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Virtual Surround Sound Tools and Techniques and Work

When it comes to home theater, a lot of people think big — a big picture and lots of sound coming from a widescreen TV and an array of speakers. But the typical home-theater setup, with its surround-sound speakers and subwoofer, won’t work for every home. Some people don’t have enough room for all of that equipment. Others don’t want their living rooms cluttered with cables, or they don’t want the hassle of adjusting the placement and height of lots of speakers.

That’s where virtual surround sound comes in. It mimics the effect of a multi-speaker surround-sound system, but it uses fewer speakers and fewer cables. These systems come in two primary varieties — 2.1 surround and digital sound projection. Most of the time, 2.1-surround systems use two speakers placed in front of the listener and a subwoofer placed somewhere else in the room. These recreate the effect of a 5.1 surround-sound system, which has five speakers and a subwoofer. Digital sound projectors, on the other hand, tend to use a single strip of small speakers to produce sound. Many digital sound projectors do not include a subwoofer.

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How to Surround Sound work?

Going to the movies today is a very different experience from going to the movies 70 years ago — the picture is clearer, most of the movies are in color, and the admission price is a lot higher. But the biggest change is probably the sound experience. In movie theaters of the 1930s, the entire soundtrack was played on a single speaker or collection of speakers positioned behind the movie screen. Today, theater audiences expect to hear sound coming from every direction; and the technology that once characterized only movie theaters is now fairly standard in home entertainment centers.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the surround-sound systems that have become standard movie theater equipment. We’ll also look at home-theater surround-sound setups and get you started building your own.

There are many ways to make and present a sound recording. The simplest method, and the one used in the earliest sound movies, is called monaural or simply mono. Mono means that all the sound is recorded onto one audio track or channel (a single spiraled groove in a record, for example, or a single magnetic track on tape), which is typically played on one speaker.

­ Two-channel recordings, in which sound is played on speakers on either side of the listener, are often referred to as stereo. This isn’t entirely accurate, as stereo (or stereophonic) actual refers to a wider range of multi-channel recordings. Two-channel sound is the standard format for home stereo receivers, television and FM radio broadcasts. The simplest two-channel recordings, known as binaural recordings, are produced with two microphones set up at a live event (a concert for example) to take the place of a human’s two ears. When you listen to these two channels on separate speakers, it recreates the experience of being present at the event.

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