I was delighted to be given the opportunity to speak
with Michael Brooks, Roadshow Home Entertainment's DVD Technical
Manager, and Michael Costa, from Stream AV, who remixed The Main
Event and encoded it into DTS for Roadshow.
MD: The Main Event is Roadshow's first title to be encoded with DTS. What prompted you to specify this particular title at this particular time as being DTS encoded? Was this a case of The Main Event being the right title at the right time, or was this planned well in advance?
MB: Actually, the Se7en: Special Edition re-release was to be our first DTS title, but due to production delays, The Main Event arrived before it. Roadshow Entertainment is always striving to enhance our DVD releases and we felt that local penetration of DTS capable hardware was now large enough to warrant its inclusion. As The Main Event is all music, we felt this title was always going to benefit from the inclusion of DTS as an option.
MD: Will Roadshow be including DTS in future releases?
MB: Yes DTS audio will definitely be included on selected future titles.
MD: What factors will influence whether certain titles will or will not have DTS soundtracks?
MB: Obviously, space on the disc will have to be a major consideration. DTS is extremely 'data hungry' and we will not compromise on the picture quality of the movie. We also have to factor in supplementary material. Where possible, DTS audio will now feature on titles which we feel can most benefit from its inclusion, so while it won't appear on a small dialogue-driven film like Committed, it has (for instance) been included on the special effects-laden Little Nicky.
MD: What upcoming Roadshow titles are currently planned to include DTS?
MB: While not all future titles have been addressed yet for DTS inclusion, we can confirm the following titles will have DTS encoded soundtracks.
Little Nicky
Lost Souls
Mad Max
Thirteen Days
MB: Roadshow Entertainment has always tried to respond to consumer feedback. By including DTS, we'll be delivering what the consumer has asked for! With more software containing DTS available, hardware retailers and manufacturers will now be able to demonstrate DTS as an alternative.
MD: Now, turning specifically to The Main Event and its 5.1 remix/DTS encode;
MD: What prompted you to choose to remix this title?
MB: Access to original source material was a big factor. To give our consumers the best possible aural as well as visual experience on the Main Event, we felt a multi-channel remix was warranted. We were also lucky enough to have people involved with the original production to oversee the remix - they did a terrific job.
MD: What source materials were available to you for the remix?
MB: More than just the original stereo mix. I'll let Michael Costa give you the details.
MC: Firstly, it's not a remix in the true sense of the word. On the other hand, it's much more than a simple re-purposing. What we had to work with was three stereo stems that were originally created for the TV broadcast to give the broadcast people choices. Basically we had a stereo mix of all music, a stereo mix of all vocals and a stereo mix of room ambience.
MD: What equipment was used to remix The Main Event and how was it used?
MC: The main piece of equipment used was a fully-loaded Pro Tools system. That was the hub, and a complete suite of high-end plug-ins did the nitty-gritty of the work.
The audio was delivered on standard DTRS tapes. It was wild to the pictures so it needed to be conformed. Further to this, the audio on the tapes was the original unedited concert, but the vision had since been edited for the existing VHS. Therefore, the music had to be re-edited and lined up before we even got into how the whole thing sounded or image placement.
Then there was the whole issue of how to work with the elements that we had. To put it simply, we reserved the centre channel for lead vocals and took the music to the sides, but that's oversimplifying it a little. We decided to put the vocal tracks through an MS matrix to allow us to force the stereo vocal elements to the left and right channels and the mono (main vocal) element to the centre channel. This tended to separate the backing vocals from the lead vocals.
We then sat the music tracks primarily into the left and right channels
but also a tiny bit into the back line - not much mind you, but just introduced
a hint of it. Then the ambience tracks were placed quite far back in the
sound-stage, though certainly not all the way back. We then used a true
5.1 reverb to add a little bit more vocal ambience. Then, the tracks were
given basic EQ, frequency-dependent compression and some other treatment.
While this provided the base effect for the entire project,
every song was treated differently based on this starting point using
full automation of every available parameter.
MD: When remixing The Main Event for 5.1, what were you trying to achieve sonically?
MC: A broad and balanced soundscape. Being a large concert, we wanted that great immersive feeling without being overly distracting. More of this in the next question.
Sonically, it would have been great to have independent access to the bass guitar and the kick [drum] so as to route them separately to the LFE, but of course, all our bottom end was embedded inside the rest of the instrumental track. Irrespective, we still pre-processed the LFE and treated it independently of the main music channels.
MD: Following on from the previous question, what artistic considerations and choices did you follow when remixing The Main Event?
MC: It's more aggressive than some, but due to the limitations of mixing from stems, we couldn't be too adventurous even if we wanted to. You do get that lovely discrete channel effect when the applause comes up. Plus, during quiet musical passages, when there's a percussive vocal attack you can hear it reverberate nicely into the rears thanks to the 5.1 reverb.
MD: Are there certain limitations/conventions that you need to follow when remixing certain types of material (eg studio-based vs concert-based)?
MC: Certainly. If your goal is to adhere to the performance space, you're compelled not to have (for instance) odd percussion sounds appearing over your right shoulder. The majority of music DVDs out there tend to border on the conservative side in my experience. Personally, I really like the aggressive surround approach taken by projects like The Eagles Hell Freezes Over and Steely Dan Two Against Nature but I know many people don't. Of course, projects like Steely Dan are done on a controlled soundstage and not a concert hall so no mix rules apply. It's open season! If you want aggressive surround mixes, wait until the dance music fraternity gets hold of surround mixing!
MD: Were there any specific problems with the remix? If so, how were they addressed/resolved?
MC: No specific problems that I haven't mentioned already.
MD: Is the DTS soundtrack full bitrate or half bitrate?
MC: The full 1509 kbps.
MD: Is the Dolby Digital soundtrack encoded at 448 or 384 kbps?
MC: 448 kbps.
MD: How do the two soundtracks compare aurally?
MC: Is that a trick question? :-) Let's let the consumers decide which sounds better!
MB: Horses for courses. Dolby Digital & DTS are both capable of wonderful surround sound.
MD: Is there anything else you would specifically like to mention to our readers?
MC: I think we've pretty well covered it all.
MB: We hope you enjoy the addition of DTS audio to our DVD product.
MD: Thank you both very much for your time.
© Michael Demtschyna
12th July 2001