SurroundSensei
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- Joined
- Oct 4, 2017
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A lesser-known entity in the surround sound universe, the end credits music in movies is an area that deserves some discussion, as there are some hidden gems in there. Granted, many movies with surround audio actually have upmixed end credits music (or, worse, stereo), but it seems that most blockbusters these days have beautiful discreet surround final cues. That is, unless they are riddled with silly outtakes and such. But, I digress.
There can also be inconsistencies in a movie franchise. For example, the first two Matrix movies only had songs by various artists, all in stereo (the first one did have a short orchestral cue in surround at the very end), but Revolutions had the cue "Navras" in excellent 5.1. Credits with popular songs instead of orchestral music are usually the reason for a lack of a surround mix, unless the mixing enigneer actually has the stems for the songs themselves. Examples: John Newman's "Love Me Again" was mixed in 7.1 for Edge of Tomorrow, "Game On" by Waka Flocka Flame and Good Charlotte was mixed in 7.1/Atmos for Pixels and even the 1995 movie Space Jam had proper 5.1 mixing for all the songs in the end credits. On a side note, I've come across songs heard during a movie that have had a surround mix; one such case is Miami Vice, where the Audioslave songs were mixed in 5.1 exclusively for the movie. I could clearly hear Tim Commerford's bass guitar stem in the center channel. Unfortunately, there was dialogue and loud sound effects happening at the same time, and a version with an isolated score does not exist.
Like I said before, in the case of "big" composers like Hans Zimmer, John Powell, James Newton Howard, Junkie XL et al, there usually are great surround mixes in most of their epic scores. Not too impressed with the mixes of Michael Giacchino (e.g. Star Trek Into Darkness) and Alexandre Desplat (e.g. Godzilla), they don't sound clean or discreet enough. Giacchino's soundtracks for Disney/Pixar movies are beautifully mixed, though.
Seeing as though surround albums of soundtracks (DVD-A, DTSCD, SACD...) are few and far between, and so are movies with isolated music tracks (and surround isolated music is even rarer), and editing out voice and sound effects out of a mix ranges from "okay-ish" to "near impossible" depending on the film, multichannel end credits music is the next best thing.
As for the themes in TV series (both for main and end credits), things are a bit more complicated. Upmixes are much more common, and in many cases they just copy the stereo mix to the rears and don't even touch the center or the LFE. However, big-budget shows can have music mixed in surround. Penny Dreadful, DaVinci's Demons, 12 Monkeys and Agents of SHIELD have had great mixes (composer Bear McCreary is very good at this). In the case of huge shows like Game of Thrones and Daredevil, which have different ending music for each episode, all of them are mixed in surround. GoT and Westworld are in Dolby Atmos, and so will be the second season of American Gods. The first was mixed in 7.1, according to this interview.
Wow. It sure feels good to be on a forum where I can type the word "surround" so many times. Surround, surround, surround.
There can also be inconsistencies in a movie franchise. For example, the first two Matrix movies only had songs by various artists, all in stereo (the first one did have a short orchestral cue in surround at the very end), but Revolutions had the cue "Navras" in excellent 5.1. Credits with popular songs instead of orchestral music are usually the reason for a lack of a surround mix, unless the mixing enigneer actually has the stems for the songs themselves. Examples: John Newman's "Love Me Again" was mixed in 7.1 for Edge of Tomorrow, "Game On" by Waka Flocka Flame and Good Charlotte was mixed in 7.1/Atmos for Pixels and even the 1995 movie Space Jam had proper 5.1 mixing for all the songs in the end credits. On a side note, I've come across songs heard during a movie that have had a surround mix; one such case is Miami Vice, where the Audioslave songs were mixed in 5.1 exclusively for the movie. I could clearly hear Tim Commerford's bass guitar stem in the center channel. Unfortunately, there was dialogue and loud sound effects happening at the same time, and a version with an isolated score does not exist.
Like I said before, in the case of "big" composers like Hans Zimmer, John Powell, James Newton Howard, Junkie XL et al, there usually are great surround mixes in most of their epic scores. Not too impressed with the mixes of Michael Giacchino (e.g. Star Trek Into Darkness) and Alexandre Desplat (e.g. Godzilla), they don't sound clean or discreet enough. Giacchino's soundtracks for Disney/Pixar movies are beautifully mixed, though.
Seeing as though surround albums of soundtracks (DVD-A, DTSCD, SACD...) are few and far between, and so are movies with isolated music tracks (and surround isolated music is even rarer), and editing out voice and sound effects out of a mix ranges from "okay-ish" to "near impossible" depending on the film, multichannel end credits music is the next best thing.
As for the themes in TV series (both for main and end credits), things are a bit more complicated. Upmixes are much more common, and in many cases they just copy the stereo mix to the rears and don't even touch the center or the LFE. However, big-budget shows can have music mixed in surround. Penny Dreadful, DaVinci's Demons, 12 Monkeys and Agents of SHIELD have had great mixes (composer Bear McCreary is very good at this). In the case of huge shows like Game of Thrones and Daredevil, which have different ending music for each episode, all of them are mixed in surround. GoT and Westworld are in Dolby Atmos, and so will be the second season of American Gods. The first was mixed in 7.1, according to this interview.
Wow. It sure feels good to be on a forum where I can type the word "surround" so many times. Surround, surround, surround.