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Are surround sound setups any good?
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| n3lly |
How's it going?
I've done a search on my above thread topic but couldn't really find anything on my question.
You might think it's a bit silly, but i'm just wondering i've got a surround sound setup in my garage and was wondering if it's a bad idea to play over a surround sound stage?
The speakers have plenty of power at 7x75wrms and a sub which get's 210wrms. I'm just curious as to whether all the speakers will feck up the imaging? Or is that important?
I'm just about to get my decks and mixer and dunno whether to set them up in my garage (seperate to the house) or in my living room on my dad's 12yr old B&W's (they're still beauties though!)
So yeh, your opinions are much appreciated.
Thanks,
nelly |
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| cheesy |
| I have Logitech Z-680s, which are 5.1 surround sound. I just set it to Stereo x2 so it doesn't do any surround sound effects. |
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| n3lly |
| quote: | Originally posted by cheesy
I have Logitech Z-680s, which are 5.1 surround sound. I just set it to Stereo x2 so it doesn't do any surround sound effects. |
Boy do i feel sheepish.. (HA! out of all the smilies there isn't an embarrassed one!)
Cool that's not a bad idea though..
Actually what about if you were to play with all channels? It wouldn't matter that much anyway would it as the signal coming from the tables/mixer isn't going to be anything higher then stereo. So the surround sound speakers are only gonna be getting fed a small amount of sound? I think..
Cheers for the reply though..
nelly |
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| Ken_Allen |
| I have a sony surround sound system...it's pretty old but I put it on two speakers & the sub & it's pretty damn good ;) |
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| tubby |
| i run my setup to a surround amp. If I remember i change it to stereo mode, but it doesn't make much difference really, the distances within a lounge room are so small there's no delay in the sound between speakers. |
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| dj chex |
I use klipsch promedia 4.1, and i have it connected to a standalone SB extigy that can do "css" surround decoding, but i never use that feature. As for surround sound mixing, i have a friend that uses a vestax pcv-07 pro ISP that does quadrophonic mixing. He has it connected to two different amps and 4 speakers on each wall of his studio. When he messes around w/ the joysticks on the mixer he can pan sound from any of the four speakers. As for recording, it's all downmixed to two stereo channels w/ a seperate outboard mixer and recorded directly to his hdd recorder.
That's the only time i can see lots of fun w/ surround sound while mixing, otherwise, it doesn't hurt either. |
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| Derivative |
surround sound setups are only useful if the recording is mixed in 6 channels. so when you produce a surround mix, you output all audio through 6 outputs to 6 speaker sources and position bits of your production around the stereofield accordingly. 99% of most music is still mixed in stereo or mono. especially dance music. positional audio doesnt work so well in club environments because very rarely are you situated in the centre of the club to take advantage of a 6 channel mix. more likely you'll find yourself at the edges and you wont be able to hear half the mix.
the only time SRS is really useful is for film and videogame soundtracking which is where its most widely used. cuz everyone sits in a fixed position and all the audio can be positioned around the sitter.
playing stereo recordings through surround setups isnt really surround. its simulating surround sound by playing the stereo source through 6 speakers. so it sounds a little louder (cuz the same source is played 3 times more) and because of the relative distances of the speakers from you, the sound has a very slight chorus effect which is sometimes desirable although i dont like it. a peculiar property of sound is that if you take 2 identical sounds and play one louder than the other, people will almost always pick the louder one when asked 'which sounds better?' so on first impressions alot of peeps are impressed with SRS systems although its a bit deceptive.
its probably more worthwhile to get monitors than an equivilantly priced surround system if all you plan on doing is DJing/producing. the output and frequency response of monitors is generally more accurate than equivilently priced SRS systems. |
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| Exodus17 |
IMO surround sound setups are good if you have a bunch of speakers and you have it set to stereo
on most amps recievers you get the option of how you want your sound to be reproduced, wether it be in 5.1 surround, stereo, mono, etc
the differences are that with the setting at surround, some speakers will be delayed, like stated above, this is more suited for videogames and movies
personally i keep my system set to stereo, the difference between stereo and mono is that stereo allows for panning effects where you'll hear something on one side and it fades over to the left or right speaker (something like that) with mono anything you hear will all come through the speakers at the same time (think the red and whide audio cables you have running through your mixer, if you only have one plugged in, you will only hear through the speakers connected to the left or right channel)
this can really effect your mixing, especially if you dont have a booth monitor, with surround, what you hear through the system will be somewhat off from what you hear through the headphones |
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| Max Thomson |
I used to have a surround 5.1 system. After my house fire I had to get new everything, and can honestly say I would much rather have a clean 2.1 than 5.1 (I don't watch movies on my computer very much though).
Nothing beats clean stereo 2.1 sound, I have M-Audio LX4s now |
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| trance85 |
| I don't have any sound yet for my turntables, aside from my sony mdr-v600 headphones. I don't think I'm looking to get surround sound but does anyone in here have any suggestions on amps + speakers? (or monitors)? |
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| n3lly |
Thanks for all the input lads, Much appreciated!
I've got a 7.1 surround setup.. nothing amazing just the Creative S750 set up. Sure i can't even use the 7th channel lol, but it filters it through pretty well. And with the power i've got on each channel i'm quite happy with them.
I am however going to switch my decoder to a 2.1 setup.
I have got a new question... What are monitors exactly? I know they're speakers... but are they just speakers which are aimed at you, the Dj. Or are they the speakers around you in general?
For example, you're in a club, are monitors the speakers facing at you in your booth?
Thanks, I love being a newbie at someting! Reminds me when i started off with car audio :) Fun times, lots to learn, challenges ahead!
Anywho..lol
nelly |
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| cheesy |
| quote: | | Originally posted by n3lly For example, you're in a club, are monitors the speakers facing at you in your booth? |
Yes.
Or with live bands they're the speaker facing the guy whos playing the instrument.
Or in audio production, recording, mixing, mastering, etc they're the high quality speakers with very flat response as to accurately portray the sounds (i.e. they aren't bass heavy like most DJ monitors) |
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