Introducing Surround Experiences

A Straightforward Approach to Enhancing a Production

Maryland-based audio specialist Mike Sokol of JMS Productions has been working with surround sound for a number of years, and he's a featured lecturer with the surround seminars conducted by Fits & Starts Productions. Sokol recently put together a Dolby Digital effects package for use with a production of "Dracula" at the Kepler Theater in Hagerstown, Maryland.

"One of my goals is to introduce as many people as possible to the experience of surround sound," Sokol comments. "One way to do this is to offer the production a surround package, so everyone from the technical staff to the actors to the audience gets a taste of what it can add."

A 360 Systems Instant Replay system and Dolby 562 surround processor at FOH formed the heart of the surround playback system for the production

For the show at the Kepler Theater, Sokol recorded and encoded in Dolby Digital (AC-3) format, stored on a 360 Systems Instant Replay hard drive system outfitted with PCM hardware and located at the front-of-house position. On command, the Instant Replay then supplied a 44.1 kHz AES/EBU AC-3 data stream to a Dolby 562 surround processor, which in turn fed into console busses routing left, center, right, left and right surround and subwoofer channels to the venue's surround playback system.

Sound effects were both specially recorded and derived from CD library, with mixing and editing done with Minnetonka Mx51 software interfacing with a Microsoft Force Feedback joystick providing panning capability. The effects were stored as .wav files, encoded for Dolby Digital with Sonic Foundry Soft Encode software, and then loaded into the Instant Replay unit.

"One neat effect involved multiple doors slamming on the set, so we produced sounds from stock material matching this action that were routed around the perimeter of the audience, adding more impact to an already dramatic scene," Sokol says. "To activate this, the technician just needed to activate the proper cue on the Instant Replay

unit, and the 5.1 mix was generated, resulting in full surround. Nothing had to be engineered or produced in real time; everything had been done ahead of time so it came down to the simple push of a button."

One of the most interesting cues created for this performance took some ingenuity. The scene included the digging of a grave, so Sokol turned the lousy prevailing weather in the region to his advantage. "There was some nice, crusty snow on the ground, so I placed a Crown SASS-P stereo microphone next to a big drift. The recording of a metal shovel scraping this snow and the subsequent heavy thud when the snow hit the ground sounded just like dirt being thrown on a coffin."

Using the stereo mic, Sokol recorded two separate tracks for front left and right channels and then, during the mix process, added additional rustles and wind sounds for the surround speakers. He notes that the total effect was 'quite chilling,' and generated a request for his services for another production.