Artist Interview: Panning Between Chaos and Theory:
An interview with Bobby Owinski, mixing engineer on Amon Tobin's "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3 - Chaos Theory"-the first game soundtrack to appear as 5.1 DVD-Audio.
By Léon Herbers / MI7

Bobby Owinski
Chaos Theory DVD
Amon Tobin

Amon Tobin released a soundtrack to the game "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3 - Chaos Theory." It was followed by a 5.1 DVD-Audio release, for which you did the surround mixing. How did you get involved in this project?
I knew the graphics/authoring guy on the project, who suggested me to Amon. Since I had a little bit of a reputation in surround mixing and Amon had no experience in it, he felt comfortable with me mixing. I also mixed the CD version of the soundtrack, which was done in the same block of sessions, but completed before the 5.1 mix.

Was the stereo arrangement changed for the surround mixes, so that it was also a "remix" version and not just a surround mix? Did you use the stereo mix as a reference to do the 5.1 mix?
The elements were the same for both mixes. Each song is very dense (anywhere from 26 to 55 stereo tracks) so it was a lot tougher to fit it all in during the stereo mix and still have everything heard. Surround mixing in general is brilliant because there's so much space to place things. There were a couple of things that we improved in the 5.1 mix, but I'm not so sure that it wasn't just the nature of 5.1 that did it.

“Surround mixing in general is brilliant because there's so much space to place things.”

Don't get the idea that the 5.1 mixes were up-mixed or extracted from the stereo mixes, because that wasn't the case. The stereo mixes were completed first because stereo mixes are generally more difficult than 5.1. Then, on about half of the songs, we just recalled everything on the SSL and Nuendo and tweaked the elements for surround. On the other five songs the SSL recall didn't work properly, so we just started the surround mix from the beginning. The bonus track was mixed in surround only, if I remember correctly.

We do up-mixing more than I care to admit. Budget constrains, lost elements, short production times mean that you have to do what you have to do. It still takes some expertise to make it sound convincing, though. I just wanted to emphasize than none was done on Chaos Theory.

What was the state of the project and format Amon delivered to you? Did you need to do a lot of editing before it was ready for a surround mix?
Amon came in with everything already put together in Cubase SX, and then we transferred it into Nuendo for mixing. There were a few things that had to be tweaked during mixing, but most of it was already pretty much ready to go in the form of album material.

We had to edit a little bit of gunplay out when Massimo and Umberto Madugro got into it while recording the first song. They managed to finish the take and were persuaded to cool down before they could reload apparently. There are a couple of gunshots that we couldn't edit out, but I'll leave it up to you to find the spot.

What gunplay?
Real gunplay in the studio between the Madugro brothers. They hadn't spoken in years and were basically enemies over some royalty disagreement. I'm told that towards the end of the first take of the first song, Massimo pulled out a pistol and fired across the studio at Umberto, who was watching him the entire time and managed to duck and return a shot or two. Amon stepped in and managed to calm everyone down, and the session resumed without any further incident. It would be interesting to find out what happened after the session ended.

One question though: the gunplay, it was in the audio material? Did they shoot during playing?
Yes, the shots were fired during recording. I'm not sure how they kept on playing, but it was at the end of the song.

Amon wrote that he was pleased that he could get them there together, considering their contentious past. I'm not sure if they knew in advance that the other would be there or not. [LH: According to the DVD information, they did not know they would both be at this recording session.]

The tracks were pretty well recorded but needed a bit of de-noise or de-crackle here and there since they weren't always recorded under the best of conditions in Mexico (no, these plug-ins don't work on gunfire). That being said, just getting to work on tracks that the Lenzi brothers played on was a thrill. And the rhythm section of Nacho Mendez and Fausto Bava would just take your breath away sometimes; they're as good as it gets. And the Canhoto Philharmonic was as beautiful and ethereal as always. Amon really knows how to find players that are sympathetic to his vision.

The music on this DVD is asking for quite some energy for the listener; a lot is happening. Was this a challenge for you or are you used to mixing relatively busy arrangements?
This was a bit more complex than most mixes. Rock and pop songs usually have no more than four elements, five at most, happening at any one time. The songs on Chaos Theory frequently have a few more than that happening in short bursts, so it takes a bit more work to sort things out so nothing clashes and everything can be heard. But that's the fun of doing a project like this.

Did this allow you to be more experimental with the surround channels? In a more "regular" rock or pop setup, surround-mixing engineers tend to take it easy on the surround channels and use them mainly for creating ambience. Did you take it a few steps further?
Yes. 5.1 was made for Amon's music and those extra elements have their own space and increase the intensity of the song as a result. We did a lot of abnormal surround panning. Since every track was stereo, we did a lot of diagonal and front-to-back panning rather than side-to-side, which is what most people do. Many times each speaker had its own element playing with one stereo channel pinpointed in the center of the speaker with the second appearing just behind it in sort of a wider wash, which is very unusual. There's a lot of motion in the rear speakers, and they're meant to be quite loud as compared to the front channels.

A small trademark of mine is to make sure that whatever appears in the center channel is special and will draw your attention, so there are a lot of high-frequency elements that appear there from time to time. Occasionally there's an element that demands all of your attention (like the picked bass in "The Lighthouse") where the center channel was used traditionally as an anchor for the track.

Who decided on making a surround DVD for a game soundtrack? Did Amon himself come up with the idea when composing?
I believe that it was always intended to be a stand-alone project as well as a game soundtrack. If you listen to the project, it doesn't sound like a soundtrack so much as a new Amon Tobin record. It's to Amon's credit that he figured out how to accommodate both the game and his own release in such a seamless fashion.

