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August 5, 1972
SQ, CD-4, RM
CONFUSION IN JAPAN
By Donald Mann
THE QUADRASONIC PICTURE in Japan today is one blurred by confusion and indecision. The confusion is brought about by the fact that there are three basic quadrasonic systems which are now available to the consumer.
The first is the RM, or regular matrix 4-channel playback system as defined in the standard regulations adopted by the Electronics Industry Assn. of Japan (EIA-J) and which had been framed by its 4-channel stereo engineering committee.
A similar standard was adopted by the Record Industry Assn. of Japan (RIA-J) based on recommendations by its engineering sub-committee, concerning the manufacture of RM records. These standards are based on the use of a square matrix and + 90 degree phase shifters. Signals generated in the front half of the original sound field are matrixed into front right and front left signals mutually in phase while those in the rear are processed through the 90 degree phase shifters and transformed into rear right and rear left signals with completely reversed phases.
The second system is the SQ matrix system developed through the joint efforts of Sony and CBS. In this system, which is slightly different from and not fully compatible with other matrix systems, the signals on a 4-channel master tape are converted to a 2 track medium by means of an SQ Encoder which produces four specific modulation patterns on the 2 channel SQ records. These modulations can be separated back into four channels of sound for reproduction by four speakers with the use of the SQ decoder.
The third system is the CD-4 (compatible discrete 4-channel) system of the Victor Company of Japan. This has four completely separated and discrete channels which, when transferred to a record, are not reduced in number. The CD-4 record therefore has two channels of sound on each side of the groove. This CD-4 system requires a special CD-4 demodulator and also a special cartridge and stylus, while there are such other limitations as a stylus pressure of 1.5 grams as compared to the normal 2-3 grams or the five grams of a ceramic cartridge.
The indecision arises from the problems faced by the hardware manufacturers as to what types of equipment they should design and sell. Eleven companies are reported to have agreed to adopt the CD-4 system, these including Victor and Matsushita, as well as Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Hitachi, Nippon Columbia, Sharp, Sanyo, Onkyo, Pioneer and Trio (Kenwood Electronics). However, there is still some concern regarding the limitations of this system, and this, plus the fact that the SQ and RM systems also exist, have deterred them from placing purely CD-4 equipment on sale.
Concern also has been expressed regarding the amount of available CD-4 software, and therefore a great deal hinges on which way companies in the United States will lean. It was reported that JVC had made some sort of breakthrough in regard to such limitations as stylus pressure, during the first week of June and that a sample of a new improved disk and perhaps equipment had been rushed to RCA in the U.S. around June 8. Also that this had revived RCA's flagging spirits concerning the CD-4 system, particularly in connection with disks, and considerably brightened future prospects.
JVC will soon be releasing in the U.S. a precision turntable
(4VC-5244) with a built in 4-channel demodulator and a compact demodulator (4DD-5) designed to be added to most existing 2-channel turntables and all 4-channel reproducing systems.
Sansui Electric has been very active around the world and claims great success in having its QS system 4-channel encoder adopted by various recording studios. Pye of Britain uses the QS encoder, as does Ovation, A&M and others in the U.S. It is now working on what it says is a vastly improved model of this encoder.
All such facts increase the dilemma of the hardware and software producers. Sansui's QS system is based on the RM system, and so there is not any great difficulty involved, but there is a great difference when it comes to the SQ and CD-4 systems.
As a result, most of the stereo sets which are either in production now or will be by the latter part of this year are based on the RM system, which was the standard system originally decided upon, But will also be able to handle both SQ and CD-4 records with the use of optional CD-4 demodulator and cartridge (the players are so wired to accept the latter) or SQ adapter.
Approximately 60 percent of the stereo sets produced in Japan today are of the 4-channel variety and these appear to be selling better than the ordinary 2 channel types, but not for the reasons one might expect. The main reasons seems to be purely one of prestige or of simply possessing the latest type of equipment, as it has become quite apparent that the average customer has no real knowledge of what 4-channel stereo is all about or of the various systems available.
One story being constantly repeated is that of the customer in a department store who said he'd take the set if it was of the 4-channel type but that he had no use for the two smaller speakers and would they please omit those and give him a discount.
Components, on the other hand, are moving slowly in comparison, meaning that the serious audio and music fan is not yet convinced of the merits of 4-channel sound or of the total cost if one is to have a setup that can handle any type of 4-channel system.
Pioneer Electronic Corporation is at present turning out equip ment with built in capacity to handle RM and SQ systems, and also to handle CD-4 with the use of optional CD-4 modulator and cartridge. Although it is listed as one of the supporters of the CD-4 system, it has constantly been a firm backer of the standardized RM system as it believes such action will benefit the entire industry itself as well as the consumer.
However, since the SQ system seems to be steadily losing ground due to various bugs which have appeared, it is possible that Pioneer will begin to turn out equipment with built-in capac ity to handle RM and CD-4 once it appears certain that CD-4 really become a driving force in actuality. There is a general feeling that CD-4 is still more talk than action, and so everyone is sitting back waiting for things to settle down to a point where the future direction becomes clearer.
To further complicate matters, there is an over abundance of rumors. Sansui is to make an announcement of some importance towards the end of July, and the general betting is that it will deal with the agreement of some large U.S. firm or firms to adopt the QS encoding and decoding system. This condition is expected to continue until late autumn, at which time it is expected that some sort of decision will be made that will really signal the opening of the era of 4-channel sound.
Another complication, for both industry and consumer, is that various companies, although having basically the same systems, are giving them individual names. Hitachi calls it Lo-D for Low distortion, Mitsubishi SE for Separation Enhancement, etc., and so there is a move to adopt a single RM logo that will be used by all companies turning out RM systems. The software would also be so marked, thereby greatly easing the consumer's burden and no doubt resulting in increased sales.
As far as 4-channel sound in Japan today is concerned, there is only one fact that is certain, and that is that the future direction of this medium and the policies of the companies involved are as uncertain as they can be.
Tracing back the development of industry standards for quadrasonic sound, the ElA-J set three standards on April 15, 1972 for all 4-channel software and hardware. These covered the CD-4, the SQ and the RM system.
However in handing down its decision, held over from the latter part of 1971, the EIA-J told the manufacturers involved
"we'll leave all the arrangements for standardizing regular matrix systems in your hands."
Although the Japan Record Makers Assn. has adopted these standards, several of the software producers are subsidiaries or affiliates of the hardware companies, and both software and hardware firms have developed their own matrix systems. Consequently, there is no standard regular matrix to date.
Apart from the CD-4 and SQ systems, the other Japanese matrix systems are more or less compatible with each other and most of the hardware firms are now producing quadrasonic machines compatible with SQ and / or CD-4 with a universal matrix compatibility. To date, however, only the new line of three machines announced in Tokyo in June by the Victor Company of Japan can play all types of disks without connecting a CD-4 demodulator and SQ decoder.
As of June 30, the number of different CD-4 disks pressed in Japan was 103, with JVC manufacturing 101 and Polydor pressing 2. CBS/Sony had pressed 49 SQ albums and Warner-Pioneer 3.
Including RM disks and additional releases by CD-4 and SQ during the latter part of this year, the total number of 4-channel disks scheduled for release in Japan is approaching the 350 mark.
August 5, 1972
ENGLAND ENTERS THE
QUADRASONIC ERA
GINGERLY
By Richard Robson
MAY SAW THE START of the quadrasonic era in the United Kingdom with the release of the first matrix 4-channel records.
Strangely enough, the advent of this next major step in sound reproduction arrived on the whole pretty quietly and with the minimum of drum beating by manufacturers. Even so, there are many who feel that the development of 4-channel sound is an even greater milestone in the history of music than the transition from mono to stereo.
The people of England and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe have always traditionally resisted change and anything new. It took several years for stereo to become fully accepted and when the first 2-channel records were released in this country, many consumers argued that it was gimmicky and unnecessary. Going back even further, there was even a furor when the old wax 78 rpm discs began to be superseded by 45 singles.
This is perhaps one of the reasons why manufacturers of quadrasonic equipment and software have been rather soft peddling 4-channel goods although if it is, there is considerable evidence to suggest that they had no need to be so cautious.
Despite a few diehards both in and outside the industry, the concept of 4-channel sound has been warmly welcomed in both the U.K. and the rest of Europe and despite the lack of publicity in the national media that has been given to the introduction of quadrasonic equipment, records and tapes, a surprisingly large sector of the music-buying public seems very aware of 4-channel's capability.
The limited number of retail outlets that have been brave enough to stock a small range of 4 channel goods all report a steady demand from consumers whose only complaint is that there is not enough quadrasonic software available yet. It seems that in the automotive tape market particularly, 4-channel has already began to catch on.
Even so, it is still very early days for 4-channel in the U.K.—Decca, Phonogram, Polydor, UA and WEA have all yet to decide whether to back matrix or discrete let alone release any quadrasonic product. Also, at least for the time being, 4-channel is going to be a fairly expensive luxury which probably only the more enthusiastic record or tape collector will initially be interested in.
