A trivia question about movie soundtracks

[FlimsyFeet]

Most films released in the 1980s had a Dolby Surround soundtrack - when decoded this is gives 4 channels, front left, front centre, front right, and a mono surround channel.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital system as we know now didn't appear until 1989 in "Batman".

However, according to the imdb, some big movies that had 70mm prints (e.g. Star Wars, Indiana Jones) had a 6-track sound mix.

Where were those 6 channels located? I've seen all sorts of suggestions from searching Google, such as 5 across the front with a mono surround to 3 across the front, mono surround and 2 LFE channels! Which is it? Can anyone shed some light on this bit of movie history?

[Sirber]

Wasn't surround 2 front and 2 rear?

[edit] Dolby Stereo is the name given to the four-channel surround sound developed by Dolby Laboratories and introduced into movie theaters in the 70's. It employed a matrix encoding scheme called Dolby Surround which recorded four channels of information on two channels. The two channels are decoded into L, R, Center and Surround upon playback. The center channel is recorded identically on the left and right channels.You are right :)

[Mug Funky]

sirber: you'd be thinking about Quad, from back in the '70s.

interestingly enough, the newer dolby pro-logic 2 system is based heavily on the Fosgate Tate II quad decoder, except that the encoding matrix is tweaked and there's a centre channel to fill the gaping hole in the image that quad gave (thus giving good sound to most of the cinema, not just the 1 person lucky enough to be sitting in the sweet spot).

apparently running old SQ/QS records through a DPL2 receiver will give pretty good results.

[FlimsyFeet]

HERE (http://www.dolby.com/assets/pdf/tech_library/2_Surround_Past.Present.pdf)(a recommended read, very interesting) it says that 70mm tracks were originally configured as five identical channels across the front plus a surround channel to the sides and rear of
the auditorium, but Dolby Laboratories later proposed the configuration which has been standard since the late 1970s: left, center, and right main screen channels, one surround channel, and two lowfrequency-only “bass extension” channels.

So it is likely that Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1981, used the Dolby configuration on the 70mm prints. But what about Star Wars in 1977?

[Neo Neko]

Originally posted by FlimsyFeet
So it is likely that Raiders of the Lost Ark, in 1981, used the Dolby configuration on the 70mm prints. But what about Star Wars in 1977?

George can't leave well enough alone. So if he can add new sceens why not new audio channels? ;)

[Sycho]

Originally posted by FlimsyFeet
The 5.1 Dolby Digital system as we know now didn't appear until 1989 in "Batman".

try in 1992 with "Batman Returns"

[FlimsyFeet]

Originally posted by Neo Neko
George can't leave well enough alone. So if he can add new sceens why not new audio channels? ;) Well, with Star Wars there has always been a bit of confusion with the soundtrack, because there were minor differences between the 35mm Dolby Stereo (Surround) and 70mm 6-track, then later on elements of the two were combined for a completely remastered mix for one of the laserdisc releases. Let's not talk about Star Wars, it's too complicated.

What I'm essentially on about is that we are always hearing "watch in widescreen, as the director intended it to be seen" but how often does someone say listen in Dolby Surround as the original sound designer intended?

Most DVD releases of 1980s movies have a 5.1 Dolby Digital track. For movies that had a 70mm 6-track print such as the Indy films, it is relatively simple to remaster those 6 channels into Dolby Digital. But for films that only had Dolby Stereo, or worse, films that were originally in mono, to obtain a 5.1 mix the soundtrack has to be totally remixed. So you are not getting the sound as originally intended, you are getting another sound engineer's version of it.

Because many consumers have 5.1 systems in their homes, they will not accept anything less. But I actually like Dolby Surround, I had a pro-logic receiver for years before I had a Dolby Digital system. And I actually prefer the original mono soundtrack on The Terminator to the 5.1 track, don't know why, just think it gives a more authentic feel to the rest of the film.

Originally posted by Sycho
try in 1992 with "Batman Returns"Yes, OK, you spotted the deliberate mistake!

[Sycho]

Originally posted by FlimsyFeet
But what about Star Wars in 1977?
all starwars and raiders and temple of doom were presented in 70mm dolby 6channel with monoral surrounds, see http://in70mm.com/lists/various/70mm_dolby_stereo.htm
edit: also http://in70mm.com/newsletter/2000/62/dolby/dolby_format.htm