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The standard for DVD is 5.1
which is exactly what THX uses. The 6 channels
can be confusing though. There's actually 5
channels (left, center, right front, and left
and right surround) and a LFE (low frequency
effects channel). In film, the LFE is used
specifically for low freq. sound effects such as
explosions, earthquakes, etc. In music, there is
a bass management circuit during playback that
takes the low freq energy
from the 5 main
channels and folds it into the LFE.
5.1
multichannel was invented for movies. In a
movie, you often have a moving sound source (the
archetypical plane flying by); surround sound
would allegedly add to the realism of the
experience, increasing the thrill of going to a
movie theater (in an era where movie theaters
are consistently losing market to home video).
So far so good. The problem is, the quest for
realism misses the point altogether of what
movies are about.
Does Star Wars Episode
have more realistic sound than older,
non-surround sound movies? Sure, but that is not
the point! We all are willing to relinquish some
measure of realism when we go to the movies:
watching a flat screen, taking giant leaps in
narrative space and time, following camera
movements, these are all "unrealistic" in a
sense; in
effect, they are part of the
cinematic language, a language we all are so
used to that we don't even think about it. But
in the end, it is the language that matters; if
surround sound effects ADD meaning to the
cinematic language, they are a valuable
improvement; otherwise, they are only cheap
thrills: effective, showy, but ultimately
superficial.
My contention is that so
far, the latter is the case. I would contrast
the introduction of surround sound with the
original addition of sound and color to movies,
which changed the cinematic language forever,
especially in the hands of great directors
(witness Kieslowski's Three Colors, Bergman's
Cries and Whispers, Kubrick's 2001, Coppola's
Godfather(s) and Rumble Fish). I would dare
anyone to come up with a movie where surround
sound plays such an important role as the color
palette does in The Godfather, or the soundtrack
(plain, old stereo) in 2001 or Barry Lindon.
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