On the record side, the CBS SQ matrix system has made the initial impact and in addition of course to CBS, EMI has also started releasing SQ albums. On the tape side, the market is exclusively discrete cartridge at the moment although Precision has been experimenting very successfully with matrix cassettes. Precision's managing director Walter Woyda says, however, that he will not be releasing any 4-channel cassettes until the appropriate hardware becomes generally available.
Several manufacturers are also waiting with increasing interest and anticipation to see what Philips, inventors of the cassette system, decide to do. Although the firm is remaining tight-lipped about its 4-channel plans, Philips is believed to be of the opinion that matrix is the only system for cassettes so that quadrasonic product would be compatible with ordinary stereo cassette players.
Several manufacturers are also waiting with increasing interest and anticipation to see what Philips, inventors of the cassette system, decide to do. Although the firm is remaining tightlipped about its 4-channel plans, Philips is believed to be of the opinion that matrix is the only system for cassettes so that quadrasonic product would be compatible with ordinary stereo cassette players.
However, there are a number of other European manufacturers who claim that reducing the track width is detrimental to the overall reproduction quality of the tape. Instead of going matrix, they suggest discrete cassettes utilizing the existing four tracks which would mean in effect that the cassette would only play one way making it incompatible with ordinary cassette playback equipment.
The problem has yet to be solved and certainly, there will not be any 4-channel cassettes released for some while yet.
On the tape side, RCA and Motorola were the first to feel the water with 4-channel in the U.K. at the end of last year. RCA released an initial batch of around 50 cartridges ranging from classics through easy listening to progressive rock-a fairly representative selection from the company's catalog.
Comments Richard Thomas, the company's pop product manager: "Sales have been very encouraging particularly in the automotive sector. In fact, I think 4-chan-nel will initially develop in the automotive market before spilling over into the high street."
Motorola was the first hardware manufacturer in the field and at the end of last year introduced its Quadraline 4-channel car unit which sells at the amazingly low price of only $184 including speakers. The firm will also be shortly introducing a quadrasonic home system.
But the 4-channel ball didn't really start rolling until May when CBS's SQ system was launched and certainly the fact that CBS and EMI-the two largest recording organizations in the world-have plumped for SQ must influence to some degree the choice of others.
CBS has released an initial batch of 20 4-channel albums which are available on both disk and tape. EMI has also released a limited catalog of quadrasonic records and tapes which includes two sampler albums--one on disk, the other on cartridge-which demonstrate the ambiance and surround of 4-channel sound.
JVC's CD-4 discrete record system has since been launched in this country as has Sansui's matrix equivalent which Pye plumped for when it made a very small 4-channel release earlier this year.
RCA's Quadradisc system, developed in conjunction with JVC Nivic. was introduced to the industry in London earlier this month and the company will be releas ing its first 4-channel albums later this year.
ENGLAND ENTERS THE
QUADRASONIC ERA
GINGERLY
By Richard Robson
MAY SAW THE START of the quadrasonic era in the United Kingdom with the release of the first matrix 4-channel records.
Strangely enough, the advent of this next major step in sound reproduction arrived on the whole pretty quietly and with the minimum of drum beating by manufacturers. Even so, there are many who feel that the development of 4-channel sound is an even greater milestone in the history of music than the transition from mono to stereo.
The people of England and to a lesser extent the rest of Europe have always traditionally resisted change and anything new. It took several years for stereo to become fully accepted and when the first 2-channel records were released in this country, many consumers argued that it was gimmicky and unnecessary. Going back even further, there was even a furor when the old wax 78 rpm discs began to be superseded by 45 singles.
This is perhaps one of the reasons why manufacturers of quadrasonic equipment and software have been rather soft peddling 4-channel goods although if it is, there is considerable evidence to suggest that they had no need to be so cautious.
Despite a few diehards both in and outside the industry, the concept of 4-channel sound has been warmly welcomed in both the U.K. and the rest of Europe and despite the lack of publicity in the national media that has been given to the introduction of quadrasonic equipment, records and tapes, a surprisingly large sector of the music-buying public seems very aware of 4-channel's capability.
The limited number of retail outlets that have been brave enough to stock a small range of 4 channel goods all report a steady demand from consumers whose only complaint is that there is not enough quadrasonic software available yet. It seems that in the automotive tape market particularly, 4-channel has already began to catch on.
Even so, it is still very early days for 4-channel in the U.K.—Decca, Phonogram, Polydor, UA and WEA have all yet to decide whether to back matrix or discrete let alone release any quadrasonic product. Also, at least for the time being, 4-channel is going to be a fairly expensive luxury which probably only the more enthusiastic record or tape collector will initially be interested in.
On the record side, the CBS SQ matrix system has made the initial impact and in addition of course to CBS, EMI has also started releasing SQ albums. On the tape side, the market is exclusively discrete cartridge at the moment although Precision has been experimenting very successfully with matrix cassettes. Precision's managing director Walter Woyda says, however, that he will not be releasing any 4-channel cassettes until the appropriate hardware becomes generally available.
Several manufacturers are also waiting with increasing interest and anticipation to see what Philips, inventors of the cassette system, decide to do. Although the firm is remaining tight-lipped about its 4-channel plans, Philips is believed to be of the opinion that matrix is the only system for cassettes so that quadrasonic product would be compatible with ordinary stereo cassette players.
Several manufacturers are also waiting with increasing interest and anticipation to see what Philips, inventors of the cassette system, decide to do. Although the firm is remaining tightlipped about its 4-channel plans, Philips is believed to be of the opinion that matrix is the only system for cassettes so that quadrasonic product would be compatible with ordinary stereo cassette players.
However, there are a number of other European manufacturers who claim that reducing the track width is detrimental to the overall reproduction quality of the tape. Instead of going matrix, they suggest discrete cassettes utilizing the existing four tracks which would mean in effect that the cassette would only play one way making it incompatible with ordinary cassette playback equipment.
The problem has yet to be solved and certainly, there will not be any 4-channel cassettes released for some while yet.
On the tape side, RCA and Motorola were the first to feel the water with 4-channel in the U.K. at the end of last year. RCA released an initial batch of around 50 cartridges ranging from classics through easy listening to progressive rock-a fairly representative selection from the company's catalog.
Comments Richard Thomas, the company's pop product manager: "Sales have been very encouraging particularly in the automotive sector. In fact, I think 4-chan-nel will initially develop in the automotive market before spilling over into the high street."
Motorola was the first hardware manufacturer in the field and at the end of last year introduced its Quadraline 4-channel car unit which sells at the amazingly low price of only $184 including speakers. The firm will also be shortly introducing a quadrasonic home system.
But the 4-channel ball didn't really start rolling until May when CBS's SQ system was launched and certainly the fact that CBS and EMI-the two largest recording organizations in the world-have plumped for SQ must influence to some degree the choice of others.
CBS has released an initial batch of 20 4-channel albums which are available on both disk and tape. EMI has also released a limited catalog of quadrasonic records and tapes which includes two sampler albums--one on disk, the other on cartridge-which demonstrate the ambiance and surround of 4-channel sound.
JVC's CD-4 discrete record system has since been launched in this country as has Sansui's matrix equivalent which Pye plumped for when it made a very small 4-channel release earlier this year.
RCA's Quadradisc system, developed in conjunction with JVC Nivic. was introduced to the industry in London earlier this month and the company will be releas ing its first 4-channel albums later this year.
Dolby B has to be properly calibrated, which it seldom is. My Akai GXC-740D Cassette had a calibrate feature (only possible with a three head deck). Dolby B worked fine for me. I just had to calibrate record levels for each tape.
Back in the day I think that most people used the Dolby switch (off) as a treble boost!
Most Dolby B quad reels have calibrate tones so that you can set the playback level properly although I think that some highs are still lost due to high speed dubbing.
Pre-recorded 8-track and cassettes do not normally come with calibration tones, so how do you set them right? I never bothered much with pre-recorded cassettes and the 8-tracks sound fine without using Dolby on playback!
This would be what we would normally refer to as RM as distinct from QS.
This describes QS which is compatible with and is also referred to as RM! Confused yet?
August 5, 1972
STUDY LAUDS
SANSUI OS SYSTEM
Matrix boosters received a boost recently when Sansui's QS system was singled out in a study conducted by engineer John Mosely of Command Studios in London. In the study, conducted with listeners in a recording studio, Sansui's system turned out "to be the only one of those tested to give satisfactory quadrasonic and stereo reproduction. The CBS SQ system exhibited superior properties with regard to the front separation, but was rather poor in the back and between the front and back." (CBS countered with the statement that this test had not been passed by them as being properly encoded . .. nor that the domestic Japanese decoder unit used in the test showed the CBS system off to its full potention. The SQ system, to give its best results requires gain riding logic circuitry both in the corners and in the front and back, CBS said.)
