Hi Joern, > not superior, but equivalent, less snake-oil-infested, cheaper, more > general and more elegant. ahem, yes, superior :-D > > you can express any spatial sound with just 4 channels, where one is > the mono component, and 3 are the x, y, and z-axis difference > signals (similar to m/s stereo). > you can then render it to any speaker layout you want. > > imnsho all those n.1 surround techniques (where n is defined as the > number of speakers you have or want to afford plus any positive > integer greater than one) are money-making schemes. anything above > 5.1 in one plane is plain stupid (even the center is not necessary > in theory, although it makes the job for the mix engineer a lot easier). > and the mutually incompatible encoding formats are not helping either... > > and as to encoding anything outside the line between the speakers in > stereo, well, it just does not work very well. it's ok for the > occasional "wow, cool" effect, but for not much else. all those > nifty little tricks have very small sweet spots and fall apart as > soon as you move just a little, and those oh-so-cool 3d phasing > effects completely and utterly wreck the low end in practice.
For some reason this only arrived today (27 May), but I coulnd't agree more ! -- Fons
