2011 15' MacBook Pro 2.0GHz 8GB RAM 10.6.7 Logic Pro 9.1.3 Pro Tools 9 Studio One Pro M-Audio ProFire 610 Roland XP-30.
- A 9.1-channel system adds front height speakers to take advantage of Dolby Pro Logic® IIz, which derives height information from the signal. Dolby Atmos layouts add height speakers to the traditional 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound setups.
- The attack and release times of PLII steering logic are 10-100 times as fast as the original Pro Logic, and the rear channels are full range stereo. Subsequent versions of this surround technology include Pro Logic IIx and Pro Logic IIz. There are also excellent surround technologies from DTS as well as the superb Logic 7 Music mode from Lexicon.
- Dolby Pro Logic is the surround sound codec that really put surround sound for home theater on the map. Powered by the boom in popularity of VHS in the late 1980s, Dolby Pro Logic brought a.
Surroundsound processing for stereo music has been around since the early ‘70s and iteven survived the quadraphonic era. With surround sound decoding technologies like DTS:X and Dolby Atmos today's 3D sound technologies are, putting it mildly, spectacular! If youhave recently upgraded your system, this might be a good time for you to trysome of your stereo recordings in surround sound…
RecentlyI was reading a white paper on surround sound, because, let's face it, I haveno life. While marveling at the author's considerable expertise on the subject,I started to notice a few areas where he and I disagreed. For one, the articledealt almost entirely with motion picture surround technologies, and it barelymentioned surround sound for music. Next I noticed that the piece only seemedto authenticate surround sound that is encoded and then decoded. The author derisivelyreferred to multi-channel surround sound gleaned from a 2-channel stereo sourceas 'fake stereo.' Actually, 'fake stereo' was a real thing, and it had nothingto do with surround sound. 'Duophonic' was a process used in the ‘60s and ‘70s wherea monaural recording was split in half, and one channel was delayed, bass wasreduced in one channel, and treble was reduced in the other. The result wasalways hideous, but at least, technically, there were now two differentchannels. True surround sound processed from a stereo source, however can bequite nice. I fully realize that many of you who consider yourselves puristswould never listen to stereo music in surround. I totally get that. I don't listen in surround the majority ofthe time, but there are times when it really works well.
Alittle surround sound history…music preceded movies in the home surround market…
Logic Pro 9 Surround Sound Systems
Iwas fortunate enough to have worked with some heavyweights in the area ofanalog surround from the 1980's and on. Thesurround sound units themselves were called 'processors' because they took astereo signal and generated (processed) a three, four, or five channel surroundfield from those two channels. In those early days of what would becomesurround sound, the source material we played was stereo music from records or (later)CDs. Cassettes often had phase issues that messed up the surround matrix. Itwas only after the advent of the stereo VCR that movies at home could beenjoyed in surround sound, as primitive as it was. The caveat was you neededtwo channels to create surround. Around 1984, VCRs were not only stereo, butalso hi-fi, and a very satisfying surround field could be generated from astereo VCR tape. This was essentially the beginning of home theater. In 1982,Dolby Surround was introduced. It was a primitive matrix that had three frontchannels and a single surround channel, often split into two rear surroundspeakers. Separation between front and rear channels was about 3 dB; not verymuch. Previous to this same period, I was selling and installing systems thatused active matrix processors withactual steering logic, and full-range, stereo rear channels. The imaging wasdramatic, but not seamless and not without annoying audible artifacts. Itworked fairly well on music and stereo movie soundtracks. While Dolby Surroundwas simply 'better than nothing,' having an active matrix and full-range,stereo surround channels was far superior for listening to music in surroundsound.
In1986, Dolby Pro Logic was launched. It derived a center channel to go with theleft and right channels, and it still had a bandwidth-limited single rearchannel. The attack and release times of the steering logic were slowed down tomake it smooth during movie pans. The image was center-heavy, and while itworked okay on movies, nailing the dialog to the center of the screen, it wasnot especially suitable for music. The original Pro Logic was very conservativein its implementation, and not very exciting. Despite their artifacts whenplaying movies, I found Jim Fosgate's Tate 101A and Charlie Wood's AudionicsSpace & Image Composer far superior to Pro Logic on stereo music sources,as well as on most movies. These two processors were introduced way back in1978, and they were both based upon the Tate chipset. You may have noticed thiswas eight years before Dolby Pro Logic was launched.
Therewas (and still is) a faction of music lovers and audiophiles who prefer tolisten to at least some music in surround sound. Although some listeners willrecoil, a good argument can be made for listening in surround, as long as it'sdone properly. There are also recordings that are encoded in various forms ofsurround sound that are then decoded. They're actually encoded in surroundsound, with five or more discrete channels. Thisarticle is not about that encoded program material; it is about stereorecordings, only. And most of us own hundreds of records and CDs in stereo. Manyof them can benefit from being played back in surround.
DolbyPro Logic II…one giant leap for mankind…
Thefolks at Dolby realized that Dolby Pro Logic was long in the tooth, and yearslater, Jim Fosgate's most advanced analog surround technology was adopted byDolby and named Dolby Pro Logic II. The bonus was, it worked equally well on bothmovies and music. The attack andrelease times of PLII steering logic are 10-100 times as fast as the originalPro Logic, and the rear channels are full range stereo. Subsequent versions ofthis surround technology include Pro Logic IIx and Pro Logic IIz. There arealso excellent surround technologies from DTS as well as the superb Logic 7 Musicmode from Lexicon. And they all process a stereo source into surround sound. Infact, under dynamic conditions, you would be hard pressed to discriminatebetween a Dolby Digital soundtrack and one being processed with one of thesesurround technologies. (I've done double-blind tests, and the similarities areremarkable.)