Mosely's studies were later met with some skepticism after he became a consultant to Sansui.
The result of this study showed him that Sansui QS was the best of the four matrix systems tested "and the only one that can be used for all purposes.” But he also stated that it was "clear that much work must be done in order to find out how to use this new tool to its best advantage. It is almost certainly wrong to expect to get satisfactory results encoding a tape without investigating its own peculiarities and make some adjustments in remixing.
One of the claims has always been that matrix was excellent as a system for providing a "concert hall" sound atmosphere, but Mosely's study showed him that "it has become increasingly obvious that very few people are able to produce consistently good results quadraphonically and it can be concluded that there are as many tricks to be learned in this new art form as there were in perfecting stereophonic recording, probably even more. It is clearly wrong simply to use stereo techniques with a couple of microphones placed at random to collect stray voices and ambience.
STUDY LAUDS
SANSUI OS SYSTEM
Matrix boosters received a boost recently when Sansui's QS system was singled out in a study conducted by engineer John Mosely of Command Studios in London. In the study, conducted with listeners in a recording studio, Sansui's system turned out "to be the only one of those tested to give satisfactory quadrasonic and stereo reproduction. The CBS SQ system exhibited superior properties with regard to the front separation, but was rather poor in the back and between the front and back." (CBS countered with the statement that this test had not been passed by them as being properly encoded . .. nor that the domestic Japanese decoder unit used in the test showed the CBS system off to its full potention. The SQ system, to give its best results requires gain riding logic circuitry both in the corners and in the front and back, CBS said.)
Mosely's studies were later met with some skepticism after he became a consultant to Sansui.
The result of this study showed him that Sansui QS was the best of the four matrix systems tested "and the only one that can be used for all purposes.” But he also stated that it was "clear that much work must be done in order to find out how to use this new tool to its best advantage. It is almost certainly wrong to expect to get satisfactory results encoding a tape without investigating its own peculiarities and make some adjustments in remixing.
One of the claims has always been that matrix was excellent as a system for providing a "concert hall" sound atmosphere, but Mosely's study showed him that "it has become increasingly obvious that very few people are able to produce consistently good results quadraphonically and it can be concluded that there are as many tricks to be learned in this new art form as there were in perfecting stereophonic recording, probably even more. It is clearly wrong simply to use stereo techniques with a couple of microphones placed at random to collect stray voices and ambience.
August 5, 1972
CBS SQ’S AHEAD WITH
ITS MATRIX LICENSEES
By Radcliffe Joe
Behind the smokescreen of promotional flack and industry infighting, 4-channel sound is a serious and viable technology into which both hardware and software manufacturers have sunk millions of dollars.
In the vanguard of those manufacturers making an inalienable commitment to the quadrasonic concept is the giant CBS Corp. whose SQ tape and disk system is already being manufactured by 34 licensees worldwide.
These manufacturers include such established brand names as Fisher, Kenwood, KLH, Harmon Kardon, Pioneer, Sony, Marantz, Lloyd, Sanyo, Arvin Industries, Masterwork, Packard Bell and others.
Equipment produced by these licensees spans the spectrum of design and pricing from units for the discriminating audiophile to popular priced lines for the average consumer.
This drive by CBS to accelerate mass market interest in the 4-channel concept, shifted into high gear at the June Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
At that annual extravaganza of electronics technology, some 50 SQ disk system models were shown by CBS licensees to an estimated 30,000 dealers and distributors, and CBS top brass felt that the impressive display of muscle flexing went a long way towards allaying the fears of fence-sitters about the viability of 4 channel.
Its success at the CES show did not prompt CBS to rest on its laurels. Its search for ways and means of building that proverbial "better mouse trap” at prices which would be increasingly attractive to the man-in-the street, continued relentlessly.
CBS made a giant step forward in this direction in June when, in its quest for quadrasonic sound compatability, it reached an agreement with the Electro-Voice Corp. on the exchange of patent rights and technology related to their respective systems.
The agreement gave CBS access to a low cost integrated circuit "chip" decoder that fits into the palm of the hand, and can be built into quadrasonic equipment at minimal cost. CBS has since licensed Motorola--the largest U.S. manufacturer of IC circuitry-to produce the chip, and, according to Stan Kavan, vice president, planning and diversification, CBS Records, orders for the "chip" are pouring in from SQ licensees around the world.
"We have developed, and are con. tinuing to develop the SQ system on the premise that to make a medium you must first make a market, Kavan says.
"As long as quadrasonic sound remains the plaything of audio experimentalists, there is no market, no mass base of support for the artists whose vision urges them to explore and advance 4-channel sound and its possibilities."
The CBS executive notes it was the thought of creating this mass market and serving it properly that lead his company to decide on the SQ system after almost four years of research.
"We needed a 4-channel disk system that was totally compatible with all existing systems-4-channel records that could play on stereo equipment, that could be broadcast on stereo stations and yet be heard without any loss of quality simply by adding the appropriate equipment to stereo systems already in existence." Kavan feels that CBS has found the answer to its quest in the SQ system.
“There is no sacrifice or compromise involved with SQ," he says. "The playing time is the same as that of an equivalent stereo disk, up to the same 36 minute maximum as today's longest stereo album.
"The loudness is the same, and so is the signal to noise ratio. Also, all the high frequencies are there, up to 20,000 Hz."
According to Kavan, with the SQ system even the player is similar to its stereophonic counterpart with no new cartridge or stylus needed.
Concurrent with the development of the SQ hardware technology, CBS has been paying much attention to the development of a software library to complement the equipment. As Kavan points out, "Ultimately all sonic innovations must be judged by what they convey to the music and by what music they convey."
As a result, CBS has, in cooperation with such software manufacturers as Vanguard Records, Ampex, EMI, and Barnaby, as well as its own Epic, Columbia Masterworks and CBS Records, released a catalog of more than 100 SQ titles ranging from Tchaikovsky, Handel and Mozart to Edgar Winter, Santana, Jeff Beck, Janis Joplin and Simon and Garfunkel.
The company's research and manufacturing activities are aided by an extensive marketing push in which licensees and software producers are taking part.
"We are telling the SQ story far and wide, through media advertising, in store aids, banners, booklets, point of purchase aids, posters and 4-channel broadcasts."
Of consumer response to date, Kavan says that the SQ licensees control well over 60 percent of all stereo sales in the United States, and that it was improbably they would have made a commitment to 4 channel if they felt it was not viable as a consumer product.
CBS SQ’S AHEAD WITH
ITS MATRIX LICENSEES
By Radcliffe Joe
Behind the smokescreen of promotional flack and industry infighting, 4-channel sound is a serious and viable technology into which both hardware and software manufacturers have sunk millions of dollars.
In the vanguard of those manufacturers making an inalienable commitment to the quadrasonic concept is the giant CBS Corp. whose SQ tape and disk system is already being manufactured by 34 licensees worldwide.
These manufacturers include such established brand names as Fisher, Kenwood, KLH, Harmon Kardon, Pioneer, Sony, Marantz, Lloyd, Sanyo, Arvin Industries, Masterwork, Packard Bell and others.
Equipment produced by these licensees spans the spectrum of design and pricing from units for the discriminating audiophile to popular priced lines for the average consumer.
This drive by CBS to accelerate mass market interest in the 4-channel concept, shifted into high gear at the June Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago.
At that annual extravaganza of electronics technology, some 50 SQ disk system models were shown by CBS licensees to an estimated 30,000 dealers and distributors, and CBS top brass felt that the impressive display of muscle flexing went a long way towards allaying the fears of fence-sitters about the viability of 4 channel.
Its success at the CES show did not prompt CBS to rest on its laurels. Its search for ways and means of building that proverbial "better mouse trap” at prices which would be increasingly attractive to the man-in-the street, continued relentlessly.
CBS made a giant step forward in this direction in June when, in its quest for quadrasonic sound compatability, it reached an agreement with the Electro-Voice Corp. on the exchange of patent rights and technology related to their respective systems.
The agreement gave CBS access to a low cost integrated circuit "chip" decoder that fits into the palm of the hand, and can be built into quadrasonic equipment at minimal cost. CBS has since licensed Motorola--the largest U.S. manufacturer of IC circuitry-to produce the chip, and, according to Stan Kavan, vice president, planning and diversification, CBS Records, orders for the "chip" are pouring in from SQ licensees around the world.
"We have developed, and are con. tinuing to develop the SQ system on the premise that to make a medium you must first make a market, Kavan says.
"As long as quadrasonic sound remains the plaything of audio experimentalists, there is no market, no mass base of support for the artists whose vision urges them to explore and advance 4-channel sound and its possibilities."
The CBS executive notes it was the thought of creating this mass market and serving it properly that lead his company to decide on the SQ system after almost four years of research.
"We needed a 4-channel disk system that was totally compatible with all existing systems-4-channel records that could play on stereo equipment, that could be broadcast on stereo stations and yet be heard without any loss of quality simply by adding the appropriate equipment to stereo systems already in existence." Kavan feels that CBS has found the answer to its quest in the SQ system.
