Musician with an Ambition – A Complete Surround Sound Setup and Synchronization Guide For Home Audio Lovers

L

ately, I have been surfing across the internet to dig up some research material about surround sound speakers and technicalities of setting up

Energy Take Classic 5.1 or any other brand, as a sound mixer or an output source.

While I was at it, I stumbled upon various snippets of details, and an exclusive interview between Merv De Peyer and couple of other musicians. Who is Merv De Peyer? I’ll get to that part later, but first take a close look at the following questions, as I believe they’ve pestered you at some point:

• What’s going on in the surround sound industry?
• I need tips to setup my Energy Take Classic 5.1 as a output source for my song recordings
• My 5.1 speaker system is choking on me. Are there any guidelines to setup my surround sound speakers?
• What is the future of 5.1 digital sound platforms in near decades?

I personally believe that buying Energy Take Classic or any other surround sound products, isn’t always about listening to loud music, playing games or watching movies. If we do that, we’re just one part of the equation.

The ‘other’ part of this equation are all the aspiring musicians who buy a surround sound system, in order to record their songs, or play them in live mode. By the way, karaoke works fine with 5.1 speakers too – that is if you know how to set things up.

In the following passages, we’ll see what surround sound means to a musician or a true innovator these days.

• What is a 5.1 Surround Sound?

The definition is pretty simple. A set of 5 speakers and a subwoofer are all that’s there in a 5.1 surround sound system. The 5 speakers are technically manufactured to assume the role of emitting:

• Dialogues – Middle Speaker Usually

• Front Channel Sounds – Two Speakers

• Rear Channel Sounds – Remaining Two Speakers

• Sub-woofer – For Bass and Thump Effect

The idea is to set up the system in such a way that you’re surrounded by the speakers. A common mistake which new buyers make is that they set up all their speakers in a row in front area of the room! This is the dumbest approach of physically installing surround sound speakers, in the entire history of these devices.

• The Common 5.1 Sound Output Format From An Artist’s Point of View:

There’re over 100,000,000+ people who own surround sound devices. Roughly half of these users are musicians who want to record their own songs, using 5.1 surround sound speakers as the primary output source.

It means that they just have to sing the song, play the music and record it in 5.1 channel. However, what’s the medium or the file format for surround sound these days? Don’t know? It’s still DVD and VOB extensions.

Even though, we have Blu-ray players at our disposal, people still buy and play DVD content these days. A rough expert suggestion would say that with the common DVD device use, surround sound is still a toddler. So if you have Energy Take Classic 5.1 speakers, a general estimate would say that there’s a high probability of you owning a DVD player, or a CD player.

Artists love to output their final recordings in formats that include:

• Video DVDs
• DTS
• Dolby Digital Sound
• DVD – A (DVD Audio)
• CD SACD (Super Audio CD)
• Mp3 Surround

• Completely Wireless Surround Sound Speakers – Or Just Rear Channel Wireless Amplification?

Okay, there’re two kinds of speakers available in the context of wireless technology. People hate wire all over their living room or recording studios, so they prefer installing:

• Surround sound speakers with an expensive price tag and no wires.
• Surround sound products with only rear wireless speakers.

In both cases, I’d personally prefer the second option. The front channel speakers and the middle speaker is always going to be there in front of you. So technically, all that wire will be running behind a TV or far from you.

It’s the rear speakers that need some spankin’. Just buy something that comes with no rear speaker wires, so that the wire doesn’t run all the way across the room from one end to another. Music artists already have their share of wires to worry about. They always buy wireless speakers for that very purpose.

“The fact that wireless speakers grant more flexibility and mobility, you can set them up easily.”

• Stereo Mix Vs. Surround Sound Mix?

The artist has many choices at his/her disposal. They usually record and release the song in Stereo mix mode, which kind of sounds lame on a perfectly installed 5.1 sound system. If the same artist has gone through the pains of recording the song, through two mixes, i.e.:

• Surround Mix
• Stereo Mix

The users will have a choice of exploring the true sound system. Just throw in these two mixes and let the listeners choose what’s best for them.

-          But It’s Too Expensive For Me As An Artist!

• Yeah, you’re right; as an artist it can be a little expensive to release the song in stereo and surround sound mix modes. However, it is worth the hassle – trust me.

• The Future of Surround Sound?

Did you know that radio broadcasts will soon be made in 5.1 surround mode? Recently, a new Mp3 streaming module for 5.1, and above speakers, was released for radio transmissions. The only reason I mentioned this thing is that your surround sound speakers are no longer limited to that desktop or TV lounge space – there’s a lot more to them!

People use surround sound headphones on normal basis. Don’t believe me? Click here to check out some cool Bose Wireless and Wired Headphones at Amazon now. The whole point is that sooner or later, surround sound will become a norm, just the way people watch movies these days.

There’s that gut feeling in me which says that the demand for surround sound system will eventually surpass the speed at which products are currently available!

• As a music artist, what kind of equipment do I need to mix surround sound?

Seeing to the fact that surround sound is becoming the new industry standard, music artists sometimes don’t know the kind of equipment that needs to be bought for mixing sound. More or less, you’re going to need the following equipment:

-          A fast computer, with high end process and high capacity RAM.

-          Buy or download a good music software packages that supports 5.1 mixing.

• Pro-Tools and Logic Audio are a nice example.

-          A 5.1 speaker system with attractive features.

• Energy Take Classic 5.1 is not only cheap, but also loaded with tons of attributes.

-          Digi Design or Motu for 8 Channel Audio Interfacing.

-          Speaker and sub-woofer should self-match.

This is something that Merv De Peyer said in his last interview;

“When I first started mixing something in surround sound, I went out and purchased three sets of Sony Mega Bass self-powered computer speakers. After connecting them directly to my audio interface outputs, I then assigned the surround sound out-puts in Logic Audio.

I opened a song I was working on and spread the instruments out around the channels and hit play… Wow! The five mini speakers sounded great. Mixing in a tiny bit of subs from my Genelec sub-woofer, it sounded even better.”

A certain number of so called professionals will say that the above technique is simply unconventional. However, you should try whatever makes you feel okay with those music instruments. Your task is to approach those sound channels with a slightly different perspective, while resisting the urge to mix both surround and stereo sounds at the same time.

• Target Market For a Music Artist:

Those musicians who don’t have the money to afford a recording studio, they do most of the stuff on their own. For such individuals, it is strongly recommended that they take notes of their target market, so that their music can be properly encoded in a market friendly format.

• About Merv De Peyer:

Followed by his passion for composing music and working with popular Hollywood celebrities, such as; Eddie Murphy, Miles Davis, Pharaoh Sanders and Bernard Perdie; Merv De Peyer is always on to exploring new modes of creating unique music.

He’s the son of an all time popular Clarinetist: Gervase De Peyer and also a proud holder of several degrees in stage performance, Composition and choreography. Merv graduated from Berklee College of Music with flying colors.

The guy has got several classical albums to his name, some of which are the usual Billboard hits. His multi-platinum album: “Word Up” was perhaps the highlight of his entire career. Merv has worked in several record studios from all over the country. You can check his profile at Www.MervDePeyer.Com at your earliest.

This exclusive surround sound news snippet was brought to you by Steve Riley, the author and moderator of the official Energy Take Classic 5.1 weblog. Don’t forget to check out other hot posts on this website.

Ambitious Musician – Surround Sound Setup and Synchronization Guide For Amplifier Lovers