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 SMPTE 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.
Always keep your dialogue or vocals in the centre.
I did, but the problem was with the final rendering of the movie. Everything was fine until we played it back on a 5.1.2 speaker setup. This could have been because we initially rendered it in “Film” order instead of SMTPE order. It must be rendered in SMPTE order.
Depends on your DAW, but in Pro Tools in I/O I always check all my 7.1.4 channels. Make sure they’re all SMTPE.
Object based mixing is more forgiving if you’re dialogue isn’t in the centre, but think about the consumer. If they listen to it in some other format or downmix I can get funky if you don’t have centre panned dialogue. You can still mix a good Atmos session in headphones. Especially with head tracking function. Not ideal, but possible.
I did the original audio in Pro Tools but was told not to use specifically Dolby or the Dolby Atmos Renderer, I was told to just render in 5.1.2 without the renderer and then the Editor did the final cut in Davinci Resolve. Initially, it was fully rendered in Film order but I later found out it had to be in STMPE order. This was passed in to a professional recording studio at this point, but the engineer was asking for a sizable payment and will not get around to it soon. I have since learned that the film was completed but I am not sure if changing it to STMPE was the solution or if she had the professional complete it.
Yes, we got the breakdown of how it all works in an emergency session. Since I am completely new to it, it was a learning experience! We did stereo mixes for all the YouTube, Trailer and online previews. Dialogue was center and the score was stereo. We didn’t have to use any other speakers because it’s a documentary with no LFE or special effects. It’s called “Vision Beyond Sight-The Heidi Covey Story” and it will be out in Theaters soon!
Need to check it out. The order of channels is different in FILM and STMPE I believe.
Yes the speaker order for most theaters is L R C LFE Ls Rs and there are other orders, such as Film order and other speaker configurations. Dolby is a specific brand of Atmos and many theaters don’t use Dolby, but might have something comparable. We mixed for the RANGOS OMNIMAX Theater in Pittsburgh which isn’t specifically Dolby and it sounded wonderful. So I am not sure if it’s specific to Dolby or not. I would think so, but, as you get more experience, you learn that. You can learn more about the film at www.wccproductionsllc.com and I am the composer and mixer.