Scoping Software: More Surround Sound.

As noted in the previous installment of Scoping Software, while most of today's recordings are still two-channel items, specifically designed to be played back on two-channel audio systems, I have lately been trying to deal with software that is mainly or even entirely oriented toward surround-sound playback.

If they are not specifically surround-sound items, I am at least attempting to concentrate on transcriptions that sound best with some kind of serious, DSP-style surround-sound manipulating applied. Most of the releases below are of that kind, whether they are specifically designated as surround-sound program material, or not. All but one of them will also be playable on regular stereo systems.

As with the discs I reviewed in the last issue, in addition to my regular Yamaha DSP-A1 processor/amp, I also had a Parasound AVC-2500 processor on hand to give us a kind of second opinion about how some of the releases responded to surround decoding.

Gershwin, George: Dayful of Song. (Seven previously unrecorded short works, plus Cuban Overture, Rhapsody in Blue, Lullaby, and An American in Paris.) Dallas Symphony Orchestra, conducting and piano work by Andrew Litton. Recorded in 1996, at McDermott Hall, Dallas. Engineer: John Eargle. 70+ minutes. Delos DE3216.

This is another Delos [VR.sup.2], matrixed-surround releases that puts four channels of information (left, center, right, surround) on two channels, just like with pre-Dolby Digital surround movies. As with their other releases using this technique, this recording is designed to be decoded with a Dolby Pro logic decoder of the type commonly found in both budget-grade audio receivers as well as in top-grade decoders that have additional bells and whistles. The works on this release are kind of divided into two size categories. An American in Paris is fairly large in terms of orchestral scale, and involves quite a number of performers. On the other hand, Rhapsody in Blue makes use of the original jazz-band orchestration, and so it involves far fewer of the Dallas players than the other material.

The former work is wonderfully done, with proper soundstaging, great detail, and proper ambiance. It sounded terrific in stereo, and downright sensational with Dolby Prologic (DPL) decoding. Even better results were had when I applied my DSP-A1's "enhanced" version of DPL to playback, and the Classical/Opera mode of that Yamaha processor was also excellent, even though it does not by any means work like DPL.

I also gave the THX version of DPL a try with the above-noted Parasound AVC-2500, and I felt that it was definitely better sounding than ordinary DPL decoding, although the THX, mid- and high-frequency rolloff applied to the front channels tended to mute the sound more than some might like. The Parasound's Music mode was also terrific (and this mode does not include the roll off), and I consider each of these surround processes to be superior to straightforward stereo playback, even though the latter was still terrific by itself. This is an excellent recording of An American in Paris, no matter what kind of playback situation is involved. Overall, the Delos version of the smaller-scaled Rhapsody was quite good in stereo, with a very wide stage (typical for recordings configured for DPL decoding) and a piano that was well forward. The piano sound was not bloated or fuzzy, however. Unfortunately, when standard Yamaha, DSP concert-hall simulations were tried with the Rhapsody, the highlighted piano just grew to elephantine proportions. I definitely do not advise that kind of manipulating for realistic sound.