to the extent that surround is bullshit...

[TerraMortim]

lol...and surround mixing still hasn't taken off in a big way outside of movies... I tell you...5.1 music mixes are incredible to do and to listen to..wish it would become a bit more commonplace.

 

[spidermagicat]

My opinion, avoid the rip offs

Surround sound is simply a new tool, nothing more

It's been developed for movies because it's a solution to an obvious problem and it adds something to movie sound for sure.

Surround mixes will become more and more common place as people get the equipment and the market grows for them, unfortunately many will be little more than your normal stereo with a rushed basic tweak, just put out to nab your cash.

Some clever cloggs (plural) however will make mixes that are truly worth the effort because they've thought about it that way from the beginning, or done a proper remixing of the track properly.

The only thing you have to do is spot the recordings ripping you off and avoid them. I know NAXOS for example have released a few classical "surround" mixes which are actually stereo with the rear channels giving barely noticeable ambient noise. If it's not surround and it says it is, return it.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Since this damn silly poll refuses to die and keeps surfacing to the top of the forum, I'll add this editorial update by highlighting some things I wrote here in June, 2005 (almost 4 years ago):

I am particularly doubtful for a number of pragmatic reasons and factors that have nothing directly to do with movies or music (e.g. things like economy, housing markets, the portability fad, etc.)

But, lets say for the sake of argument that the housing bubble refuses to burst and everybody moves out of their condos and apartments and into their own homes, that the economy solidifies and grows to the point where Joe Punchclock and Sally Housecoat can afford 5.1 systems that are easy to operate in their new homes, and that the current portability and personal customization fad goes the way of all other fads and Joe and Sally actually listen to most of their music in their theater room.

In the past 4 years since then we have indeed seen that housing bubble burst and the economy return to reality, the emphasis on portability growing even larger and more solid, a generation of gamers growing up and worrying about more important things than hearing the helicopter they shot down in their video game crash behind them, and SACD just waiting for the doctor to call the time of death.

G.