Stereo or Multichannel

[GoldenBoy]

I took the initiative in making a poll out of this topic. :) I'm in the multichannel for audio/video camp.

[Gary Freed]

Hi Goldenboy,

Moving my post over to the new thread:

I'm happy with just two channels with two speakers per channel plus the center speaker spliting the channels. Some of the crazy mixing that's done for 5.1 seems a bit odd.:)

But I would still enjoy 5.1 more than the standard two channel two speaker setup.

[Richard Feirstein]

With a center speaker at least as good as the stereo pair, and a system properly calibrated, and good source material artfully mixed and mastered, multi-channel is a significant advance in the right direction. The "New Favorates" the song, is a good example of good mixing.

Richard.

[Gary Freed]

Originally posted by Richard Feirstein
With a center speaker at least as good as the stereo pair, and a system properly calibrated, and good source material artfully mixed and mastered, multi-channel is a significant advance in the right direction. The "New Favorates" the song, is a good example of good mixing.

Richard.

Hi Richard,

I agree with you. Right now Multi-Channel is going through the same growing pains that stereo went through. The sound engineers didn't know what to do with the mix at first. From what I've read, three channels
were originally going to replace mono, but for some reason it never happened. I'm sure SH would know why if he pops in.:)

[proufo]

I prefer ambiance recreation from mono and stereo recordings and true multichannel for old quad recordings and movies.

Ambiance recreation with an old Lexicon requires an inexpensive setup.

I care little about how my movie setup sounds. The visual info and clues make it less important (to me!).

Ditto for quad. It's just nostalgia.

Ambiance recreation imposes a dead room. I can live with a dead room for movies and Quad. Someday...

I believe that before investing a lot of money in components, a dedicated room should be built first.

[Jeffrey]

Originally posted by proufo
I believe that before investing a lot of money in components, a dedicated room should be built first.

Hi Pablo,

Great point! :agree: I've done it the other way around and now I'm paying the price and in great need of adding onto our house. :)

-Jeffrey

P.S. Hope you & your family are doing OK!! :)

[lsupro]

Some things for both video and audio don't fit for multichannel. For me, it depends on the audio and audio for the video I'm watching.

Hold on...I'm confused

[MagicAlex]

I just can't seem to get used to the MC format. Some sound great...others not so good. However, MC for video media all the way!

[lsupro]

As I have stated here before, there is a whole new world of possibilities that open up for recording music in MCH format.

Imagine Boston's Foreplay/Longtime in MCH. 4 mics, one on each side of the Leslie. The sound travels around the room as the Leslie horn spins. The layered guitars in 4 channels... you can get the idea.

Hotel California sounds superb in MCH. 4 guitar parts, one in each channel. It is really good!

[proufo]

Originally posted by lsupro
Imagine Boston's Foreplay/Longtime in MCH. 4 mics, one on each side of the Leslie. The sound travels around the room as the Leslie horn spins. The layered guitars in 4 channels... you can get the idea.
Yes, imagine that!

[danstone]

Why have to make the choice? To me, some recordings sound better one way and some sound better the other way. I prefer recordings that have both a stereo/mono mix as well as a multichannel mix so I can listen to each and make my own decision.

[Gary Freed]

Hi Dan,

Very well said! Keep an open mind. I like that idea alot.

Sounds practical and makes sense.

Thanks

[mcow1]

Had to say other. Mono for mono stuff stereo for stereo stuff and multi for h/t

[Dan C]

Originally posted by mcow1
Had to say other. Mono for mono stuff stereo for stereo stuff and multi for h/t

:thumbsup: Yup! That's my goal at least, when I someday have room for it all. :)
Dan C

[JohnG]

I love my multi-channel SACD's and DVDA's, for the most part they sound darn good.
I also have no problem with stereo listening either.

But you can't beat video in full 5.1 DD glory!

[lsupro]

Originally posted by JohnG

But you can't beat video in full 5.1 DD glory!



Unless its 5.1 DTS Glory :)

[lsupro]

Originally posted by Gary Freed
Hi Dan,

Very well said! Keep an open mind. I like that idea alot.

Sounds practical and makes sense.

Thanks


I'm with Gary... Sometimes its nice for a break from the norm...

[Gary]

I want it all!

Original stereo 2 ch. layer.
Original mono layer.
5.1 stuff for audio and video
Original quad mix

Then they can get creative and do weird mixes.... just give me my original mix!

[snowman]

If multichannel ever took over stereo, music and bands would become a thing of the past. It needs to be monitored carefully!
The year 2050:- Goto the latest concert (if there are any bands left), and the audience all goto the middle of the hall, whilst the band play all around them.. the drummer on the right, the guitar in front, the drums to the left, the bass behind... hmm sounds 'different' .. not music as we know it today.
Most concerts the band play 'in front of you'.
I dearly hope multichannel would not leave stereo in the dust.. Multichannel is not music. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Of course multichannel for video is the total opposite.
Multichannel Audio is bad news for music in my opinion.