“There is no sacrifice or compromise involved with SQ," he says. "The playing time is the same as that of an equivalent stereo disk, up to the same 36 minute maximum as today's longest stereo album.
"The loudness is the same, and so is the signal to noise ratio. Also, all the high frequencies are there, up to 20,000 Hz."
According to Kavan, with the SQ system even the player is similar to its stereophonic counterpart with no new cartridge or stylus needed.
Concurrent with the development of the SQ hardware technology, CBS has been paying much attention to the development of a software library to complement the equipment. As Kavan points out, "Ultimately all sonic innovations must be judged by what they convey to the music and by what music they convey."
As a result, CBS has, in cooperation with such software manufacturers as Vanguard Records, Ampex, EMI, and Barnaby, as well as its own Epic, Columbia Masterworks and CBS Records, released a catalog of more than 100 SQ titles ranging from Tchaikovsky, Handel and Mozart to Edgar Winter, Santana, Jeff Beck, Janis Joplin and Simon and Garfunkel.
The company's research and manufacturing activities are aided by an extensive marketing push in which licensees and software producers are taking part.
"We are telling the SQ story far and wide, through media advertising, in store aids, banners, booklets, point of purchase aids, posters and 4-channel broadcasts."
Of consumer response to date, Kavan says that the SQ licensees control well over 60 percent of all stereo sales in the United States, and that it was improbably they would have made a commitment to 4 channel if they felt it was not viable as a consumer product.
August 5, 1972
ENOCH SEES THE LIGHT
IN SANSUI
Enoch Light, head of Project 3
Records and the man who contributed so much to the exposure of the stereo record, is moving ahead on the quadrasonic front. He produces both in matrix and discrete.
In the discrete system, he produces for cartridges and reel to reel tape; in matrix he uses the Sansui QS encoder system for records. "All my future product will be put out in both 4-channel and in stereo," Light says. "I chose Sansui because I prefer to issue a single version of each release. This encoder serves the purpose admirably, by placing back channel information to either side.
"The effect on the composition, the arrangement, and on the creative process is very big, for when you mix, you can also separate, creating an effect that is unique,” he says.
"Distributors are slow in grasping the concept as they did stereo, but there's little doubt they will pick up on it soon enough. Once they catch on to its importance, sales will begin to rise, whether the system is matrix or discrete.” We ourselves have had orders from as far away places as the Canary Islands."
Light issues a warning to the manufacturer who labels the product quadrasonic when, in fact, it is merely doctored. "In their rush to put out product, they simply remake old product, use a gimmick here or there and the over-all effect is allegedly 4-channel.
"This kind of action is a fraud on the consumer. Hearing this kind of record makes him skeptical and unwilling to buy. . . . This same kind of fakery also existed during the time of the introduction of stereo.”
ENOCH SEES THE LIGHT
IN SANSUI
Enoch Light, head of Project 3
Records and the man who contributed so much to the exposure of the stereo record, is moving ahead on the quadrasonic front. He produces both in matrix and discrete.
In the discrete system, he produces for cartridges and reel to reel tape; in matrix he uses the Sansui QS encoder system for records. "All my future product will be put out in both 4-channel and in stereo," Light says. "I chose Sansui because I prefer to issue a single version of each release. This encoder serves the purpose admirably, by placing back channel information to either side.
"The effect on the composition, the arrangement, and on the creative process is very big, for when you mix, you can also separate, creating an effect that is unique,” he says.
"Distributors are slow in grasping the concept as they did stereo, but there's little doubt they will pick up on it soon enough. Once they catch on to its importance, sales will begin to rise, whether the system is matrix or discrete.” We ourselves have had orders from as far away places as the Canary Islands."
Light issues a warning to the manufacturer who labels the product quadrasonic when, in fact, it is merely doctored. "In their rush to put out product, they simply remake old product, use a gimmick here or there and the over-all effect is allegedly 4-channel.
"This kind of action is a fraud on the consumer. Hearing this kind of record makes him skeptical and unwilling to buy. . . . This same kind of fakery also existed during the time of the introduction of stereo.”
August 5, 1972
PUDWELL SELLING RCA’s
QUADRADISC LOGS MILES
By Ian Dove
For John Pudwell, the job of directing RCA's entry into the discrete compatible 4 channel disk market, has been one of travel and explanation, and travel, so far.
As director for new product development, he has gone all over the U.S. putting RCA's point of view and displaying their product range. Soon he is off to Europe and then to Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa to “sell" the idea of the quadradisc.
But it's getting easier.
Says Pudwell: "RCA knew the majority of distributors wouldn't want to carry another inventory and wouldn't give us help to promote. We had to sell this--which we honestly believe is the best system from the viewpoint of the customer.
"But it's been interesting to see that, while at first it was difficult to get an executive to see us, as we went along it become easler.
"Word of mouth was out about our product."
Pudwell is also interested in the by products of the company's research into 4-channel sound. One
"fall out" from this research is a new plastic compound that Pudwell considers to be "a most significant breakthrough and should advance the industry by 10 years in one lump.
The compound, when developed, will give "unmatched surface" to product and cut down surface noise.
Pudwell found that the Consumer Electronics Show was "a mirror for the future." He recalls the "absolute race for equipment on 4 channel tape-it's unbelievable" what he saw there and the "impressive" display of hardware.
"The future is bright—we have certainly come a long way internally, even though sometimes it didn't seem as if we were making headway. Not only is it a new enhanced sound, but it's also going to be a new way to record," he feels.
PUDWELL SELLING RCA’s
QUADRADISC LOGS MILES
By Ian Dove
For John Pudwell, the job of directing RCA's entry into the discrete compatible 4 channel disk market, has been one of travel and explanation, and travel, so far.
As director for new product development, he has gone all over the U.S. putting RCA's point of view and displaying their product range. Soon he is off to Europe and then to Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa to “sell" the idea of the quadradisc.
But it's getting easier.
Says Pudwell: "RCA knew the majority of distributors wouldn't want to carry another inventory and wouldn't give us help to promote. We had to sell this--which we honestly believe is the best system from the viewpoint of the customer.
"But it's been interesting to see that, while at first it was difficult to get an executive to see us, as we went along it become easler.
"Word of mouth was out about our product."
Pudwell is also interested in the by products of the company's research into 4-channel sound. One
"fall out" from this research is a new plastic compound that Pudwell considers to be "a most significant breakthrough and should advance the industry by 10 years in one lump.
The compound, when developed, will give "unmatched surface" to product and cut down surface noise.
Pudwell found that the Consumer Electronics Show was "a mirror for the future." He recalls the "absolute race for equipment on 4 channel tape-it's unbelievable" what he saw there and the "impressive" display of hardware.
"The future is bright—we have certainly come a long way internally, even though sometimes it didn't seem as if we were making headway. Not only is it a new enhanced sound, but it's also going to be a new way to record," he feels.
August 5, 1972
Quadraphonic issue for 1972:
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/70s/1972/BB-1972-08-05.pdf
Quadraphonic issue for 1972:
https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/70s/1972/BB-1972-08-05.pdf
MidiMagic
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2010
- Messages
- 2,128
This affects SQ about twice as much as it affects RM. I was playing with it back in the 1970s.
1972 certainly was the golden age of Quadraphonics. In hindsight I can't help but think that it was a bit too much too soon! Systems were released and heavily promoted before being finished/perfected. The big corporations all expected to become rich quick (unrealistic IMHO), after a very short run they gave up altogether. A more conservative introduction with long term commitment/support could have paid off more!
Back about 1971 (or maybe late 1970) I first heard (on CKRC Winnipeg radio program "In Touch With Today") that the record companies would soon be releasing compatible four channel records. I took that to mean that all new releases would come out in Quad. I then started scanning each new release for signs of Quadyness. Sadly it didn't happen, if it had it would have certainly helped the sales of equipment. The biggest problem with Quad was always lack of program material!
I think that Matrix and Discrete could have peacefully coexisted. While I always thought that CD-4 faced too many challenges to be a true Audiophile medium the eventual development of the (quad) CD could have changed that. In the meantime we had reel to reel and Q8 tapes. On the matrix side we had the possibility of creating near perfect quad from regular stereo, that feature was not promoted nearly enough.
August 5, 1972
FCC TIMETABLE CALLS
FOR 1-2 YEARS STUDY
ON 4-CHANNEL
WASHINGTON-
Although the Fed era Communications Commission will ultimately decide the fate of 4-channel discrete broadcasting on FM radio, industry attention right now is focussed on the special committee of the Electronics Industries Assn. (EIA) which will study competing systems and pass their findings on to the com mission.
The timetable, according to EIA spokesmen, calls for at least one to two years to test and evaluate the various systems being submitted to its national quadraphonic radio committee (NQRC). Although no one at the FCC wants to hazard a guess, broadcast history indicates that the commission will require at least another year to go over the ElA findings and come up with a set of standards—which could put final authorization into 1974 or 1975.
