Stuff that sounds amazing with the Surround Master

[DuncanS]

The Blues Project / Anthhology - This collection represents most of their best stuff and I would say essential. Sound quality is amazing and through the SM3, even more amazing!!! For your listening pleasure I've selected 3 of my favorite tracks:

"Goin' Down Louisiana" from "Live At The Cafe A Go Go"
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"Two Trains Running" from "Projections" killer blues tune.
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"Flute Thing" from "Projections" a classic.
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It's like hearing it for the first time all over again!!!

I was once in a bar (all good stories start that way! ) in Arnhem, The Netherlands and they played this amazing album, I asked who it was and they said it was the Blues Project International, I have spent many years wondering if its the same Blues Project as I never found the album they said was playing. Any idea?

 

[user 15634]

I was once in a bar (all good stories start that way! ) in Arnhem, The Netherlands and they played this amazing album, I asked who it was and they said it was the Blues Project International, I have spent many years wondering if its the same Blues Project as I never found the album they said was playing. Any idea?

What year was this, they did do a reunion album, "Live In Central Park" in 1973. Couldn't find any info on the band you mentioned, I suspect it's a different band.

 

[DuncanS]

What year was this, they did do a reunion album, "Live In Central Park" in 1973. Couldn't find any info on the band you mentioned, I suspect it's a different band.

It was early 1990s, so 1992-94. The bar staff showed me the CD, shame no smart phones back then as I'd have photographed it!

 

[Clement]

I promise to be good to your earhole . . . the Surround Master comes through yet again!

https://www.allmusic.com/album/lets-take-it-to-the-stage-mw0000614477

 

[user 15634]

It was early 1990s, so 1992-94. The bar staff showed me the CD, shame no smart phones back then as I'd have photographed it!

I did a little more research today and discovered that in early 2000 two of the original members of the band reformed and recorded an album but as just as "The Blues Project" no international. I could find no information on "The Blues Project International".

 

[DuncanS]

I did a little more research today and discovered that in early 2000 two of the original members of the band reformed and recorded an album but as just as "The Blues Project" no international. I could find no information on "The Blues Project International".

Thanks for looking. I wonder if was an Italian bootleg I was shown as there were lots of them in the record shops in the record shops in Arnhem.

 

[MidiMagic]

Hmmm, but what does the XY axis represent....sorry dumb but good looking 66 year old here

Genesis 28:10-17 Jacob's ladder.

 

[chucky3042]

Genesis 28:10-17 Jacob's ladder.

I just knew it was a godly thing

 

[Clement]

This stellar release of Another Earth is taken to another level through the Surround Master . . . out of this world!

https://www.discogs.com/release/29772148-Gary-Bartz-Another-Earth

 

[NYMo]

Looks like a similar image to one of my ambient albums !

 

[user 15634]

Dan Fogelberg / Windows And Walls - Not my favorite Fogelberg but has 3 of my favorite songs of his. This is one of the early cds which is certainly better than the vinyl but I'd love to see it remastered. That said the SM3 takes it to another level and sounds amazing!!! For your listening pleasure here are 3 great tunes:

"Windows And Walls"

"Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)" This song just knocks me out!

"Believe In Me"

It's like hearing it for the first time all over again!!!

 

[Clement]

MAD LOVE to @sukothai ! Truly AMAZING, indeed!

https://www.discogs.com/release/24996721-Brad-Mehldau-Jacobs-Ladder

 

[Overture]

Hey all. I'm sitting here on my birthday and listening to Maggot Brain by Funkadelic through Involve for the first time and wondering why the hell I waited this long. It's pretty great.

 

[DuncanS]

Hey all. I'm sitting here on my birthday and listening to Maggot Brain by Funkadelic through Involve for the first time and wondering why the hell I waited this long. It's pretty great.

As with Boomerangs Many Happy Returns Of The Day, Happy Birthday

 

[texeast]

Dan Fogelberg / Windows And Walls - Not my favorite Fogelberg but has 3 of my favorite songs of his. This is one of the early cds which is certainly better than the vinyl but I'd love to see it remastered. That said the SM3 takes it to another level and sounds amazing!!! For your listening pleasure here are 3 great tunes:

"Windows And Walls"
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"Tucson, Arizona (Gazette)" This song just knocks me out!
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"Believe In Me"
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It's like hearing it for the first time all over again!!!

