| Recorded multichannel sound has a history that dates back to the 1930s, but in the intervening years up to the present it became prominent, died out, became prominent again, and died out again, in a cycle that’s had at least four peaks and dips. In fact, I give a talk called “The History and Future of Surround Sound” with a subtitle “A Story of Death and Resurrection in Five Acts” with my tongue barely in my cheek. In modern times we see it fi rmly established in applications accompanying a picture for movies and television, but in other areas such as purely for music reproduction broad success has been more elusive. However using history as a guide to the future there may well be a broader place for surround music in coming years.
The purpose of this book is to inform recording engineers, producers, and others interested in the topic, about the specifi cs of multichannel audio. While many books exist about recording, post production, etc., few yet cover multichannel and the issues it raises in any detail. Good practice from conventional stereo carries over to a multichannel environment; other practices must be revised to account for the differences between stereo and multichannel. Thus, this book does not cover many issues that are to be found elsewhere and that have few differences from stereo practice. It does consider those topics that differ from stereo practice, such as how room acoustics have to be different for multichannel monitoring, for instance. |
