Use of surrounds in 5.1 movies . . .

[NMG]

hey everyone,

Perhaps I just have to watch more movies, but I've noticed that in some films, the surrounds hardly seem like they are used at all, to the point where I wonder if anything is even coming from them. Does there tend to be quite a variance in how often the surrounds are utilized?

For what it's worth, I watched an episode of Criminal Minds in HD and it sounded simply awesome in 5.1 and I could definitely tell that effects were placed in the rear (crickets chirping at night for example), which created a fully enveloped sound field.

I know that the surrounds are not supposed to draw attention to themselves on their own. Is my experience "normal" in the sense that some sources are just mixed more for the front 3 channels than others?

I haven't yet fully calibrated everything with a SPL meter so perhaps that will also help integrate everything when I get around to doing that.

Thanks in advance!

[Chris D]

You hit the right points dead on the nose.

1. Yes, the surrounds are not really supposed to be noticed, not supposed to draw attention to themselves. They are supposed to envelop you with sound, and draw you into the experience more. An experienced home theater nerd (such as I humbly believe many of us are) can tell when the surrounds are going, though, creating that larger soundfield.

2. Yes, absolutely, the surrounds are used more in some recordings than others. Just depends on the audio mixer when the disc is mastered. Some shows are called 5.1, but have virtually no surround sound use, so they're pretty much stereo or 3 channel. Others overuse surrounds, and they're much too prominent.

The same could be said about use of the subwoofer.

[George Bellefontaine]

Yep, what Chris just said. If you read Widescreen Review, they have a little logo in each dvd review showing speaker usage using a color symbol indicating agressive, moderate or weak use of surround sound, front and back.

[NMG]

Very cool, thanks for the info guys!