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San Francisco Film Festival honors cinema innovator Ray Dolby

Sean Durkin — Fri, 10 May 2013 23:52:07 +0000

The San Francisco Film Society honored Ray Dolby with the George Gund III Award at the 56th annual San Francisco International Film Festival, the longest-running film festival in the Americas. Among the filmmakers celebrating Ray Dolby’s distinguished service to cinema as an art form was Ben Burtt, sound designer for Star Wars and creator of its many iconic sound effects. Describing Ray Dolby as “a scientist who invents tools for the artist,” Burtt said, “the result is a whole new frontier for the filmmakers.” According to San Francisco filmmaker Paul Meyers, “among the many legacies of Ray Dolby is a continual striving for this more visceral kind of cinema, an endeavor carried on by his many collaborators at the company he founded. It is a beautiful thing to behold—and of course, to hear.” Read more about the man whose life inspired the creation of the George Gund III Award. What cinema innovation helps you experience film more viscerally?

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“Sailing the Seas of Cheese” to be released with Dolby TrueHD

Sean Durkin — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:53:41 +0000

“When the going gets tough and the stomach acids flow,” you know that Primus bassist Les Claypool has entered the room. On May 21, Universal Music Enterprises (UME) will unveil the remixed and restored edition of Primus’ Sailing the Seas of Cheese on Blu-ray Disc™ with Dolby® TrueHD 5.1 surround sound. Dolby and UME hosted a special event to celebrate the occasion on May 6 at TRI Studios in San Rafael, CA, which included a lively discussion with Claypool and guitarist Larry Lalonde, led by Mike Etchart of Sound and Vision Radio. The event and Q&A session were covered in Rolling Stone, which noted that Dolby TrueHD “is a centerpiece of the new edition.” Originally released in May 1991, Sailing the Seas of Cheese was the second studio album for Primus and features several of the band’s most popular songs, including “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver,” “Tommy the Cat” (with Tom Waits voicing “Tommy the Cat”), and “Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers.” The album reached platinum status December 2001. Sailing the Seas of Cheese featured a more irreverent approach to rock as a response to the slick and commercial nature of many 1980s productions. “Mainstream rock was pretty cheesy,” said Claypool. “We were going to either sink or swim, hence Sailing the Seas of Cheese.” [caption id="attachment_203" align="alignleft" width="667"] Les Claypool at the TRI Studios mixing board[/caption] Claypool, who oversaw the latest remix, notes that “sonically, it holds up fairly well. There’s some old-style reverbs that are a little bit syrupy. With modern technology, we can fix some of that stuff. But we don’t want to mess with it too much because it is what it is.” Dolby TrueHD offers 100 percent lossless audio, so you’ll hear exactly what Claypool heard in the studio. When you experience the carnival-barker vocals, looping finger-tapped bass line, and idiosyncratic guitar solos of “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver,” you’ll feel that you’re sitting in the passenger seat for a very wild ride. The song also features a memorable sample of the character Chop Top from the film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. “The way that people listen to music now—as far as stereos and headphones—you can hear so much more, so the idea of remixing it is really going to suit the way people listen to music now,” adds guitarist Larry Lalonde. What Primus sound do you most want to hear amped up in Dolby TrueHD?

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Happy anniversary, Dolby Atmos

Dolby — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:54:28 +0000

On April 24, 2012, Dolby Laboratories announced Dolby® Atmos™, a new cinema sound format that unleashes the potential of sound in storytelling by giving filmmakers the ability to place and move sound anywhere in the movie theater—not just where there happen to be speakers. Dolby Atmos also draws moviegoers into the onscreen action like never before, making them feel as if they, too, are in the scene. The infographic above tells the story of a great opening year for this new technology, with nearly 40 Dolby Atmos films released or announced.

