CINEMONTAGE
For the past 20 years, Michael Phillips Keeley, CAS, MPSE — owner of Sound Striker Post in Los Angeles, CA — has primarily been a re-recording mixer and composer on TV series and films. His work includes popular shows like “Ancient Aliens,” “The Curse of Oak Island,” and “Running Wild with Bear Grylls,” and documentary features like “Sinatra in Palm Springs” and “NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future.”
Just over five years ago, Keeley converted his garage into a 9.1.4 Dolby Atmos mix stage and recently he’s upgraded to the latest version of the Dolby Atmos Production Suite Renderer. “It has completely changed my workflow as I mix everything natively in Dolby Atmos using one CPU now, even if it is just a single stereo mix deliverable,” he said. “I feel that I get better mixes when mixing immersively utilizing great plug-ins such as Nugen Audio’s Halo and then use the Renderer v3.5 to create my final Atmos, 5.1, or stereo mix. I’ve also been using this same workflow to create binaural mixes.”
Keeley used this workflow while crafting the mix on Discovery’s “NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future,” and he also uses it to remix music from stereo to Atmos on tracks from various artists like Run The Jewels, and Dragon Force, and for a trailer music project featuring Danny Carey from Tool.
Some new features in the Dolby Atmos Renderer v3.5 include improved binaural rendering with increased spatialization to deliver a more realistic experience. There have been changes to the UI for added clarity and ease-of-use, like adding Standard groups to the Object View to display the groups to which objects have been assigned for configuring inputs and re-renders, such as Dialog, Music, Effects, and Narration. It also includes new keyboard shortcuts for the File Menu, System Menu, Renderer Main Window, and Monitoring and Transport Controls.
Keeley said, “A few favorite features for me are the improved binaural algorithm and the ability to do a quick export to mp4. This is a huge help for when I need to quickly do A/B mixes on different consumer systems. I also really like the new loudness metering and GUI improvements.”
As a composer, Keeley likes the updated Dolby Atmos Music Panner which enables tempo synchronized positioning of audio objects in a Dolby Atmos mix.
“I love using the Music Panner, especially on arpeggiated synths or anything that has a repetitive pulse to it. On a recent trailer track that I just finished, I have one sound that circles your head in one direction and another one that is going half-speed in the other direction. It’s so great to easily have these repetitive panning moves that are automatically synced to the tempo of the track. Then when monitoring the binaural mix through the Renderer, you still get a good sense of it in your headphones as you continue to feel the motion of it, as it sits within its own space in the mix,” he said.
Jennifer Walden is a freelance writer specializing in technology issues.