Thomas, you mentioned that back in 1969 you had a percentage share of Peter Scheiber's matrix. When this quad matrix was being demonstrated for DGG (at that time) were the music selections taken from Columbia Records artists? Or were they from RCA catalogue artists or some other? I seem to remember reading an artitcle about Scheiber's demo tape selections and thought I had kept the magazine article, but alas can't find the reference so now I'm flumoxed!
And I have a second question.Did you ever have the opportunity to try the matrix on any DGG titles?
I know that Karlheinz Stockhausen recorded some of his work in quadraphonic discrete tape for later mix down to stereo.Anyway as a long time quad sleuth I'm always on the lookout for unknown quad titles, unreleaed or released but unannounced not to mention quad titles only now being issued for the quad collector and your a credit to your profession by supplying all this wonderful info on quad titles you've been involved with.
Thankyou, derek
Hi Derek,
You're right on several counts here. Firstly, yes, I owned 15% of Scheiber's invention when we originally formed Audiodata Company in September of 1969. That was reduced to 13% when several other partners came in. Then Peter bought all of us out a few years after the lawsuit against and settlement with Dolby — I think around 1988.
Secondly, when Peter and I did our original press blitz in the fall of '69, we were indeed using demo material supplied by (the late) John McClure at Columbia Records. I remember in particular "Mrs. Robinson" with Simon & Garfunkel, a ping-ping-pong-pong type track called "Popcorn" by Gershon Kingsley, and "Swan Lake" with Bernstein and the Philharmonic. Also some of Walter (later Wendy) Carlos's "Switched-On Bach" record and something by Carlos Santana. It was great material. We didn't have anything from RCA.
Concerning magazine articles about quad, I have a very nice collection of them from the 1969-73 period (I think about 7) in PDF form which I would be happy to post here if I only knew how to do that! They describe very clearly how the whole thing started and then evolved.
No, I never tried to put anything from DG through the matrix, and the reason for that was that, by the time DG actually had some quad material, DG had already made the decision not to go with matrixing. A couple months ago I posted somewhere on this site the reason DG's technical chief, Peter Burkowitz, gave me for that decision. His words were, "Why should we spend good money buying clouds to bring rain, when what we need is sunshine?" That was the end of the story as far as DG was concerned. However, Ray Dolby definitely figured out how to squeeze blood out of the matrixing stone, and eventually made himself a couple billion dollars in the process.
I know that Stockhausen was fooling around with quad around that time, and in fact I remember meeting him briefly in one of the DG post-production studios in Hannover, long about 1971, and then I went to a "Stockhausen Abend" in Hamburg a few years after that with his producer, Rudi Werner, when and where Der Meister held forth at great length about his latest creation. This was almost a seance being held by a cult with its guru at the center. Little bit creepy, actually, given the Germans' known tendency to bow before a powerful leader (
auf Deutsch, Man sagt, "Führer")!
But I treasure the memories of those days. Thanks for bringing them back, Derek.