I've been working on this UDR (Up-mix, De-Mix & Re-mix) for a while now from "The Mandalorian Season 3" soundtrack Qobuz files, and had a thought that I believe will help me going forward.
As humans we are very front focused visual creatures, and I believe with even more modernization of screen time may additionally factor into this idea of our minds being visually distracted from sounds; but mainly by things that are going on around us and then day dreaming/thinking while we should be just listening. And of course there are the auditory distractions of ordinary life all around us (that's were I'm sure a professionally closed studio would help tremendously!) I know I've brought this up someplace before but maybe in a little different way.
I'll work on one song for maybe 2-4 days to try and dial it in the best I can. I'm currently on track 17 and while working on the up-mix today I started thinking about this sort of thing. So, starting out with todays session, I closed my eyes and covered them to be in a kind of blind state and only concentrate on the music (in 5.1.) I was surprised at some of the extra detail in the music as to presence, directionality and movement. This music from the soundtrack has a lot of dynamic orchestration and special effects; and I'm utilizing it as much as the music will allow. It starts out as a 4.1 Penteo Up-mix, then I extract/iso (De-Mix Pro) either from the fronts and/or the rears to pull certain elements out and highlight them a little more or get them moving in various ways (other wise there may be much more just nailed down to a Phantom Center area.) There are a lot of very subtle movements in some of the low end orchestral work as well. The Penteo Up-mix did a great job overall I'd say, with a lot of the orchestration appearing in the rears sounding like more of a real discrete mix than just double stereo; but it can usually be improved on IMO. The center channel is only getting some small additions to this one as there is already good Phantom Center info with lots of presence.
Also, the music in the actual Disney+ show seems very tame for actual surround effectiveness as far as I'm concerned, because I believe it could have been wayyyy better.
Anyway, just something to be aware of when you want to critically evaluate some music in this respect.
As humans we are very front focused visual creatures, and I believe with even more modernization of screen time may additionally factor into this idea of our minds being visually distracted from sounds; but mainly by things that are going on around us and then day dreaming/thinking while we should be just listening. And of course there are the auditory distractions of ordinary life all around us (that's were I'm sure a professionally closed studio would help tremendously!) I know I've brought this up someplace before but maybe in a little different way.
I'll work on one song for maybe 2-4 days to try and dial it in the best I can. I'm currently on track 17 and while working on the up-mix today I started thinking about this sort of thing. So, starting out with todays session, I closed my eyes and covered them to be in a kind of blind state and only concentrate on the music (in 5.1.) I was surprised at some of the extra detail in the music as to presence, directionality and movement. This music from the soundtrack has a lot of dynamic orchestration and special effects; and I'm utilizing it as much as the music will allow. It starts out as a 4.1 Penteo Up-mix, then I extract/iso (De-Mix Pro) either from the fronts and/or the rears to pull certain elements out and highlight them a little more or get them moving in various ways (other wise there may be much more just nailed down to a Phantom Center area.) There are a lot of very subtle movements in some of the low end orchestral work as well. The Penteo Up-mix did a great job overall I'd say, with a lot of the orchestration appearing in the rears sounding like more of a real discrete mix than just double stereo; but it can usually be improved on IMO. The center channel is only getting some small additions to this one as there is already good Phantom Center info with lots of presence.
Also, the music in the actual Disney+ show seems very tame for actual surround effectiveness as far as I'm concerned, because I believe it could have been wayyyy better.
Anyway, just something to be aware of when you want to critically evaluate some music in this respect.
