am i being REALISTIC

filmelife

filmelife

Well-known member
alright guys, straight to the point

am i being realsitic in thinking that a theatrical mix can be done in a home studio.
laugh if you will, but as far as i know,
a theatrical mix has to be done in a mixing theatre, thats at least dolby certified with the proper acoustics and setup.

i dont want my inspiration to become my frustration, i love sound editing and mixing and found sony vegas to be nice for video/DVD projects, i was thinking in investing in Nuendo and wondering if its worth it?
 
Yes and no. It is possible, I have done it. BUT if you haven't mixed on a stage and are not familiar with what that should sound like then it is extremely hard to do a good job. It is also VERY important to screen the mix in a proper space because things sound different in a theatre than they do in an edit room.

You do need to tune your room. You can't get Dolby certification so don't worry about it. You will not be mixing Dolby Digital mixes in your studio. But if your film has the 12 grand for the license then you can probably pay for some time on a real mix stage that is Dolby certified.

Now when you say "theatrical" I'm assuming you mean big screen not video. Video you can do in a small room no problem.

If your doing "big screen" at home your doing stereo. Your surround options are very few and pretty much all cost $ -> $$$. There is a possibility that you could author a surround DVD and show it at a festival but I think that probably violates the license agreement with Dolby and whoever is making the encoder. For instance you can buy a "dolby stereo (surround) encoder" from Dolby but you can't use it legally to encode a theatrical (including festivals) releases. If they find you have the film might get a cease and desist order (killing the film) and poss have to pay a fine on top of the license fee ($1200 last time I looked) to get control of the film back. If your going to 35mm you can use SRS (a dolby stereo clone) for a small or nonexistent fee but that's it. Dolby is $1200. If you want Dolby Digital you have to mix on a Dolby certified stage. The Dolby guy comes out with a special recorder to record the mix and Dolby processes the mix and makes an optical negative that is used with your film negative to burn the encoding on to the prints. That license (last I looked) was $12,000. A Dolby certified stage will run $350 - $800 per hour. A feature will take at least a couple of days to Printmaster so 20 hrs X $350 = $7,000. So not counting the rest of the folks and time etc your at $19,000 min for a Dolby Digital final mix.

Nuendo is used a bit in europe for film work, almost not at all in the US. If your going to get a higher end editing system I would recommend Pro Tools. Not because it's "way better" than Nuendo (it isn't) but because that is what is in use. If you cut your tracks on a $150 academic version of PT you can bring that session into 99.999% of the mix stages (and edit facilities) and it will open and play like it did in your home. Nobody else can say that.
 
1. so, the dolby encoder included with sony vegas is licensed already. what if i want to make a DVD mix for festivals in vegas using DD?

2. I read a lot about nuendo and protools, seems like nuendo is catch up and can export protools sessions easily, can i just use vegas to tracklay and then export an AAF to a sound mixing facility?

3. is there an advantage of using nuendo vs vegas, whats with the audio engine bullcrap, excuse the words, both can do 24bit 48khz?

4. what i be realistic if i said that for basic stereo mixes, vegas should be plenty, but for anything theatrical (i'm planning), i should take my mixes elsewhere if i want a dolby certified theatre mixing?

5. a few people have success stories mixing with vegas, how true is this?

6. i thought about tracklaying on the protools m powered, but its aaf plugin is a joke



thanks for your time to share answers
 
1 you need to check with Dolby, as far as I have gotten out of them the license on DVD encoding is not for theatrical use. But it's a bit unclear exactly where the line is. The DD your encoding is for DVD's only and as far as I know there isn't any other format that will play it, so for instance you can't put it on a 35mm print.

2 yes and no. Nuendo can't open or create a PT session. You can use OMF or AAF to transfer between them but it's not the same thing, not everything transfers. Maybe the facility can open an AAF, probably an OMF but not nec. and you might get a "transfer" charge, usually $$$.
3 Some folks use Nuendo for post I don't know of anybody working that uses Vegas. As I've said before if your your own studio use what ever you want it doesn't make that much difference. The difference comes when you have to work with others.
4 What ever you use you will have to take your mixes to a Dolby certified Mix stage to get a Dolby Digital or a Dolby Stereo (surround) mix.
5 ? never heard any.
6? AAF plugin? Are you talking about Digi Translator? What's the joke?
SK
 
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