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If drones could talk

Dolby — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:13:44 +0000

Winds, water, and drones: Those are the primary sounds of an obliterated planet Earth in Oblivion, and Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last drone repairmen there to hear them. Writer and director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) conceived the story as a science fiction film that would feel “as organic and real as possible” for the viewer. That meant putting as much of the visual action in the frame as possible—with Dolby^® Atmos™ sound, to match. Gary Rizzo, rerecording mixer, says the new sound platform “places you in a far more immersive environment, where things are literally flying by you and you can feel the greater resolution in the movement around you.” For rerecording mixer Juan Peralta, the director’s vision presented the challenge of creating a “natural” soundscape for a desolate world: one where the noise of drones has replaced the sounds of insects and birdsong. Juan says the drones “are robotic…high-tech creatures, but we still needed to portray some level of communication with Tom (Cruise).” The film’s music also makes use of Dolby Atmos, to profound effect. Speaking at the Oblivion premiere at the Dolby Theatre℠, Joseph Kosinski noted that the separation of electronic elements, strings, and horns immerses the audience in the music. Joseph, Gary, Juan, and other members of the film’s production team talk about how they created the sound of the story in this SoundWorks Collection feature. You can also read a red-carpet perspective of Oblivion’s premiere at the Dolby Theatre, complete with a life-size bubble jet. What other-worldly sound pulled you into your favorite science-fiction film?

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Gaming the brain with sound

Dolby — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:31:30 +0000

Hearing is more than a matter of noise entering our ears: it’s the result of our perception and our brain’s reconciliation of many inputs—sound, images, and more. We’re constantly processing information and making judgments about the location and source of sounds. These assessments in turn help us make mundane as well as life-saving choices, from taking the keys out of the ignition to rescuing the cat from a tree—or even averting an accident. With years of “practice” at perceiving sounds, our brains actually change. This process of change is called neuroplasticity. Now imagine the kind of change that must take place in a musician's brain after hours and years of daily practice. Dr. Poppy Crum, a senior scientist at Dolby and consulting professor at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA, or “carma”)—and also a concert violinist—set out to explore this potential with her students in Music 257: Neuroplasticity and Musical Gaming. They developed video games to see whether the phenomenon of neuroplasticity could be used to target the development of specific music-, linguistic-, and acoustic-based skills. Stanford faculty and people from many Bay Area technology companies came to see the students’ final presentations on March 18, 2013. Watch what they did. How does sound or music help you focus?

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Another look at 3D—without glasses

Dolby — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 18:40:32 +0000

Watching 3D at home is different from watching in the movie theatre. There’s room for improvement in the look of 3D at home, and special 3D glasses can get in the way of your regular viewing habits, like gathering around the TV with friends, getting a snack, checking your smartphone for last week’s score, and ultimately, getting into the action of the game or film. There’s more to 3D than meets the eye. It begins with production, when the director has a vision for the story and your experience of it. In 3D, your experience is shaped by the placement of objects. The subtlety of those effects has to be encoded as instructions along with visual effects in the program, and that data must be transmitted—over the air or over cable or wireless networks by a broadcaster or a movie-streaming service like Vudu™—to your television or to another device that’s capable of 3D presentation. Technology constraints at every point in the chain can put boundaries on your experience of 3D, whether it limits you to watching from a narrow “sweet spot” in your living room, on one dedicated channel for 3D shows, or on only a TV set, rather than on a portable device. It’s no wonder that all eyes are on glasses-free 3D at the NAB Show® conference for broadcasters this week. Dolby and Philips developed Dolby 3D technology to bring out the best possible glasses-free viewing experience from any 3D device. The two companies just unveiled the final piece in the 3D puzzle: a content format that carries the information about how the director intended the image to look, all the way from creation to playback. People will get to see Dolby 3D in action at the NAB Show, where Vudu and The Foundry, which makes 3D tools favored by filmmakers, are demonstrating Dolby 3D with live streaming content. The “intelligent information” works with Dolby 3D technology in the device—whether it’s a TV, PC, tablet, or smartphone—to perfect the imagery on the screen, so that it truly looks its best in any setting. Picture sharpness, perceived depth, and smooth viewing transitions make programs in Dolby 3D very comfortable to watch. You can skip the glasses. Then pass the popcorn or text your friend, and get right back into the action. Renowned filmmaker James Cameron is looking forward to it. What do you think makes 3D worth a look—on TV or on another device?

