Dear Sir
A number of items caught my eye in December's interesting and informative Newsletter, among them David Wynne Jones' letter on the SDDS demo. He complains that all too often the tracks he shoots on location are under-utilised, if at all, in the final release soundtrack. I sympathise with this but can assure him that 'post production engineers' (presumably Sound Editors and Dubbing Mixers) do strive to make best use of location tracks, be they sync or wild. After all, if the good stuff is to be found on the rushes why look for it elsewhere? The fact that they may be dropped in the final mix is very often down to the whim of the director.
With regard to the ADAT article, I wonder whether you have come across the AI2 synchroniser that goes with the Alesis ADAT? This is a very powerful time-code synchroniser which also accepts 9-pin serial control and costs about £700. The alternative is the Fostex RD8 (again an ADAT transport) which has an on-board timecode synchroniser / serial control facility and costs around £4000.
Lastly I would like to propose Norman King for Honorary membership. Norman is a former ITN Head of Sound and erstwhile MGM floor mixer. He is something of an authority on optical sound and is active within the BKSTS.
Nick Lowe
Uphill, Hampshire
Dear Sir
David Wynne Jones' letter about his experience at the Sony SDDS demonstration of 'In The Line Of Fire' was interesting on two accounts.
Firstly David seems to be blaming the Sony system for the film being loud, sound coming from the wrong direction, dialogue too loud and sibilance on the dubbed dialogue. All this was true but please don't blame any of these new formats for the above faults.
The Dolby, Universal and Sony systems give us Sound Engineers a chance to make very good tracks. We don't have to use the full frequency range all the time. Dialogue is always better controlled in this respect whereas music can benefit enormously from the wider range. Similarly with FX. The discrete stereo front speakers and stereo surround is of immense benefit for atmospheres and the larger FX sequences, but over-panned effects can be distracting as well as irritating. Equally, the huge dynamic range, from complete silence to the level David experienced at the 'In the Line Of Fire' screening, is available, though again should be treated with care and not over used.
The digital formats give us the tools to do the job. If they are misused it's not the fault of the system but of the operators.
Secondly David suggests that 'The best sound is natural untampered sound' and that in 'In The Line Of Fire', 'Every scene in the movie, the soundtrack had been meddled with'.
This is a very unfair assessment of the work of Post Production Sound Editors and Mixers. I must remember the next time I have an original track covered in camera noise, lamp hums and floor creaks, not to tamper with it. Not to mention the Sound Editors who often have to create complex sequences for areas of the film shot mute.
I think we should remember that making a good sound track involves three stages. Good original tracks, imaginative sound editing and sympathetic re-recording
Robin O'Donoghue
Re-Recording Mixer