Logic Pro 9 Surround Sound System
Therewas (and still is) a faction of music lovers and audiophiles who prefer tolisten to at least some music in surround sound. Although some listeners willrecoil, a good argument can be made for listening in surround, as long as it'sdone properly. There are also recordings that are encoded in various forms ofsurround sound that are then decoded. They're actually encoded in surroundsound, with five or more discrete channels. Thisarticle is not about that encoded program material; it is about stereorecordings, only. And most of us own hundreds of records and CDs in stereo. Manyof them can benefit from being played back in surround.
DolbyPro Logic II…one giant leap for mankind…
Thefolks at Dolby realized that Dolby Pro Logic was long in the tooth, and yearslater, Jim Fosgate's most advanced analog surround technology was adopted byDolby and named Dolby Pro Logic II. The bonus was, it worked equally well on bothmovies and music. The attack andrelease times of PLII steering logic are 10-100 times as fast as the originalPro Logic, and the rear channels are full range stereo. Subsequent versions ofthis surround technology include Pro Logic IIx and Pro Logic IIz. There arealso excellent surround technologies from DTS as well as the superb Logic 7 Musicmode from Lexicon. And they all process a stereo source into surround sound. Infact, under dynamic conditions, you would be hard pressed to discriminatebetween a Dolby Digital soundtrack and one being processed with one of thesesurround technologies. (I've done double-blind tests, and the similarities areremarkable.)
Logic Pro 9 Surround Sound System
Digitalreverb is not surround sound!
Oneclarification to make is that the 'digital soundfield processors' that wereintroduced in the early ‘80s are not surround sound. They simply add digitalreverb to the recording to (allegedly) recreate the sound of particular rooms. Truesurround sound manipulates the material in the recording, but doesn't addanything new. These 'DSP' units superimposed the sound of another additionalroom on top of the original recording. This is particularly useful if you wantto hear The Who's 'Live at Leeds' as it would sound in a parking garage,gymnasium, or an empty Home Depot. I do not disguise my disdain well.
Alive classical performance in a good concert hall will present the instrumentsacross the front, with the naturalambience of the room all around you. A stereo playback of this same event wouldpresent the instruments across the front, with all the ambience also comingfrom the front. Android ios pc. The advantage of listening in one of several surround modes forclassical music is you are surrounded by ambience, as you would be in a livesetting. Ambience (out of phase information) is extracted and steered to thesides and rear. No additional information is added to the playback; informationis simply moved around to emulate what you might hear in a live performance. Withoutartificial additions to the sound, surround can add to the realism of classicalmusic playback, especially with large orchestral pieces. You feel more likeyou're actually in the live acoustical space.
Therecan be dramatic advantages to playing pop studio recordings in surround soundtoo. When using a hard center channel, imaging of vocals isn't limited to oneseat. A good 2-channel stereo system will float a solid 'phantom' center image,but only for a single listener, while a derived 'hard' center channel will workwell for multiple listeners. Vocals mixed dead center are nulled out of leftand right front channels and steered to the single center channel speaker. (No,don't ever use two center channel speakers. Just don't. Hey…idea for anotherarticle!)
Certainmusic recordings work far better than others…
Probablythe most interesting music listening in surround sound comes from recordingswhere at least some sounds are mixed hard to the left and right. In a surround musicmode, sounds recorded to the far right or left front will be pulled more to thesides and rear creating a holographic soundstage in the shape of a horseshoe.When I first heard Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon' in surround on a bigsystem in 1979, I was stunned. The processor appeared to turn the recordinginto quad, with four discrete channels. Another recording of the era that wasquite dramatic played in surround sound was Supertramp's 'Crime of theCentury.' Sounds were panned left and right, front and back, and the effect wasquite alarming. Most Alan Parsons recordings open up when played back throughthe most current analog surround modes. Quite a few rap titles are unnerving insurround sound, and I'm not just talking about the lyrics. Sounds seem to popfrom all over the room.
'Amusedto Death' is the motherlode…
IfI were to play one entire album for someone to show what a stereo recording cansound like in surround sound, it would be Roger Waters' 'Amused to Death'. Enoughphase manipulation went on in the mix of this intricate, powerful, and quirkyrecording that in PLIIx, you hear discrete sounds coming from wide to the sidesand even behind you. My personal favorite surround mode for this album is PLIIx'music' mode, although DTS-Neo6 and Lexicon's Logic 7 are also very exciting.Try 'Amused to Death' in surround. If you feel dirty after listening insurround, just take a shower…
Thenewer analog surround technologies are seamless in how they operate ontwo-channel sources, and they're free of the noise, pumping, and breathing ofthose processors from the late 1970s and 1980s. While many recordings losetheir purity and don't work well in surround, other recordings; especiallyprocessed studio recordings, have added depth, imaging, and a 360-degree sound field.You may actually notice things in the mix that you never heard before in conventionalstereo playback.
Logic beat tutorial. Isaid at the outset that purists may balk, and I don't suggest that you who arepurists listen in surround. It may annoy you. But if you're feeling adventurousand you want to revisit some of your favorite stereo recordings, try somelistening in surround sound. You just might like it.
Letme know what you think, and if you have stereo recordings that sound great insurround sound please share them with us in the related forum thread.
