Adding Tom Kobayashi, Chris Stone, and Tom Scott as advisors or board members.
http://www.penteosurround.com/about.html

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congrats on all your success! I must admit I was wondering why saxman Scott was on your board, but a guy that helped make Apocalypse sound so damn good is a pretty good choice as well...:)

Scott was on your board, but a guy that helped make Apocalypse sound so damn good is a pretty good choice as well...:)

Tom was Chief Engineer at Skywalker Sound, from back in its earlier name "Sprocket Systems". Prior to that, he built the Record Plant in Sausalito for Chris Stone, where tons of rock classics were recorded. Tom Kobayashi was General Manager at Skywalker. Skywalker and Dolby really pioneered the whole thing of high-quality film sound. We all worked together about 15 years ago. I was the Chief Engineer of their spinoff digital production network they formed in the '90s.

Every day, we have a multi-city teleconference just to discuss the current state of 5.1. Because Penteo can be used at any point in the chain, we deal with everyone from mixers and musicians to broadcasters, equipment makers (as licensees), film music editors, and record companies.

We're quite aware that its currently a mess, with conflicting standards, audio levels, and challenges in marketing, many of which are brought about by the fact that record companies don't have the answers themselves these days. It used to be so easy!

It's always a challenge because people don't really understand what we do. They think it's some "effect" like the ones currently on home theater systems. The hardest part is explaining that the tool kit that we use in the lab to produce Penteo masters are the first processes that have ever successfully separated stereo music mixes out into their individual instrument and singer slices using the characteristics that each group of sounds was given by the original mixer. That's why we have friends who are the original mixers, because it is the closest you can come to the original stereo mix, while delivering 5.1 entertainment.

Remixes are great -- don't get me wrong -- but I'm a fan of the classic stereo mixes we all remember using the effects and echo chambers (the real ones that were several square feet and made with ceramic walls), limiters, and warm sounds that were available then, instead of modern-day digital echo effects and dynamics processing that you would hear on a new 5.1 SACD or DVD-A remix done today.

And in so many cases, a new 5.1 version isn't possible because the original tapes have been lost, destroyed, stolen, or damaged beyond use.

And that's exactly what we deliver -- the original stereo mix -- with the added benefits of cleanup (noise elimination, transient restoration) and 5.1 instrument and singer mapping -- based on the original stereo mixer's wishes.

Our new real-time process is designed to do for music video networks and broadcasters what we do in the lab, as automatically as possible, so that you can watch legacy stereo music videos, TV shows, and films in true 5.1 simply by tuning in that channel.

Our work on film restoration and conversion is designed to bring the classics to Blu-Ray in 5.1.

We're also working on consumer processing plans - but that's a bit down the road. Working on films like Watchmen and Inglourious Basterds (out in August) gives us the opportunity to show what we can do, and it all falls easily in the work-flow of a typical movie post-production job. In other words, it's easy to explain.

Penteo - not so easy to explain to consumers. We're working on that.

Stay tuned.

-John

Are you hiring? :o

Are you hiring? :o

Soon.

By the way, if you still haven't heard what we do, check out these tiny downloads designed for short attention spans.

(These are short clips from the original 1968 stereo mix broken down into pure left (for surround) pure right, and pure center.)

PRESENTED UNDER FAIR USE FOR DEMONSTRATION OF AUDIO PROCESSING ONLY!
http://www.penteosurround.com/music/tmxpl.mp3 (bass, drums, strings (violins, violas, cellos), lead vocal echoing through echo chamber microphone)
http://www.penteosurround.com/music/tmxpr.mp3 (electric guitar, clavinet, harpsichord, lead vocal echoing through echo chamber microphone)
http://www.penteosurround.com/music/tmxpc.mp3 (lead vocal (dry, no echo chamber), brass (trumpets, trombones, baritone sax, tenor sax)), Backup vocals (dah, dah, dah...), some leakage of strings into another microphone (obviously one of the above was recorded at the same time as the strings -- probably saxes)

-John

John, a possible Boston client for you; New England Sports Network ,NESN. They do home Red Sox games in Dolby 5.1 but road games are in stereo only while NESN keeps the Dolby 5.1 flag on instead of going to Dolby 2.0, which means no audio is possible from center and surround channels and unable to activate matrix surround.Penteo RT would be great for viewers of NESN.

John, a possible Boston client for you; New England Sports Network ,NESN. They do home Red Sox games in Dolby 5.1 but road games are in stereo only while NESN keeps the Dolby 5.1 flag on instead of going to Dolby 2.0, which means no audio is possible from center and surround channels and unable to activate matrix surround.Penteo RT would be great for viewers of NESN.

We only wish that we could get to each and every technical executive at every broadcast facility -- and we will continue to present ourselves at trade shows, as we did in Las Vegas a couple months ago.

