Jan 1, 1999 12:00 PM, DAN DALEY

Surround audio: Read about it, learn about it, prepare for it, experiment with it, buy a few more speakers. But don't bank on it. Not yet, anyway.

Even though surround has that irresistible combination of technology, uniqueness and flat-out fun that comes along only once in blue moon (not to mention a catchy shorthand, "5.1"), don't let those qualities obscure the fact that there's an awful lot that has to happen before most studios see any real, consistent money out of it. As good as surround is-and I'm no Luddite here; when done well, it sounds fabulous-its success is contingent on a number of factors, most of which are well out of the control of the recording community.

The politics of surround audio are as complex and Machiavellian as those of the DVD standard. To give a little historical perspective, when the CD was introduced in 1982, it had basically two progenitors-Sony and Philips. Working as a team-a team, it should be noted, that had or was about to have significant content power with Philips' ownership of PolyGram and Sony's forthcoming acquisition of Columbia Records' assets-the two multinationals established a formal standard rather quickly and efficiently, which sent a strong message to the consumer electronics and entertainment industries that this was not vaporware, that it worked. The CD was sufficiently different from previous media-a critical component to any marketing campaign. Consumers responded, as did content providers. By 1985 the CD was entrenched; by the early '90s, it was the dominant music format in the U.S.

It would be nice to think that the CD paved the way for other optical disc formats. CD-R has certainly become popular and profitable for recording studios. Making money on CD one-offs has become a small but regular profit center for many facilities. The same will likely go for CD-RW, though the falling price of hardware is starting to allow the recordable media to migrate to end-users themselves (less than $500 for a home CD recorder). Nonetheless, CD-R burners are becoming as ubiquitous as cassette decks in studios.

However, it won't necessarily go down that way for DVD and its audio variant. Instead of the relatively smooth, strategic moves that the two CD innovators were able to make, DVD comes with the equivalent of a technological paternity suit, with 16 major patent participants and countless smaller ones. Political maneuvering has resulted in numerous delays in format specifications and marketing moves. (You've heard of corporate cultures? Better believe in corporate egos, too.) That, in turn, scared off a lot of content providers in the beginning; the DVD-Video format is nearly two years old, but major film studios Fox and Paramount only agreed to provide content for the format in mid-1998.

On the DVD-Audio front, the format's final specification was delayed by almost a year (Version 1 came out soon after fall AES), no doubt partly because of a bitter rivalry between DTS and Dolby over compression schemes. And the major record labels are not exactly chomping at the bit to remix and remaster their catalogs in surround. They would love to see a replay of the 1980s, when consumers replaced entire collections of records and tapes with CDs; however, the music business is now run by bean counters, not musicians, and the guys with the green eyeshades have not seen any evidence that there is, or will be, a significant demand for surround discs in the immediate future. Underscoring this was a recent comment in Replication News quoting a BMG Records representative at a recent DVD confab as admitting that the label is "a little bit scared of upsetting the lucrative CD market for DVD-Audio."

Considering that the CD took a full decade to become the dominant species, I don't want to make it seem as though I'm asking DVD to pull off the trick in just a couple of years. The bottom line here is, get ready, get set, and let's see just where the surround deal leads. At the moment-and it could be a short moment-it sits somewhere between a fad and a trend on the cultural phenomenon scale. In the meantime, buy stock in speaker companies.

Mix Books

Modern Recording and Mixing

This 2-DVD set will show you how the best in the music industry set up a studio to make world-class records. Regardless of what gear you are using, the information you'll find here will allow you to take advantage of decades of expert knowledge. Order now $39.95

Mastering Cubase 4

Electronic Musician magazine and Thomson Course Technology PTR have joined forces again to create the second volume in their Personal Studio Series, Mastering Steinberg's Cubase(tm). Edited and produced by the staff of Electronic Musician, this special issue is not only a must-read for users of Cubase(tm) software, but it also delivers essential information for anyone recording/producing music in a personal-studio. Order now $12.95

Newsletters

MixLine

Delivered straight to your inbox every other week, MixLine takes you straight into the studio, with new product announcements, industry news, upcoming events, recent recording/post projects and much more. Click here to read the latest edition; sign up here.

MixLine Live

Delivered straight to your inbox every other week, MixLine Live takes you on the road with today's hottest tours, new sound reinforcement professional products, recent installs, industry news and much more. Click here to read the latest edition; sign up here.