Stereo-to-5.1 Surround Upmixer Delivers Multi-channel Score
Pictured in the Anthony Quinn stage at Sony Pictures Studios with the Penteo 4 Pro plug-in onscreen is re-recording mixer Steve Pederson. Photo by David Goggin.
Academy Award-winning re-recording mixer Steve Pederson recently employed the new Penteo 4 Pro stereo-to-5.1 upmixer plug-in for the current film “Into the Storm” and upcoming, “The Equalizer.” Pederson used Penteo to create multichannel surround mixes from stereo recordings by Moby and Eminem.
“Penteo is the most clever upmixing tool I’ve encountered to create interesting surrounds and musical bass,” says Pederson. “It opens up the theater sound richly and with great detail. Penteo is simple to use and has a variety of useful parameters. It’s the perfect tool to ‘magically’ unlock a 2-track stereo file and fill the theater with surround in a very interesting way.”
Pederson has been nominated for numerous awards including three BAFTAs, and twice for an Academy Award. He won the Oscar for “Apollo 13” in the category of Best Sound.
“I use Penteo as a ‘one stop shop’ tool to take any stereo track and generate a warm, precise and effective sounding surround mix,” Pederson continues. “I’m impressed how Penteo can isolate channels so cleanly, so discreetly and then spread them through the surrounds.”
Pederson took stereo sources and created multi-channel mixes for the recently released “Into the Storm” (5.1) and Sony’s upcoming “‘The Equalizer” (7.1) “Using Penteo 4 Pro, I upmixed both films to surround formats and was very pleased with the results. Penteo gets you to a great sounding upmix with no fuss, and is an efficient tool to have handy.”
Pederson elaborates on the way Penteo handles lower frequencies: “What I like about Penteo’s subwoofer is the definition. If you mute all the full range speakers in the theater and just listen to the sub you’ll hear a nice, tight, punchy bass. Penteo is more musical, it defines the beat of the music better. It doesn’t rumble and roll, it rocks and rolls.”
In the creation of a soundtrack, “temp” mixers are often used before the final music is composed and produced. “Another area where Penteo can really help is during the early stages of post-production. I take stereo tracks and run them through the Penteo plug-in to immediately give the temp score a full and rich 5.1 feel that emulates a proper mixed final score and really elevates the quality of the temp mix.”
Pederson has worked mostly at Warner Bros. Studios for more than fifteen years, and enjoys the talented community, the historic setting and the top-of-the-line facilities offered. Throughout his career, he has seen the contribution of film sound evolve with more and more channels, greater dynamic range, and higher fidelity to give the audience a more powerful experience to express the story.
“I love this work and I’m a fan of this plug,” he concludes. “I won’t go into a mix without it being part of my tool kit.”
Read the entire Interview with Steve Pederson and other industry leaders in the Perfect Surround Master Class series:
http://tinyurl.com/lq75dwz
Native AAX64 Support
Penteo 4 Pro natively supports Avid Audio eXtension (AAX) for true 64 bit processing.
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About Audiotech Digital Limited (ADL)
Penteo transforms any stereo recording, soundtrack, DJ mix or live television broadcast into perfect 5.1 surround sound. Developed by ADL, Penteo 4 Pro remains faithful to the original stereo mix; no artificial sound manipulation is used. The Penteo 4 Pro plug-in creates a perfect surround experience for all stereo media with zero sonic artifacts, crisp and discrete center-channel, and only Penteo is 100% ITU down-mix compatible to the original stereo. Penteo has won multiple awards been used by major studios on hundreds of films, TV shows and music recordings and supports AAX64/RTAS32/VST32/AU32 formats. For more information, visit: http://www.perfectsurround.com
