Dolby Atmos Music rendering by Pyramix VAD and Ravenna network

By Mick Sawaguchi UNAMAS Label C.E.O

 

Introduction

UNAMAS Label, which I run, has been working on music production with 11.1CH Immersive Audio since 2014, and as of 2020, the master of 20 albums has been completed. We have been studying how to reach the end user with the appeal of hemispherical sound field expression, but we have considered the convenience, practicality, and the decoder that is built into the current general AV-AMP by default. I decided to release these masters in Dolby Atmos format as first since Sept 2020.

My DAW is a Window-based Pyramix, which is not currently Mac-based with the Dolby Atmos renderer running. I have asked that can Merging Technology have a Dolby Atmos production tool that works with Pyramix earlier this year? They answered that we are planning to release software that connects ver13, which will be released after the summer of 2020, and a newly developed Mac device interface called VAD {Virtual Audio Device} via the Ravenna network. Now the beta version is here in TOKYO. "If you want to be the first Victim, you can use it!” So I consulted with Mr. Yanase, arranged the necessary equipment setup and software, and introduced it in August, and from September start to Dolby rendering. Here, we will introduce the actual Dolby Atmos rendering for artists and individuals who want to release Atmos Music within 11.1CH based on Home Studio without the large-scale Atmos renderer such as movies and videos.

The operation guide of Dolby Atmos rendering has already been published in various articles, but there is still little information that touches on the actual procedure according to the production flow, so please refer to it

1 system configuration

The newly required equipment and connections are as follows.

● DL from VAD software merging Technology HP

● Pyramix Ver-13

● Giga bit router

● DAPS renderer software VER 3.4.0 to be installed on Mac

 

2 Dolby Atmos Production Suite (DAPS) Rendering Procedure

Full-scale movie and video rendering requires a hardware-based rendering unit also very expensive, but if it is a limited rendering such as Atmos Music, you can start with software-based DAPS "Purchase from Avid Hp $300" I will.

Although the functions are limited, this software will be sufficient if it becomes possible to exchange in the format called ADM-BWAV in the future. -Currently, in order to deliver Atmos to Amazon HD Music, it is necessary to use a different format, and for that purpose, external mastering is required to process another encoder called DDE. ---

2-1 Output setting and monitoring from Pyramix

First, set the DAW side. This is the same as PT etc., and sets the 12CH bus to send to DAPS, the 12CH monitor return bus from DAPS, and the time code for synchronization. Project prepares 11.1CH wav files that have already been mixed in advance with Fs 48KHz-24bit project with Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 configuration.

● Open the output bus at the bottom right of the Project and connect the out-bus as shown in the figure.

Fig shows 8 channels of bets channel, and second Fig shows 4 channels of height CH, which corresponds to 4 CH part of object on the DAPS side. For the time code, take out the TC-G OUT in HORUS and set the bus after A / D. In this figure, the TC-OUT set in track-13 is sent by CH24 to DAPAS.

 

● Next, when you open the monitor screen, the Pyramix monitor screen has a Dolby Atmos return switching function, so you can monitor the return from DAPS by clicking this.

 

● Connect the LAN port of Pyramix HORUS to the Giga Bit router, and the other to the LAN port of Mac mini or Thunderbolt via a conversion cable.

 

2-2 VAD settings in Mac mini

● Virtual Audio Device software is installed on Mac mini, and the recommended OS is 10.13.6 or higher. Once installed, the icon will appear at the bottom of the Mac System Preferences screen. In the case of Window DAW, AUTO UPDATE and firewall are turned off for stable system operation, but on Mac, these functions are also turned off and Wi-Fi is also turned off when using DAPS. In addition, some function OFF items for stabilization is recommended, so please read the HP of Merging Technology for details.

 

● When you open this, the IP address is displayed at the top of the figure and the Latency setting is set below it. There is a status check at the bottom of the Fs setting, the number of connected buses, and if the PTP here is not locked, it will not operate stably.

● Enter the IP address displayed next into the DAW project to recognize

Each other. Right-click on the DAW PROJECT screen and click -setting-Atmos connect to display the screen as shown in the figure. Enter the address displayed in VAD in the upper IP address part and click CONNECTS on the right to connect. The status is displayed. This setting is set each time PROJECT changes.

