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Home , Al Schmitt, Ed Cherney, Elliot Scheiner, Hell Freezes Over

Remixing for 5.1

DTS guru and 5.1 old hand, Rory Kaplan, imparts some salient surround sound production and engineering technique tips to Richard Buskin.

ory Kaplan’s initial experiences in the music were on the sides and at the back. We did that without the business came as a keyboard player, program- benefit of footage, but when you locked it to picture mer, songwriter and engineer. He toured with it somehow made sense. It was really phenomenal. luminaries such as , Herbie RB: Since then, guys like Al Schmitt, Ed Cherney, Hancock, , David Tickle, Chuck Ainley, Rob Jacobs and George Rand , and played in the studio for Yes, Massenburg have done DTS 5.1 remixes of recordings Joe Cocker and Belinda Carlisle. by , , , , Olivia After producing an for Edgar Winter, Kaplan was Newton-John, , The Mavericks, among introduced to DTS by Winter’s A&R man and learned many, many others. As more and more projects are that the company intended to make its entry into the mixed you must be learning more and more about the consumer market for multichannel music in order to capabilities of the format? "pioneer and spearhead where quad hadn’t been able to RK: Sure. I’ve worked on about 80 of these projects now, go because of the medium delivery". Indeed, by the time and you really pick up on the details of how to use Kaplan joined DTS in 1996, the relatively small setup had reverbs correctly, what delays to use and what new already enjoyed considerable success on the cinematic equipment is supporting this format. George Massenburg side courtesy of Jurassic Park and several other motion was waiting for the proper ‘verbs to come out before he pictures, but it would be largely thanks to Kaplan’s own would try it, and I know that Lexicon and TC Electronic record industry contacts that DTS would be able to have both released some great machines for working in diversify, commencing with ’s multichannel this format [the 960L and System 6000 respectively – see remix of The ’ album. AudioTechnology Issue 10 for more], where the reverbs Richard Buskin: Tell us a little about that seminal are coherent, time-aligned and not out of phase with remix for The Eagles. each channel – in other words, they address all of the Rory Kaplan: That was a real success story because it headaches we had to go through in the beginning. went from a DTS CD – which did very well and gained us So, right now I’m getting excited watching all of these a lot of publicity – to being released as a laser disc which engineers discover this new format, because it’s like a generated even more sales, and then to DVD. In just a whole new canvas for them to paint on. It’s a chance for little over a year that thing has sold more than 400,000 them to revisit music in a format which they would have units, and it’s wholly a DTS recording. Hell Freezes Over liked to have heard it in from the beginning, and they’re comprised recordings from their reunion tour, and Elliot’s producing some stunning results. perspective on the remix was that he wanted the RB: What ground work needs to be done in terms of audience to almost be in the orchestra pit, with The preparation for a multichannel remix? Eagles playing in front while the additional musicians RK: Quite a few things. One is figuring out what studio