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Action speaks louder than words

Robin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:51:56 +0000

Video game heroine Lara Croft has traveled far since her debut in 1996: from adrenaline-fueled adventures in Tomb Raider: Legend, to enhancement and clarification of the original story in Tomb Raider: Anniversary, to spin-off Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Jack Grillo, lead sound designer at Crystal Dynamics, gave Lab Notes more insight into the role that sound plays in Lara’s origin story that is central to Tomb Raider, a prequel released by Square Enix on March 5. In part 2 of our series, he lets Lab Notes in on the creation of game sound. Lab Notes: As a storytelling tool, has sound changed in the Tomb Raider series? Jack Grillo (JG): This Tomb Raider is very different from previous Tomb Raider titles. Some of the differences are the natural changes that come from having different people on the design team. This game features a new sound design lead, new voice-over [VO] director, new script writer, entirely new voice-over cast, and a new music composer who created new themes and instrumentation. Collectively, the team was focused primarily on making the best game experience possible, rather than studying the strengths and weaknesses of previous Tomb Raider titles. Changes in the gameplay experience itself also create natural differences between this Tomb Raider and others in the series. The current game favors combat, high-tension traversal, narrative cinematic moments, and jaw-dropping action set-piece events over intricate puzzles. The new dynamics of combat, for example, created the need for a more robust musical triggering system—allowing us to more directly “score” each moment of the game. The new enemy behaviors in the game created the need for a comprehensive set of new rules for triggering AI [artificial intelligence] combat voice-over, as well. Lab Notes: How does mixing sound for a game compare to mixing sound for a film or a television show? JG: Game sound mixing is completely different from film or TV mixing. The first and most striking difference is the fact that games are rarely afforded dedicated mix time. Every department is scrambling to finish their work up to the very last moment of each deadline, and the concept of postproduction is often quite foreign to game production studios. Instead, mixing tends to be an ongoing, organic process—each new sound is implemented alongside other, existing sounds—so we thoroughly test each new sound in context before moving on. Months and months of carefully implemented individual sounds eventually turns into the final mix. This system is far from ideal—as it becomes difficult to create a unified sound design approach, especially if critical art and design elements are open to change. Weather patterns, time of day, surface materials, landmark placement, combat locations, combat pacing, weapon rate of fire, run animation speeds, and even key narrative plot points are examples of game elements that are scrutinized and updated constantly—all of which complicates the sound department’s ability to ensure a consistent and appropriate mix. Add to that the goal of a 10–12 hour single player gameplay experience…. Creatively, game mixing is different from film and TV as well. A good game mix is every bit as focused on the emotional content of each moment, but games also need to feature direct and consistent player feedback: everything from player movement to weapon fire to VO hints. Most gameplay sequences can be experienced from different perspectives or at a different pace, too, depending on each player’s style of play or skill level. These additional considerations challenge us to put emphasis on specific sounds in ways that are unnecessary for film or TV mixes. Lab Notes: Is there a point in Tomb Raider where surround sound made a difference? JG: In my view, the mix of all sound elements in the evening forest sequence of Tomb Raider is especially compelling in multichannel playback systems. The detailed sounds of the wind, leaves, crickets, frogs, and trickling water of the environment play especially well with the player’s movement sounds and breathing. The organic sounds in this sequence are then combined with the haunting sounds of traditional Japanese music played from an old gramophone player located deep in an old World War II-era bunker. As a whole, this sequence provides the ideal motivation for the player to explore and get lost in the mystery of the island. How does sound make a difference in the video games you play?

