multi-dysfunctional [long] (1 Viewer)

[Ed St. Clair]

The current issue of Sound & Vision has interviews with two of the most successful mixers in surround sound music today.
What a tragedy!
S&V:"so you don't mind if I'am turning my head and glancing back?"
Elliot Scheiner:"No, I like that"
Right Idiot, we all like turning our heads at a concert to see what the heck we just heard behind us!
It get's worse;
Elliot Scheiner:"I want to entertain him [the listener, he's also sexist I guess]".
No, your are the engineer! Your job is to 'capture' the artist. That's who's entertaining us.
Elliot Scheiner:"When it comes to surround sound, the thing that really bothers me is zipping around".
Good.
Elliot Scheiner:"I try to do one or two pans on a record".
What?!?
Elliot Scheiner:"Otherwise, those kinds of things are kind of a joke".
This is a man who above all else in "surround sound" detest 360 degree pans, yet does it once or twice on every "record". Therefore categorizing his own work as a "joke".
Heavens!
Next up; Elliot [is there a theme here?] Mazer:"In a real room, sound never comes from one specific place".
Sound always "comes from one specific place".
Many may see this as a battle over semantics. True. However it's his 'belief' in reverberation over source, that allows him to put the vocals and other instrument's in all three front channels. So, it's very important to know that he does not 'believe' the sound of a human voice originates [first reflection] from the point in the room where that person is positioned. But, comes to the lister only from the room.
A shame.
This is one of the strong points of stereo, to be able to 'create' the phantom center channel. And place the lead vocalist directly in the center, as they would be positioned on stage.
If someone finally came up with a true line source speaker, maybe we would need all this mix in the mix. But no such speaker exist.

And people wonder why vinyl is killing SACD/DVD-A in sales?
Go figure.

Also in the Oct. issue, Robert Ripps, rips Silverline 5.1 mixing as "Mix-O-Matic". And gives one star, out of five, to 15 of Silverline's DVD-A releases.
Ouch!

 

[KeithH]

Ed, if this is the pervading opinion among multi-channel mixing engineers, then we are in trouble. Let's hope this is an aberration. On the plus side, Steve Hoffman has said on his web site that he did not do the Creedence Clearwater Revival SACDs in multi-channel because he does not yet feel comfortable with the handling of the extra channels. Rather than throw something together haphazardly, it is evident that Mr. Hoffman wants to take some time to get his arms around the multi-channel soundfield before staking his name to anything released to the public. It is refreshing to see someone with such integrity.
You said:

Also in the Oct. issue, Robert Ripps, rips Silverline 5.1 mixing as "Mix-O-Matic". And gives one star, out of five, to 15 of Silverline's DVD-A releases.

That is very cool! Silverline could at least save face if it included a high-resolution stereo track on its releases. Instead, they give us nothing but gimmicky surround-sound mixes. Hopefully this lambasting in a major magazine will serve as a wake-up call for Silverline.