40 you’re going to work in, and that often relates to the tapes the sub-woofer crossing over at 85Hz or 100Hz, then you’ve got to work with. You see, if you’re dealing with a there are other guys who are using KRK Exposé 8s, while project that’s 15, 20 years or older, the condition of the Al Schmitt is using his Master Lab Tannoys. So, what I’ve tapes is a big issue. These are your master multitracks found is that the speakers that these engineers are accus- and you don’t want to lose anything, so you have to take tomed to using in stereo suit them best in 5.1 with a the utmost precautions. For example we sent the decent subwoofer. That’s really the trick – I still think analogue tapes of Don Henley’s End Of The Innocence there’s no substitute for nearfield monitoring in this album to Capitol Recording Studios in where format. You can’t use the big soffited speakers. If you Remixing they were transferred to a Sony 3348, which means that want to occasionally switch over to them to get a bigger the label now has a backup. feel, that’s one thing, but to me there’s a real danger in Once the tapes have been secured in good condition trying to mix everything on big speakers. You lose much you then have to make sure that the room you’ve chosen of the perception of depth. is set up for 5.1. If it’s not, you have to make sure that you RB: Is it best to have a preconceived idea of sound have enough busses, enough automation faders, and placement and sound field, or does experimentation whatever encode/decode box they want to use, to yield the best results? monitor 5.1. After that, it comes down to what medium RK: The straightest answer to that is: every song dictates for 5.1 you store it on – originally it was generally 20-bit DA88 what’s going to happen. Like when I listened to Sheryl DTRS tape, whereas during the past two and a half years Crow’s album [The Globe Sessions], at the beginning of the everything with DTS has been done in 24-bit [although song Something More Than Nothing there are these great Tascams DTRS recorders now support 24-bit – CH]. The ambient tracks going on, then a little drum rhythm size of the project will dictate how many tracks you need, comes in, the piano trickles in a bit and her voice is but it’s good to have at least a 48-input board, because really light. Well, in my head I can hear all of the you’re going to want effects returns and extra faders to ambient stuff floating around the back sidefields in the do some of the surround panning if your board is not mix. With most of these songs I can hear where they’d designed for surround mixing. Increasingly, there are lots go in a surround mix. of smaller studios popping up that advertise for surround Another good example is The Police’s Greatest Hits work, but you’ve got to make sure they have the right album remix. That proved to be difficult because some of outboard gear and are prep’d correctly. the tracks from the early days were really sparse – you RB: How do engineers generally arrive at their choice know, six channels of drums, bass, guitar and vocal – it of a monitoring system and configuration? What are wasn’t a complicated production. The engineer, David the common mistakes and misconceptions? Tickle, did a great job figuring things out. He had to figure RK: Well, it’s really interesting. For example, Don Smith out how to take the voices and delays and reverbs and engineers for Tom Petty and , and I rhythm guitars, and where to space them so that there went with him and to do a 5.1 mix of was some ambient cohesion to it. Mike’s own material at Cherokee Studios. They have So, each song dictates what you do, but the flipside is these larger midfield-style monitors – not soffited, main you still want to maintain the integrity of the intention of monitors but free-standing Klipsch floor speakers – while the song. You don’t want to take some artistic stance and the room is quite narrow, and I couldn’t tell what the heck say, "Oh, it’ll be hip to have her vocal come out of the was going on in there. I encoded the mix, we played it rear-left speaker, detached from everything else," – unless back elsewhere, and the level was down on one side and it’s intentionally theatrical like a Pink Floyd project. a number of things were wrong. The encoding was an RB: We were talking before about how there’s no preset input/throughput process and we hadn’t level-changed formula, because every record has different require- anything, so for Mike that room clearly ments. However, what considerations represented a false perception in must be made in the multichannel terms of what the speakers were com- remixing of an established and municating. From there they went to much-loved ‘classic’ album? another room in North Hollywood RK: Well, for example, Steely Dan’s which had nearfield monitors and all Gaucho album is accepted as one of of a sudden it made sense to him. the classic CDs, and so when we went So, every engineer has his own par- to remix it we had to bear in mind that ticular monitor preference. For the original board it was mixed on was instance, I’ve noticed that the Genelec a Neve 8078. We therefore remixed it 1031s or 1032s are beautiful-sounding on an 8078 at ’s studio speakers for playback, yet when [River Sound, in New York], and people mix on them the results can Donald and Walter [Becker] were in sound so ‘glorified’ that they miss the room, making the calls with Elliot. some of the smaller detail because I mean, aside from the equipment, the they didn’t work that area. Some guys other thing which DTS has established are still using NS10s because they like – and this is largely because of my

41 own music background – is that, wherever possible, you reveal placement opportunities and ideas? should try really hard to keep the original people involved RK: I’ll tell you what most guys are saying... and it took and thus keep that integrity. me a while to agree with them, but I have to now. What RB: In line with the need for consistency, how they’re doing is taking the original stereo mix and important is this with regard to the formats being used recalling or mixing their stereos first. They recall every- between the stereo and the surround mixes? thing as close as they can to the original stereo mix so RK: That’s a good point. For example, with Don Henley, that they’ll get a perceptual idea of the track – how the originally they used a Yamaha REV1 on three of the vocals sit with the track, etc. – and then they’ll go ahead tracks for his lead vocal, and I happen to have one. So, I and pan out from there. brought my rack with me to the studio and we did use So, the building block is to get your stereo imaging first, some of the original reverbs of that time. Basically, you or get as close as you can to the original. Doing that gets try to match the original audio chain – I mean, if the you back to the integrity of the song, it gives you a feel original audio chain off of tape went: LA-2A compressor, for what was intended for that song, and then, when you Neve 1073 and then to a Lexicon 480L, then in most start placing things around, you also have something to cases the guys will recall that chain as far as possible. refer back to so you don’t get too far off-base. There again, it’s not always possible, or cost-effective, to That has been the easiest way to build. From there, get rent certain vintage gear, and in some cases the your rhythm tracks up first – your percussion, your drums equipment now is better, so it depends. After all, you’ve – because that gives you a great soundfield to go from. got to watch your expense, and therefore if I have a Your bass should usually be diversed a little off to the choice between a Fairchild and an Avalon, and the Avalon centre left and right, with a little bit of a point of it in the sounds just as good and the engineer says, "Hey, look, centre speaker and in the sub. As for lead vocals, on the that’s all I need", then I’m going to go with the Avalon. remix of Gaucho Donald Fagen, for instance, loved having That’s where the production value of experience comes his voice in the centre speaker, and Elliot [Scheiner] got in, because you don’t want to compromise the music but some criticism for that – by people outside the industry – you’ve also got to know what gear does what best. It’s a and he thought, "Oh-oh, I can’t do that anymore". tough call. However, that’s one of the greatest mixes around, so we RB: What are the common mistakes that engineers had a long talk about it and I said, "You can’t worry about make with their first remixes? There must be some public opinion… you’re creating the standard." It’s like common pitfalls. saying, "That’s a horrible song because I don’t like it." It’s RK: One common mistake is either overloading the a personal opinion. centre channel with too much or too little information, or Why I think the issue of the centre speaker was such a overloading the subwoofer with everything just because problem in the beginning is that four years ago most home it’s there – in other words, kick drum, low end of the theatres were of the old thrown-together Radio Shack piano and occasionally bass should be enough. I mean, variety, where the centre speaker was less than Auratone people now have home systems with bass management quality. So, if you loaded it up with too much information, it that is going to drive everything below 100Hz from the would misbehave and you wouldn’t hear what the engineer five speakers down to the sub, so you want to make sure had done. I think it’s much better to not mix to the lowest you’re not going too far, and to ensure you don’t, there are common denominator, but mix to the highest and make the bass management monitoring systems. guy at home buy a better centre speaker. We’re already Trying to use stereo reverbs at the front and back is seeing the speaker companies jumping on the bandwagon also a real no-no. It’s much better to use mono verbs for and they’re selling decent-quality complete 5.1 systems for the rears. You should also try to isolate as much as you under a thousand bucks US. can and create your own soundstage, while make sure RB: In terms of where you place the speakers, does this your rear speakers are full-range – don’t go down the old vary between film and music work? Dolby Pro Logic road where the rears are just producing a RK: The ITU standard specifies a 60 degree width at the little bit of effect from the out-of-phase material. Thank- front and 110 degree for the rears. While that’s fine for the fully, DTS has somehow created the standard for full per- film industry it doesn’t work quite the same for the music. ceptual audio all of the way around, and the extra scope In fact, I went over this with Elliot Scheiner, David Tickle provided from that is considerable. and Al Schmitt. They initially tried going by ‘the book’, RB: Is there a best plan of approach when it comes to putting the monitors out wide on the rears, but the trouble building a multichannel mix from scratch which will is that you’re not only putting effects back there, you’re

