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The “Restos du cœur” is a French association founded by the artist Coluche in 1985 in order to help the destitute, notably with access to free meals.
Coluche and his friends, singers, actors or sportsmen, created a team to promote the actions of the Restos du Cœur, called the “Enfoirés” tape. In 1989, the first “Enfoirés Tour” travels through France organizing concerts to raise funds. This very popular media event was also released on a Compact Disc and then on a DVD and became an annual event that cannot be ignored.
Since 2004, the Digital Encoding System (DES) studio has been finalising the mix and mastering the soundtrack for all audio and video media. We thank the sound engineer Poussin for his welcome and his explanations on all the work done at the DES studio for the Enfoirés concert.
Today, Poussin takes us backstage to discover the realization of the sound tape of all the supports of the 2023 edition. This new edition will benefit, for the first time, from Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA versions in addition to the stereo or 5.1 versions for the television broadcast and the DVD.
The recording took placé during the concerts that took place in Lyon from January 12 to 16, 2023. From these recordings, a video editing was made and it is on this basis that the work of the DES studio on the audio tracks begins.
This work consists of carrying out the audio processing for the different broadcast formats, i.e. for television, DVD and CD release and streaming with stereo, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA versions.
These tasks are carried out starting from the version for television, which is the most complete, and then it will be adapted to the different formats, as for the CD, which is the shortest and does not contain the scenes with the sketches.
Mixing
The different mixes are done separately, the stereo mix for TV, the stereo mix, the 5.1 mix and the Spatial mix (Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA) for music media.
Poussin explains, “Each mix has its own specificities, so we have to create a different preset to configure the studio console and listening for each format.”
More than 150 different tracks are used for the mix. They include music, voices and ambient takes. One of the most important issues is to keep a perfect intelligibility of each singer’s voice. The final mix in stereo and 5.1 is done by Poussin from the pre-mixes of voices, music and ambiences prepared at the “Studio Haut De Gamme”. Dolby Atmos and 360 Reality Audio mixes take advantage of all available tracks.
The final mixes are done separately to make the most of the format’s capabilities, whether in stereo, 5.1 or spatial sound. The mix for television, for example, has a very slightly higher leveĺ of the voice so that it fits better with the image.
Editing and mastering
When the mixing is finished́, the DES studio moves on to the editing and mastering phases.
As Poussin explains to us “The objective of editing is to adapt to the medium”. For the DVD, the video and audio set is cut́ into 2 DVDs with chaptering for just under 3 hours of show.
For the CD, 30 titles are selected by removing certain sequences of the video (the sketches for example). The finalized concert fits on 2 CDs for a little more than 2 hours of music.
The versions dedicated to streaming (stereo, Atmos and 360RA) are adjusted from the 30 titles of the CD. You can find more information on the realization of a Dolby Atmos mix in the report on Studio DES.
After editing, a specific mastering is done for each media.
In order to do the job more efficiently, Poussin creates a specific configuration of the console and external equipment in the studio for the mastering of each media.
These configurations allow for professional mastering:
- The TV version to meet the broadcast standard with an average level of -23 LUFS.
- Stereo CD and streaming. The mastering goes through 2 analog Manley tube equipments for the equalization and the limiter compressor to bring a more pleasant sound with an average level of -10 LUFS for these supports.
- The 5.1 version for the DVD. It is another configuration that is used here, with the T.C Electronic EQ and the SADIE as a limiter-compressor in order to have a 5.1 mastering as precise as possible.
- Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA spatial versions are made to bring a more immersive atmosphere of the show. Poussin optimizes the use of the stereo front channels to enhance the rendering with Dolby Digital Plus Atmos encoding. The 5.1 version of the DVD privileges the voices on the central channel to be in phase with the sketches.
When all the sound tracks are finalized, all that remains is to format them for final delivery:
- PCM format for the tracks intended for television.
- Dolby Digital 5.1 448 kb/s and PCM Stereo format for the 2 DVDs.
- PCM format for the DDP (
- Disc Description Protocol) stereo in 16 bits/44.1 kHz for the 2 CDs.
- PCM Stereo format in 24 bits, Dolby Atmos (in the form of ADM files) and Sony 360RA (with a multitude of formats compressed or not, including binaural) for the streaming.
You can discover and appreciate this titanic work by listening to it on TV, DVD, CD or streaming in stereo, Dolby Atmos and Sony 360RA.
And as “Les Enfoirés” say, “Buy the CD or DVD for the restos du cœur. For each CD or DVD purchased́ it is xx meals. We are counting on you! Thank you!“
Some extracts of the song Je l’aime à mourir according to the different formats available:
- TV TNT :
With Dolby Digital Plus encoding at 128kbits/s, the TV sound track (white) is cut at 15kHz compared to the uncompressed PCM track (blue) on the DVD.
- CD Stéréo :
- Qobuz Hi-res 24 bits 48 kHz
- DVD Stereo : 16 bits 48 kHz
- DVD 5.1 Dolby Digital
Nice spatialization with a central channel more present than on the space versions (see explanation in the text above)
- Apple Music Dolby Atmos
Beautiful spatialization for this track which exploits all the surround channels.
- Tidal Sony 360RA
Very beautiful spatialization for this track which exploits all the surround channels.