Matrix

When audio engineers matrix audio, they transfer and combine four, six, or eight channels of multi-channel program material into a two-channel stereo program via a very specific process. The two-channel stereo program that results will contain LCRS (left channel, center channel, right channel, and surround channel) program information. This allows for the distribution of multi-channel sound by more conventional two-channel media.

Although many schemes for matrixing multi-channel audio have been introduced, the Dolby system has been the most successful. Today a matrixed track is designed specifically to be decoded by a Dolby® ProLogic or Dolby® Cinema processor. Once it is decoded, the two-channel matrix will play back as four channels: left, center, right, and surround. The surround channel can then be electronically split to sound through more than one speaker, though it will not be discrete - the same audio will play out of each surround monitor.

Two-channel matrices are designed to sound natural whether played back through two, four, or five speakers.