical level.

Sound has a special contribution to the cinematic experience, but this experience highlighted more through the development of surround systems in the cinema. The evolution of sound systems is not just a result of advances in audio-visual technology. Every time we hear sounds in the cinema, we get in touch and participate in a dynamic network of relationships between various participants, cinema audio technology as a cultural industry and creative work on the cinematic sound. The evolution of the surround is not just a deterministic induction of stages (e.g., from simple to complex, from analogue to digital). Looking back at history, we observe that the life of the cinematic surround is characterized by pivotal moments and turning points.

Cinema is an audiovisual spectacle, to the realization of which many arts and technologies contribute. Speech, image, sound and music compose a universe of interactions and balances, between different laws. A universe with multiple levels of meaning and aesthetic functions. The chemistry of the arts, initially independent, but then shaped in the cinematic environment, contributes to the conquest of the overall film experience.

Sound in cinema is a technique quite difficult to study. This is because there is great difficulty in isolating an audio moment. In addition, the visual part of a movie is quite riveting so that viewers overlook the sound part of a movie. However, whether someone realises it or not, the sound is a powerful cinematic technique for several reasons. Primarily, it mobilises a distinct way of feeling. Second, accompanying the visual part of the film shapes the way we perceive the image. The introduction of surround sound in cinema changed a lot this view. Cinema stops being screen centric. Due to surrounding sound is created an acoustic space beyond the screen, which during the years and the development of surround systems, this space became more extensive and more impressive.

Being today's student, sometimes I forget the past technologies and take all the tools that I have for granted. I ignore how sound creators struggle to create loud, impressive sounds and refined compositions with intricate layers and create cost.

For example, after the release of the movie Batman Returns in 1992 and the introduction of Dolby Digital, Jurassic Park in 1993 with the format Digital Theatre Systems (DTS), Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) a year later and finally, in 1999, Dolby with Dolby Digital Surround EX the creative field became very demanding and expensive.

When I was informed about the free version for a month of Pro Tools Ultimate is was quite late, but I thought to give it a shot because I really wanted to try the surround panners and work on a 5.1 Pro Tools environment. I had already started my stereo sessions, but I was on a stage where I had not progressed that far. However, the new routing was a great challenge. I have the impression that I managed to make appropriate routing on both sessions, I had a deeper understanding, and everything became clear in my mind. 
Regarding mixing, even though I created a mess on my Pro Tools sessions, I had great fun experimenting with sound localisation without hearing the sound. I placed sounds in the surrounding image approximately. My next project will be probably to set up a surround speaker system in the living room. Also, I want to read more about  Michel Chion and how he deals with the state of cinema as sound art.

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I believe that film and film sound education contributes to developing a critical spirit by enabling a combination of knowledge of heritage and awareness of the complexity of the world of images and sounds; emphasises education through film, film culture and language, and improving the resources and opportunities provided by digital knowledge and allows to viewers to gain wider knowledge, appreciate the art of cinema and reflect on the values that films promote through image, sound and music.  

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