“Surround sound” is fast becoming a buzzword. If you have a home theatre system and a DVD player that supports 5.1-channel surround sound, then you've experienced just how cool surround sound is. The premise of surround sound is to expand upon the traditional stereo two-speaker setup. By placing five speakers and one subwoofer in a circle around the listener, audio can be panned in all directions around you.

Imagine being able to have music literally envelop you — as if you were sitting on stage with sound coming to you from all around. Surround-sound mixing is already present in Cubase, Sonar, Digital Performer, and Logic. When DVD audio becomes a standard reality, the home studio market will be able to mix sounds not only left and right, but back and forth and all around. When you hear it, it will blow you away.