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Designing sound for “Tomb Raider”

Robin — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:27:54 +0000

Just four musical notes herald the beginning of the Tomb Raider theme and the epic adventures of Lara Croft that transformed video game graphics, gameplay, and storyline in 1996. That simple motif—and music and sound—are more important than ever to Lara’s story in the latest Tomb Raider, a critically acclaimed prequel released by Square Enix on March 5. The new game, or reboot, delivers the story of Lara Croft’s origins and her journey to become a hardened action heroine. Jack Grillo is a lead sound designer at Crystal Dynamics. In the first in a two-part series, he gives Lab Notes insight into the sound of Lara Croft’s story. Lab Notes: How does sound play a role in the Tomb Raider series? Jack Grillo (JG): The most obvious way that sound helps to reinforce Lara’s character arc in Tomb Raider is through music, specifically, Lara’s main theme. We directed our composer, Jason Graves, to create a theme that can be used in a number of different contexts. It is purposely simple, so that a small tweak in tempo, instrumentation, or supporting harmony can shift the mood from lonely and vulnerable to angry or triumphant. Additional themes for supporting characters and island locations and nonthematic textural pieces used to highlight different gameplay mechanics are introduced throughout the game to help create the space for Lara’s theme to evolve right alongside Lara herself. Another way we used sound to tell Lara’s story is with the voice-over [VO]. Of course, spoken VO is the primary storytelling device in most games, but I’m actually referring to the nonverbal, grunt and effort sounds. We collected a huge array of breathing and grunting sounds from our Lara, voiced by Camilla Luddington, during our various recording sessions, and we use them to support the basics—player movement and health system, as well as highlighting moments of tension, claustrophobia, fear, sadness, and so on. And just as the tone of Lara’s narrative VO shifts with her experience and growing confidence throughout the game, the tone of her nonverbal sounds shifts as well. Tomb Raider is a survival story—Lara is fighting for her life against a variety of enemies, including the island itself. When we think of the island as a character—alive and moody and cursed—we can put extra emphasis on the ambient, weather-based sound effects. The dynamic intensity of these sounds helps to reinforce the story. And the overall mix of gameplay sounds and music helps to support the “storytelling” of any given moment. The intensity of enemy gunfire and bullet impacts, the quiet shuffling of deer in the forest, the heavy waterfalls, or creaky old wooden buildings all give the player context for the immediate story—and help guide Lara from one moment of discovery to the next. Lab Notes: In your opinion, can sound make game play—or the gamer—better? JG: I believe that sound always has the potential to improve the gameplay experience. The systemic sounds of weapons, footsteps, player movement, breathing, and pickups all play a part in how the game “feels.” Detailed, organic ambient sounds give the player a more complete sense of immersion. And dynamic music with smooth transitions from one gameplay sequence to the next gives each moment weight and purpose. As the player spends time with the game, various sound patterns will emerge that help to improve the gameplay experience. Players will recognize how music is triggered for stealth or combat, or how enemy VO is used to create combat pacing, or how the different collectible-item chimes provide hints for available upgrades. These patterns help the player to better understand and master gameplay mechanics. [Editor’s Note: Our interview with Jack Grillo continues next week.] What sound pulls you into the action in your favorite game?

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Conference calls connect with 21st century sound

