12.1 & Audiences

[Martin Naef]

Peter Korsten wrote:
>> Patented? I don't know - I'm doing research, not 
>> commercialisation, so I don't worry about such things... But given the 
>> free availability of a range of ambisonic tools, I would guess that if 
>> there was a patent, it must have expired by now.
> 
> So, apart from that the usefulness of surround sound music is still 
> under debate, in theory it should be possible to create a WXYZ music 
> track and play it back on your 12.1 system?

Yes, exactly. As far as the usefulness goes, I don't think it's a big 
debate: It sounds *awesome*, so it's definitely useful. Whether it's 
commercially viable, that's another issue...

> It could be interesting, if we forget about such details like reverb...

It's not that difficult, btw. In the easiest case, you just take a 
stereo reverb and convert it into a mid-side signal, and you're done. 
But it's clearly nicer to have a full surround reverb, such as the tools 
included with IRCAM's SPAT tools (they're nice, but not free).

Bye
Martin