Centre's great in Involve/QS mode.. but its way louder than FL/FR/SL/SR in SQ mode than in Involve/QS mode and so no good for SQ.. actually SQ decodes seem to be much lower level output generally than Involve/QS mode stuff (not a gripe at all just an observation, you know I'm a MEGAAAAA fan of your Surround Master!!).
Ps. How are you getting on with the CD-4 gizmo?
Hope you work your magic on it soon, I'm dying on the bones of my ass here with two shitty JVC's (one = kaput demodulatormacator in ein kanal, t'uther = sppppplaatttttt-a-thonic..)
PPs. Is there any way the Surround Master could be upgraded to enable it to cancel out info (primarily lead vocals) that's bled from front to back with SQ & QS?
PPI-Ps. THANKS for the Surround Master, it is MAGNIFICENT.
Hey there FB,
Charlie is a little bit tied up being insane at the moment so I'll field this one,
The center channel decode on SQ mode was an approximation because of the way the hardware was designed.
The 5.1 mode (the alternate center and front outputs) are done in parallel in a separate processor, and use a single firmware, it was found it would be at the least useful for SQ in its own state because the front left and right channel detection for the purposes of deriving a center channel are close to the same. The issue being, the switch at the front was only designed to switch between our two channel decode or Involve when we made the original Surround Master.
The SQ edition was done at the request of the QQ forums and made to fit the existing hardware to keep the additional development costs down for the sake of all. What it means is, flicking the switch to SQ changes the mode for the four-channel output but the additional outputs for 5.1 remain unchanged. To be perfectly honest we didn't anticipate anyone would want to use a center channel for SQ, given the amount of feedback we got about getting the decode correct and accurate to the original intention.
I guess it would be as simple as adding an attenuator to the center channel output if you're really super-keen on having a center channel for SQ, just a pot would do it, or something sexier if you're that way inclined.
As for removing center vocals from the rear bleed through, there are a couple of issues, but the biggest one would be that it could interfere with the intended reverb / echo in the recording, trying to distinguish between bleed and echo or environmental ambiance in that situation would be near impossible - Also and especially if the recording intended (or unintentionally resulted in) the center vocal being in the middle of the room rather than the front-center speakers.
Both conundrums and unfortunate limitations of the format.
I'm prepared to have a mess around with the idea and see if it leads anywhere, but I wouldn't get my hopes up - it would likely require an additional control where the amount of rear-removal could be adjusted on a per-recording basis as it would be almost impossible to do automatically.
I'm glad you're enjoying it - tell your friends! Tell your enemies! Grab some guy off the street and tell him - and then tell the prosecuting attorney that I said you were allowed to. I'm sure after a quick listen the magistrate will understand and throw the whole matter out of court.
Yours in a white wine sauce
~David (Bitch, first class)
