I am mixing a documentary for the first time in Dolby Atmos Renderer. The dialogue files were sent as two separate mono files. Should I pan these to left and right speakers or put them in the center speaker? When I rendered them initially, I panned both to center and now when it plays back in Atmos, the dialogue goes to either the left speaker or the right, but not center. Me being a total newbie to this, what should I do? It’s a low budget film and I don’t have the budget for a professional consultation. Anyone who can help would be greatly appreciated!
Probably the two mono files were just a typical “stereo” out from the dialogue editor’s DAW. I suspect there is no stereo image. So treat them as a single source. As Dolby states : “Distribution of the bed in the Renderer is defined by the number of speakers in a particular room. For example, if a room is configured with no center speaker for playback purposes, 3.0 and greater bed configurations will try to phantom image the content in the bed Center channel to the available left and right positions.”
Okay, me being the inexperienced person I am, I panned to center, the dialogue is switching from Left to Right. So if I pan them To Left and Right, would this correct that problem?
An update on this. I spoke to an expert in mixing Atmos and they told me that I did have to have a 5.1.2 speaker setup, which I don’t have. That’s a whole other ballgame with much investment. One thing they did tell me was to be sure to render the file in SMTPE order, which could have been the case. However, I applied for an arts grant that may help me upgrade my studio to 5.1.2, but I am in an apartment, which is going to be super challenging! Any advice for quick acoustic setup is appreciated.