3. What is surround sound?
Description
This article is from the Ambisonic Surround Sound FAQ, by Martin Leese with numerous contributions by others.
3. What is surround sound?
First there was mono with the sound emanating from a single "point".
Then there was stereo with directional information spread along a line
in front of the listener.
In real life, of course, sound reaches our ears from all
directions. Surround sound attempts to improve the realism of the
perceived sound by providing information from all directions, not just
from in front of the listener.
Surround sound can place you into the middle of an orchestra and there
are many pieces of music staged this way. However, in the West, since
the eighteenth century most music has been staged with the orchestra
in front of the audience. Here, surround sound can be used to
reproduce the "acoustic" of the recording venue. This is important
because stereo will always be limited to creating the illusion of
musicians playing in your living room - a "they are here"
illusion. Only if the listener is surrounded with sound can there be
any hope of creating the illusion that you have been transported into
the recording venue - a "you are there" illusion. When this illusion
is successful, surround sound is as big an improvement over stereo as
stereo was over mono.
Continue to:
My Books
