Experience live surround sound?

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Will you post your Thesis for us to digest after you get your degree? :)

Then there's the whole psychoacoustics of "artificial" created sounds; beyond "fake" Q-sound, dynaquad, and all that - a multichannel creation with properly placed transducers and a single (or group) of listeners.
What about tactile surround (LFE and lower)?
How about preconceived expectations of those who have heard "stereo" for life and then hear the multichannel variant?
What about issues in surround audio that cause occasional uncomfortable sensations and other psychological issues?

Finally, is "live" surround really surround, or just total ambient audio - regardless of the performance and the venue, and the reproduction technology, it can not be recreated identically as is; so what about the "Simulation of reality" issue?

From kids in headphones and a "balance" control, to the "Azimuth Coordinator" to Dolby in 70mm to DVD-A to spherical/ambisonics - yes, it's all moving air, but in between, it's electrons. Now that's the fun part...(!)

Fascinating...
 
I saw Pink Floyd on their “Animals” tour and that was one of the best surround experiences.

Anyway, they opened by playing the whole album of Animals in Quad, Wow!

You are a friggen legend. To have heard this. It must have been incredible. Are there any DVD-A recordings of Animals? Also. I think this thesis that the OP plans to do is totally amazing. Go for it man and shake the whole F'n industry...(y).
 
Not to mention the second half with Wish You Were Here performed in its entirety, and Money/Us and Them as the encore.

Someone made a DTS mix of Animals, but I wasn't impressed. There was a quad mix made but never released as it even had a catalog number. Wish You Were Here is said to be finished by James Guthrie, who is waiting for the go ahead to put it out. He said he wanted to do Animals as well because the drums "sound like hat boxes" in the stereo mix. I must admit, I like what Alan Parsons did for Dark Side and what Guthrie did for The Wall, but Brian Humphies was pretty lame for WYWH and Animals.
 
Interesting that no one has yet mentioned Emerson Lake and Palmer. As far as I know the whole "Brain Salad Surgery" tour in 1974 was in quadraphonic. Their show certainly was at Wembley Arena in London, and of course their "Welcome Back My Friends" live album is in quad on Q8. They had a conventional set up, i.e. a bank of speakers in each corner, and it was fantastic particularly at the end of Karn Evil 9.

I also saw Floyd on the Animals tour at Wembley. Their quad system was different as it has a bank of speakers midway each side of the arena and a centre bank at the rear. Not as effective as i recall, but then it depended where you sat I suppose.

The most recent surround concert was 5 years ago at the Royal Albert Hall - Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds. The surround speakers were used for effects and really worked well in adding atmosphere at the right points.
 
I felt it was time to resurrect this interesting thread. I wish I could remember where i read it, but ELP supposedly put another speaker horn in the middle of the ceiling of Madison Square Garden during the 1974 tour, and threw effects on top of the crowd as well.

Roger Waters gave an interview where he was explaining the diamond pattern of Pink Floyd's quad setup. Music comes from the stage, both sides, and one set of speakers from the back, as someone mentioned earlier. He said people hear music in front of, to the sides, and behind them. Not from front and back left and right corners. Makes sense to me.

When I saw the 2006 Dark Side tour, Waters had cones in Madison Square Garden that shot the sound in different directions. This worked great if you were on the floor, which is what I noticed at his tour of The Wall in 2010 in another indoor arena in Houston. In 2008, he played an outdoor amphitheater shed, with the diamond arrangement of speakers surrounding seating area where I sat, and another one for the lawn seats. It worked better than the cones in 2006 since at that time I was sitting in the back middle rows. The effects simply got louder rather than creeping behind me. But when I sat in front of the mixing board for The Wall shows, the cones worked very well, and it was stunning.
 
I was sitting leaning against the goalpost in the old Tampa stadium listening to PF. I got chills listening to the "dogs" moving around the stadium. IIRC, the speakers were set up not in corners but to either side and rear (and of course front) of the stadium. They played Animals and WYWH. Of all the concerts I went to over the years, this one had the best, most appreciative audience. A wide aisle running lengthwise down the field was left open so folks could come and go without trampling over each other.
A much worse experience was had there years later when Led Zeppelin played a few songs and left without telling anyone (it was raining). I got out just as the police were gathering outside to run everyone off with nightsticks bouncing off bodies.
 
I saw Alan Parsons with a surround set on his tour sponsored by DTS.
As a big fan, I always made sure I was on the first row of every concert I attended and this one was no different.
Surround sound in concert is only acceptable when you're in the "sweet spot" ....
Imagine me being on the first row, I could touch the shoes of the guitarist, but his sound came from 20 meters behind me....
Not very natural if you ask me.
I think the only system to do justice live will be Ambisonics............
 
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