I always tell people that making a stereo record is a trick. You go in and do all this stuff, and then you listen to it - and you can never get the full spectrum. You have to fool people into thinking they're getting this big spectrum. It sounds a lot better than mono, but ...
Now, with surround, everything opens up and breathes. You hear the instruments. And on the new Eagle, there's a lot of movement in the mix, but it's not gimmicky. Actually, after the first mixes that Ed sent me, my instructions were: "This is really great, but I'd like a little more movement in it." And then later, he did something at the very end of the record that was kinda Ping-Pongy, and I said, "Alright, back off. [laughs] I know you did that just to test me."
Of course, now I'm really interested in making a new record ...
... so you can do it in surround from the start?
Exactly. For me, making a record is always like creating a sound horizon anyway. I want to put you someplace in your mind - and when people started making videos, they sort of took that away. That's part of the problem with music right now, and why sound quality is so bad: It's more of a visual art than a musical art. Once an image is put to it, you lose the sense of the sound horizon. You're just lookin' at stuff.
