Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

5.1 Surround Sound: Up and Running offers a wealth of practical information for recording engineers. It examines such topics as loudspeakers, room acoustics, bass management, as well as a variety of available microphone and recording techniques and tips for postproduction. A thorough study of distribution formats, including an overview of existing and emerging media, and the psychoacoustics of multichannel sound complete this book. Multichannel or surround sound involves recording sound on five separate channels and playing it back through an array of speakers. Developed a few years ago for the home theatre market, it is only now being introduced to the music industry with the acceptance of the new DVD audio format. This is the hottest topic in the music recording business, and it will require a major conversion on the part of the studios.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Table of Contents (p. 3)
• Preface (p. 7)
• Colophon (p. 8)
• Dedication (p. 9)
• 1 Introduction (p. 11)
• A Brief History (p. 12)
• 2 Montoring (p. 25)
• Introduction (p. 27)
• How monitoring affects the mix (p. 27)
• Full range monitoring (p. 27)
• Spatial balance (p. 28)
• Room acoustics for multichannel sound (p. 32)
• Choice of monitor loudspeakers (p. 36)
• A standardized setup, the ITU solution (p. 42)
• Left and right (p. 42)
• Surround (p. 43)
• Subwoofer (p. 43)
• Setting up the loudspeaker locations with 3 pieces of string (p. 44)
• Setup compromises (p. 46)
• Center (p. 47)
• Left and right (p. 50)
• Surround (p. 50)
• Subwoofer (p. 51)
• Setup variations (p. 53)
• Use of surround arrays (p. 53)
• Surround loudspeaker directivity (p. 55)
• Square Array (p. 57)
• Near Field Monitoring (p. 58)
• Time adjustment of the loudspeaker feeds (p. 60)
• Low Frequency Enhancement--the 0.1 channel (p. 62)
• Film roots (p. 62)
• Headroom on the medium (p. 64)
• Digital Film Sound enters the picture (p. 66)
• Bass management or redirection (p. 66)
• Digital Television comes along (p. 68)
• Home reproduction (p. 69)
• 0.1 for music? (p. 71)
• The bottom line (p. 77)
• Calibrating the monitor system: frequency response (p. 78)
• A choice of standardized response (p. 79)
• Calibrating the monitor system: level (p. 81)
• 3 Multichannel Microphone Technique (p. 87)
• Introduction (p. 88)
• Pan Pot Stereo (p. 88)
• Spaced Omnis (p. 91)
• Coincident and Near-Coincident Techniques (p. 94)
• Crossed Figure 8 (p. 94)
• M-S Stereo (p. 95)
• X-Y Stereo (p. 97)
• Near-Coincident Technique (p. 97)
• Binaural (p. 100)
• Spot Miking (p. 101)
• Point of View in Multichannel (p. 102)
• Use of the Standard Techniques in Multichannel (p. 102)
• Simultaneous 2- and 5-channel Recording (p. 106)
• Surround Technique (p. 107)
• Microphone Technique for the Direct/Ambient Approach (p. 107)
• Microphone Technique for the Direct Sound Approach (p. 109)
• Special Microphones for 5.1-channel Recordings (p. 110)
• Combinations of Methods (p. 112)
• 4 Multichannel Mixing (p. 115)
• Introduction (p. 116)
• Mechanics (p. 118)
• Panners (p. 118)
• Work arounds for 2-channel oriented equipment (p. 121)
• Panning law (p. 122)
• The art of panning (p. 124)
• Non-standard Panning (p. 126)
• Panning in live presentations (p. 127)
• A major panning error (p. 128)
• Increasing the "size" of a source (p. 129)
• Equalizing multichannel (p. 130)
• Routing multichannel in the console and studio (p. 131)
