Wondering if anyone knows of specific music or test CD's available in Australia that are recorded in Dolby Surround, or any other surround formats? I'm approaching completion of my Prologic II system (now with surround channels), and am looking for some recordings to test out the surround function - I've found one or two but am interested to see if other people know of any good ones, or regular CD's that provide a surround effect when played through a prologic decoder.

<---Says :"Hey stooge try downloading a THX Intro they show off all the proper capabilitys of a goof surroud setup. What do u think??"

Cheers
Marc

i'll try that, ive heard that one before, there is a train demo in part of that i think - but i dunno if its in the Dolby Suround format, may be in dolby digital (they are different).

if you were to download any of the DD or thx things from the net they'd prob be in 2 channel (stereo) hence defeating the purpose of it as a demo because you would need the original to compare it to.

but i don't have any better suggestions.

[ August 06, 2003, 12:17: Message edited by: PartyJase ]

From my understanding of pro logic, not pro logic 2 you will get surround effects from any stereo source. But why not record something you know is encoded? Maybe DVD audio to a cd or something?

i thought pro logic was designed to decode surround information that has been encoded into a stereo signal, whereas pro logic II can generate surround information from a stereo recorded source.

i dont know of any sources of either type, but as has been said above, you can probably dub dvd audio which has prologic information to get a test signal - but sound from a movie might not be that interesting after a while..

Jase

well prologic will decode recordings done in 'Dolby Surround' like tv shows, VHS tapes and some cd's - prologic II does the same thing except with better quality (more accurate steering logic and surround channels are now in stereo) PLUS it will create 5.1 from any regular stereo recording, though the surround channels dont really provide any surround 'effects' but rather open up the front stage.

for those who dont know (i didnt until recently) dolby surround is a surround format that creates 4-channels of sound in the studio and then mixes them back into a 2-channel stereo signal that most any sound system can receive (fm radio, cable tv, vhs tape, cd audio etc) - however, if that device is equipped with a dolby surround decoder (called prologic or prologic II) it 'unfolds' that 2-channel signal back into 4-channels to provide an actual surround sound experience. the recording engineers put surround effects (birds singing, crowd cheering at a game, plane flying from behind etc) into reverse phase - you still hear it on a stereo or mono system, but prologic is able to extract that out of phase information and send it to your rear speakers where it belongs. while this all isnt quite as refined or accurate as something like Dolby Digital or DTS, unlike them it can be broadcast or supplied over low-bandwidth mediums which will still be the case for years to come.

so according to this, even an MP3 file recorded in or converted to dolby surround can be decoded into true surround. ive found a few on the net i will try out (i think even the classic THX intro's will work), but the reality is 99% of the music that will go through my system will be regular 2-channel stereo so DPLII simply serves to open and enlarge the sound stage.

for those interested in surround recordings here are web links to lists of CD's recorded in surround that will work on a Prologic-based system:

http://membres.lycos.fr/tessier/cd.htm
http://personal.riverusers.com/~manderso/d...by/dolbyv17.htm

i'm planning on obtaining a few of the good ones that have sound effects and movie soundtracks which should certainly be some fun

careful with the mp3s; if a poor quality encoder is used, they can affect (break) the PL decode. i found an article about this somewhere once...

Jase

yeah i heard about that too. there is some encoder option that if not selected when creating the MP3, causes surround information to be degraded or lost. i wont be relyng on MP3's anyway, but just had a few i found that i wanted to try out at some point, one is very good quality. anyone know if any australian FM radio shows broadcast in surround?

[ August 06, 2003, 22:25: Message edited by: T-Bro ]

To my understanding when you decode from stereo to prologic, to make the 4 channels isnt it everything only left is left, everything only right is right and things equally left and right gets taken of left and right and sent to centre, then low bass is sent to sub and some magic stuff happend to the mono rear channel, correct?

It all still confuses me, just get Dolby 5.1! much better I love my 5.1

And yes, there are a few good prologic demos out there, ive got heaps and they sound ok but the dolby 5.1 ones like the train, choppa ect and also THX dont sound that good in prologic

Micheal Jacksons History was encoded in "cirlce surround" which is a matrix type encoding and should work with DPL. Im sure that other music used this format. I think RF made a decoder at one point.

Anyway it may pay to do a search on this format to find other titles.

BTW this Album also has stereo sub bass which is kinda rare, but cool if you happen to run subs up front, and in stereo
peace
Cyberpunky

Found some links

http://personal.riverusers.com/~manderso/c...le/circdisc.htm

http://www.smr-home-theatre.org/surround20...y/page_01.shtml

http://www.proaudioreview.com/par/jan01/GE...N-SP1-web.shtml

http://www.smartdev.com/cs_paper.htm

http://www.itpapers.com/abstract.aspx?pape...d=7676&scid=103

[ August 09, 2003, 01:07: Message edited by: Cyberpunky ]

thanks, great links! once ive installed evrything and had a chance to properly audition prologic II 5.1 i will no doubt have questions to raise with the CAAASCA judges regarding its suitability to competition, if i indeed decide to use the format at all for critical listening (yet to be decided).

Pro-logic works, using 3 channels when recording a left, right and center, the centre is droped -3bd below the L&R and phase shifted +90 onto the left and -90 degreese onto the right channel, so when listening to it on a sterio setup u can hear everything. when its decoded, its split back into the 3 channels again, then the surround is made by bandpassing the added left and right channel and a slight time delay is added, and a low pass filter for the sub.

Pro-login 2 is essentualy the same except for the sterio surrounds, were the left and right channels are band passed seperately.

Dolby digital is true matrix encoding, where all channels are induvidualy recorded, then are sampled, into the one output signal, hence being a "digital signal" rather then tradition analogue, hence the decoding needed for reproduction.

DTS is essentually a revamped version of old Quadraphonic for Records, where the channels are simply phase shifted, to give the feeling of being "in the music". as well as added filters for subs etc.

For music DTS or pro-logic 2 is the go.

T-bro, others have suggested dvds and I assume they're talking movies or the like but there's a couple around that are designed specifically for setting up/showing off your surround sound system. One of them is called the ultimate dvd platinum or something along those lines. Obviously it's more aimed towards home systems but it should work in your application as well.

I got the Delos Surround Spectacular about 6 years ago for setting up a home prologic system. It's all in Dolby Surround, both music and effects tests. Should still be in circulation.