 

Now that Pyramix-Horus-Mac is connected, it's time to set the rendering settings with DAPS.

2-3 DAPS encoding initial setting

● When you open DAPS and first open Dolby Atmos Renderer-preference at the top of the screen, 7 items of various setting menus will appear.

● Driver settings

 

Here, as shown in the figure, set from RAVENNA, TC signal connection CH setting, frame rate setting, SF setting, etc.

● Speaker settings

Here, Base Management is turned on off. In Atmos Music, if you do not set all the channels to flat, all the low frequencies will be sent to the LFE and the sound will be squishy, so turn off the HPF setting at the bottom as shown in the figure.

 

● Loudness display

Loudness check and TP check are indispensable for rendering to work well, and the display shows Loudness when D-MIX is done to 5.1CH regardless of the number of channels.

If the sound of Project is larger than the target value, adjust the level on the sending side. Each company has its own guidelines such as Netflix and Amazon Tidal, so you must comply with them.

 

Rest bottom  enable to reset loudness value when you change file

● Headphone settings

This is the setting when the monitor is done with headphones, but my Mac mini is not set to reduce the load because the power is insufficient in the 2014 model.Since the monitor is also SP, there is no need.

● Network info

You can check the IP address of the connected network here.

● Make 7.1 + 4 render settings in the WINDOW menu

 

When you open WINDOW on the DAPS top menu screen, there are menus such as setting the CH format you want to render, monitor layout called INPUT CONFIG and ROOM SET UP, and generating noise signals for calibration called SPEAKER CALIB.

● First, 8CH of 7.1CH is allocated to BETS 1-8, and 4CH of height is allocated from 11 or later of OBJECT. BETS has 1-10, but height 2CH Please do not assign CH-09-10. "If you assign it here, this assigned 2CH will be automatically assigned to the height Ls-Rs too."

After the 11.1CH setting is completed, open ROOM SET UP in the WINDOW menu and the 11.1CH SP configuration will appear.

If you want to check if the bus connection is correct, you can open the SPEAKER CALIB screen in WINDOW and check if the corresponding channel is connected to the correct monitor SP with the signal source.

Ready full screen

This is the whole screen when the preparation is set correctly.

From the left

● MONITORING-7.1.4 or Physical settings.

● SF 48 setting confirmation

● To the SOURCE INPUT side

● The round mark on the right is TC synchronization, and when this is turned ON, the input TC from PROJECT—

You can read the frame rate.

● Tilt RECORD IN-OUT.SW down to turn it on and enter the start and end TC of the clip you want to render in the right window. The display is basically blue lighting is ON.

● Now, if you play PROJECT and the meter swings by 11.1CH, each channel lights up according to the signal even if the speaker is arranged, and the Loudness meter is also displayed, it is OK.

● There is a square box at the bottom right, click here to select whether it is a movie monitor or a home theater monitor, this time it is Atmos Music, so I set displays view-person show-object No as shown below You can also check the connection the height CH is displayed in the monitor environment you are using.

2-4 Rendering executions

Rendering has finally started.

● If you create a folder with an album title etc. In the HD or folder to save, open with File-New Master File and create a subfolder M-01 etc. with CREAT, the save destination will be decided.

● Press the REC button to flash and enter standby mode.

 

                                       

● If you pre-roll the TC shortly before recording, the record button will light up at IN-POINT and rendering will start, and the recording will stop at the TC-OUT point.

 2-5 Playback check of encoded file

● File-Open Master File to open the appropriate folder.

 

● There are 4 data in the completed file. Depending on the time and capacity, 4 may not be displayed until a little time has passed, so that! Is it a failure? Don't think！

● When you click the folder called .Atmos to open it, the screen switches from input to master, and the folder name and TC in-out time appear in the TC display on the upper right.

● During playback, OFF the TC sync button and use the play button to play.

 

 

All you have to do is render everything by repeating this process and you're done.