As everyone probably knows by now, no rule changes by the FCC are required for the FM broadcast of matrix-type quadraphonic recordings, which can use stereo broadcast channels because the 4-channel sound is coded into two, on the disk or tape, and decoded at the receiving or playing end. But the discrete type, requiring 4 channel accommodation from transmitter to listener, will involve FM sub channels currently used in store-casting, background music and other services-and so requires rulemaking and standards set by the FCC for FM transmission of the discrete recordings.
The special NQRC committee organized in May, has FCC observers from the commissions engineering division and from the Broadcast Bureau (the two FCC arms that will lay the ground. work for the commission's final action). Very much present is the FCC's man-on-sound, Harold Kassens, deputy chief of the Broadcast Bureau.
Back in 1962, Kassens was one of the big rooters for stereo broadcasting when he was chief of the FCC's then
"Aural Existing Facilities Branch." He predicted early on that stereo would expand the FM service and eventually replace monophonic FM.
A deadline of sorts passed July 15, the date the special NQRC committee hoped most entries in the discrete systems race would be in, and the real evaluation and comparison studies could begin.
The next task for the committee will be to do a lot of listening. The committee has six panels, and the two most important right now, according to ElA staffers, are the systems specifications (panel I), particularly the technical systems analysis group, and the subjective aspects (panel VI), which will conduct the listening tests on systems passed on to it by the systems analyzers. The listening committee will be under chairmanship of Guy Woodward of RCA Laboratories, who is outgoing president of the Audio Engineering Society.
Engineers, who crave exactness, prefer that the transmission systems be referred to as "multi-channel" rather than 4-channel. "Because the fact is," says one ElA engineer, "transmission could resolve itself into three or five channels, although home equipment appears most likely to receive on a 4-channel basis.”
So far, only two systems in discrete quadrasonic have asked the FCC for consideration of their experimentally tested design. First to ask for rulemaking was James Gabbert, of KIOl-FM San Francisco, who has been trying to build a fire under the cool commission since the fall of 1971, with appeals to authorize the Lou Dorren
"Quadraplex" system of FM transmission. More recent was the General Electric entry, which backed the ElA industry-study approach.
NBC and particularly CBS have both asked the commission to hold up on any rulemaking on quadrasonic transmission until the full-scale EIA industry study is complete. CBS and other makers of the matrix quadrasonic recordings now being aired over a number of FM station, were up in arms over the demands of Gabbert that the FCC move to outlaw matrix and authorize only discrete type transmission, as being the better of the two.
The big hope of the ElA's special committee is to resolve all controversy within the industry, and solve the technical problems, so that the commission could be presented with a good working basis for its rulemak. ing.
"Without this," say ElA spokes men, "the FCC will be faced with a big hassle and a long drawn out proceeding in the authorizing of FM quadrasonic transmission." It would be a somber prospect. Those with long memories will recall that the FCC first authorized experiments in stereophonic broadcasting way back in 1955. Then it issued a public notice of inquiry in July of 1958 to test the demand. Having learned that public interest was widespread, FCC went into another inquiry in March 1959. By that time, the ElA offered the services of its national stereophonic radio committee, and the great day of stereo broadcasting was formally inaugurated by the FCC on June 1, 1961.
One element that seems to be missing at the FCC is this move into further enrichment of FM sound transmission, is the lack of public demand, of widespread listener interest-a lack bewailed by a number of separate industry and broadcasting segments, but viewed with indifference by the elements always satisfied with the good old status quo. There was a similar problem, history tells us, with stereo—but stereophonic sound was a simpler concept, easier to grasp.
FCC TIMETABLE CALLS
FOR 1-2 YEARS STUDY
ON 4-CHANNEL
WASHINGTON-
Although the Fed era Communications Commission will ultimately decide the fate of 4-channel discrete broadcasting on FM radio, industry attention right now is focussed on the special committee of the Electronics Industries Assn. (EIA) which will study competing systems and pass their findings on to the com mission.
The timetable, according to EIA spokesmen, calls for at least one to two years to test and evaluate the various systems being submitted to its national quadraphonic radio committee (NQRC). Although no one at the FCC wants to hazard a guess, broadcast history indicates that the commission will require at least another year to go over the ElA findings and come up with a set of standards—which could put final authorization into 1974 or 1975.
As everyone probably knows by now, no rule changes by the FCC are required for the FM broadcast of matrix-type quadraphonic recordings, which can use stereo broadcast channels because the 4-channel sound is coded into two, on the disk or tape, and decoded at the receiving or playing end. But the discrete type, requiring 4 channel accommodation from transmitter to listener, will involve FM sub channels currently used in store-casting, background music and other services-and so requires rulemaking and standards set by the FCC for FM transmission of the discrete recordings.
The special NQRC committee organized in May, has FCC observers from the commissions engineering division and from the Broadcast Bureau (the two FCC arms that will lay the ground. work for the commission's final action). Very much present is the FCC's man-on-sound, Harold Kassens, deputy chief of the Broadcast Bureau.
Back in 1962, Kassens was one of the big rooters for stereo broadcasting when he was chief of the FCC's then
"Aural Existing Facilities Branch." He predicted early on that stereo would expand the FM service and eventually replace monophonic FM.
A deadline of sorts passed July 15, the date the special NQRC committee hoped most entries in the discrete systems race would be in, and the real evaluation and comparison studies could begin.
The next task for the committee will be to do a lot of listening. The committee has six panels, and the two most important right now, according to ElA staffers, are the systems specifications (panel I), particularly the technical systems analysis group, and the subjective aspects (panel VI), which will conduct the listening tests on systems passed on to it by the systems analyzers. The listening committee will be under chairmanship of Guy Woodward of RCA Laboratories, who is outgoing president of the Audio Engineering Society.
Engineers, who crave exactness, prefer that the transmission systems be referred to as "multi-channel" rather than 4-channel. "Because the fact is," says one ElA engineer, "transmission could resolve itself into three or five channels, although home equipment appears most likely to receive on a 4-channel basis.”
So far, only two systems in discrete quadrasonic have asked the FCC for consideration of their experimentally tested design. First to ask for rulemaking was James Gabbert, of KIOl-FM San Francisco, who has been trying to build a fire under the cool commission since the fall of 1971, with appeals to authorize the Lou Dorren
"Quadraplex" system of FM transmission. More recent was the General Electric entry, which backed the ElA industry-study approach.
NBC and particularly CBS have both asked the commission to hold up on any rulemaking on quadrasonic transmission until the full-scale EIA industry study is complete. CBS and other makers of the matrix quadrasonic recordings now being aired over a number of FM station, were up in arms over the demands of Gabbert that the FCC move to outlaw matrix and authorize only discrete type transmission, as being the better of the two.
The big hope of the ElA's special committee is to resolve all controversy within the industry, and solve the technical problems, so that the commission could be presented with a good working basis for its rulemak. ing.
"Without this," say ElA spokes men, "the FCC will be faced with a big hassle and a long drawn out proceeding in the authorizing of FM quadrasonic transmission." It would be a somber prospect. Those with long memories will recall that the FCC first authorized experiments in stereophonic broadcasting way back in 1955. Then it issued a public notice of inquiry in July of 1958 to test the demand. Having learned that public interest was widespread, FCC went into another inquiry in March 1959. By that time, the ElA offered the services of its national stereophonic radio committee, and the great day of stereo broadcasting was formally inaugurated by the FCC on June 1, 1961.
One element that seems to be missing at the FCC is this move into further enrichment of FM sound transmission, is the lack of public demand, of widespread listener interest-a lack bewailed by a number of separate industry and broadcasting segments, but viewed with indifference by the elements always satisfied with the good old status quo. There was a similar problem, history tells us, with stereo—but stereophonic sound was a simpler concept, easier to grasp.
August 5, 1972
LIMBO DESCRIBES
THE STATE IN WHICH
4-CHANNEL
BROADCASTING
RESTS
By Claude Hall
ALMOST THREE YEARS AGO: a San Francisco college student became excited about discrete 4-channel broadcasting. At that point, all he'd heard were two-station broadcasts. James Gabbert, owner of KIOl-FM, would team up with another FM station in the market. He'd broadcast two of the channels and the other station would broadcast the other two channels.
You had to have two stereo receivers to listen to these broadcasts in quadrasonic sound. You tuned one receiver to K101-FM and the other to the other station. But even then, admits Gabbert, the other station was getting difficult to find because these broadcasts turned out to be great promotions for K101-FM and the other station usually wasn't remembered.
Anyway, the college student, then just a couple of years older than 20, called up Gabbert and said he thought there was a way to broadcast four channels on a single station. A few days later, Gabbert met the college student, a guy named Lou Dorren, and then began sort of a teamwork project, along with Tom Lott, that led to the development of the first true 4-channel broadcasting. Dorren had been working with Lott building radio equipment. About two-and a half years ago, Lott formed Quadracast Systems Inc. and the development of 4-channel broadcasting got underway in earnest.
