Re: 5.1 format

[Edward Coffey]

Jared wrote:

> Hey guys,
>         Just a question on whether or not Octal will support 5.1 natively
> or through a plug-in/machine?
...

I haven't been following the development very closely, so I'm not 100% 
sure.  The Octal machine API has clearly defined Left and Right 
channels, plus an auxiliary channel (or multiple aux channels, I'm not 
sure), so connections between machines are basically going to be stereo. 
 However it may be possible to have a 5.1 output machine that takes two 
inputs, 1: left right (centre), 2: rear-left rear-right (sub), and 
outputs a file/stream of the appropriate format.
As far as I know the only way for Octal to have native support for every 
new sound configuration that comes out would be to have arbitrary 
channels, rather than specific left, right, centre etc. channels.  The 
downside of that would be that every time you wanted to connect two 
stereo machines together you'd need to make two separate connections, 
and for 5.1 channel machines you'd need to make 6 connections each time!