What equipment did you use?
The tracks came from a Mac 2GB G5 running Nuendo, fed through an RME MADI card out to a Euphonix MADI hub and three sets of Euphonix D/As. Each D/A has 24 outputs, and they sound brilliant. If MADI was more widespread, these things would rule the world-they're that good.

The D/As were fed into an 80-input SSL J-9000. We didn't use too much outboard gear; just a little TC-6000 medium-length reverb, a little Lexicon 960 for a small room, four DBX 160 compressors-I love the aggression they provide-a reissue 1176, and a little Summit Audio EQ here and there. The board dynamics were used extensively, as was the EQ.

Any kind of automated surround panning, a lot of level automation, some compression and EQ were done inside of Nuendo. For monitors, we mostly used the new JBL LSR 6028s, which were fantastic. The studio was Studio A at Front Page Recorders in Glendale, California, which is a ground-up 5.1 room, as is Studio B.

Why did you use Nuendo? Cubase SX has all the music features that Nuendo has. Was it because you already had Nuendo installed, or was there another consideration?
Amon was keen to have everything come back the way he was used to it in Cubase SX, so we got a brand new copy of SX to install on the computer (Mac 2GB G5) just to be safe. Nuendo-which indeed was already installed on the computer-imported everything perfectly though, so we never even opened the box.

You have been mixing in Nuendo for the last year, and you were very satisfied with that. How was it to use MADI, a Euphonix D/A and an SSL desk after such an integrated workflow? After all, there must be some clear pros and cons to that.
The fact that there were a lot more cables and a giant jammed-up patch-bay took some time to get used to again, but I'm not so sure that it's really any different from some of the gremlins that seem to pop up and take your time tracing when mixing in the box.

I was finally converted to mixing inside the box a little more than a year ago. I'm totally converted in that most things are so much easier, with the exception of getting to parameters quickly and certain visual feedback that a traditional console provides. Things like automation and recall are about a million times easier than a real console, in my opinion. I never did like console automation, as it seemed archaic to me the moment it was created. In Nuendo, it's just so easy to draw in the automation curve instead of having endless fader rewrites. I have friends who mix on consoles who don't even feel that they've started a mix until they get past their 200th rewrite pass.

That being said, there's a time and place for everything. You still can't beat a console for tracking and you still can't beat it for that elusive "glue" that you sometimes need. In this case, Amon wanted a big analog sound, so that's why we went with the SSL. Recalls are still a pain, but it's a trade-off that you make for the sound sometimes.

Why do you prefer Nuendo over other DAWs to work with?
To me, Nuendo is easier and more logical to work with than most other DAWs, plus I really think it sounds better. Editing is wonderful, the stock dynamics sound pretty good (although I'm pretty blown away by the Universal Audio UAD card-the Fairchild 670, Precision Limiter and Plate 140 are spectacular), and it's intuitive enough that you don't need a lot of training to get up and running on it. Plus, there's always something to learn if you want to. I've been on Nuendo since version 1 and I'm still finding new little tricks or ways to do things (just like everyone else), but the fact that you don't know some of these things never gets in your way.

Just the fact that I can change from MADI to the different converters that we have on hand with no hassle speaks well for the package.

Are there any surround features in Nuendo that particularly attract you as a surround expert?
To me, the surround features of Nuendo are only an extension of a great software application. All of its features are equally impressive to me, but the ease of editing and general ease of use stand out. I also really like the flexibility Nuendo offers. Most of the time there are several ways to do a specific operation, and many times one method has a real advantage over the others. You just have to be willing to keep learning as you go along, but most Nuendo users seem eager for more info and like to share their findings. I'm always learning new tricks, but the best thing is that anything new just builds on what you already know and doesn't get in the way.

The DVD contains a DVD-ROM area that contains both AAC and AAC-Plus files of all tracks, so people can put those in any AAC player or on their mobile phones. What do you think of this idea? Many labels would be scared about those files being all over the web.
I'm not sure whose decision that was, as it happened after I completed mixing. I applaud them for being courageous and putting those files on the disc.

Was Dolby chosen over DTS because of bit-budgeting? Was a lot of tweaking needed to get the Dolby mix sound similar to the 96/24 mix?
Yes, DTS wouldn't have fit on a DVD-5. If you know what you're doing when you're Dolby encoding and stay away from the defaults, it can sound really great.

Do you use Dolby encoder/decoder hardware to prelisten the encoding process?
No, we usually don't use the hardware encoder/decoders. I've become most comfortable with the software encoder and pretty much know how the various parameters will translate. We check the result on DVD-Rs on a variety of systems, so the decoder's usually not needed. Every now and then we'll rent one in if the project requires it.

Both CD and DVD were mastered at Oasis Mastering. In fact, the 5.1 mastering was also done in Nuendo, so the Dolby Digital files were exported directly from the 96/24 mastered files. We did the MLP encoding here as well as encoding for the menu music and a couple of other small pieces used on the disc.

Was outboard mastering gear used within Nuendo? Nuendo 3's hardware inserts are a feature I can imagine being fantastic especially for mastering purposes.
No outboard was used. We've gone through just about every outboard 6-channel signal processor, including most of the most expensive and highly thought-of units. Oasis's chief engineer, Eddy Schreyer (who has an incredible collection of well-deserved gold and platinum records for his work with Kenye West, Christina Aguilera, Offspring, Korn, Queen, Jane's Addiction, Akon, and many more), loves the sound of the Nuendo EQ and built-in dynamics, and that's what he's used on 5.1 projects for the last year or so, which really says a lot about Nuendo's DSP.

In stereo mastering, he uses Nuendo as a playback device only, playing back either analog or digitally into a vast array of hardware and software. But the delivery expectations for stereo are far different than for 5.1, so the approach has to be different.


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