[WrxSTI]

Has anyone here experimented with the idea of using the matrix mixer plugin for foobar2k for crossfeed?
 
I've tried most of the crossfeed plugins for foobar and they seem to mess up the sound somehow or just plain do nothing at all.
 
The theory as we know is, in a real stereo system, the left ear's signal is mostly left speaker, small part right speaker, and the right ear's signal is mostly right speaker, and small part left speaker. This, along with the slight difference in timing of the two signals serves to give the brain information about positioning in the stereo field, etc.
 
I've tried recreating this in foobar with foo_dsp_mm using the settings as follows:
 

 
The left headphone channel reproduces 75% of the track left channel and 25% of the track right channel.
The right headphone channel reproduces 75% of the track right channel and 25% of the track left channel.
 
(I'm still not sure if these are the ideal numbers, I don't know how much % of the signal in normal stereo listening is of which speaker so this is up for experimenting, change the numbers and see what you like the most, they should sum to 1.00 however)
 
I notice reduced fatigue, more "speaker-like" reproduction, i.e. the effect that the sound is coming from the left ear, middle of the head, and right ear - as is normal for headphones, is less present, and the sources seem to blend together better.
 
Even if this takes care of the channel blending, unfortunately this plugin does not allow time delay of specific channels which would be needed to delay the "right in left" and "left in right" components by a few miliseconds as would be the response in a typical stereo system (the right speaker takes longer to reach the left ear than the left speaker, etc.)... it would be nice if someone could release an updated version of this plugin with a simple textbox in which to enter the amount of delay in miliseconds for each channel, I believe it would be a fairly easy thing to do.
 
Try this out for some time, see what you think and what setting works best for you. I think I prefer playback this way.

 

[leeperry]

you want to invert the phase actually...that's my ghetto xfeed in ffdshow for stereo movies:
 

 
for music, I use the VNoPhones VST plugin...the only one I like(and I've tried pretty much all the VST xfeed plugins)...it's free too!

 

[WrxSTI]

Quote:

you want to invert the phase actually...that's my ghetto xfeed in ffdshow for stereo movies:
 

 
for music, I use the VNoPhones VST plugin...the only one I like(and I've tried pretty much all the VST xfeed plugins)...it's free too!

What is the reason for inverting the phase? Starts sounding "distant" and weird to me.
 

 

[leeperry]

Did you try VNoPhones? 112dB Monitor is interesting too, even though I found it too colored after a while.
 
Most 5.1>stereo downmix matrixes from David Griesinger use inverted phase for stereo pairs...now I use it on movies and 5.1 music, I dunno what it'd do on stereo music...but it wouldn't beat VNP anyway, as you must add delay to get a proper xfeed. xfeed via a matrix is ghetto.

 

[WrxSTI]

Yes, VNoPhones seems promising, I'll have to experiment with it some more. I just like control (knowing) what a plugin is doing so I preferred to make it myself, but sadly the matrix mixer doesn't handle the delays.