Rory’s half-dozen essential dos of multichannel remixing:

1) Do find a speaker that you are comfortable was employed on the stereo mix. about the gimmicks. with. 4) Do try to use bass management for monitor- 2) Do use the centre speaker, but always be ing back and forth with and without. careful to diverse what is in there. 5) Do use your subwoofer when applicable. 3) Do try to use the original audio chain that 6) Do keep the music intact and don’t worry

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BIG BEAT A younger Rory Kaplan with a normally shy and retiring Michael Jackson. 1300 of the fattest big beats, loops & samples. actually using them as full-range speakers – and the 110 degree separation doesn’t Just get it!...... work so well in our case. So as far placement goes, we drew more of a rectangle, CD AUDIO $164.95 putting the surround more behind us. As a result, you get better depth of perception from reverbs and delays, especially from front to back but also from back to front. When you go too far wide with your monitors I think you lose that perception, and it’s turned out that a lot of other engineers feel the same way. HIP HOP MASTER superb hip hop flavours, I did Don Henley’s End Of The Innocence with his engineer Rob Jacobs at the freshest material..... using an SSL 9000J, and the software of the board wasn’t set up for a CD AUDIO $164.95 5.1 mix, so we had to figure out how we were going to use the panpots and small faders to derive what we needed out of it. Once we did, we tried the wide 110 degree speaker separation at the back to see if the ITU standard would work in that room, but we soon put the speakers back to where I normally set them up. Regardless of exactly where you place those monitors they need to be at an equal distance from the engineering position. What I do is put a mic stand where the engineer would sit, take a tape measure, go out to the centre speaker and take an equal distance to the left and right speakers. Then what I’ll do is move the mic stand about a foot closer to the board and do the measurement again, so there’s like a convergence zone. As a result, if you sit forward eight or ten inches, or sit back eight or ten inches, at least you have a converging area, as opposed to having to keep your head in the exact same place. I set up the rear speakers in precisely the same way, and it really works out well. I mean, so far I’ve followed this method for 99 percent of the projects I’ve been on and it’s been fail-safe. RB: Is it realistic to expect a whole lot from the surround speakers when you consider the average domestic listening environment? “Newest volumes 3, 4 RK: Well, you know, there’s this great thing called the WAF – the Wife Acceptance and 5 in the critically Factor... acclaimed XX-Large RB: That applies to a lot of things! EXTREME series...” RK: Yeah, and evidently some people have their rear speakers up on a bookshelf, CD AUDIO ten feet back to the side. Their ears are not even at the speaker level. But you can’t $164.95each work on the basis of the worst case scenario. You can only really mix on the basis CD ROM $329.95each that Joe Public has his speakers all in phase and in the right place. Actually, DTS has a test disc that it sends out, which will check out your speakers – your level settings and everything. But no-one is foolish enough to believe that educating the public is going to be an easy thing. AT

Rory’s half-dozen cardinal don’ts of multichannel remixing: Comprehensive 1) Don’t overload the centre speaker with too 4) Don’t go over budget on the original Dance Mega series – a must much information. equipment... that creeps up on you. for all dance producers. 2) Don’t overload your subwoofer 5) Don’t ignore the original intention of the MIXED MODE CD with too much bass information. song. AUDIO/ROM $164.95 each 3) Don’t set up your speakers without aligning 6) Don’t approach the mix with a pre conceived them properly. idea.

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