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Topic: Non action/sci/sfx films with excellent 5.1 sound mixes

Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 11-09-2010 11:54 AM

quote: Manny Knowles
I'm curious what you want them for..? It might help when it comes to making recommendations

I am just curious about which movies might have them. I was totally shocked to find the surrounds in "Any Which Way" to be so active.

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Scott Jentsch
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1061
From: New Berlin, WI, USA
Registered: Apr 2003

posted 11-11-2010 01:01 PM

Basically, just about any movie made by Pixar will have an excellent sound mix. Nice use of split surrounds, good sound effects, and an overall balance that puts most other studios to shame.

Movies that stand out off the top of my head are Wall-E, Cars, and Ratatouille.

There is a scene in Quigley Down Under when Tom Selleck shoots at a bucket at a great distance which shows off the use of surrounds as the gunshot echoes. I used that scene extensively when auditioning surround speakers/configurations.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-11-2010 01:14 PM

quote: Tom Petrov
just curious about which movies might have them

Okay, so does it matter if it's not the original mix?

I'm sure you already know that the home-video release frequently features a "new 5.1" re-mix. Are you simply testing/enjoying your system, or are you looking for examples of surround use in original mixes? If you're just geeking out then it might not matter much to you but if you're conducting some kind of "study" then it might matter more, depending on the scope of what you're studying (original theatrical, and/or re-release, and/or home-video releases).

Even if the film was not remixed, many home-video masters are dynamic-range compressed because (until digital) there wasn't enough headroom in home-video formats. So, depending on the age of the h-v master, there may still be a different in at least that one respect.

Not that these guidelines were always followed, but Lt/Rt mixers shied away from doing too much with the surrounds. They were usually reserved for ambiences -- the static bed of background noise (crickets, cicadas or light wind, for example).

Occasionally, a "hard effect" might get placed there but "steering" issues (and the fact that the surround array was mono) limited how much surround panning could be done.

Of course there are older movies that were given the 70mm treatment -- and, thus, had discrete physical tracks to work with -- so those print masters could appear on the DVD release.

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James Westbrook
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1133
From: Lubbock, Texas, Usa
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 11-11-2010 10:30 PM

There is some kind of post release "voo doo" going on with the DVD releases: Airplane, 1980, released in mono theatrically. DVD version Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround English 2.0 Surround, French mono.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 11-12-2010 12:24 AM

quote: Manny Knowles
Okay, so does it matter if it's not the original mix?

I'm sure you already know that the home-video release frequently features a "new 5.1" re-mix. Are you simply testing/enjoying your system, or are you looking for examples of surround use in original mixes? If you're just geeking out then it might not matter much to you but if you're conducting some kind of "study" then it might matter more, depending on the scope of what you're studying (original theatrical, and/or re-release, and/or home-video releases).

Even if the film was not remixed, many home-video masters are dynamic-range compressed because (until digital) there wasn't enough headroom in home-video formats. So, depending on the age of the h-v master, there may still be a different in at least that one respect.

Not that these guidelines were always followed, but Lt/Rt mixers shied away from doing too much with the surrounds. They were usually reserved for ambiences -- the static bed of background noise (crickets, cicadas or light wind, for example).

Occasionally, a "hard effect" might get placed there but "steering" issues (and the fact that the surround array was mono) limited how much surround panning could be done.

Of course there are older movies that were given the 70mm treatment -- and, thus, had discrete physical tracks to work with -- so those print masters could appear on the DVD release.

I am just curious what other quiet non action movies really use the surrounds. It makes no difference to me if the mix is re-mixed. I was just shocked by Any Which You Can.

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Manny Knowles
"What are these things and WHY are they BLUE???"

Posts: 4247
From: Bloomington, IN, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 11-13-2010 07:59 PM

Do you PREFER movies that use the surrounds?

Would you choose the original over a remix?

I'm just curious too...

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 11-24-2010 10:51 PM

Pure Country was used to demo Dolby Digital during Showest that year. Brought me to tears (audio wise.) Louis

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 11-25-2010 12:59 AM

I remember the fight scenes in True Lies sounding amazing. It was the first movie we showed in DTS.

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John Wilson
Film God

Posts: 5438
From: Sydney, Australia.
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 11-25-2010 03:56 AM

quote: Mike Blakesley
It was the first movie we showed in DTS.

It was the first film I saw in DTS too...mightily impressive. First on I showed in DTS was 'SPEED'.

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Joe Tommassello
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 547
From: Coatesville, PA, USA
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 01-20-2011 02:02 PM

John -

You didn't see Jurassic Park in DTS?

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Ian Parfrey
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1049
From: Imbil Australia 26 deg 27' 42.66" S 152 deg 42' 23.40" E
Registered: Feb 2009

posted 01-20-2011 02:18 PM

Full Metal Jacket - 1987 Dir. Stanley Kubrick.

Original theatrical release in mono.

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Sean Weitzel
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 619
From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall)
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 01-20-2011 05:23 PM

I believe most if not all of Woody Allen's movies have been mono. I read somewhere that there were 4trk mag mono releases of some of his titles.

I have one interesting DVD in my collection. The Sean Penn "Bad Boys" This is a mono disc, where unlike most DVD titles where you get a phantom center playing back in Lt/Rt mode, you will get silence as the mono track is mastered ONLY to the center channel of the 5.1 track.

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