 3 Delivery format

3-1 Dolby Atmos files on BD-A discs

BD-A can be recorded in lossless True HD. For this reason, we select File-Export audio from .atmos and deliver it in ADM BWF format to the authoring studio.

3-2 For Amazon HD Atmos Music

It seems that major labels UMG and WMG can equip their own renderers and deliver formats according to the media, but at present Amazon does not have such a renderer independently, so boutique labels and individual artists want to distribute it on Amazon. In order to prevent sound interruption from traffic congestion, we have to prepare files with three different transfer rates, and unfortunately DAPS does not have this function, so it is costly to ask external mastering studio or post house just for this. 

Personally, I have a strong desire to do one-stop production, so it is indispensable for the spread of Atmos Music to deliver by ADM BWAV or to support with software even if the cost is a little high such as DAPS ADVANCE.

At the end-the first Victim!

This was the first connection for both the merging side and Dolby side of Window-Mac, so I would like to thank DSP-J Yanase and Dolby Japan Nakayama for their support. In particular, Mr. Nakayama provided one-on-one intensive training for one day.

First, the barrier was the setting of latency for 3 devices. First of all, the phenomenon that the VAD lock is not stable appeared. The cause is that the latency setting in each device was not unified based on the 48khz standard, and finally it was stable with the 4msec setting.

 

The other is because my Mac mini is a 2014 model, so it's because of lack of power, 30F

When TC synchronization is applied, noise and rendering stop in the middle.

After receiving advice on how to lower the TC rate, it became stable at 24F and the CPU power dropped from 40% to 20%, and it moved smoothly.

                          

Since there is no video, this is OK for the time being.

After solving the problem, save the log file and send it to the manufacturer. It is located in the open log folder in the Help menu on the right side of the screen.

 

 Currently, it is streaming distribution, but I would like to expect efforts to download it including lossless format  and enjoy it with A-V receivers in the future.

[ END ]

Jazz album5.1CH Surround production and Survey of POP Music Surround Mix Techniques

By Mick Sawaguchi C.E.O UNAMAS Label

Introduction

Since Jazz music has been conceived as an image of condensed near field close up sound by the 1950-60s Jazz labels, it is difficult to find the next sound image from the monaural or stereo sound field. For band formation, UNAMAS have consistently continued to produce 2CH due to keep up a condensed sound. There are Jazz surround albums such as SA-CD, but it is different from the perspective that I imagined, and I have been considering how to achieve both a condensed feeling and an open surround sound field.

The UNAHQ 1023 Circle Round Tomonao Hara Group's third album, 5.1CH production that both artists and producers are satisfied with, has been realized.

 In addition, as a reference material, I will introduce 5.1CH MIX examples of the Jazz and Pops genre that I have analyzed on DVD-A and SA-CD.

1. Surround image and preparation for this album production

Tomonao Hara group consists of a Sextet called Tp. Sax. Apf. Gt. Cb. Drums with the participation of Apf Key from the previous work. I thought that this organization could be arranged well in the space, so I worked on the experiment mix using the sound source of the previous work "Time in Delight". I tried to mix the rough image assuming the following localization.

 

This is an image in which the normal 2CH MIX localization is changed to el-Gt rear. The brass section at the front, Cbs, Kick, and SN, has moved from the existing phantom center to the hard center. However, as a result of experiments, if such an instrument is localized to a monaural hard center, the balance will not be achieved unless the overall level is significantly lowered compared to 2CH MIX, and as a result the power and condensing feeling of Jazz will be impaired. As I will explain later, in overseas pops albums, most of the instruments have the same localization as the 2CH MIX, such as the phantom center is main localized, and the hard center is overflowing with Vox and Bs- Kick- SN. I think so. Therefore, we examined how to properly use the front L-C-R to maintain a clear hard center and overall level. Below are the localizations for each instrument and actual miking.

1-1 Tp. SAX

In the sound design of cinema sound, three types are used properly when expressing the center component.

