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Author Topic: Movies, music and SDDS Rory Burke Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Burbank, CA, USA Registered: Jun 2000 posted 08-24-2000 12:16 PM                     Does anyone have an opinion regarding movies with really good music parts like "Singles" "Selena" etc..... The reason I ask is over the last few years I have been trying to figure out if SDDS does anything different to the sound of Music played as opposed to DD or DTS. I haven't found a noticable difference in overall sound quality of movies for the three digital formats but for some reason I always notice that "live music scenes" sound much different in fact better while in SDDS. "Selena" is a good example. The reason I ask is because of Dreamworks' new movie "Almost Famous". It is comming out next month and reportedly it has excellent "live concert" scenes throughout the movie with that great Classic Rock n Roll!!! Rory Perhaps it is the "placebo" effect, but I do seem to enjoy SDDS especially with music.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-24-2000 12:21 PM                     I would say that is due to the harshness of the digital eq. All of the examples you quoted are for rock music, specifically "live concert" type music. In that instance, that may be preferable. However, I'll bet you would be more pleased with DTS or SRD for something like classical. They are more detailed, warmer and crisper.  |  IP: Logged Ari Nordström Master Film Handler Posts: 283 From: Göteborg, Sweden Registered: Jan 2000 posted 08-24-2000 04:28 PM                     I agree with Brad here; in my limited experience, the SDDS sound is rather harsh, which could very well explain your preference, strange as it may sound... So, does anyone remember a Dolby Digital or DTS title, simultaneously released in SDDS, with lots of classical music?  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 08-24-2000 05:52 PM                        Our print of 'Hilary and Jackie' had SDDS - we couldn't play it, though. Can't think of any other classical music films that do, though.  |  IP: Logged Michael Cunningham Expert Film Handler Posts: 186 From: Anchorage, AK Registered: Nov 1999 posted 08-24-2000 06:45 PM                     You might see if anybody is still playing "Music of the Heart". It's about a violin teacher and therefore has a lot of classical sounding music at least. -Mike  |  IP: Logged Nic Margherio Film Handler Posts: 91 From: St. Louis MO, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-25-2000 01:10 AM                     "The Red Violin" was released in SRD and SDDS, though I never had the opportunity to hear it in SDDS. I think that would have been a very good track to compare. I don't remember if I was VERY, or just moderately, impressed the SRD version or not (I do remember that it was at least -decent-) but I did hear it on a CP500 which has been critizised as having similar EQ characteristics to SDDS, (both digital EQ) i.e. excessive "brightness" and/or "harshness, "lack of warmth" etc.  |  IP: Logged John Wilson Film God Posts: 5438 From: Sydney, Australia. Registered: Dec 1999 posted 08-25-2000 03:41 AM                     How about 'Sense and Sensibility' with SDDS and SRD?...I think it had SRD...  |  IP: Logged Stefan Scholz Expert Film Handler Posts: 223 From: Schoenberg, Germany Registered: Sep 1999 posted 08-25-2000 04:09 AM                        Immortial Beloved - The Ludwig Van Bethoven story, European releases, were dual format. The 8 ch. orchestra was great, the film is a bomb. I like the characteristics of the digital EQ, compared to the modulation distortions of the analog systems.- Well it is a matter of taste. Total anaslog without any EQ -- the way to go. But I think, we had this point previously.  |  IP: Logged Rory Burke Expert Film Handler Posts: 181 From: Burbank, CA, USA Registered: Jun 2000 posted 08-25-2000 10:35 AM                     Oooooh!! Don't forget the Tango scene in "True Lies" Think it would be could reference too but not sure what formats it came in if at all in digital.  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 08-26-2000 01:59 AM                     True Lies was SRD and DTS only.  |  IP: Logged Gordon McLeod Film God Posts: 9532 From: Toronto Ontario Canada Registered: Jun 99 posted 08-26-2000 08:36 AM                     As far as I am concerned the only prints of True Lies that count are the 70mm ones  |  IP: Logged Charles Everett Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1470 From: New Jersey Registered: May 2001 posted 01-27-2002 05:25 PM                     "A Dolby Digital or DTS title, simultaneously released in SDDS, with lots of classical music?" Gosford Park Sounds quite lovely in SDDS.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-27-2002 08:23 PM                     I did alot of the dailies work for True Lies and you should have seen how good Super 35 can look! You'd think you were watching it in 70mm. Russell Carpenter did an amazing job on that film. My 35mm print looks, a bit grainer than the 70mm's did, but great to say the least and all I can say is the heck with the digital tracks! With a finely tuned optical system this is one of the finest examples of how good analog SR can get!! Almost indestinguishable from the SRD track except for seperation. Mark  |  IP: Logged Aaron Sisemore Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day! Posts: 3061 From: Rockwall TX USA Registered: Sep 1999 posted 01-27-2002 10:00 PM                     As for musical type films sounding better in SDDS, it may be true: Amazing as it seems, 'Spiceworld' is the best sounding SDDS print I have EVER heard, and I have played a LOT of films in that house [Sebastopol #1] in SDDS in my time! 'That Thing You Do!' was another that sounded GREAT (in DTS however: the print we had had a bad SDDS track, so I never got to hear it that way) 'Moulin Rouge was nice in SDDS as well, save for the bigtime dropouts on a couple reels due to ready-to-die LEDs in the reader) -Aaron  |  IP: Logged Brad Miller Administrator Posts: 17775 From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall) Registered: May 99 posted 01-28-2002 02:13 AM                     I am going to add to this because in the last year and a half since this thread was started I have done an interesting test. What I have done is to makeup my own pin swapping cables and inserted the SDDS signal straight into a Dolby processor, leaving the SDDS's internal EQ disabled. Let me just say this, the results are phenomenal!!! I challenge anyone with the means to get two SDDS players and mount them both in one rack. Wire one of them "normally" in between the Dolby processor's output and the crossover and take the other one and insert the signal into the Dolby processor's digital inputs. (On a CP200 with an Aux rack you can actually do full 8 channels.) Now EQ both processors at the same time with the same equipment, mic placement and tech at the controls and make absolutely certain that both SDDS players are outputting the exact same signal level with both set to "0.0" and the Dolby set on "7". (You will have to level match the output of a DA20 on the second SDDS unit.) Run a reel of film and have someone randomly bypass the unit that is wired in "normally" and see if you don't hear an amazing difference. If you think SDDS sound great normally, try it THIS way. Digital EQing sucks!  |  IP: Logged

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