Dolby Atmos Beds, Objects & Routing

Nuendo
1

Hi guys,

I’ve just started work on an Atmos mix for a feature film and had a few questions regarding how to go about this in the best way possible in Nuendo.

The film was initially mixed in stereo and I’m looking to spread this out into Atmos.

  1. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to using multiple bed tracks for dialogue, sfx and music? I noticed in the Nuendo Youtube page video Sebastian uses 3 beds when working on the mix from scratch.

  2. In the film, I have a flying sfx which was composed of 6-8 layers. I was having a difficult time converting this to an object or evening rendering it to one layer, so ended up routing the group buss to the sfx bed and panned the effect using the group buss’ panner. In the Dolby renderer, this doesn’t show up as an object. Is there any issue panning like this where when I export an ADM, on playback systems it won’t route correctly?

  3. When using Nuendo’s internal renderer, does the Soundcard you use (MTRX Studio via Dante Virtual Soundcard in my case) have an effect on how many objects you can have in a session? I remember the Dolby engineer telling me that I would only have access to 32 channels when using the MTRX Studio without the digilink card. I was a bit confused about how this works. One of the demo tracks I have with all 128 objects used, plays just fine on my system. Does this only apply to the external renderer?

  4. What would be the best way to Upmix stereo channels, like room tones etc.? Currently, I have reverb filling up the surround channels on room tones. Would something like the Nugen Halo Upmix be a better option?

Appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!

2

[1] depemds on deliverables but separation in stems is always good practice, plus it makes it possible to export stems from the Atmos master.

[3] 32 channel width limitations is mostly a PT thing. You can route as many Dante channels from Nuendo to the MTRX you have the hardware to do
This means using a actual MTRX unit and Dante card, not sure where the limits are using DVS and MTRX studio.
But as long as you use the internal renderer in Nuendo you only need as many hardware outputs as you have speakerchannels in the room.

2 Likes
3

Thanks Erik!

[1] Yes, it’s good to have separation in stems. I like the idea of having 3 beds, but didn’t really see anyone else use it, so was concerned about deliverables.
[3] This is great news. I was always a bit confused about this one, since most of the people I interact with are on Protools and it didn’t make much sense.