I can't say I've ever seen a production in 3.0, but it could be interesting to make something like this, as those in 2ch would still get the same effect as ever, and those with multichannel setups will get the full effect.

5.1 etc is too much of a pain for those learning as it requires a lot of work and has to be setup differently for theater and home use.. whereas 3.0 I *believe* is the same for both.

Why 3.0 ? Record all your dialog with a shotgun and then isolate the channel as much as you can for clarity, whilst adding all effects etc on in post into the left/right stereo tracks.

This is all kinda guesswork on my behalf as to whether it could work (probably not otherwise I'm sure the world would be full of 3.0 stuff!) but hey, someones gotta try it :)

And you're going to author/encode to 3.0 in what?

Vegas supports multichannel so if you make a surround track with that, you only need to put something in the front 3 yeah? You're the vegas expert so I'm a bit worried that you're asking that question, so maybe I'm totally wrong !

It's not something I plan to do, I'm just curious as to whether it'd be effective at an amateur level.

Man....must be psychic day...

I was at just this, this morning.

http://www.cascade-audio.com/

http://www.holophone.com

I understand what you're thinking, but you can't deliver just a 3.0 mix. You could author a 5.1 mix with no rear channels. There are delivery mechanisms for stereo with a center channel, but I don't know what software is available to deliver it any more. In other words, you're using the same bandwidth whether it's 6 channels of PCM or 6 channels of AC3, so you might as well utilize the rear. But obviously you don't have to. Just realize that it's still 5.1 using only L/R/C.

oh yeah, i knew that.. sorry i should've been more specific. dvd player would get awfully confused by a straight 3.0 ;)

the fact is, adding surround is a pain.. if you only use it a few times it feels lacking, and it means a lot more work getting the pans etc to sound right.. whereas my idea is mainly for clarity of dialog etc.