Overview: Channels and spatial audio

Channels and spatial-audio formats describe how sound is assigned, positioned or rendered around a listener.

A channel count is only part of a spatial description. Speaker roles, channel order, matrix coding and object metadata influence where sound belongs; binaural or virtual-surround rendering then targets another listening arrangement.

This branch supplies those relationships before the output path is considered. It is useful when dialogue, effects or spatial presentation change despite the audio track still being decoded.

• Multichannel audio
  Multichannel audio carries separate sound channels for a defined playback arrangement.

• Channel layouts
  Channel layouts specify the intended arrangement of a channel-based audio signal.

• Channel roles and ordering
  Channel roles and ordering determine how decoded audio components map to the intended speakers.

• Matrix surround
  Matrix surround encodes spatial relationships into fewer channels for later surround decoding.

• Object-based audio formats
  Object-based audio carries spatial information that a renderer uses to adapt sound to a listening arrangement.

• Binaural audio
  Binaural audio supplies left-ear and right-ear signals with the cues used to perceive sound direction.

• Virtual surround
  Virtual surround uses signal processing to suggest spatial positions with fewer physical speakers or with headphones.