Dolby — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 16:00:59 +0000

Rotary-dial phones may be a thing of the past, but the public switched telephone network (PSTN) that connected them still links us together, including audio conferences, a mainstay of business communication. As experts in the science of sound and human perception, Dolby scientists and engineers have been working with BT to improve the workday conference call, making it sound more like an in-person meeting with Dolby® Voice™. To better understand the state of audio conferencing, we talked with market experts at Wainhouse Research, who had some head-turning insights. Wainhouse senior analyst Andy Nilssen gave his perspective on the findings, just published in a new white paper called Ripe for Change—Three Factors Set to Transform Audio Conferencing. Lab Notes: What did you find out from the research? Andy Nilssen (AN): We found that the time for change is now. Our research results, industry dynamics, and the ways in which work is evolving all suggest we’re on the brink of something big in audio conferencing. Globalization and the 24/7 workforce are here to stay, and now the search for work-life balance suddenly makes virtual conferences desirable, rather than an obligation. People choose trade-offs for productivity and personal benefit, like settling a customer issue on a late-night call with coworkers in China, so that you can go to your kids’ school recital the next day. Lab Notes: Did anything about the study surprise you? AN: What really struck us was that quality issues absolutely rose to the top of people’s concerns. Above and beyond call setup and reliability, people report issues with background noise; inability to understand when more than one person was speaking; and “unnatural” interaction where everyone talks at once—or not at all, because everyone has muted their lines. Muting cuts down on distractions, but it also eliminates the kind of interaction that can make meetings productive. On a conference call, you don’t want to unmute your line for the sounds that move conversation along naturally, like saying “yup” or grunting to acknowledge that you heard someone. Lab Notes: How are people participating in calls? What are they using, and is it changing? AN: Especially in the last couple of years, we’ve seen a shift from the desk phone to PCs, smartphones, and tablets being used to connect to calls—and they’re not connecting over the mobile voice networks. Instead, they’re using “soft phone” technology to join via the Internet and using a truly digital connection. They’re also using headsets and earbuds. The same earbuds they chose to listen to their online music library are also the listening instrument for their calls. With a digital connection and better technology for listening come new options for transforming that conference-call experience. Lab Notes: So is there one thing that will make audio conferencing a consistently better experience? AN: A conference call is initiated through a series of events and processes, and a chain is only as good as its weakest link. The chain is a key principle in making calls sound better. You can see that principle in action in Dolby Voice. It uses a wideband codec that makes higher frequencies and the sibilance of consonants more apparent, so your brain receives more audible cues and you perceive a conversation that sounds more natural. If you have noise on the line, however, that wideband codec can make it more apparent if the chain is not “tuned” correctly. So Dolby Voice incorporates more of the “chain”: it provides echo cancellation so that speakers don’t hear their own voice echo, and normalization so that everyone on the call comes across with equal volume. Lab Notes: Based on your observations and this research, what do you think the future holds? AN: With a strong chain in place, you can really hear a dramatic difference in a call when you add spatial audio rendering—in other words, the cues that the brain uses to perceive and group sounds as similar or distinct. When someone on the conference call speaks a second time, you understand that it’s the same person who spoke previously. And you can focus on or pick out the thread of conversation when people talk simultaneously—what the industry calls the “cocktail party effect.” Dolby Voice does spatial audio rendering, and BT has integrated Dolby Voice into its MeetMe conferencing service, available later this year. From our research, I can see how this service might change the landscape of audio conferencing: people told us that if the soft phone outperformed landline and mobile connections, nearly three-quarters would use soft phones almost exclusively. Sound off: What do you want to hear in a conference call?

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Smartphone owners think audio quality matters most when watching movies

Dolby — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:00:57 +0000

Dolby scientists and technologists spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve the audio experience in mobile entertainment. But to understand the importance that consumers place on mobile audio, Dolby turned to market researchers at Parks Associates. They surveyed approximately one thousand smartphone owners in each of five countries—the United States, France, Germany, China, and South Korea—to help Dolby better understand what consumers value. We shared some of the initial findings with BGR. Across all countries surveyed, the more smartphone owners used their device for mobile media, the more likely they were to say that audio quality was a “very important” purchase consideration. In fact, 72 percent of heavy users of mobile media said that audio quality was “very important,” compared to just 35 percent of light users. Another finding held true across geographies: when asked to rate the importance of audio quality when engaging in different mobile media activities, “watching movies” emerged as the activity for which audio quality mattered most. Interestingly, in the United States, it was those smartphone movie viewers between the ages of 35 and 44 who were most likely to say that sound quality was “very important” when watching films on smartphones (78% of those 35–44, compared to 72% of people ages 18–24; 70% of those 25–34, compared to 62% of those 45 and older). In France, Germany, and South Korea, it was people between the ages of 18 and 24 who were most likely to rate audio quality as “very important” when watching movies; while in China, it was respondents between the ages of 25 and 34. Men and women in the United States, France, and Germany were equally likely to say that sound quality was “very important” when viewing movies on smartphones; in China, it was men who were more likely to care about audio quality. South Korean women are more likely to care about sound quality in mobile movies than are South Korean men. Parks Associates identified a particularly interesting pattern for anyone in the business of developing devices and services for mobile entertainment: while people watching movies on smartphones were the most likely to say that audio quality was a very important aspect of that experience, audio quality was also the area where consumers reported the highest dissatisfaction with sound quality—and that was true across respondents surveyed in all of the countries.

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