[LAU] Decoding/ripping dolby surround CDs

[Rob]

On Wednesday 16 November 2011 18:28, Al Thompson wrote:
> >   I've got a CD, which says, it's mastered for dolby surround. When I
> > ripped it and listened to it, some passages sound very quiet. Is there
> > a way, to rip or encode the tracks to 5.1 or whatever they would be,
> > so I can have a better listening experience? Please don't suggest any
> > GUI-software, since I CAN'T use it. Thank you.
> Is it ENCODED in Dolby 5.1?  If it is, it takes a Dolby 5.1 decoder to
> separate it into 5 channels (plus sub).

The kind of Dolby surround encoding where you just hear a stereo mix if you 
don't have an encoder (as opposed to a blast of noise) isn't 5.1; it's more 
like "3.0", or maybe quad as discussed below.  The surround channel is 
encoded by shifting its phase and adding it to the other channels.  I've 
had albums that weren't recorded in surround but sounded that way with 
surround equipment because of various effects the producer used, such as 
Amarok by Mike Oldfield.

I think you could encode a center channel too.  When I was hanging out with 
a friend who works at a TV station when they first started broadcasting in 
surround, during the test pattern before a show with surround, a narrator 
would say "This is the left channel. This is the right channel. Center, and 
surround," with his voice coming out of each speaker appropriately if you 
had a surround system. (When we watched Star Trek on the sat feed, it was 
Michael Dorn doing the narration, which is why I still remember.)

Rob