Comment Re:Early days of stereo audio.... (Score 1) 594
>Note that quad never did catch on. In part, because it couldn't be done for next to no cost.
The problem with quad/surround is that it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You can't mic a scene in a movie for surround because the mics would be behind the camera. Same for a concert. Your surround channels would be crowd cheering. Might be nice, but it's a niche at best.
Stereo gave us a soundstage, and surround is incompatible with that. To mic a band properly for surround, either the singer would be behind you, or if you invert it, the drums would be. I think it would be a nice experiment to try, giving each bandmember his own speaker. But it would also be nice if I could just buy two more speakers and a CD and try it, instead of getting a bunch of microphones and renting a band.