The QS Permissive Polyphonics , with the QD etched in the vinyl runout.
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Enoch Light - what's what and different mixes
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No the albums were Quadraphonic or Stereo only . Enoch Light and company never got into ambisonics .
Just found a title with a SD cat # that is QS.
PR 5032 SD
One copy has a QS-4 sticker. The other has a 4 Channel Stereo sticker.
PR 5032 SD
One copy has a QS-4 sticker. The other has a 4 Channel Stereo sticker.
PR5000SD
4 channel stereo sticker
4 channel stereo sticker
PR 5077 QD
CD-4 sticker
I'm becoming convinced that there is neither rhyme nor reason to this label's... labels!!!
CD-4 sticker
I'm becoming convinced that there is neither rhyme nor reason to this label's... labels!!!
Not sure if you've found this yet, but it helped me a lot in my Project 3 journey:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/Project3.htm
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/Project3.htm
Yes a bit confusing, especially when it comes to differentiating between QS and EV -4.
Sometimes the indication on the paper circle along with the number etched in the vinyl gives you some clue.
QD at the end of the number should mean CD-4.
These are notable footnotes for the Quadraphonic Incorporated Catalogue.
Footnote # 2 is from Larry Clifton's research into Project 3.
Footnote # 2 is from Larry Clifton's research into Project 3.
Note the matching cat #'s, yet the contradictory format stickers...
I have that album in Stereo-4 (made for Radio Shack), but I bought it at Musicland in Sycamore Mall.
The jacket says: PR/5036SD, the LP label says: PR 5036 QD, the jacket also has (printed on it): "PROCESSED in STEREO-4" + a generic "4 CHANNEL STEREO" sticker.
To sum up, use QS decoding for everything (DynaQuad [very few albums], Stereo-4, H, UHJ, Ambisonics, Dolby Surround, Circle Surround, StereoSurround [Shure] and the other obscure matrix systems [some LPs, some CDs]) except SQ.
Kirk Bayne
The jacket says: PR/5036SD, the LP label says: PR 5036 QD, the jacket also has (printed on it): "PROCESSED in STEREO-4" + a generic "4 CHANNEL STEREO" sticker.
To sum up, use QS decoding for everything (DynaQuad [very few albums], Stereo-4, H, UHJ, Ambisonics, Dolby Surround, Circle Surround, StereoSurround [Shure] and the other obscure matrix systems [some LPs, some CDs]) except SQ.
Kirk Bayne
I think the nutshell answer is you can't make a definitive conclusion about the quad format of a Project 3 LP based on the sleeves, because they seemed to use various naming schemes, and also various LP pressing companies over the years. They seemed to start out with PR 5xxx QD, but some of the ones around PR 5050 end in SQ, and some of the ones even further on like Tip of the Iceberg (PR 5091 Q) are just Q. It seems to me that they just printed generic QD-suffix sleeves, and then put an LP of whatever format inside, and the LP label (and deadwax as Mark Anderson mentioned) denote the actual format, like Great Hits from the Great Gatsby Era for example, where (for the CD-4 LP) the sleeve says PR 5086 QD and the LP inside says PR 5086 CD4. The only hard and fast rule is that the SD suffix LPs were stereo, and everything else (Q, QD, SQ, etc.) was quad. Beyond that I think you need to use your eyes and your noodle - I would presume any quad LP that doesn't have any format info at all is probably EV, and then go from there, look for stickers on the cover, label info and deadwax info.
Project 3 started in 1966 and was apparently mixing their albums in quad starting in 1967 (according to Light himself) but they didn't start releasing them commercially until 1970. Their first releases were on quad reel, because at the time they were distributed by Vanguard, who were the first record label to release quad reels. Shortly thereafter, they started doing Q8s and EV LPs - I think pretty much everything from PR 5000 (Enoch Light's Spanish Strings, the label's very first album) through Big Band Hits of the Thirties was released in EV, with maybe one or two exceptions. All of these LPs were then reissued as QS LPs sometime around mid-late 1971, when Light became a big endorser of Sansui, and appeared in most of their ads in Billboard etc. endorsing their system.
They got into releasing SQ records in 1972 as well, not long after CBS started putting out their own LPs, and nearly everything released from that year onward (as well as reissues of a few earlier ones) appeared in SQ, again with a handful of exceptions. I think CBS probably helped Project 3, either financially or with expertise, because Larry Keyes appears as a quad supervisor on Project 3's Popular Science test record (PR 401 SQ) and John Eargle shows up as a quad supervisor on Permissive Polyphonics, I think. SQ was the longest-lived of the quad LP formats that Project 3 released in - for everything from PR 5087 (Urbie Green's Big Beautiful Band) in 1974 through PR 5098 (Enoch Light's Dancing in the Dark - Disco Greats) which was the label's final quad release in 1977, SQ was the only quad LP format issued.
