5.1 audio volume matching?

[danielp68512825]

I have a movie edit project I'm working on that uses two different sources.  The first source is Blu-ray with a 5.1 track.  The second is a stereo track that I've mixed into 5.1 myself.  I've seen a lot of tutorials using the audio elements panel regarding loudness matching, but I've seen nothing that deals specifically with 5.1 audio.  Tagging the edited audio clips as "dialogue", "music", "SFX", etc. isn't exactly appropriate as the 5.1 tracks have ALL of those various elements in the different channels.  Is there any way to get Premiere to match the loudness on ALL of the channels (center channel volume willl be matched, left and right channels will be matched, surround channels will be matched, etc)?

[R Neil Haugen]

You would need to match each track individually to the set standard you need. There's no way to do that across audio tracks.

Neil

[neil wilkes]

So sorry but attempting to do what you are suggesting is utter madness, unless I am completely misunderstanding your post.

Mastering in 5.1 is a specialist task that requires a lot of specialist tools, and it literally cannot be done using algorithms because an algorithm not only has no way of knowing what the content of any given channel is in the first place, but additionally it has no idea how heavily compressed or limited anything is, so you are going to be in serious trouble right from the start. The key to getting this right is a combination of seriously accurate monitoring, along with the right metering tools & the experience in using them. It is not a job for the amateur or the faint hearted.

Disclaimers all done, the first thing you must understand is that what you are doing will depend on the intended format you are mastering for - mastering is first & foremost all about preparing an approved mix for it's intended release format, and not someone's final chance to seriously mess with the dynamics and overall sound and you simply should not be thinking about level matching every channel to be the same. This will not work. Why? Time for some theory:

In 5.1 for film, the centre channel belongs to the dialogue and nothing else should ever be routed there. Anything at all you want panned in the middle that is not dialogue should be using the phantom centre of the left & right channels, and codecs that utilize metadata such as Dolby Digital, Dolby True HD and the like are all set up in such a way that assumes the mixer knows the correct level of the centre channel, as all others channels (Left/Right/Left Rear/Right Rear) are attenuated with a setting called DIALNORM with reference to the level of the centre channel.

But if you are mixing for film in surround you should really know all this stuff.........if you even try to make L/R/Ls/Rs the same loudness as the C your dialogue will be inaudible.

I have attached a couple of things to this thread that you should study before proceeding - it will save you a lot of trouble down the line.

Incidentally, you will also require permission to use the 5.1 from a Blu-ray disc as it is illegal to rip the content for reuse without full permission to do so.

[Ann Bens]

I would keep everything stereo.

[neil wilkes]

Agreed.

5.1 mixing and mastering is a specialist's job.