A lot of bugs had to be worked out of the initial equipment, but Lott, Dorren, and Gabbert realized they had something that would eventually revolutionize broadcasting. Gabbert, being an engineer at heart, was instrumental in the project right from the beginning.
The first hurdle was permission from the Federal Communications Commission for experimental broadcasts. This was granted. Recalls Gabbert: "Our first two-station broadcasts were in 1969 and we introduced quadrasonic to members of the National Assn. of FM Broadcasters at the Chicago convention that year. It took us a long time to get permission from the FCC for test broadcasting and then quite a while to get our own equipment set up. The first broadcasts were run in December of 1970 and the following month. We were running tests nightly, but the FCC wouldn't let us promote them and we had to run the tests after midnight."
In 1971, Quadracast submitted a 400-plus/page document to the FCC detailing all of the studies and computer data accumulated during the tests.
From that period on, discrete broadcasting went into a siege of limbo. But matrix broadcasting began to come out of the woodwork.
Largely, matrix broadcasting is a simple thing. You install a matrix encoder at the station and, assuming you've got a matrix record to play, that's almost the total of the labor. Even better, though, is the fact that a company can encode a tape, meaning a syndication firm, and all any FM station has to do is play that tape; no encoder at the station is needed.
A claim of many matrix advocates, too, is that matrix makes even stereo records sound better.
With discrete broadcasting, according to Quadracast president Tom Lott, all it will cost an FM station to convert to discrete quadrasonic is about $2,000 to $5,000, depending on how far the station wants to go. The $5,000 figure would include a quadrasonic console mixing board. For $2,000, you could get just the discrete decoder and be in business.
Product is still a problem. Gabbert, when he did those early experiments, used tapes mixed down especially for him by record companies and producers such as Chet Atkins and Brad Miller.
Today, RCA Records has a couple of albums out in discrete and several Japanese manufactured albums in discrete are floating around the U.S. But RCA Records plans to have all of their product in the discrete form in the future.
Via such labels as CBS, Ovation, and Project 3, there is much more matrix product available. The problem is that much of the product is not compatible between one matrix system and another. If the industry goes matrix in the end, a radio station may end up with three or four matrix encoders and have to switch back and forth, depending on the particular record being played at that time.
In regards to discrete, there is only one petition before the FCC for approval-the system developed By Quadracast. However, GE has filed a statement about their system and Zenith and RCA have been involved in developing discrete broadcast systems, as well as Norelco and a Massachusetts firm who are said to be deep in creating a discrete broadcasting system.
The FCC, much as they did with stereo in its development and growth, has passed the buck to the Electronics Industries Assn.
The ElA has named several committees to look into various aspects of discrete quadrasonic broadcasting systems. How much longer it's going to take for these various committees to meet, make decisions, and then make recommendations on discrete is not known.
Matrix continués to build inroads in broadcasting. Already, several syndication firms such as Alto Fonic Programming, Bonneville, etc., are offering programming material to radio stations that is already encoded.
Discrete broadcasting is basically fairly simple. What is amazing is that a young college student beat everyone to the punch by developing the first (and maybe the only) viable broadcasting system for discrete. Dorren of Quadracast expects to have an integrated circuit in production in the next few weeks that will greatly simplify both the broadcasting equipment for discrete as well as the manufacture of receivers for the home.
In the meanwhile, RCA is going ahead with production of product on the grounds that the discrete record is compatible and sounds even better when played in stereo than the ordinary stereo record. When discrete broadcasting gets the nod from the FCC, if it does, product will be in the field.
At any rate, the situation is still one of limbo. Many radio broadcasters have hesitated to go matrix, feeling that discrete will eventually come out of the ElA committees and meet the approval of the FCC and become a reality. Those broadcasters involved in matrix already have a handicap that could backfire on them in the future, because the so-called logic gain application is not available to the mass consumer yet, and any broadcasting done now in matrix quadrasonic is not that viable to the listener, especially if he's heard a discrete quadrasonic demonstration. Ordinary matrix is better than stereo, but without the logic gain application doesn't come up to the standards of discrete.
As for discrete, Lott of Quadracast claims that the system is viable and it's perfect and ready.
So, as far as broadcasting of quadrasonic sound is concerned, everyone will have to wait on the FCC. Because discrete concerns the signal at the station level, it has to meet the FCC approval.
Matrix, because it is encoded pre mike stage, doesn't come under the jurisdiction of the FCC.
But Gabbert has the final word about any form of matrix: "Why settle for a substitute when you have the real thing—discrete."
August 12, 1972
Sanyo, Mitsubishi Slating ‘Q' Decoders for Japan
TOKYO
Both Sanyo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric will market quadrasonic matrix decoders in Japan this year.
Sanyo's unit is the DM-4 (dy-namic matrix) model DCC-350X which incorporates an SQ matrix decoder and BSE (band splitting effect) circuitry to quadralize conventional stereo records.
Sanyo claims that the DCC-350X will reproduce a near-dis-crete separation of 20db between channels with its specially designed logic circuit.
The Mitsubishi "Diatone"
4-channel SE (separation enhancement) decoder model DA-Q100 will, according to its manufacturers, provide 4-channel separaton of 15Hb, in addition to an SQ/RM (regular matrix) decoder and QM matrix as a quadralizer.
Also in the Japanese quadra-sonic race is Japan Victor which is marketing two new CD-4 disk system demodulators. The JVC model CD4-10 sells for $140, while the compact CD4-30 carries a list price of $96.
JVC claims that both demodulators have high compatibility with stereo disks. The manufacturer is also claiming that regular stereo styli and pickup cartridges can be used for playing CD4 disks, thus eliminating the need for a 4-channel cartridge.
The new JVC demodulators also incorporate HC circuitry which officials of the firm say will compensate for any distortion of the 30kHz carrier signal caused by dust on a CD-4 disk or groove wear.
Sanyo, Mitsubishi Slating ‘Q' Decoders for Japan
TOKYO
Both Sanyo Electric and Mitsubishi Electric will market quadrasonic matrix decoders in Japan this year.
Sanyo's unit is the DM-4 (dy-namic matrix) model DCC-350X which incorporates an SQ matrix decoder and BSE (band splitting effect) circuitry to quadralize conventional stereo records.
Sanyo claims that the DCC-350X will reproduce a near-dis-crete separation of 20db between channels with its specially designed logic circuit.
The Mitsubishi "Diatone"
4-channel SE (separation enhancement) decoder model DA-Q100 will, according to its manufacturers, provide 4-channel separaton of 15Hb, in addition to an SQ/RM (regular matrix) decoder and QM matrix as a quadralizer.
Also in the Japanese quadra-sonic race is Japan Victor which is marketing two new CD-4 disk system demodulators. The JVC model CD4-10 sells for $140, while the compact CD4-30 carries a list price of $96.
JVC claims that both demodulators have high compatibility with stereo disks. The manufacturer is also claiming that regular stereo styli and pickup cartridges can be used for playing CD4 disks, thus eliminating the need for a 4-channel cartridge.
The new JVC demodulators also incorporate HC circuitry which officials of the firm say will compensate for any distortion of the 30kHz carrier signal caused by dust on a CD-4 disk or groove wear.
August 19, 1972
FCC Requires Discrete Okay
By MILDRED HALL
WASHINGTON
The Federal Communications Commission has made it official that all discrete,
4-channel broadcasting of quadra-sonic sound will require authori-zation, and has rejected the claim by Pacific FM's San Francisco station K101-FM, that the Dorren-quadraplex system is compatible with present rules for 2-channel stereo transmission.
At the same time, the FCC said that the matrix-type 4-channel systems which it terms "psuedo enhancement devices" come within the commission's present stereo transmission standards, and do not need specific authorization.
This warning does not alter prospects for commission rule-making to set up standards for discrete, 4-channel broadcasting eventually.
Current studies are underway by the Electronic Industries Association's special quadraphonic Radio Committee (NQRC) which is working with the FCC's broadcast bureau and its engineering division-the same arrangement that produced today's 2-channel stereo transmission standards (Billboard, Aug. 5).
The commission last week cautioned broadcasters not to confuse the non-authorized discrete systems of transmission with the permissible quardrasonic systems. FCC defines the permissible matrix type systems as "psuedo enhancement devices relying on a phase-differential principle to achieve 4-channel audio effects." The matrix systems code the 4-channel of sound on two transmission channels, which are broadcast over standard stereo equipment, and unmixed at the listener's end. The discrete systems would involve FM subcarrier chan-nels.
The FCC noted that the Dorren discrete 4-channel system had been permitted to broadcast music to the public only on a limited experimental basis, and that neither the Dorren quadraplex nor any other discrete system can be offered for transmission to the public without specific permission from the commission. It also said that since the Dorren system might exceed present limits on modulation, "existing protection ratios for co-channel and adjacent channel stations would have to be reviewed before the system to come into general use.
