[Laminar]

When you produce a typical album, is it designed for stereo speakers or surround speakers? As in, do you actually split up the sound between four or more speakers?

A guy on another forum is trying to convince me that my POS stock Ford radio is splitting up the signal from the radio and CD changer into four unique signals, one for each POS 15W 6x8 speaker in the car. He knows this is true because each speaker has two wires going to it (uh...) and he can totally hear cymbal crashes and stuff coming from the back speakers. And, "When songs are produced in a studio, they make the music for at least 4 speakers to give the listener that surround experience."

I think he's full of it, but don't want to say too much without being sure...

[turtle777]

BS.

How would that work anyways ?
Even IF they encoded 4 channels into a stereo recording, you would need a specialized amp that would "decode" the 4 channels out of the steero signal.

Sure, *theoretically*, that would be possible, but it's not being done.

-t

[olePigeon]

With risk of getting another facepalm, I'm fairly certain that CD audio only has 2 channels. You can hook up more than 2 speakers for surround sound, but it's not going to change that it's still stereo.

[Laminar]

My favorite part is that the wiring diagram clearly shows four wires from the CD changer : left+, right+, left-, right-. These wires can be tapped into to install an aux. plug so it's clear that they're simple stereo audio wires, not data lines.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

2 channels.

Multi-channel is a specific mix

[Thorzdad]

Pop music today is barely mixed for two discreet channels, let alone four.
The guy may be a bit confused about how car audio works (what with their being front/back fade control along with the L/R balance control), and is mistakenly thinking 4speakers=4 discreet channels. He's wrong, of course.

[hyteckit]

Haha... it's just stereo unless it's quadraphonic. However, it's possible to simulate surround sound through technologies like Dolby Pro Logic II.

Remember those Dolby Pro Logic II cassette tape players in cars?

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

When you produce a typical album, is it designed for stereo speakers or surround speakers? As in, do you actually split up the sound between four or more speakers?

A guy on another forum is trying to convince me that my POS stock Ford radio is splitting up the signal from the radio and CD changer into four unique signals, one for each POS 15W 6x8 speaker in the car. He knows this is true because each speaker has two wires going to it (uh...) and he can totally hear cymbal crashes and stuff coming from the back speakers. And, "When songs are produced in a studio, they make the music for at least 4 speakers to give the listener that surround experience."

I think he's full of it, but don't want to say too much without being sure...

Yep, he's full of it. Stereo all the way.
However, we have psycho-acoustic little tricks we can do to make sounds appear behind you, but those only tend to work if you have a single set of stereo speakers in front of you (thus wouldn't work in a car with POS system).

Now, I don't go into car audio much, but I expect that there's certain tricks that can be done in the crossover processing to make it appear like certain frequencies are coming from certain directions. It's possible.
It's also possible that the angle of glass in certain areas is causing certain reflections at specific frequencies to be earlier or more pronounced than others, causing it to appear like cymbals (etc.) are coming from the rears.
But it's nothing we at the source end do.

Note that some high end studios are wired 5.1, but this is usually for AV work (sometimes a mad hippie who thinks he's the new Pink Floyd might request some bizarre surround recording, but it's not usual).

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Doofy 

It's also possible that the angle of glass in certain areas is causing certain reflections at specific frequencies to be earlier or more pronounced than others, causing it to appear like cymbals (etc.) are coming from the rears.

That was my assumption as well. The front speakers point at my feet, the rear speakers point at the rear windshield.

Thanks for the answer.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

That was my assumption as well. The front speakers point at my feet, the rear speakers point at the rear windshield.

Thanks for the answer.

Nay worries ducks. Go and beat said gentleman to death with his own stupidity.

[iTV_Review]

It is definitely 2 channels. I think your guy is pulling your chain.

[Spheric Harlot]

Doofy speaks it. Also, stop your friend from driving stoned. It's dangerous to others.

[imitchellg5]

Well, to be fair, like Doofy said, sometimes the angle of glass can really create an illusion of surround, especially in cars with a really raked windshield in front or back. I get the sensation all the time in my Accord 2-door.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Don't be fair at all - the guy's an idiot

[indigoimac]

It's only a stereo signal, but one could argue that in systems with tweeters that are separated from the woofers, like placed on the dash or a? pillar that the use of crossovers is creating another "channel" but it's just a variation on the original left/right to feed the speakers what they are designed for.

Either way, the CD standard is only stereo, 16bit, 44.1k. And while most if not all albums at this point are recorded in multitrack, they are almost always mixed down to stereo and you're lucky to ever see a surround mix unless it's like a live concert dvd/bluray. Most of these surround mixes are still very stereo-centric though.

[gradient]

Originally Posted by indigoimac 

...almost always mixed down to stereo and you're lucky to ever see a surround mix unless it's like a live concert dvd/bluray. Most of these surround mixes are still very stereo-centric though.

I don't have a surround sound setup in my apartment so I guess I'm just not in the know here but what the heck kind of surround mixes would be made out of live recordings? That would just seem ungeniune to me as the listener unless the rear speakers were just reproducing venue ambience, which might be the case.

[ghporter]

Quadraphonic mixes were a short-lived thing in the 1970s. Aside from the Who's Quadrophenia, I was never aware of any quadraphonic LPs that got much market notice.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

Don't be fair at all - the guy's an idiot

-t

[indigoimac]

Originally Posted by gradient 

I don't have a surround sound setup in my apartment so I guess I'm just not in the know here but what the heck kind of surround mixes would be made out of live recordings? That would just seem ungeniune to me as the listener unless the rear speakers were just reproducing venue ambience, which might be the case.

You are right in your thinking, which is why they are very heavy on the front channels, with center handling predominant vocals passing that off left and right as the video footage requires +/-. The rear speakers are mostly used to sort of immerse you in the music, very much the same way as is done in movies, though obviously without special effects whizzing around.