Hi there I am a newby, and i wasnt sure whether to post here or beginners so anyways here goes.
I have been searching all the old posts and getting confused as only parts of them explained what i needed to know.
When it comes to the SQ comps. I have been told to fade to the front spilts ony and to turn my subs off. Is this correct. If so why and if not what does a girl do to get the settings right. I have done well in the past in my section of the rookie in autobarn comps locally. Well meaning 4th both times. Which for a beginner isnt bad im guessing. But i really want to better this through my settings if i can. Thats why i would like to have the correct info not just from the boys on the block. Any help would be appreaciated...
Thanks Mel

Fade to front and sub still on will still be logical. Fade to front is to get better staging i guess. You'll be judge on how well sub bass is reproduced, if you turn the sub off, you'll lose point on this.

Ok so what you are sayingis to yes fade to the front as i have been doing but have subs still on and just have them turned down so as not to over power the clarity is this right..

Im not a competitor but I would say that is right.

You may also want to balance a little to the left or right (probably left) to get everything sounding a little more central.

Good luck!

you would first want to provide us with the scoring/judging sheet for these local comps u enter...BUT, if u are planning on entering any CAA SQ comps, then we can be more specific about helping u.

firstly, all sq orientated comps should judge the 'reality' of a reproduced soundstage - that is, when playing a song that is accurately recorded, you should be able to sit in the driver's seat and pick precisely where each performer is (singer, drummer, guitarist, keyboardist, etc...)
and they should all be INFRONT of u, hence why you should completely fade OUT your rears and have only the fronts playing music.
now, there are three octaves of music that can only be accurately produced by a subwoofer, so your subwoofer should be turned ON during comps....BUT it should not be so loud as to over power the music produced by ur front speakers. with alot of 'testing' discs, there are frequency sweep tracks, which play tones, starting at 20hz and gradually increasing up to 20khz. when playing this sort of 'test track', you shouldnt notice very much of a volume change between 35hz-16khz...this would mean you have a (relatively) smooth, flat frequency response...of course using an rta (real time analyser) can help u obtain this alot more accurately.
also, you should have definite left and right channel separation, as well as a focussed centre channel, which should appear to be in the centre of your dash, not directly infront of the driver's seat.

just some starter info

*Brain Explodes*. That hurt my head Spyne... And I ALREADY compete.... hehehehehehe Magna Girl, find out when the comps are on in your state, and go down for a visit. I know (at least here in vic) everyone is very friendly, and willing to help out, and listening to the systems of people who already compete will give you some idea about what the judges look for.

ok. ive seen the CAA SQ judging sheets. i c yall get judged on left/right, stage positioning/width/height & depth. obviously this is to judge cars that put more emphasis on a 'in front only/like a concert' image/STAGING.



fair nuff. i know the judging is more dictated by the judging discs that make it easier to judge the above criteria BUT i like sum rear fill, if i entered would i lose points for having sum music coming from behind?? would i b.....at loss cus ima clubber who likes 'surround sound'? yer i guess its subjective to judge how much rear fill is enuff for a 'club atmosphere' so i can c if theres not even any point in asking all this.

dw bout me. not trying to muck all the system plans u SQ ppl have & how u get judged just curious

cvc160:
well alot of competitors would start to complain if the judges judged most people's cars on the basis i described earlier, and then judged someone elses car based on it 'supposed' to be having a 'surround sound', just because the owner prefers their music that way...

so if u were to compete, you would need to fade out ur rears in order to score the highest staging and imaging points possible.
having ur rears playing, even at low volumes, would bring the soundstage closer to the driver (judge), or even worse, start dragging the soundstage BEHIND the judge.
the way cars are judged (in caasq comps) is based on how audiphile recordings are produced, and i dont know of a single audiophile recording that has a surround sound characteristic, except those recorded in 5.1, which is COMPLETELY different to the 'surround sound' effect in a club (which is just 2.1, but with the "2" playing from both front and rear)

as suggested though, definitely come along to a comp and check it out...we are all a friendly bunch, who are all still learning from others, but those who are experienced are usually more than happy to help out with advice

In theory you would be best having two setups.

One is for you, daily driving and comfort levels, and the second is for the judges. This second one includes no rear-fill, lower bass, slightly higher treble etc.

You could also add a third if you have an EQ. RTA flat. It sounds like sh*t, but will win you stuff.

