7.1 surround sound is the common name for an eight-channel surround audio system commonly used in home theatre configurations. It adds two additional speakers to the more conventional six-channel audio configuration. As with 5.1 surround sound, 7.1 surround sound positional audio uses the standard front left and right, center, and LFE speaker configuration. However, whereas a 5.1 surround sound system combines both surround and rear channel effects into two channels, a 7.1 surround system splits the surround and rear channel information into four distinct channels, in which sound effects are directed to left and right surround channels, plus two rear surround channels. In a 7.1 surround sound home theatre set-up, the surround speakers are placed to the side of the listener's position and the rear speakers are placed behind the listener. In addition, with the advent of Dolby Pro Logic IIz and, 7.1 surround sound can also refer to 7.1 surround sound configurations with the addition of two front height channels positioned above the front channels or two front wide channels positioned between the front and surround channels.
While some movies have been remixed to 7.1 audio tracks on Blu-ray Discs for home cinema, the first discrete theatrical 7.1 soundtrack was Toy Story 3 in 2010, followed by Step Up 3D. Disney announced that they will use 7.1 surround for their future 3D releases. Recent titles include Megamind, Tangled, ', Gnomeo and Juliet, Mars Needs Moms' , Gulliver's Travels and '. In 2011, additional movies were released with theatrical 7.1 audio, including Thor, ', Kung Fu Panda 2, Super 8, Green Lantern, Cars 2, ', ''. All these titles are exhibited in the Dolby Surround 7.1 theatrical format.
Music
The history of electronic music includes the evolution of multi-channel playback in concert and for a considerable time the 8-channel format was a de facto standard. This standardisation was fostered, in great measure, by the development of professional and semi-professional 8-track tape recorders—originally analog, but later manifesting in proprietary cassette formats by Alesis and Tascam. The speaker configuration, however, is much less traditional, and unlike cinematic reproduction systems, there is no hard-and-fast "standard". In fact, composers took considerable interest in experimenting with speaker layouts. In these experiments, the goal is not limited to creating "realistic" playback of believably natural sonic environments. Rather, the goals are often simply to experience and understand the psychoacoustics effect created by variations on source and imaging. Some of the first live concerts to appear were Chris Botti in Boston in 2009 and Satchurated in 2012.