They also flirted with CD-4 for a while, but it may have only been 1973 and 1974. It seems like they put out about 75% of their releases from those years in CD-4, 50% of the 1972 releases and a bit less than than (maybe 40%) of their albums 1966-1971.
I'm not sure if they remixed stuff for different systems, but it would seem somewhat unlikely (though not impossible, I suppose) to me given the expense involved for an independent label like Project 3. Given how different some SQ decodes sound compared to the discrete masters we've been lucky enough to hear the last few years, I'd attribute a lot of mix differences and inconsistencies to the quirks and shortcomings of matrix encoding/decoding systems before I'd assume that they'd remix albums from scratch.
Oh, and I really love that cover of Wichita Lineman on the Brass Menagerie album - cheesy, sure, but there's something really majestic about the way Light uses what I think are french horns to play the lead melody that adds to the wistful nature of the song. I avoided all the Project 3 stuff when I first got in to quad because I heard all these people talking about how corny the music was, but I've come to really enjoy a lot of it - there's some stellar musicianship and fabulous mixes, and for me it's head and shoulders above a lot of the so-called easy listening music that came out during the quad era like Ray Conniff, etc.
Project 3 started in 1966 and was apparently mixing their albums in quad starting in 1967 (according to Light himself) but they didn't start releasing them commercially until 1970. Their first releases were on quad reel, because at the time they were distributed by Vanguard, who were the first record label to release quad reels. Shortly thereafter, they started doing Q8s and EV LPs - I think pretty much everything from PR 5000 (Enoch Light's Spanish Strings, the label's very first album) through Big Band Hits of the Thirties was released in EV, with maybe one or two exceptions. All of these LPs were then reissued as QS LPs sometime around mid-late 1971, when Light became a big endorser of Sansui, and appeared in most of their ads in Billboard etc. endorsing their system.
They got into releasing SQ records in 1972 as well, not long after CBS started putting out their own LPs, and nearly everything released from that year onward (as well as reissues of a few earlier ones) appeared in SQ, again with a handful of exceptions. I think CBS probably helped Project 3, either financially or with expertise, because Larry Keyes appears as a quad supervisor on Project 3's Popular Science test record (PR 401 SQ) and John Eargle shows up as a quad supervisor on Permissive Polyphonics, I think. SQ was the longest-lived of the quad LP formats that Project 3 released in - for everything from PR 5087 (Urbie Green's Big Beautiful Band) in 1974 through PR 5098 (Enoch Light's Dancing in the Dark - Disco Greats) which was the label's final quad release in 1977, SQ was the only quad LP format issued.
They also flirted with CD-4 for a while, but it may have only been 1973 and 1974. It seems like they put out about 75% of their releases from those years in CD-4, 50% of the 1972 releases and a bit less than than (maybe 40%) of their albums 1966-1971.
I'm not sure if they remixed stuff for different systems, but it would seem somewhat unlikely (though not impossible, I suppose) to me given the expense involved for an independent label like Project 3. Given how different some SQ decodes sound compared to the discrete masters we've been lucky enough to hear the last few years, I'd attribute a lot of mix differences and inconsistencies to the quirks and shortcomings of matrix encoding/decoding systems before I'd assume that they'd remix albums from scratch.
Oh, and I really love that cover of Wichita Lineman on the Brass Menagerie album - cheesy, sure, but there's something really majestic about the way Light uses what I think are french horns to play the lead melody that adds to the wistful nature of the song. I avoided all the Project 3 stuff when I first got in to quad because I heard all these people talking about how corny the music was, but I've come to really enjoy a lot of it - there's some stellar musicianship and fabulous mixes, and for me it's head and shoulders above a lot of the so-called easy listening music that came out during the quad era like Ray Conniff, etc.
I blame Enoch and Project 3 for the downfall of quad LPs. Talk about confusing! 
I have several quad offerings with the SD suffix.
What are the suffices at the end of the record number? QD is QS or EV. SQ is, well, SQ. CD-4, is, of course, exactly that.Just acquired a large number of Project 3 LPs.
For quite a few, I am not able to determine the format.
Frustrating! Or intriguing.
Yes, the SD's are stereo. Bummer!
You're saying that, even though the records are labeled as Quad, they're actually stereo?
I have SD suffix copies that have Quad labeling...
Are you going by the number on the cover, or the label? They often used the stereo jackets, with stickers, for the early quad releases. The ones for Radio Shack were the exception. The label should have a "QD" suffix.
Mostly jacket, at this point. I have around 1000 records to sort. Mostly inside sleeves with adhesive flaps. Often still sealed too. I don't have time (trying to get through basic sorting and storage) to look at all the records or access (still sealed).
http://www.surrounddiscography.com/Is your friend
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