The output of the center
channel is thus 4.5dB less
than the old output when
steering in neutral, but rises
to the old value when the
steering is fully to the
center. See Figure 18.
Figure 18: The Center Left matrix element in the March 1997 version of
Logic 7. Note the middle value and the right and rear vertices have been
reduced by 4.5dB. As cs increases the center rises to the value of
1 in two slopes. Compare this picture to Figure 17.
The solution for the center used in March 1997 is not optimal. Considerable experience
with the decoder in practice has shown that the center portion of popular music
recordings, and the dialog in some films, can tend to get lost when you switch between
stereo (two channel) reproduction, and reproduction through the matrix. In addition, as
the center channel changes in level a listener who is not equidistant from the front
speakers can notice the apparent position of a center voice moving. This problem was
extensively analyzed in developing the new matrix presented here. As we will see later,
there is also a problem when a signal pans from left to center or from right to center along
the boundary. The value above gives too low an output from the center speaker when the
pan is half way between.
Center channel in the new design
The center channel output must be derived from the A and B inputs to the decoder. While
it is possible to remove a strongly steered signal from the center channel output using
matrix techniques, any time the steering frontal but not biased either left or right, the
center channel must reproduce the sum of the A and B inputs with some gain factor,
either a boost or a cut. In other words it is not possible to remove uncorrelated left and
right material from the center channel. Our only option is to regulate the loudness of the
center speaker. How loud should it be?
This question depends on the behavior of the left and right main outputs. The matrix
values presented above for LFL and LFR are designed to remove the center component of
the input signals as the steering moves forward. We can show that if the input signal has
been encoded forward with a some kind of cross mixer, such as a stereo width control,
the matrix elements given above (the ’89 elements, the 1996 AES paper elements, the
March 1997 elements, and the ones presented earlier in this paper,) all completely restore
the original separation.