User Guide

Surround basics
169
Surround mode
Neuron is the first and only synthesizer designed
from the bottom up for surround mode (5.1)
applications. Handling is easy - simply move the
silver unit’s stick. You can position sounds within a
setup precisely in the soundscape. Beyond that, you
can record stick movements to create animated
sweeps through the soundscape and store these
modulations as a component of a sound within a
setup.
Before we get into the handling of Neuron’s surround
features, we will clear up potential
misunderstandings by discussing a few surround
basics.
First, two facts:
• Surround is also a stereo format.
• Surround does not necessarily equate to Dolby
Surround®!
If you are aware of (or don’t care about) these two
facts, feel free to skip to page 174. Otherwise, the
following topics may be of interest to you.
Surround basics
The definition of the term "stereophonic" refers to
two or more audio channels. This tells us that stereo
sound reproduction is not limited to the left and
right channels that the casual listener associates
with it.
A stickler for accuracy would insist that the audio
experience commonly known as stereo be called two-
channel stereo. This is unlikely to become idiomatic,
so even the professional world has accepted this
misinterpretation at face value.
Though four-channel quadraphonic stereo blazed the
trail back in the early ‘70s, it never took off. More
recently, the emergence of a multi-channel
technology necessitated a new term. "Surround" was
chosen because it seemed to capture the vibe of 3D
audio. The fact remains, though, that this new aural
experience comes courtesy of multi-channel stereo.
The purpose of every multi-channel stereo
technology is to render the natural sound field of a
given environment, the point usually being to
reproduce the natural sound of the room in which the
signal was recorded rather than using artificial
reverb effects to simulate it.
That certainly makes sense. One cannot help but
note the irony in suppressing the sound of the room
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