Tomita DVD-A and center speakers

In a message dated 4/2/03 2:06:37 PM Central Standard Time,
lance at soundscapemusic.com writes:

> If the dialogue was mixed without using centre
> channel, then people sitting in a cinema at the left or right of the screen
> would perceive the dialogue as coming from the left or right speakers
> respectively, because they are sitting closer to those speakers. Using the
> centre channel for dialogue will make the dialogue track appear to come
from
> the centre of the screen for those poor folk off to the sides. The same
> would hold true for the home cinema experience, depending on your speaker
> placement, just not quite to the same extent.

This is actually why I don't have a center channel in my home setup. In my
opinion, it's a little uncalled for in many (most?) living room spaces. For
instance, my room is approximately 12' x 24'. My TV and front speakers are
setup along one of the short walls. The surrounds are on the opposite wall.
With this speaker placement, the front speakers are close enough together to
create a very nice soundstage. The acoustical "phantom center" is also very
defined and solid. I feel adding a center speaker in this type of setup would
only detract from the quality of playback by adding in possible phase
problems as well as inter-speaker playback response differences.

Working in "real" movie theaters for a time (some years as a projectionist),
the "behind screen" center, right, left, and left/center and right/center
speaker positions are very important given the dimensions of most theater
auditoriums. I'm truly uncertain whether the full benefits of a center
speaker in many home setups are really needed.

A pyamid setup would be very interesting though!

Andrew

 

ixqy at aol.com write:
> Working in "real" movie theaters for a time (some years as a
> projectionist),
> the "behind screen" center, right, left, and left/center and
> right/center

! Small world.
I worked as a projectionist also, in Sydney in the late 70's early 80's for
about 5 years.

Just for interests sake, the old mag striped 70mm films had 6 channels,
Left, Centre Left, Centre, Centre Right, Right, just as Andrew says, and
Effects. The Effects were mono and the signal was fed out to speakers out in
the auditorium. The channels were fed to speakers placed *behind* the screen
at the stated positions. 35mm film with mag stripe had 4 channels,
L/C/R+Mono Effects. The magnetic stripe was placed on the film down both
sides between the frame and the sprockets, and also between the sprockets
and the edge of the film. If you ever saw Raiders of the Lost Ark in 70mm
when it first screened it would have been a magnetic striped film.

Next time your in the cinema, try and get as close to the screen as you can
(without putting your hand through it!), and you'll see its not actually
'solid', it has thousands of pinholes in it (so the sound from the speakers
behind the screen can get through). You can actually stand behind the screen
during a film and look out on the audience through the holes.

So, whats all this have to do with Tomita?

As the projectionist I had my choice of music to play during the
pre/post-session and intermission (they used to have a short feature, an
intermission to sell stuff at the candy bar, and then the feature. My music
of choice then was of course Tomita (and Vangelis).

Regards,
Lance
-----
lance at soundscapemusic.com
http://www.soundscapemusic.com
http://www.mp3.com/lance

 

In a message dated 4/3/03 2:01:14 AM Central Standard Time,
lance at soundscapemusic.com writes:

> Next time your in the cinema, try and get as close to the screen as you can
> (without putting your hand through it!), and you'll see its not actually
> 'solid', it has thousands of pinholes in it (so the sound from the speakers
> behind the screen can get through). You can actually stand behind the
screen
> during a film and look out on the audience through the holes.

Hi Lance,
Yep! One of the most peculiar things is to stand up behind the screen while
a movie is playing and face the audience. You can see them just fine, but
they can't see you!

We were back there in the rafters working on one of the speakers during a
horror flick this one time. 500+ people in the audience. It was a very
strange thing to see everyone's reactions and expressions just as if they
were looking at you.

Andrew