FCC Requires Discrete Okay
By MILDRED HALL
WASHINGTON
The Federal Communications Commission has made it official that all discrete,
4-channel broadcasting of quadra-sonic sound will require authori-zation, and has rejected the claim by Pacific FM's San Francisco station K101-FM, that the Dorren-quadraplex system is compatible with present rules for 2-channel stereo transmission.
At the same time, the FCC said that the matrix-type 4-channel systems which it terms "psuedo enhancement devices" come within the commission's present stereo transmission standards, and do not need specific authorization.
This warning does not alter prospects for commission rule-making to set up standards for discrete, 4-channel broadcasting eventually.
Current studies are underway by the Electronic Industries Association's special quadraphonic Radio Committee (NQRC) which is working with the FCC's broadcast bureau and its engineering division-the same arrangement that produced today's 2-channel stereo transmission standards (Billboard, Aug. 5).
The commission last week cautioned broadcasters not to confuse the non-authorized discrete systems of transmission with the permissible quardrasonic systems. FCC defines the permissible matrix type systems as "psuedo enhancement devices relying on a phase-differential principle to achieve 4-channel audio effects." The matrix systems code the 4-channel of sound on two transmission channels, which are broadcast over standard stereo equipment, and unmixed at the listener's end. The discrete systems would involve FM subcarrier chan-nels.
The FCC noted that the Dorren discrete 4-channel system had been permitted to broadcast music to the public only on a limited experimental basis, and that neither the Dorren quadraplex nor any other discrete system can be offered for transmission to the public without specific permission from the commission. It also said that since the Dorren system might exceed present limits on modulation, "existing protection ratios for co-channel and adjacent channel stations would have to be reviewed before the system to come into general use.
August 12, 1972
Col's August Releases
In Stereo and in SQ
LONDON _
Columbia Masterworks releases for August will be simultaneously issued in stereo and quadraphonic disc, Columbia's convention in London announced last week. August releases include artists such as Leonard Bernstein and the London Symphony, Isaac Stern, playing Chopin, E. Power Biggs, Daniel Barenboim as conductor, and an all-star cast, including Jim Nabors, Marilyn Horne and Richard Tucker, performing "The Man of La Mancha."
Also, Anthony Newman, young harpsichord-organ performer, will make his conducting debut with the SQ recording of the complete "Brandenberg Concertos."
A Pierre Boulez release has him conducting the New York Philharmonic in performances of Bartok's "The Miraculous Mandarin" (complete) and "Dance Suite."
Odyssey Records, Columbia's low-priced classical line, previewed five albums featuring piano and orchestra at the convention. The LP's featured concertos of Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin and List, performed by such artists as Charles Rosen, Alexander Brailowsky and the Casadesus family. Columbia Masterworks will reissue a number of multidisc, including Bernstein's complete Mahler symphonies, and a six-record set of legendary performances by violinist Joseph Szigeti.
Col's August Releases
In Stereo and in SQ
LONDON _
Columbia Masterworks releases for August will be simultaneously issued in stereo and quadraphonic disc, Columbia's convention in London announced last week. August releases include artists such as Leonard Bernstein and the London Symphony, Isaac Stern, playing Chopin, E. Power Biggs, Daniel Barenboim as conductor, and an all-star cast, including Jim Nabors, Marilyn Horne and Richard Tucker, performing "The Man of La Mancha."
Also, Anthony Newman, young harpsichord-organ performer, will make his conducting debut with the SQ recording of the complete "Brandenberg Concertos."
A Pierre Boulez release has him conducting the New York Philharmonic in performances of Bartok's "The Miraculous Mandarin" (complete) and "Dance Suite."
Odyssey Records, Columbia's low-priced classical line, previewed five albums featuring piano and orchestra at the convention. The LP's featured concertos of Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Chopin and List, performed by such artists as Charles Rosen, Alexander Brailowsky and the Casadesus family. Columbia Masterworks will reissue a number of multidisc, including Bernstein's complete Mahler symphonies, and a six-record set of legendary performances by violinist Joseph Szigeti.
August 5, 1972
VM Adds 'Q' Units, Aims at Youths
By ANNE DUSTON
BENTON HARBOR, MICH.-
The 28-year old Voice of Music Corporation here is expanding into quadraphonic products in an effort to attract the youth market, according to Robert Roth, advertising manager.
“Our name is familiar to the 50-and-over age group, but according to a 1972 Simmons Study, we are not known to the under-35 market,
Roth said.
V-M was recently judged by the
U.S. Tariff Commission
to be eligible to apply for federal aid under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act because of "injury due to imports from tariff reductions," said Victor Miller, president, who called it "a form of corporate ADC." The adjustment assistance would apply to record changers only, VM's main product.
Two quadraphonic systems are offered in record chrangers; a true matrix, with a decoder placed before the amplification, allowing more balance, tone and volume control per channel by the operator; and a "derived" matrix, with the decoder placed after the amplification, with speaker balance built in.
Both systems are compatible with stereo and monaural records.
V-M, the only independent manufacturer of record changers in the United States, also manufactures all of their products here.
Distribution was described by Roth as a two-step program, "similar to RCA, Motorola and Zenith. Our district sales managers service and sell to distributors, go in turn franchise dealers." Besides exhibiting at major shows around the country, distributors are holding their own exhibitions for dealers, he added.
The top of the line is a 4-channel AM/FM/FM receiver, model 1548, with a 48-watt amplifier and a built-in tape player for either stereo or discrete cartridges, listing at $199.95.
A 4-channel receiver with four speaker jacks, model 1545, features volume, tone, and three balance controls. and lists for $149.95.
Two 4-channel amplifiers, one with 48-watt peak music power (model 1538), and a 28-watt power (model 1534), feature wide range tone controls, output jacks for four speakers, and headphone jack
List is $99.95 and $69.95.
A tape deck for discrete tape cartridges, model 1547, has built-in power supply and transformer, and 2,- or 4-channel select and volume switches, and lists at $79.95.
In stereo components, V-M offers a compact receiver with built-in capstan-driven tape player and AM/FM/FM radio, model 1528, listing at $139.95. The receiver is also available without the tape player, as model 1536-2.
A low-profile, custom-assembled stereo receiver with 160-watt peak music power, model 1532, offers three integrated circuits in a metal cabinet with walnut panels and full range controls, for $229.95. Other stereo amplifiers range in price from $79.95 to a monaural amplifier at $49.95.
Color Compacts
New for V-M this year is a line of compact automatic turntables with dust cover, models 1596, 1515-2 and 1595 listing from $49.95 to $34.95.
Color has been added to the stereo changers. Dust covers match the changer baseplates and turntable inserts, in orange, lavender, apple green or red, all with white polystyrene base. The changer features diamond stylus, and plays all speeds and all sizes automatically.
Model 1582 lists at $44.95. The Designer Group of stereo turntables in black with tinted dust cover offer an 11-inch turntable, ceramic cartridge, diamond stylus, cue control, stylus weight control, and list from $79.95 to $39.95.
Models 1594-2 and 1593-2 have magnetic cartridges, muting switch, and stainless steel tone arms.
Color has been extended to quadraphonic phonographs and compact stereo systems featuring 4-channel sound. Models 426BK and 426RE are lavender or red, with tinted dust cover and diamond stylus and list at $119.95. Four spherical speakers offer "surround sound." Model 424, in walnut vinyl base with ceramic cartridge, lists for $149.95. The economical model 343, in bright yellow and apple green, is offered at $79.95, with optional dust cover. Also in the economy range is model 343, a walnut vinyl based 4-channel phonograph with solid state electronic decoder and jam-proof 10-inch turntable. It also has diamond stylus, and four black spherical speakers, and lists for $99.95.
VM Adds 'Q' Units, Aims at Youths
By ANNE DUSTON
BENTON HARBOR, MICH.-
The 28-year old Voice of Music Corporation here is expanding into quadraphonic products in an effort to attract the youth market, according to Robert Roth, advertising manager.
“Our name is familiar to the 50-and-over age group, but according to a 1972 Simmons Study, we are not known to the under-35 market,
Roth said.
V-M was recently judged by the
U.S. Tariff Commission
to be eligible to apply for federal aid under the 1962 Trade Expansion Act because of "injury due to imports from tariff reductions," said Victor Miller, president, who called it "a form of corporate ADC." The adjustment assistance would apply to record changers only, VM's main product.
Two quadraphonic systems are offered in record chrangers; a true matrix, with a decoder placed before the amplification, allowing more balance, tone and volume control per channel by the operator; and a "derived" matrix, with the decoder placed after the amplification, with speaker balance built in.
Both systems are compatible with stereo and monaural records.
V-M, the only independent manufacturer of record changers in the United States, also manufactures all of their products here.
Distribution was described by Roth as a two-step program, "similar to RCA, Motorola and Zenith. Our district sales managers service and sell to distributors, go in turn franchise dealers." Besides exhibiting at major shows around the country, distributors are holding their own exhibitions for dealers, he added.
