5.1 surround sound?

[alesalazarmusic]

Greetings,

What kind of gear do you need to create 5.1 surround sound? How does it work?

Thx

 

[dodgeaspen]

I guess it would depend if you wanted to go analog or digital. I guess either way it would cost you some $$$$$$$$

 

[Jim Lad]

I know that my Echo Mona can do it. Has the outputs on the back and the channels in the mixing console but the Mona is out of production now.
I'd probably look at some of the higher end MOTU or Presonus gear for that.
There is no real call for it (surround sound) in Cd's from what I can see though or I would be using it.

 

[legionserial]

It works the same as stereo really, except you have 5 channels instead of the two. All you really need to actually do the work is a sequencer that supports 5.1. As you can generally set up your own outputs, you won't have a problem there. You just need to create those outputs (ie front-centre, front-left, front-right, rear-left, rear-right), and make sure you assign the relevant outputs to the relevant track.

Of course, if you actually want to listen to what you've done in 5.1, you'll need a soundcard with 5 mono outputs to accomodate the 5 speakers. You'll not necessarily need a sub (ie the .1) for mixing. You could probably manage just as well without a sub and 5 decent speakers, especially for music as opposed to movies. But then there is a school of thought that may disagree I'm sure.

As far as filetype to mixdown to goes, I'm not sure. DVD-audio handles 5.1, but I'm not entirely sure what sequencers can mixdown to that. I never got as far as mixdown when I've experimented with surround mixing in the past.