Our services in sports are especially desirable -- because mixers often are never comfortable mixing in 5.1 -- there's just too much to think about when the "live TV" adrenaline is going, without each event turning into a full recording session. The same is true in the production of live reality shows.

We have pending operations that should get us in several paths into the media chains into the home. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Of course any connections anyone has are always welcome -- one major job has come from readers to this forum anyway!

John - I enjoyed listening to your samples, but could you please post a set from a song that is not already available as a 5.1 DVD-A? Thanks.

John - I enjoyed listening to your samples, but could you please post a set from a song that is not already available as a 5.1 DVD-A? Thanks.
While I thank you, I think you're missing the point. The DVD-A would have been a recent mix. Those samples on here came from the original 1968 mix. Do a comparison. The whole reason that so many people at the top of the pro audio and film communities are taking notice of us is that nothing like this - in the history of recorded music - was ever possible without having the original 1/2", 1", or 2" tapes to work from, many of which, even on classic albums, are long gone, erased, or tossed in the dumpster, making it impossible to ever release a surround mix. These examples were taken directly from the 1968 mix master - the original work that all the records were made from.

Penteo makes it possible to create new surround masters from any stereo master, even a wobbly, noisy damaged one from 1968.

If you're saying that they sound anything like an all new mix with digital gear from the raw original instrument and voice tracks, We'll take that as a huge compliment!

John,
Thanks again for the samples. Never thought I would want to watch "towering inferno"
for the remastered audio!

John,
Thanks again for the samples. Never thought I would want to watch "towering inferno"
for the remastered audio!

That was pre- Star Wars John Williams, you know. I remember when he was working at Skywalker and waving to him from my Jeep - and being blown away (star struck) when he waved back!

Okay - here's three more. Not found on any DVD-As or SACDs that I know of. These were taken from our "Watchmen" soundtrack. All guitar distortion is original.

This was actually taken from a commercial CD (I think, it was given to me as a PCM file on a USB flash key), then broken down into pure left, pure center, and pure right, so that for the film, the drums and bass could be in the center, the vocals in the fronts, and the guitars in the rear. That's the way it was in the theatres.

Presented under Fair Use for audio processing demo only.

Once again, it's a 1960s recording with only three pan positions: Left, Center, and Right. Any leakage or cross-talk that you hear between channels is the limit of the recording gear at the time, as well as real acoustic leakage into nearby microphones...

http://www.penteosurround.com/demo/SSXPL.mp3
http://www.penteosurround.com/demo/SSXPR.mp3
http://www.penteosurround.com/demo/SSXPC.mp3

And here's our (okay somewhat embarrassing) video of winning the Cool Stuff Award at the NAB in Las Vegas for our new broadcast unit for 5.1 surround broadcasting. We just got the link today.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid14080861001?bctid=24436610001

John I when a heard just the left channel I could not reconize the song, until hearing the right channel second I realized that it was S&G's Sounds of Silence from 1965. The vocals in the center channel were so clear. Roy Halle was one of the better producers of the 60s who did all the S&G stuff and some of Paul Simon's solo albums.

One of the interesting side effects of Penteo is that the center channel consists of only the waveforms that are common to both channels, so it eliminates one entire generation of tape noise -- the master itself -- on the center extraction.

It also removes pops and scratches from mono records when transferred in stereo, since pops and ticks are un-common to both the left and the right. Thinking about trying it for archival (transcription) cleanup.

Oh yeah, and it's a floor wax and dessert topping.

oh yeah, and it's a floor wax and dessert topping.Shimmer! :D

Shimmer! :D

The floor wax that tastes great.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/61320/saturday-night-live-shimmer-floor-wax

John a suggestionn to try on Penteo. I saved one of my parents London/Decca Phase 4 Records. The music would have fit on "Beautiful Music FM stations of the 60s and early 70s. The technical intrest of these records is that they were recorded using a console with 20 mic inputs and using 4 track tape to achevie a left to right panormara .

John a suggestionn to try on Penteo. I saved one of my parents London/Decca Phase 4 Records. The music would have fit on "Beautiful Music FM stations of the 60s and early 70s. The technical intrest of these records is that they were recorded using a console with 20 mic inputs and using 4 track tape to achevie a left to right panormara .

Funny - I just discovered www.airstreamfm.com which plays all that stuff. It's amazing to put on headphones and listen to the use of stereo positioning for all the orchestral parts. Nearly all these pieces have never been - and never will be - released as CD's, because the market isn't there. Kind of a shame.

Boy are we off-topic.

John, a good turntable cartridge,phono pre-amp. Good ADC then check phasing in digital domain before Penteo. Also, maybe website has these tracks already on 16/44.1 CD-Rs