Moving Music to 5.1 sound?

[GreyDog]

Hey 90d, you have a good point.
For the dance crowd, 5.1 won't mean squat.
But some of the vancouver clubs are more than just booze, boobs and dance floor.
They are setting up their venues for the next level. Business functions, movie premier's etc, and the 5.1 is already there.

But as you mention, the DJ spinning tracks won't be using the 5.1, its just to complicated to cover a dance floor, But the 5.1 will emerge on the dance floor, its just a matter of when.

btw, I'm really talking about quad sound 4.1, can't see a huge advantage in the centre channel.

BTW, I have an PvD Music Video DVD in 5.1, and it really kicks a**.

[Tarek]

Thing about that ...headphones are 2.0 stereo, mixing and using headphones as reference will be hard, unless you create your own 5.1s or buy one of those gamer headsets or companies make a new lineup. You will be missing some emphasis that can be critical to mixing properly.

Some of you may remember what Quadrophonics recording is. It's basically 4 audio channel music. It didn't work. There was a whole recording label devoted to it too..

[GreyDog]

Hey Tarek, I almost thought this thread was dead.
The wife and I went to a Tori Amos concert in Seattle last weekend, and she utilized 5.1(7.1) in her concert, easier to do when you have the background music playing in the rear channels and there were sounds from above and in the middle sides. Very effectively done.

But without 5.1 headphones(and even with, since I have a pair) the whole experience just isn't the same. I think its only the concert or arena that would benefit, and of course the Movie industry.

FYI, I recall seeing that Ableton now supports 5.1 but haven't confirmed.

[Tarek]

I guess you're right, but that would work if you got a producer to play his productions, not a DJ trying to mix. Of course, if the DJ is skilled enough to mix by ear without headphones through the yelling of the crowd ( rare ), then all is good. But Ableton would only look for 5.1 support for those who use it for production...or playback..right?

[GreyDog]

True, just for production, live mixing with 5.1 would be difficult, but I expect a simple add-on/effect could enable various modes of rear channel signals to play, like send 12k-15k freq to rears with .1ms delay, or roll a specific effect around the 5 channels.
But I haven't seen a mixer yet to support more than 2 channels at once yet..

[Tarek]

I guess, but it wouldn't be "true" surround sound. It would just be manipulating where different frequencies go (ie: freq filter).

I want to see a DJ use a pair of these:

TRITTON Technologies, Inc. - AI713 AX51 Pro
Turtle Beach USB PC Gaming Headset with Surround Sound


(of course...omitting the mic)

[GreyDog]

I have a pair of these, they do the trick, but they are crap sound quality.
::: Zalman, leading the world of Quiet Computing Solutions :::

I don't think mixing live with 5.1 headphones will work, the changes are very subtle.
Even with a really nice pair. And to be truly honest, at a club, al I want is Quad, just for spacial effects.

Maybe I'm just smoking something...But its an interesting topic.

[Tarek]

People are already blown away by what you can do with panning..if you make it obvious and you teach the mainstream public something along the lines of "the wonders of stereo" , so that they think its a big deal, and then hit them with quadrophonics, THEN it would be taken as something amazing. But if you just silently switch from stereo to quad..meh, hardly anyone will notice unless the tune is very very very obviously panning from corner to corner..

[ASNAZZY]

I know you can mix 5.1 tracks in Sony ACID Pro software, I would love to produce a Ambient style album sometime in this format. May get picked up for a movie soundtrack too..

[Tarek]

I think groups like Immediate Music, who produce soundtracks for movies record some of their stuff in 5 or 7.1, in order for people to get a feel of soundstage..not that there's much soundstaging in electronic music..

[GreyDog]

I emailed Ableton again, just to see what their current plans for 5.1 are:
Basically, no plans in the future.

Hi Chris, no there are no plans to support that in the future.
Best,Michael DuehrAbleton Technical Support --When sending tech support an e-mail about an ongoing problem, please don't remove the case number from the subject line.This will help us follow the history of your problem and speed up the support process. If you encounter a problem using Live, please first try to find the solution in our FAQ section at Ableton - FAQs. Ableton does not authorize any publication of the content of this e-mail without the permission of the author. Ableton AG, Sitz: Berlin, Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 72838Vorstand: Gerhard Behles, Jan Bohl, Bernd RoggendorfVorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Uwe Struck -----Original Message-----From: Chris Gooderham <chridg@msn.com>Reply-To: Chris Gooderham <chridg@msn.com>Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:17:35 -0700To: support@ableton.comSubject: RE: Abbleton Live Version that supports 5.1 Music recording/authoring, Any update??? >>Hello Daniel and Jesse, are either of you aware of any new 5.1 support for your products yet?>

[Viper^]

5.1 sound is great on HD movies lol I can see a DJ sets in 5.1 sound in the futurelol However wouldn't it require a certain club speaker setup to hear 5.1 sound in the clubs?