5.1 Surround Sound Effects at 1SoundFX.com

Surround Sound is not a new phenomenon. Cinemas / movie theaters have been equipped with surround sound technology for decades already and professional film producers, video game producers and other media producers have already been delivering 6-channel (5.1) surround sound, or even 8-channel (7.1) surround sound for what seems like forever, through audio formats such as Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital and DTS.

However, what is a fairly new development is that surround sound is now seriously starting to make its way into home produced films and multimedia. Over the last few years, most new consumer video cameras are equipped with High Definition video capture and 5.1 Surround sound capture. More and more people have surround sound speaker setups in their living rooms and now even low budget video editing programs for PC and Mac computers are equipped with surround sound editing and playback capabilities.

So whether you're editing home videos of your children's birthday party, putting together a YouTube video, editing a corporate video for your company presentation or just having fun and being creative with video, audio and media -- you may want to consider keeping your projects in Surround Sound format all the way through.

Here at 1SoundFX.com we are these days rolling out our first collections of 5.1 Surround sound effects. The sounds are delivered in multi-channel / 6-channel Microsoft WAV format. This format can be read and imported by a multitude of home and professional video editing suites. We have been using Sony Vegas Movie Studio - which is the home/budget version of the bigger, more professional Sony Vegas Pro video editing suite. Both of these programs work just fine with Multichannel WAV files.

At the time of writing, we have surround sound effects available in the following genres:

• Surround Nature Sounds: Here you'll find ocean surf, surround forest ambiance, surround jungle sounds and other natural sounds captured and delivered in full surround.
• Surround Crowd Sounds: The sounds of "people in places". Market stalls, shops and cafes, bars and restaurants, amusement malls, cities and towns - captured and delivered in full surround. Listen to these in surround, close your eyes, and you will really be there!
• Surround Animal Sounds: In this genre we've got some wonderful birdsong recordings in lush gardens with exotic birds singing in all directions.
  

More different surround sounds are coming. We are working on collections of "Surround Sound Design Elements"; in other words things like Whooshes, Blasts, Zips, Zings, Flutters and Sweeps etc. in surround. By the time you read this, we may already have this in our catalogue.

In this article we've discussed surround sounds in the setting of video editing and multimedia editing, but of course, there is such a thing as just sitting down and purely listening to surround audio just for the incredibly lifelike sensation and immersion that these sounds can bring you. Try our Surround Garden of Exotic Birds. Connect your computer to a surround home audio system via HDMI or another surround-capable connection / setup. Play the audio file with Windows Media Player, VLC or another surround-capable audio player. Now just sit down in the middle of the surround field and close your eyes. We promise you - it's an experience that's worth the few dollars you've paid for the sound file.

By the way, if you need the sounds to be delivered to you in AC3 (Dolby Digital) sound file format instead of a Multichannel WAV, you may want to check out the surround sound effects area of our sister-site, Shockwave-Sound.com.