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Don't know what kind of man he was, but he sure was a pioneer.

I used Dolby products for years in my earlier bands for compression/limiting/noise reduction. This was way before he developed his surround sound system that anyone reading this has probably experienced.

Some swear by DTS having a better sound; others swear by Dolby. It's pretty much a toss up for me, especially now with Blue-Ray.

RIP, Mr. Dolby. You made my bands/vocals sound much better and got me some good gigs and let me sing into the mic without having to move it in and out from my face for volumn control. Also Sir, I had one of your units on my electronic drum kits that balanced the sound levels and when I hit a hard note on a drum, it didn't wake up my wife or neighbors. Thank you for your vision.

Also, I was an early adopter of his AC-3 surround: left, center, right, and two back speakers as one channel. Some years later he or his lab found a way to separate the two back channels. That was huge. Listen to the remix of Zepplins "Whole Lot of Love" sometime. You will hear certain instruments go all around the 5 distinct channels.

Not sure who originated the 7 channel sound, but I've tried it and it sounds good but isn't really needed with Dolby's 5.1 surround. Also, he was an innovator of what used to be called Pro-Logic. It was a faux surround sound solution to stereo (2 channel) recordings. It has different names from different brands nowadays, but gave you the feel of surround. I still use it on some of my older CD's that were recorded in 2 channels. Try Pro-Logic on early Stones recordings like Aftermath or Sticky Fingers, or if a Beatles fan, try them.

Mr. Dolby killed stereo. I find stereo boring and I grew up with Elvis in mono.