[GoldenBoy]

Originally posted by mcow1
Had to say other. Mono for mono stuff stereo for stereo stuff and multi for h/t
Okay, but that doesn't quite answer the question. Obviously, if something is a monaural mix, then it is best heard in mono and so on, but what is your ultimate preference? I noticed that you mention multi for HT, but is that limited to only movies? Let's say hypothetically that you had a NEW recording and that DVD-A or SACD contained a mono, stereo, and multichannel mix all done by the original artists, producers, etc. Which mix would you be the most interested in?

[GoldenBoy]

Originally posted by snowman
If multichannel ever took over stereo, music and bands would become a thing of the past. It needs to be monitored carefully!
The year 2050:- Goto the latest concert (if there are any bands left), and the audience all goto the middle of the hall, whilst the band play all around them.. the drummer on the right, the guitar in front, the drums to the left, the bass behind... hmm sounds 'different' .. not music as we know it today.
Most concerts the band play 'in front of you'.
I dearly hope multichannel would not leave stereo in the dust.. Multichannel is not music. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
Of course multichannel for video is the total opposite.
Multichannel Audio is bad news for music in my opinion.

By that logic, stereo would have been the death of bands as well. All the people proclaiming that multichannel is not natural need to understand that stereo is not natural either, nor is mono. I don't go to a concert and hear piano keys pan hard left to hard right, unless they put me on stage right on the piano bench, and even then I wouldn't hear that much separation. I've also never been to Madison Square Garden and heard Keith Richard's guitar come from the left and Ron Wood's come from the right. Their amps would probably have to be 1 or 2 hundred yards apart, especially at those volume levels, in a completely open space for me to hear that. As for the sound coming from 'in front of you' unless you're at the center of a small club, it's pretty hard to tell where the heck the sound is coming from. At an ear-bleed concert in a closed arena, the sound is bouncing all over the place and coming from everywhere. I've never noticed a difference in sound between facing forward or facing backwards. Classical concerts are somewhat different. If you are about 10th or 12th row center, there is a nice even separation, but you are also hearing a lot of ambiance , which multichannel recordings are pretty good at recreating, better than mono or stereo can, IMHO.

The thing is, once you have captured that sound through a microphone, it is no longer 'natural' and it doesn't matter if it's a multitrack recording mixed down to 2 tracks after the fact, mixed directly to 2 tracks on the fly, or mixed to 6 channels after the fact or directly; it's no longer the real thing. Multichannel is as much music as stereo or mono are.

[proufo]

In order not to confuse the growing market for HT and 5.1 (my guess) , manufacturers have refrained to offer ambiance recreators in the USA market.

But their development has continued. Yamaha reportedly offers several units in the Japanese market. Considering it has been about 15 years since any of these units from yamaha and others were offered in the US, the newer units must be quite good.

Yamaha has done a lot of developments in reverb units for studios. Some of that technology and knowledge should be probably inside their current home units.

I believe the best of both worlds is ambiance recreation with capabilities for music and movies in true X.X.

Check http://www.ambiophonics.org

[GoldenBoy]

Originally posted by proufo
In order not to confuse the growing market for HT and 5.1 (my guess) , manufacturers have refrained to offer ambiance recreators in the USA market.

But their development has continued. Yamaha reportedly offers several units in the Japanese market. Considering it has been about 15 years since any of these units from yamaha and others were offered in the US, the newer units must be quite good.

Yamaha has done a lot of developments in reverb units for studios. Some of that technology and knowledge should be probably inside their current home units.

I believe the best of both worlds is ambiance recreation with capabilities for music and movies in true X.X.

Check http://www.ambiophonics.org

I have used Yamaha effects boxes in the studio and I must say that they are excellent, but I have always preferred Lexicon. Their effects just sound more natural to my ears.

[proufo]

Originally posted by GoldenBoy
I have used Yamaha effects boxes in the studio and I must say that they are excellent, but I have always preferred Lexicon. Their effects just sound more natural to my ears.
Lexicon seems to have dropped out of ambiance recreation for the home, favoring the use of movie setups for music with schemes such as Logic-7. In fact, until I learned of the Japanese-market Yamaha units I believed ambiance recreation was dead for good, except for unsupported efforts such as ambiophonics.

There's a new generation of Yamaha studio reverbs (SREV1). I have no idea about their relative merits but from their literature, it seems their technology is quite advanced.

[snowman]

Stereo sound at concerts sure ain't perfect, but multichannel is going over the line. Like I say having one player playing behind you, and another in front of you is just laughable and ridiculous.
The sound coming from 'somewhere' in front of you, is far more natural than having 4 different instruments coming from all different directions.