• Track layout of masters (p. 133)
• Double-system delivery with accompanying video (p. 134)
• Reference level for multichannel program (p. 134)
• Fitting multichannel on digital video recorders (p. 135)
• Multichannel monitoring electronics (p. 136)
• Multichannel outboard gear (p. 137)
• 5 Delivery Formats (p. 141)
• Introduction (p. 143)
• New terminology (p. 144)
• Audio coding (p. 145)
• Cascading coders (p. 150)
• Sample rate and word length (p. 151)
• Inter-track synchronization (p. 154)
• Reference level (p. 155)
• Post-production formats (p. 156)
• Track layout (p. 156)
• Post-production delivery formats (p. 157)
• Multiple streams (p. 159)
• Metadata (p. 161)
• Three level-setting mechanisms (p. 163)
• Dialogue Normalization (dialnorm) (p. 163)
• Dynamic Range Compression, DRC (p. 167)
• Night listening (p. 169)
• Mixlevel (p. 169)
• Audio Production Information exists (p. 171)
• Room Type (p. 171)
• Dolby Surround mode switch (p. 172)
• Downmix options (p. 172)
• Level adjustment of film mixes (p. 174)
• Debugging (p. 174)
• Lip-sync and other sync problems (p. 174)
• Reel edits or joins (p. 176)
• Media specifics (p. 177)
• DTS CD (p. 178)
• Digital Television (p. 181)
• Digital Versatile Disc (p. 182)
• Audio on DVD-Video (p. 183)
• DVD-Audio (p. 186)
• Super Audio CD (p. 193)
• Intellectual Property Protection (p. 194)
• Toward the Future (p. 196)
• 6 Psychoacoustics (p. 203)
• Introduction (p. 204)
• Principal localization mechanisms (p. 205)
• The Minimum Audible Angle (p. 207)
• Bass management and LFE Pyschoacoustics (p. 207)
• Effects of the localization mechanisms on 5.1 channel sound (p. 209)
• The law of the first wavefront (p. 211)
• Phantom Image Stereo (p. 212)
• Phantom Imaging in Quad (p. 213)
• Localization, spaciousness, and envelopment (p. 215)
• Lessons from Concert Hall Acoustics (p. 216)
• Rendering 5 channels over 2; Mixdown (p. 217)
• Auralization and Auditory Virtual Reality (p. 219)
• Beyond 5.1 (p. 220)
• Conclusion (p. 236)
• Appendix 1 Sample Rate (p. 223)
• What's Aliasing? (p. 237)
• Definitions (p. 238)
• Multi-Bit and One-Bit Conversion (p. 239)
• Converter Tests (p. 240)
• Appendix 2 Word Length (p. 241)
• Conversion (p. 242)
• Dither to the rescue (p. 243)
• Dynamic Range (p. 244)
• Actual Performance (p. 246)
• How Much Performance is Needed (p. 247)
• Noise shaping (p. 249)
• The bottom line (p. 250)
• Analog Reference Levels related to Digital Recording (p. 253)
• Appendix 3 Surround Resources (p. 255)
• Facilities Consulting (p. 255)
• Setup and Test Materials and Equipment (p. 255)
• Microphones (p. 256)
• Small Format Consoles (p. 257)
• Large Format Consoles (p. 258)
• Systems for Live Sound (p. 259)
• Multichannel on Digital Audio Workstations, Hardware and corresponding Software (p. 259)
• Hardware Platform: Pro Tools (p. 259)
• Software (p. 260)
• Hardware Platform: Digital Audio Labs V8 (p. 260)
• Software (p. 260)
• Hardware Platform: Direct X, etc. (p. 260)
• Software (p. 260)
• Harware and Software: Sonic Solutions (p. 261)
• 3D Sound Production Tools (p. 261)
• Monitoring Switching Systems, Volume Controls, Controllers (p. 262)
• Outboard Equipment (p. 263)
• Multichannel Meters (p. 263)
• Format Encoders and Decoders, Hardware and Software (p. 263)
• Headphones for 5.1 (p. 265)
• Multichannel Power Amplifiers (p. 265)
• Upmixing Facilities (p. 265)
• Organizations (p. 266)
• Index (p. 267)