Surround Sound Workflow Help - Re-recording Mixer and Composer

[rach333]

Hey all😄,

I am working on an indie film project as the Sound Editor and re-recording mixer. It's a dramedy with all original music including some punk, choir, and classical music. This is my first time mixing in surround. I've spoken to the composer about receiving a Pro Tools session of mixed stems when I was originally mixing in stereo but the added surround element is confusing me. 

I was wondering about the deliverables I should ask from the composer so that I have leg room to adjust the panning of instruments and reverb panning of their mix. Should I ask the composer to only use 5.1 plugins? Should I ask them to pre-mix the choir or classical music as they see fit in 5.1 staying out of the center channel or does the re-recording mixer usually upmix the score to 5.1 once receiving a stereo mix.

I was thinking of asking for a Pro Tools session with pre-mixed stems, with a separate stem for reverb. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you! 

[Philip Perkins]

Most composers I work with only deliver in stereo--having them deliver in surround opens a big can of worms as far as the involvement of the director and how they monitor in the music mix, unless they are working after the sound cut and a premix.  I've had composers deliver to me in quad (no C) and in 5 channel, but these were very technically proficient people who understood the process and knew how to make surround work.  If you think your composer can handle this without making a lot of extra work for you, then ok.  If they have not done this before then no, just stereo (and I will upmix it to suit the mix I'm making).  There is also the matter of what they have been contracted to make: a good 5 channel mix is harder to set up, mix, and render out than a stereo one, thus more time.  For many films there is really nothing to be gained by the composer working in 5 channel, especially if the rears are just reverb and reflections.  It is more efficient for me to upmix stereo to suit what we're doing with dialog and fx.

[rach333]

On 1/26/2024 at 12:31 AM, Philip Perkins said:

Most composers I work with only deliver in stereo--having them deliver in surround opens a big can of worms as far as the involvement of the director and how they monitor in the music mix, unless they are working after the sound cut and a premix.  I've had composers deliver to me in quad (no C) and in 5 channel, but these were very technically proficient people who understood the process and knew how to make surround work.  If you think your composer can handle this without making a lot of extra work for you, then ok.  If they have not done this before then no, just stereo (and I will upmix it to suit the mix I'm making).  There is also the matter of what they have been contracted to make: a good 5 channel mix is harder to set up, mix, and render out than a stereo one, thus more time.  For many films there is really nothing to be gained by the composer working in 5 channel, especially if the rears are just reverb and reflections.  It is more efficient for me to upmix stereo to suit what we're doing with dialog and fx.

Thank you so much! That makes sense, and I just let the composer know about delivering stereo stems. I have another question about reverb which I asked for on a separate stem - how do you usually upmix reverb for Music? --I was thinking of duplicating the stem and having one track static on front LR and one static in rears but having the rear reverb being very subtle and starting from there.

[Philip Perkins]

That'll work if what you want in the rears is a reverbed version of the LCR.  Do you want reverb on the music all the time?  Are you trying to make it sound like the audience is in a concert hall?