Oh, and could you people please learn to spell and pronounce english correctly? Makes things easier. Thankyou.

thats what im getting at. at the moment, only frontal image/staging is judged. would it be beneficial to add a criteria that judges 5.1 sound as well??



isnt that what i want to achieve tho??



i guess thats where it starts getting subjective to how much rear fill is enough IF there was a section that judges a 5.1 sound

and i think a club effect would be more than a 2.1 system. more like a 360.1 system heheh when you go clubbin it doesnt only sound like its front/rear but....well from every direction basically

thing is, i dont wanna turn off my rears AT ALL for ANY1........... JK JK! ill be glad to turn off rears just for comps. its no biggie. dont even know why i bothered asking so much, i should just follow the rules

sorry for the lots of questions. sorry for the hijack too magna girl

again, wasnt trying to make it harder for SQ ppl (by harder i mean any1 having to go out of their way to provide a frontal image/staging AND a 5.1 (if the club effect/surround is truly 5.1) image/staging

edit: spelling

lol 5.1 is usually more for movies

At a concert you arent surround by the band. You are usually facing the band who is in front of you. In SQ it is more about creating a live concert so that is why you have all the sound from the front. The only thing rears will do is raise the soundstage but it definitely will pull the stage back



And no you want the sound to come as far forward as possible. Even outside the windscreen if it is possible. The drums and such should be behind the singer like in real concerts.

And Magna Girl, where are you located, come down to one of the comps we hold at Harries Diner if you are in the brissy area. This way you can come ask any of us (competitors for right tips and hints). All of the competitors know each other and we arent fussed about winning as we are all friends. Its more to do with having fun than winning and losing.

And I personally wouldnt want to balance it to the left as this will compress the stage some wat.

thats perfectly fine & understandable. i can live with that rule



brings me to another part of - i think - 'subjective' judging. imagine we're at a concert for a moment, how do you judges determine the perfect depth?? lets compare front row seats & say 30th row seats. if your in the front row, the singer & band would be close to you, singing & playing right in front of you. if your 30 rows back, theyll sound like theyre off in the distance.

with that, id prefer the closer imaging/staging compared to a band thats playing 'as far forward as possible'. is there an agreement among the judges that the 'perfect 10 points' for depth should sound like its coming from, say 1metre in FRONT of the windscreen? or 5 or 10 or 30 metres in front? or just from inside the windscreen? or is it more relative to the competition u have? (eg. YOUR depth may be 1 metre in front, another competitors depth may b 3 metres in front, therefore your competitor would score more on depth simply cus their depth is 'further infront'? )

thats just for depth, but if any1 understood the above then you'd have an idea of wat id ask about stage height & width

sure, its only a few points difference im talkin about but i guess every point matters if u wanna win - tho the aim isnt just about 'win win win', which is sweet

ive been reading SOME threads from only TWO pages of the general discussion (Discussions on CAASQ Competition) & i already have so much to ask & learn about. but this is magna girls thread - i dont wanna hijack it any more than i have. cant really start a new thread concerning all this without somehow letting readers of 'that' thread knowing the beginning of wat ive been asking.

anyway DAMN think this is my longest post yet. hope i made sense. sorry for sucha lengthy read but i guess you can tell im genuinely interested in SQ & maybe hopefully entering one day maybe its best if i just read the rules of SQ comps, wat would put me in what class, etc. can someone plz lead me somewhere thatll help, & hopefully answer my never-ending-questions

in a car environment, theres only so much depth u can get....from my understanding (having seen a few judging sheets, and then listened to the cars) perfect depth seems to be about middle of bonnet, maybe a little more to the front of the car....i havent seen a perfect 10 for depth, but have seen a couple of 9s and when i listened to the car, the depth seemed to be about a metre forward of the dash (just on middle of bonnet)
and yes, it is also relative to the other cars in ur judging class.

this link should get u started on some reading regarding entering comps, rules, judging format, etc...link

cheers spyne. tho i already mentioned ive been looking thru that subforum. cant really find my answers cus it mostly wat im doing here (ppl askin a q, then a discussion about the q). plus, a quick scan of anything past the 2 pages is stuff about 05/04 (older) formats that may not apply anymore - so im not gonna read them.

is there anything like this ( http://www.termpro.com/dbdrag/rules/ )
but for SQ comps? or is it pretty much anything goes in every class

( lets say i enter the safety & sound class, "anything goes" as in:
. 1/2/3/4 subs is fine
. u could build a wall that goes past the b-pillar if u wantd (not that im going to)
. amount of batterys doesnt matter
. etc )

thanks

Anything goes in SQ =D.

cheers p devil! those few wordz answered ALOT of my questions lolz i guess the only thing left for me is to actually enter comps, talk to u guys & learn from there

anything goes, as long as u dont move your seats to "non-standard" positions (ie. the centre of the car, the very back of the car) to gain points in such things as depth, centre focus....

silly points, but they were brought up when discussing the 2006 rules