Multichannel Question for Steve

[ArneW]

Hi Steve,

I just read the interview you gave to German "Stereo" magazine. So you're not against multichannel at all... Will we ever see, let's say, all three channels of a Roy DuNann 3-track mastered flat onto DVD-A or SACD? Or would this have to be split up in any way to produce 5 or 6 channels?

Arne

[Steve Hoffman]

I'm against BAD multi-channel. Good mono, stereo, 5:1 is fine with me!

To answer your question, none of the Roy DuNann masters were recorded on three-track tape. All of those Contemporary Records' masters were recorded live to two-track, with the center phantom channel split between left and right (as if doing a remix). So forget about those.

But, if I was doing a three track to 5 remix? Well, depending on the music, I would spread out the orchestra to hit more on the sides, but that's about it. As natural as possible...