Snippets from MIX mag, in a Q & A article with producers:

Rich Tozzoli (David Bowie, AWB, +over 20 more)
Jimmy Douglass (Foreigner, Misssy, Elliot, Marvin Gaye, etc.)
Ken Gaillat (Since '97 has mixed over 200 surround mix songs. Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, etc.)

Q: Can you talk about your approach to signal processing of individual tracks or special tricks when mixing surround?

Douglass: You don't have to squash everything into the same small area as in stereo. There is no fighting for space in surround, so I end up using less EQ and compression on individual tracks.

Tozzoli: I use a lot less compression and EQ, but reverb takes on a whole new life.

Caillat: I use less processing in surround. You don't have a choice in stereo. You force everything into that L/R soundfield by selectively boosting or attenuating certain frequencies to enhance those instruments.
It is almost opposite when working within the surround soundfield. For Ex: Acoustic guitars in stereo usually require rolling off bottom end and adding high end, then compressing; in effect, making the guitar smaller. But, in surround, I'll make it bigger to cover the huge space i have now.

BoB: You simply cannot acheive the same results afforded by 5.1 discrete formats by matrixing a stereo mix. The damage is done and cannot be undone.

I agree wholeheartedly with SH.

Let's stop rehashing those 30 year old master tapes into surround discs and matrixing those woefully compressed stereo CDs and start writing and producing for discrete MC audio formats.

What would Lennon, McCartney and George Martin have done with 5.1 discrete?

[This message has been edited by bossobass (edited September 06, 2003).]