[OldDog]

To start with a little background, I date back to the time of the discreet 4 channel reel to reel systems where there was a head for each of four channels. When you mixed you choose where the sound was to go and it was recorded on the appropriate head(s) to fit into the sound field.

Now a days we can do the same thing with Dolby AC-3 encoding and that works about the same from a 5.1 sound field placement point of view. I do this when recording for video.

My question is primarily about car stereos, if I put my old stereo CDs into my car the Alpine deck looks at the source and places different instruments throughout a basically 4 channel sound field. How does this work? Is it based on frequency, reverb, or what?

The reason I ask is to know if there is a way that when I am mixing a stereo CD I can determine where the instrument will play in the " 4channel" sound field?

Thanks,
Harry