What's a good way to 'fake' surround sound my 4 speaker system?

[Avid USER]

My dad's old Pioneer home theatre system had this thing called Dolby Pro Logic. What it does is it artificially separates certain frequencies and send them to rear speakers, effectively making a surprisingly 'fake' decent surround sound.

What's the benefit of this when it comes to MP3s? They were never recorded in 2+ channels. Dolby Prologic makes your mp3 listening quite fancy.

So the questions is: Where can I find a software/winamp plug-in like those? My Santa Cruz just comes with reverb/echo...

I posted this here because you exactly don't have an 'audio' forum...

 

[imported_Reck]

i think winamp just came out with a 5.1 version.

 

[tami]

/me waits for the Soundman.

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: tami
/me waits for the Soundman.

 

[Avid USER]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: tami
/me waits for the Soundman.

I'm waiting too, whoever the hell he is.

 

[quakefiend420]

Originally posted by: Avid USER

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: tami
/me waits for the Soundman.

I'm waiting too, whoever the hell he is.

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

 

[FeuerFrei]

Well my solution was buying a receiver and connecting it's digital input to my Audigy2. Then I told Windows to send sound to the digital out and viola, I had mulitchannel mp3s. Pseudo-mulitchannel anyway.

 

[sniperruff]

a good way would be to "fake" yourself that you have that "fake" surround sound and get a 2.1 setup.

 

[SVT Cobra]

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: Avid USER

Originally posted by: quakefiend420

Originally posted by: tami
/me waits for the Soundman.

I'm waiting too, whoever the hell he is.

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

paging dr jello paging dr jello

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

I'm of the opinion that's it's better left alone. I listen to music in stereo on my setup (or 2.1 actually)

Music was recorded to be listened in stereo. Listening to it in surround sound can have some negative impacts like destroying the sound stage and different speakers interacting can cause interference of sound waves.

Like Reck said, you can get some winamp plugins to output in surround sound.

I haven't really tried any so I don't know what good ones are.

 

[Sphexi]

My Audigy2 had the software built-in for it, and the CL 5.1 speakers I have hooked up sound fantastic in surround mode.

 

[sharkeeper]

Dolby Pro Logic is not fake surround.

Back in the day with VHS HiFi one could watch a movie with the stereo output from their vcr and the PL encoding would allow the processor in the receiver to steer sounds to the surround speakers. Surrounds were not discrete like in 5.1 systems but nonetheless it was interesting and does indeed work.

Listening to music in surround? Yuck! Only if it's DTS/5.1 DVD-A encoded stuff.

Nothing beats listening to a high end system with two speakers and hearing the soundstage pan far beyond the physical location of the speakers.

 

[Pepsi90919]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Dolby Pro Logic is not fake surround.

Back in the day with VHS HiFi one could watch a movie with the stereo output from their vcr and the PL encoding would allow the processor in the receiver to steer sounds to the surround speakers. Surrounds were not discrete like in 5.1 systems but nonetheless it was interesting and does indeed work.

Listening to music in surround? Yuck! Only if it's DTS/5.1 DVD-A encoded stuff.

Nothing beats listening to a high end system with two speakers and hearing the soundstage pan far beyond the physical location of the speakers.

i was just going to say that. pro-logic isn't simulated surround.

 

[TechBoyJK]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Dolby Pro Logic is not fake surround.

Back in the day with VHS HiFi one could watch a movie with the stereo output from their vcr and the PL encoding would allow the processor in the receiver to steer sounds to the surround speakers. Surrounds were not discrete like in 5.1 systems but nonetheless it was interesting and does indeed work.

Listening to music in surround? Yuck! Only if it's DTS/5.1 DVD-A encoded stuff.

Nothing beats listening to a high end system with two speakers and hearing the soundstage pan far beyond the physical location of the speakers.

exactly, a good set of monitors(meaning natural and transparent) can fool even the sharpest of ears into thinking the image is created from more than a left and right source point. I have 2 JBL monitors that i use for mixing. When I had a corner desk, I had them angled out but sitting directly to the left and right of my pc monitor. I could sit back, turn out the lights, close my eyes, and get completely lost in the "stereo image". And the thing is, many engineers put alot of time into making the most of stereo imaging, and, as was said earlier, you are probably damaging the overall image by messing with the image... But hey, if it sounds cool, its whateva~