◉ Hard Center only

◉ Hard center 70%, L-R divergence component 30%

◉ the hard center is 30% and the L-R divergence component is 70%

I decided to adopt the second method this time to maintain the power with clear hard center localization. Therefore, for Tp. Sax, I decided to emphasize the hard center by using two miking each, a condenser type and a ribbon type. In addition, Ls-Rs set up an Omni-mic pair in the studio instead of adding artificial reverb to capture the actual sound.

 

 1-2 Cbs

Cbs decided to use L-C-R evenly in order to achieve a rhythm keep comparable to the brass section as a result of the experiment.

Therefore, miking has three microphones and the following localizations are used. In order not to mask the hard center of the brass section, the mic of the hard center is rich in low frequency compared to the L-R.

                                     

1-3 Drums

Most of the drums were L-R phantom localization, and only one of the two Kick drums was localized to the hard center.

 1-4 Apf. Key

Apf combine to uses L-R phantom localization and the Omni-mic pair installed in the studio to Ls-Rs. The el-Apf is lineout 2CH only, so L-R phantom and 4CH reverb is added to it.

1-5 elGt

The one I was most satisfied with during the experiment was Gt AMP. I was surprised at this because simply arranging the sound source recorded with X-Y stereo in Ls-Rs completed a sufficient sound field.

 

2 Actual Studio miking

The miking in the studio has the following combinations in order to realize the localization for each musical instrument tried in the experiment. There are more microphones compared to normal 2CH recording, but it can be said to be miking to utilize the actual sound of the studio in the surround sound field as much as possible.

 

 3 5.1CH MIX and front L-C-R construction

3-1 Final surround localization

The musical instrument performances and the Vox-Chorus localization seen on the M-06 M-10 are introduced below.

Since Vox Chorus plays the leading role in M-06 and M-10, the brass section has two types of localization as described below.

3-2 Final Check display of Surround MIX

Using the Final Check function on my DAW Pyramix, I wrote down the distribution and level of each instrument from the project for each musics for which Final Mix was performed. The left side of the screen shows the total localization distribution, the right side shows the peak level and TP level, and the channel display L-C-R-Ls-Rs-LFE is on the lower side. Please refer to the distribution.

a Brass L-C-R and Ls-Rs

Only L-C-R front is used for music that requires brass power, and Ls-Rs components are added that should have a brass atmosphere.

 

b Brass M-06 M-10 localization

The brass section is a modest localization because Vox and chorus parts mainly occupy these two music.

 

 c Cbs localization

Cbs uses L-C-R CHs uniformly to keep a tight rhythm comparable to brass.

 

d Drums and Ls-Rs

With the M-05, which has a solo part for the drum, I used the Ls-Rs Omni mic pair for brass to give a feeling of air. As you can see from the layout, this pair is installed just between the brass and the drum booth.

 

e Apf front and Ls-Rs

Apf also put a CO-100K pair in Ls-Rs in the music featuring Apf to give a feeling of air.

 

f elGt localization

The KM-184 pair is placed straight on Ls-Rs CH, and a little 4CH reverb is added to the front.

 g Stereo of Vox Chorus

The X-Y pair has two voices and three voices overdubbed on the front and Ls-Rs. I think that these sound sources were able to produce good effects for surround sound.

 

3-3 Comparison of loudness value and true peak value for each music of 2CH MIX and 5.1CH MIX

Finally, the loudness value and True Peak value for 2CH MIX and 5.1CH MIX FINAL is shown. The international standard defines the True Peak value as Max -1, but this time it is slightly higher!

4 survey of pop music jazz surround mix techniques

Even in music, it is necessary to have an idea on how to utilize front L-C-R in band formations such as JAZZ and POPS. The author has analyzed 5.1CH MIX of such genres with DVD-A and SA-CD, but what I found that it can be roughly divided into three types. I will introduce each of the following features and typical MIX surround placement.

4-1 Three types of surround mix 

a Pseudo surround MIX

This is a seeming surround software that surrounds the 2CH MIX as it is in the front L-R with surround MIX that can be said to be a fraudulent act from the author's perspective, and arranges the same sound source in the Ls-Rs with a low level and add reverb. In the past, there was an example in the movie where the OPENING jingle was the same as it used to be, but in the surround MIX it was simulated surround using the same method, but recently new recordings have made it impossible to hear such simulated surround sound.

