Quadraphonic Lightfoot Albums

[Andy T.]

Originally Posted by Rob1956

To be done right, Gord would have to have a great surround engineer come in and remix his albums in surround, not just use the crappy out of phase left minus right pseudo-surround..

I missed this when you posted it a couple of weeks ago.

I certainly hope you don't mean the SUNDOWN and COLD ON THE SHOULDER quadraphonic 4-channel surround mixes are crappy treatments... they certainly are not. They are both quite discrete surround mixes, and I think SUNDOWN is an excellent mix, (some regard it as one of the best 1970s quad albums) and COTS, while not quite as good, is still well done. Far from "crappy out of phase left minus right pseudo-surround"!! Just because it's 4.0 Surround and not 5.1 or more doesn't mean they were poorly done.

-Andy

[Rob1956]

Andy, are you saying that the grooves of an lp can contain 4 discreet channels? I've read for decades that the two sides of a record groove can only handle enough information for two discreet left and right front channels plus the left minus right surround channel, as opposed to a DVD-Audio, SACD, or Blu-ray disc that can do full 5 or 5.1 discreet channels.

[Andy T.]

Well, those quadraphonic transfers to DVD-A and SACD mentioned above, were from discrete Reel to Reel tapes, so those were truly separate 4 channel mixes. (Quad-8 tracks were as well.) If you can play DVD-A and SACD, I totally recommend you get those that I mentioned above.

Also, as for vinyl, Warner Brothers never used the SQ or QS style "matrix" encoding on their LP releases. They used CD-4, which was NOT matrix like you were talking about. CD-4 use the same general technology as is used to broadcast FM-stereo - there is a high-frequency carrier signal on each channel, when used with a proper needle and demodulator, will split left and and right into left front/rear and right front/rear. Granted, the record needs to be in good shape, and you have to have the right equipment to play it, but it works better than matrix.

(and Matrix'ed quad, when handled by modern digital processors set up properly, can be much better than anyone ever dreamed of back in early 1970s - the Dreaming Spires website where the SUNDOWN DVD-Audio version came from, has been setting up a SQ matrix decoder for several years before he "finalized" his software. I've heard a couple of his SQ matrix-decodings converted to DVD-Audio, and they were quite well done)

-Andy