I’m trying to understand how Swatch handles the normalized connections.
When I send video to Swatch with none of the Y, I, and Q patched, the Clamped output looks great.
When patching the I Plus out to I Plus in, all is great, looks the same as unpatched. This is also true for patching Q Plus out to Q Plus in.
My question comes up when I try to patch either I Minus out to I Minus in or Q Minus out to Q Minus in. Both of these result in a different output than when unpatched and normalled. I’ve tried different patch cables to make sure that wasn’t the issue.
Why would it appear differently when patched vs. normalled?
Here are screen captures. The bottom row of three large squares are a YIQ displays.
The I and Q positive and negative inputs are additive. In other words, the I inputs are summed, and the Q inputs are summed. But the negative inputs are inverted before the summing.
Whatever you patch into a negative input is inverted and added to the existing signal. That existing signal is whatever is present at the positive input, either patched or internally normalled from the positive output.
Regarding the I and Q negative outputs… they are already inverted.
When you patch negative out to negative in, you are inverting the signal twice and adding it to the existing signal. Therefore you are doubling the signal. Do this with both I and Q, and you double the saturation.
Take a look at my Swatch tutorial, it covers this and much more.
BTW I have to say once again that Swatch is an absolute triumph of design. I am very critical of everything, and I really can’t think of any way Swatch can be improved. Technically, functionally, and from a UX standpoint, it is pretty much perfect.
