Playing .mp3's in 5.1 ?

R

RuSty13

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 1, 2004
Messages
184
So I was thinking about getting setup with some 5.1 speakers soon, until my brother told me that most music (a typical ripped .mp3) won't play "surround sound", it will just play stereo sound through 5 (or 6) speakers.


Is this true?


Is there no way to listen to music in true "surround sound" unless its specifically designed for it?




Thanks,

-RuSty
 
Most music is only recorded in stereo sound. Now there are a few ways of getting them to play on more than 2 speakers and it varies mainly on your setup.

Some computer speaker systems will allow you to upmix to some form of surround sound (I know logitechs do this).

If you are outputting to a receiver, your receiver usually has several methods of upmixing the stereo sound (Dolby Surround, Neo, etc).

If you have a sound card that does DDL/DTS Connect, and your audio player supports converting 2 channel to 4 channel (DSP mod for Foobar does this), this'll work as wel.
 
easiest way in my opinion is by using FOOBAR, which has DSP's u can download/ built in that will should allow your mp3's to play. At the very least, getting a prologic dll through legal means (ie from sofware you already own) will allow you to run prologic II in FOOBAR.

But I believe, it already comes with a stero to surround DSP that should do it anyway, if it doesnt that's ur option.... Also Foobar is amazing:)
 
Almost all music is designed to be played in stereo. There is really no good reason I can think of to take stereo music and play it through five channels, you're not hearing it the way it was meant to be heard.
 
NicolaskI is exactly correct. There are sound methods of upmixing that don't yield phase irregularities, but these aren't the methods used by ProLogic, foobar's DSPs and so on.

That being said, if you find that you like strange coherence issues (some stereo albums have been mixed out of phase specifically because the engineers like the way it sounds), then go nuts. If you'd rather listen to music as it was designed to be reproduced, listen in stereo, or track down true 5.1 mixes on either DVD-Audio, SACD or, occasionally, in WMA Pro 5.1.
 
If you have a Creative card (ugh), they have a feature called CMSS3D that will simulate 2-channel stereo to 5.1. As others stated, the Logitech speakers usually have a button for this simulated 5.1 effect. Again, doing this also tears the original recording apart and you are not truly hearing it the way the artist intended it to be heard. Once you get a high-end set of speakers, you should be satisfied with 2-channel because it is being reproduced much more accurately and will sound awesome. I no longer run in 5.1 mode for music after getting some high-end speakers.
 
The only music you will find that is mixed using 5.1 are SACD/DVDA. Sadly, both formats died so you will find limited support. Like others have said, don't bother. It's like using digital zoom on a camera.
 
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