Ron MacLeod
Designing the Surround Sound Experience
By Stephanie Jorgl

Ron MacLeod Ron MacLeod has seen all sides of audio, from designing and building his own instruments, performing with bands including the Sleepers, Group 87, Mark Isham and Patrick O’Hearn, and producing and engineering for TV, film and 20+ albums, to doing multi-channel (10 speaker) interactive experimental music installations at clubs — what MacLeod terms his “early experiments in building surround.”

He grew up with a scientist for a father and a lab in the garage, so it’s no wonder his musical interests led him to experiment with sound. His little brother, Brian MacLeod, went on to a career as a world-class drummer, while MacLeod got into designing his own sounds and instruments. “I think I can trace every sound I conceive, back to the symphonies I heard within the machines all around me, while growing up in the midst of the original tech boon of Silicon Valley,” says MacLeod.

Sounds Go Mainstream
MacLeod formed a sound company called Rarefaction, for which he produced 14 different sound, instrument and FX libraries. His unique approach to sound sculpture soon made its way into mainstream music and film, from the opening sequence of “Seven” to “PeeWee’s Playhouse” and music from Nine Inch Nails to Madonna.

MacLeod’s 20 years of expertise in sound and technology also helped to conceptualize, develop and evangelize computer-based recording and sound-generating standards for companies like Digidesign, Steinberg, OSC and BIAS.

In recent years, the surround industry has recognized MacLeod’s ability to help develop surround tools for software companies and his expertise on surround mixing and encoding for film, music and DVDs — and gracefully negotiating the fold down to stereo.

27 Residents Videos
The Residents came to MacLeod with 30 years of material to remix for their DVD “Icky Flix.” Amazingly, the avant garde music and video band had most of the original tracks, but the tracks were in so many different archaic tape formats that, according to MacLeod, “It was just a mess.”

Most films have been really disappointing for me. Directors in general, don’t seem to want you ‘in’ their movie, they just want you to watch their story. So, instead it’s all mixed to the front.

But then the band decided to re-record all the material specifically for surround. “So, I got excited. It was a hell of a lot of work — 27 videos. It took a little while, but they really got it,” he says. “But my whole gig has always been first preaching to, then indoctrinating, and then hopefully encouraging, training and mentoring artists into surround and to get that it’s a new palette to work with.”

With 100 minutes of video, the “Icky Flix” DVD was released in January, 2001.

“It’s not just a gimmick to sell more records. It’s hard to get this point across. But almost all of them understand, once they hear how it sounds,” he adds. “Most people don’t realize the immersiveness of surround, until you turn off the rear speakers. Then they go, ‘Why does it sound so small and flat?’

“Most films have been really disappointing for me personally, because everything is so down the center,” says MacLeod. “Directors, in general, don’t seem to want you ‘in’ their movie, they just want you to watch their story. So, instead it’s all mixed to the front. They’ll throw in occasional surround effects, but in general, it’s zoom, bang — then suck back to the center. I don’t find that to be a good use of ‘immersion,’ because it can be so distracting — being taken in and out of the space.

“But there are ways of moving and wrapping things around to really work with realism, surrealism and emotions,” insists MacLeod. “Once people start getting it, they really get into it, and that’s what the Residents found. They got it. They started listening to the tapes, and rethinking the arrangements.”

He adds, “They didn’t just start writing for surround, they started thinking in surround.”

Next page: Easier Than Stereo Mixing
Pro/Video

Ron MacLeod
1. Designing the Surround Sound Experience
2. Easier Than Stereo Mixing
3. Distance Disappears With Portable Drives


What Is Surround Sound?
Surround Sound expands your listening experience beyond Left and Right stereo channels. A typical Surround Sound recording creates an complete audio environment using five channels: Left, Center, Right, Left Rear and Right Rear.

This setup is called 5.1 — the 5 describes the five discrete sound sources, while the 1 describes the subwoofer, also referred to as the Low Frequency Effects channel. Low frequency audio is non-directional, so the five separate channels are able to share one subwoofer.

The term 5.1 was coined by Tomlinson Holman (the T and H in THX) when he was at LucasFilm.

Here’s more information on Surround Sound.



Surround Mixing Considerations
(Part 1 of 2)

Where Do You Want to Be?
There are special things to consider if you want to do a surround mix for a band. “First, there’s always a question of where in the field is your point of reference going to be? Do you want to be on stage in the band? Do you want to be ‘air drumming’ behind the drummer? Do you want to be in the audience, in the front row, or in the back?” explains MacLeod.

“I personally would like to see DVDs for the music format utilizing the options for ‘angle view,’ so you could change to the angle you want to view and hear the show from,” he says. “Most people want to be in the audience. But then you just hear the slapback and the crowd clapping around you, which can be annoying.”

Continued on next page