◉ Beach. Boys PET SOUND MIX BY Mark Linetto and Brian Wilson

 

◉ Marvin Gaye Let’s Get it on MIX BY Jeff Glixman

b The front consists mainly of phantom L-R, and the center CH is a bonus

The key instruments such as vocals, drums, and bass that are most commonly found in surround mixes in the POPS genre are L-R phantoms.

This is because the Grammy Award winning mixers in the US said that the surround system at home is mostly smaller than the L-R SP and the C-CH SP has poor quality, so important sounds cannot be put in C-CH.  I think.

◉　Bjork MEDARA MIX BY Valgeir Sinurdsson

 

◉　Shirley Horn HERE’S TO LIFE MIX BY Al Schmitt

 

◉　Donald Fagen Morph the CAT MIX BY Elliott Scheiner

 

◉　Bonnie Raitt Nicks of Time MIX BY Ed Cherney

c Utilizing the effectiveness of center CH

This is a mix that makes full use of the characteristics of the front L-C-R and actively utilizes C-CH. Vocals are clearer and more stable in localization than phantom sound images.

◉ George Benson Songs and Stories MIX BY Don Murray

◉ Art of Noise DAFT MIX BY Dan Vickers

 

◉ Linda Ronstadt What’s New MIX BY George Masenburg

 

◉ Dire Straits Brothers in Arms MIX BY Chuck Ainlay

 At the end

I asked leader, Tomonao Hara, to compare and listen to the same sound source on 2CH and 5.1CH, and if the artist was satisfied, UNAMAS announced that we would like to release 5.1CH MIX as well. If I was told -this is not our music!-, I decided to quit surround mix release and keep it in 2CH MIX, but he listening to it, but as a result, Mr. Hara himself liked the Jazz 5.1ch MIX, which was his first experience. UNAMAS will release it safely on August 7th. 

For your reference, I would like to introduce the following excerpts from comments by Norimichi Hasegawa, a critic who has written many liner notes on the UNAMAS label.

" …I listened to it with a very fresh feeling. Speaking of Jazz, after all, Blue note, Impulse, etc., and the image from the monaural era is strong, and even after entering the stereo era, Shure's M44 cartridge and JBL speakers are combined and the thick outline drawing is especially old fan I feel that I'm impressed with my sense of hearing. From such an image, the combination of Jazz and surround may be unfamiliar. However, if you listen to the surround mix this time, it is just an eyes opener.

First of all, it is the presence of the center ch that leaves a strong impression. The front 3ch is completely different from the sound impression of 2ch stereo. In the case of 2ch, the virtual sound image that is lined up so as to be stuck between the two speakers is a feature, but a more realistic sound image appears by adding the center channel. Drums and basses are realistically drawn with their perspective spaces. It goes without saying that the information on the rear ch plays a major role in addition to the information on the center ch.

The spatial shapes of the sounds drawn by each instrument are intertwined while freely expanding and contracting... This sensation of wobbling and the sensation of causing a chemical reaction in which the artist's energy intersects in space cannot be experienced in surround classical music. I think it's an interesting feature of Jazz play.

And what is amazing is the trumpet and saxophone, what is this penetration? I was so impressed that it couldn't be stereo. The cleanliness of putting a brush straight from the front to the back. The sound stimulates the brain. Yes, this plays a big role in the guitar placed on the rear ch. By feeling the guitar in the rear, the real existence of the surround sound field becomes clear. That's why the trumpet sounds fly.

Speaking of surround, I think that people often think of it as recreating the atmosphere of a live venue... but this time the surround is completely different. On the front side, the performance on the stage is the ambient component of the rear channel, so to speak, it is a surround recording to "record" the performance, and it is an act involved in more actively "expressing" using the weapon of 5ch. We will demonstrate the real charm of music created by the collision and sympathy of energy emitted by artists in the acoustic space created by the surround. 

I think this is a challenging and innovative approach that is a collaborative work between artists and mixing engineers…."

♩♫♬♫♪♫♬♫♩♪♫♬♩♪

By Hasegawa Norimichi