I wholeheartedly agree: source audio can be very effective.
I use a Mac, so I'm not going to be much help on sound cards or software. Audacity says it support multichannel, but never having done it, I'm not sure how you'd export a multichannel (more than 2) audio file. The WAV format spec (among others) does have support for multichannel though.
If you can figure out how, the surround DVD authoring route would give you 5 channels, and your DVD player could be on loop. You'd just need a surround decoder hooked to the DVD and running out to individual speakers (L, C, R, Ls, Rs).
You mentioned the ol' 4/8 track recorder route... you could maybe find a cheaper modern equivalent (Zoom, TASCAM) or USB audio interface that does multiple outputs.
I use ProTools with a MOTU828 audio interface that has 8 outputs, so I run audio to the dedicated speakers in the yard directly... usually pairs of cheap stereo PC speakers. I have a few Bluetooth JamPlus speakers with 1/8"/3.5mm aux inputs that have much better low end than the PC speakers.
Let us know what you decide on!
I use a Mac, so I'm not going to be much help on sound cards or software. Audacity says it support multichannel, but never having done it, I'm not sure how you'd export a multichannel (more than 2) audio file. The WAV format spec (among others) does have support for multichannel though.
If you can figure out how, the surround DVD authoring route would give you 5 channels, and your DVD player could be on loop. You'd just need a surround decoder hooked to the DVD and running out to individual speakers (L, C, R, Ls, Rs).
You mentioned the ol' 4/8 track recorder route... you could maybe find a cheaper modern equivalent (Zoom, TASCAM) or USB audio interface that does multiple outputs.
I use ProTools with a MOTU828 audio interface that has 8 outputs, so I run audio to the dedicated speakers in the yard directly... usually pairs of cheap stereo PC speakers. I have a few Bluetooth JamPlus speakers with 1/8"/3.5mm aux inputs that have much better low end than the PC speakers.
Let us know what you decide on!