On 13 Apr 2012, at 15:31, newme...@aol.com wrote: > Folks: > > Q: WHY would the average *music* listener want surround sound? > > A: They won't and, since this has already been tried (including with some > of the best known artists of all times), no one in the MUSIC business will > *ever* try it again. > > Case closed.
Wrong. They would want it, if they ever heard it. The only surround that has been somewhat promoted for music were some high-profile remixes of legacy recordings (be they classical music or things like Pink Floyd), and all based on high-end stuff like SACD, DVD-Audio, or worse, some DVD-Video with music programming. Most of that was mixed in traditional pan-potting manner, most of the time played back on typical 5.1 systems which generally are not set up properly and use several different speaker models (usually three types: one for the center, two for the left/right front, and a third for the surround/rear speakers; 7.1 systems usually add one more speaker type, because the side surround speakers are usually yet another speaker model). So things like "Dark Side of the Moon" in surround just doesn't count, there have been no credible efforts to bring surround sound to music. That will also not happen as long as the costs of separate mixes and SKUs make it prohibitive, which is exactly the problem UHJ addresses: there are no separate mixes, there are no separate products, there are almost no additional costs. For binaural decoding it's just different software on the playback system, for 4.0 it's a moderate incremental investment, and as far as the production side goes, it's just a small extra cost for a slightly more complex production chain. In other words, it's a small risk, and a nice little marketing gimmick, and that makes it feasible. Any sort of "real" surround sound for music requires too much investment up front making the stakes too high in an industry that still has trouble adjusting to the pace at which technology evolves, and therefore that sort of surround sound indeed will not happen, case closed. The question is: is anyone, are we as a community, trying to get a foot in the door, and are we willing to start out with modest steps in order to pursue what's a realistic goal for the near and mid-term future, or are we sticking to high end demands that raise the barrier of entry so high that no player in this industry will even consider surmounting it. A concerted effort at lobbing certain companies and industry players has a chance of succeeding if the demands are modest enough and the costs involved are small. But such efforts will never go anywhere if one's own ranks start stabbing every effort in the back by contending that what's feasible economically is not good enough because it violates some artistic, academic, mathematical or technological desire for perfection. Ronald _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound
