All sound-effects of the RENAISSANCE Surround Library have been designed specifically to obtain the maximum motion along all multi channel speakers.
In order to give the audience the more realistic impression, special psychoacoustic techniques have been involved throughout every production step, from microphone placement to the most sophisticated post-production tools.
For this reason a new form of sound nomenclature has been required to identify the right track on the CDs.

Users will find a short description of the different terms involved. It is also worth noticing that this is a part of a constant research promoted by the RENAISSANCE Sound engineering team and that in the future some new terms might be added.
Basically a track is identified as follows: TRACK NAME - SURROUND TYPE - DESCRIPTION - CATEGORY

TRACK NAME refers to the name of the SFX (e.g. South Eastern Asia village)

SURROUND TYPE is related to the kind of Surround effect included in the track (see below)

DESCRIPTION indicates the additional info for a specific sound like, for instance, the exact motion for that specific Surround type (see below)

CATEGORY is the catalogue description of that sound effect (e.g. Outdoors, Indoors, City track etc.)

Surround types belong to 3 main families:

· AMBIENCE:This includes "Natural Ambience" and "Fx-Ambience" and do not have Surround description since it's not necessary. The sound "around" gives the listener the impression to be sitting in the middle of it.
Natural Ambience have been obtained originally recording the sound on location using special and proprietary miking techniques in order to achieve the best 3D natural environment.
Fx-Ambience have been obtained during post production stage instead, either by editing the original recordings or by creating an artificial space (e.g. ghosts screaming in a deep Church hall).

· POSITIONED:This includes "Stationary" and "Echoed". These sounds are identified by the listener from a precise position in space. Stationary are fx that do not move or float around a fixed point.
Typically the fixrd point is located somewhere at the back of the listener due to the nature of the library.
Echoed tracks are generally bounced from one position to another like an echo.
Typically the echo is front to rear or rear to front and its application is mostly reserved special effects (e.g. Alien voices being echoed at the rear of the starship...).

· MOVING SOUNDS:This family includes "Panned", "Motion" and "Multi" types. "Panned" sounds follow an exact direction along the speakers. Their speed can be different speed, but their movement is fixed. When a sound is labeled as "Panned" the "Surround description" field shall contain a description of the motion. The motion is described in terms of speakers direction: Left (L), Right (R), Center (C) and Surround (S), in degrees (e.g. 360°, 270° etc.) or a combination of two of them (e.g. full 360° C-S).
For example: a panned sound labeled L-C-R to S, would start from the Left speaker, reach the Right speaker passing through the Center speaker and ending at the Surround speakers. In the description field you may sometimes find additional keywords that will help you identifing of that motion.
For example if you find "L-R fugue to S fast", it would mean that the effect starts at the Left speaker, instantly moves to the Right speaker and then accelerates (fugue) fast towards the Surround Speakers.With a little experience you'll be able to figure out the exact movement you need just by reading these labels.

· MOTION sounds (as opposite to the "Panned" ones) are not identifiable as precise movements, but move with a personality instead. A motion sound contains a Surround description like "Running around" (that means the sound seems to be running around you), "Flying around", "Instant positions" (appears and disappears instantly at different speakers), "Falling", etc. It will be very easy to imagine the motion of these fx by reading their label.
SD-Motion stands for "Surround Direct Motion" and it's a special and proprietary technique where the recorded natural sound has been forced to a different speed or position, with respect to the original spacing image (e.g. sea motion).

· MULTI FX are composed by more sounds together that appear and disappear at different speakers at the same time (e.g. wizard voices that laugh at you from everywhere...). All sound effect movement can obviously be "reversed" to fit your production requirements.
The RENAISSANCE SFX Surround encoded library has been designed to be very handy, and give each sound a personality in order to obtain the best result during soundtrack post production work. We would like to remind you that the RENAISSANCE SFX, even if mainly addressed to surround situations, is fully stereo compatible and can be used like any normal stereo sound effects library. See also how to use it for details.