Is this in 5.1 audio or is it just a stereo cd?

 

[user 15634]

Is this in 5.1 audio or is it just a stereo cd?

Unfortunately just stereo but as far as I'm concerned all Fogelberg should be in surround. If you have a surround master it sounds amazing!!!

 

[kfbkfb]

I don't have an SM, I was wondering if anyone has tried the Involve SQ mode for creating fake surround sound from stereo content?


Kirk Bayne

 

[Overture]

I don't have an SM, I was wondering if anyone has tried the Involve SQ mode for creating fake surround sound from stereo content?


Kirk Bayne

Actually the Involve/QS mode does an excellent job of reading the phase relationships in stereo content.
Some of my favourite content to listen to is stuff that was recorded in stereo but has an excellent surround field waiting to be discovered. Half the reason for this thread was to report findings on unexpectedly amazing surround content that no-one has heard before.
It doesn't add any additional echo / reverb / etc, so you can't really "fake" the surround sound but most stereo has a four-channel presentation of some kind, even if it's just a little bit of echo from the voice that was put in during production. Or in the case of synth or edm, there are some amazingly complex phase interactions that absolutely shine. Definitely adds some immersion that you end up missing when you listen in pure stereo again.
But....I'm a biased source, so.....

 

[user 15634]

Actually the Involve/QS mode does an excellent job of reading the phase relationships in stereo content.
Some of my favourite content to listen to is stuff that was recorded in stereo but has an excellent surround field waiting to be discovered. Half the reason for this thread was to report findings on unexpectedly amazing surround content that no-one has heard before.
It doesn't add any additional echo / reverb / etc, so you can't really "fake" the surround sound but most stereo has a four-channel presentation of some kind, even if it's just a little bit of echo from the voice that was put in during production. Or in the case of synth or edm, there are some amazingly complex phase interactions that absolutely shine. Definitely adds some immersion that you end up missing when you listen in pure stereo again.
But....I'm a biased source, so.....

What's the difference between listening to the Involve mode and listening to the SQ mode? Is it just a matter of personal listening preference or certain types of recordings for each mode?

 

[Overture]

What's the difference between listening to the Involve mode and listening to the SQ mode? Is it just a matter of personal listening preference or certain types of recordings for each mode?

The latter. We based the Involve decode on the mathematics of the old Sansui QS system, because it's perfectly circular and makes for a much better surround sound extraction. However it had a tendency to create a compressed stereo image. SQ on the other hand sounds great in stereo, but the resulting decode only leaves about 3dB of distinction to decide what is front and rear, and so the surround decode was inferior. However, in the 70s, more people had stereo setups than quadraphonic, so as a result a lot more material was released in the SQ format.
When we released the original Surround Master, it was Involve/QS only, and we turned to this forum to test our gear. The result was, to paraphrase "Yes it's great, but can you do an equivalent modernisation of SQ decoding as well?" and so we spent some months on that, the V2 and V3 Surround Master now does both QS and SQ decoding. The SQ mode is also good for pro-logic II recordings, as they based that format partially on SQ maths, and the Involve/QS mode does a great job of decoding stereo into surround, as well as great decoding of other phase-related matrix systems such as RM, Ambisonics, Qsound, Dummy Head, etc.
The only thing we don't really do in the SM is CD-4, which is a modulation/demodulation system rather than a matrix format. It has been requested many times, and we'd like to eventually, we're just a small team with other priorities first. Still, never say never.

Oh, to answer your question further, SQ does decode stereo to a degree into surround, but nowhere near as pleasingly. Not to our ears at least, YMMV, but the Involve/QS surround extraction is superior, from an engineering perspective, also.

~D

Oh, we also supercharged the QS encode and made it smarter about encoding decisions, so the Involve encode has the surround capability of QS but with a much better stereo presentation. It's a free license to encode - Suzanne Ciani's "Quadraphonic Live!" album was produced with the use of our encode format.