Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Meridian - Systems DSP Settings Experiments

Has anyone made any odd settings with the DSP preset settings to provide interesting results?
Today has been a good day for a change.

My 3 fronts changed to B&W 802ds are good, and present a much fresher sound than my 8000s.

My point however is that the Trifield setting with the analogue out was quite a bit "light" on the rears, so we cranked up the middles and rears a lot to make them equal.
Normally you would expect Trifield to split out some sounds and do a delicate separation.
My result however was very surprising - if you really crank up the middles and rears there is a great totally enveloping sound with different parts suddenly appearing from nowhere - very absorbing!

Is there an idiots explanation as to what actually happens to the signal to separate it quite so?

Not that I've been able to decipher.

I'm pretty sure Trifield was based on David Hafler's matrix approach. It was well documented in an article in Audio Amateur (AA) around 1984. Some libraries still have copies of this magazine.

That said, I'm pretty sure Meridian has significantly built on the original Trifield model (which I think [probably not remembering correctly] was based on Michael Gerzon's work on Hafler's matrix) so the channel matrixing info in the Audio Amateur article would probably just give a broad outline of the scheme.

I wish I could tell you the exact magazine issue number and month but I donated all my copies of AA to a library (different state) many years ago.

Sorry

See Meridian unique technologies on their website. Trifield is a Meridian adaptation of Ambisonics, a music mode which spreads the sound field around to all available speakers.

Mu logic and super stereo can also be used with great effect on different recordings along with any other mode Meridian provide.
I always set my levels correctly with a meter according to the set up guide then try different modes to see the results. Multi layered recordings can be very entertaining.
Enjoy, Chris

Very often rears are light with Trifield, (music) but with video this changes.

Where you assessing with music?

Regards I

Thanks for the link
That article was written in 2000, are Meridian still the only licencees?
Presumably some sort of royalty is paid?

My understanding is that Trifield is a Meridian development building on Michael's work on three-speaker stereo. The fact it uses the rears is already a major distinguishing factor. So I don't think Michael himself developed Meridian's Trifield per se.

I think that AGM Digital Arts still include Trifield in their TSS-1 Three Speaker Stereo Processor.

Cheers,
Simon

Michael Gerzon's 3-speaker stereo, Trifield, isn't a direct use of ambisonics as such, but it uses some principles from it (e.g. Use of shelf filters to help give a more consistent energy with frequency distribution over the stereo front sector and to stabilise it when the speaker angle is larger than 60 degrees). The out of phase component is what appears in the rear/side speakers in Meridian's implementation (Haffler). Effects will vary quite a bit between recordings, giving more or less output from rears and sides, and giving very different effects depending on how the recording was made using different microphone and/or mastering techniques.

You could experiment with acoustic recordings utilising coincident crossed fig 8 microphones and Pro Logic material, which would both contain more out of phase components than spot mic and stereo panned stuff. Ambisonic UHJ recordings may work quite well, or at least interestingly, with Trifield. The problem is that mic techniques are very rarely stated. It's no wonder we struggle to decide what DSP method and settings sound best to each of us.