The top of the line is a 4-channel AM/FM/FM receiver, model 1548, with a 48-watt amplifier and a built-in tape player for either stereo or discrete cartridges, listing at $199.95.
A 4-channel receiver with four speaker jacks, model 1545, features volume, tone, and three balance controls. and lists for $149.95.
Two 4-channel amplifiers, one with 48-watt peak music power (model 1538), and a 28-watt power (model 1534), feature wide range tone controls, output jacks for four speakers, and headphone jack
List is $99.95 and $69.95.
A tape deck for discrete tape cartridges, model 1547, has built-in power supply and transformer, and 2,- or 4-channel select and volume switches, and lists at $79.95.
In stereo components, V-M offers a compact receiver with built-in capstan-driven tape player and AM/FM/FM radio, model 1528, listing at $139.95. The receiver is also available without the tape player, as model 1536-2.
A low-profile, custom-assembled stereo receiver with 160-watt peak music power, model 1532, offers three integrated circuits in a metal cabinet with walnut panels and full range controls, for $229.95. Other stereo amplifiers range in price from $79.95 to a monaural amplifier at $49.95.
Color Compacts
New for V-M this year is a line of compact automatic turntables with dust cover, models 1596, 1515-2 and 1595 listing from $49.95 to $34.95.
Color has been added to the stereo changers. Dust covers match the changer baseplates and turntable inserts, in orange, lavender, apple green or red, all with white polystyrene base. The changer features diamond stylus, and plays all speeds and all sizes automatically.
Model 1582 lists at $44.95. The Designer Group of stereo turntables in black with tinted dust cover offer an 11-inch turntable, ceramic cartridge, diamond stylus, cue control, stylus weight control, and list from $79.95 to $39.95.
Models 1594-2 and 1593-2 have magnetic cartridges, muting switch, and stainless steel tone arms.
Color has been extended to quadraphonic phonographs and compact stereo systems featuring 4-channel sound. Models 426BK and 426RE are lavender or red, with tinted dust cover and diamond stylus and list at $119.95. Four spherical speakers offer "surround sound." Model 424, in walnut vinyl base with ceramic cartridge, lists for $149.95. The economical model 343, in bright yellow and apple green, is offered at $79.95, with optional dust cover. Also in the economy range is model 343, a walnut vinyl based 4-channel phonograph with solid state electronic decoder and jam-proof 10-inch turntable. It also has diamond stylus, and four black spherical speakers, and lists for $99.95.
August 5, 1972
HUGO MONTENEGRO OFFERS TIPS ON HOW TO COMPOSE FOR 4-CHANNEL
OR
YOU GUYS BETTER LISTEN TO THE QUADFATHER
OR ELSE
By Eliot Tiegel
IT IS 115 DEGREES in the Palm Spring's sun by the pool. Hugo Montenegro sits in a lounge chair looking tanned and comfortable and admits that if he hadn't been living in this quiet desert environment, he couldn't have completed RCA's first pop quadrasonic album within the short deadline proffered
him.
"If I had been living in Woodland Hills I would have been tight as hell writing it. I sat in the sun, relaxed and figured out my ideas. I spent one week thinking about the music and the effects wanted and one week writing it."
Sitting around the pool he thought of material which could be interpreted in 4-channel sound. "Most of the planning of the arrangements was done outside. At night I'd put the arrangement onto score paper and send the arrangements by bus to my copyist in Los Angeles."
During the week the veteran composer /arranger/conductor spent “thinking” about material, he was focusing in on the psychophysics and psychoacoustic concepts he had learned from Dr. Archer Michael.
Montenegro had what amounted to a mini course in psychophysics with Michael, during which time the sub study of psychoacoustics became a new term for translation into musical composition.
The need was of prime importance.
RCA wanted a pop quadrasonic album to debut before the world music community at the fourth International Music Industry Conference in Acapulco last April. And Montenegro seemed the right person to develop it. On his own, out of his own curiosity, he had done some experimentation last September in arranging music for 4-channel, but was only 30 percent successful and this puzzled him. Why couldn't he achieve the desired effects he had thought out and had carefully annotated on his sheet music? Why for example hadn't he been able to achieve a merry-go-round effect with sound in motion on “Me And My Arrow?" Why hadn't he been able to produce other movement and directional effects on the discrete tape?
The answers to these puzzles can be found on several levels. There wasn't any wealth of knowledge about 4-channel arranging available and Montenegro wasn't aware of the complex nature of how we psychologically perceive sound. He now has a broader scope of knowledge into the field of quadrasonic recording as a result of making a test tape, studying with Dr. Michael and having recorded the first pop 4-channel discrete disk for RCA.
During a trip to New York, Montenegro met Jack Pfeiffer, an executive producer in RCA's Red Seal division, whose electronics background gave him expertise into the physical sciences and thus the understanding needed for 4-channel recordings. Pfeiffer explained the concept of ambience to Montenegro; Michael helped with an understanding of how the ear hears and what the brain can perceive.
When he first heard a discrete tape in May of 1971, Montenegro recalls feeling something was missing. He felt the potential was there to create a complete circle of sound, motion in all directions and a spacious environment, but those first tapes didn't achieve this.
In July of 1971 he talked with RCA engineers and producers and found it was very difficult to "get precise answers to questions about 4-channel.
Everyone was experimenting and learning by trial and error.
So Montenegro flew a Los Angeles engineer to New York and tried to mixdown for quadrasonic an album he had just done. It didn't achieve the dramatic effect he felt should happen.
"The first conclusion I came to was that what I had written for 2 channel stereo was too much for four. I found myself distracted and having to turn around too much. It wasn't until the end of my research at RCA that I found Jack Pfeiffer and he told me why I felt those gaps in the music. He began expounding concepts and words new to me.
"The problem was I wasn't aware of psychoacoustics and how people react and perceive sound phenomenon around them."
Then after returning to the Coast he did an experimental session with Pfeiffer as the producer and consultant engineer. "My main purpose was to see if we could create motion in all directions and a feeling of depth and an environmental atmosphere. We focused in on three songs.
"On 'Norwegian Wood' I wanted to create a tranquil feeling of a spacious wooded area with antiphonal brass calls. I set up eight solo brass in the same four speaker configurations the listener would hear them. That was a mistake because there was too much leakage and this made it difficult to localize the source of each brass solo accurately. If I has set them up four and four widely separated, there wouldn't have been as much leakage, resulting in better localization. Then we went from the wooden area to a string quartet to show that the classical format could be distributed over four channels, that we could break away from the proscenium frontal arrangement of the strings.
"On Me And My Arrow” I wanted the environment of an amusement park and wanted motion, a merry-go-round effect. I wanted to utilize ping pong et-fects and tried motion across the sides with string runs.”
"On 'I Feel The Earth Move,' I tried to create the effect of the room rocking back and forth and I wanted four timpani to play an exciting solo on four channels. We also used a vocal group to demonstrate a four speaker distribution of voices.
"When we got to the mixing stage, we got into a nightmare, in order to mix these three sides, we worked seven straight days and nights.
"We were able to create a feeling of a very spacious environment on 'Norwegian Wood,' but we couldn't accurately localize the brass calls because of leakage, though they had a feeling of depth. The string treatment came off great.
"On 'Arrow' we couldn't get the merry-go-round effect. I had used a caliope and xylophone, bells, and some synthesizer sounds. We felt it moving across the front, but lost it across the sides and back. The string runs didn't feel like they were moving on the sides either, only across the front.
"On 'I Feel The Earth Move' the timpani solo was exciting but wasn't accurately localized (again because of leakage). The room rocking effect was more of a mental illusion than an actual effect. But the distribution of the vocal group was great."
In utilizing ambience, Pfeiffer devised a way of using an 8 track machine, taking the original sound and sending it on a delayed basis to the other three channels.
Eight months after he recorded his experimental tapes, Montenegro recorded his first discrete LP "Love Theme From the Godfather." Therefore, could he be called the "quadfather" I wondered.
He took several of the tracks from the tape and modified them as a result of what he had learned about psychoacoustics.
Psychoacoustically, the following applies; the frequency level of one color will hide the apparent level of another. This is called masking. It's important in terms of where you place the instruments (high versus low.)
There is also the condition called sensory discrimination which means the listener has learned to hear sound in a certain way-right now it's front oriented.
The accurate localizing of a sound source requires a reflected sound to the other ear several milliseconds later and a little softer.
By using Gotham delay units and better ambience levels, he was able to eliminate 16 and 8-track units and 32 Dolbyizers for the mixdown.
By cutting down the ambience on some tunes, Montenegro found less swimming effects. By increasing ambience he developed more spacial feelings.
Remixing "Me And My Arrow," he got a better merry go round effect. On the original tape he had the sound dividing among four channels. They were moving but the listener's mind couldn't focus on it all. So he put all the merry-go-round effects on two channels, all the melody on one and the accompaniment on the other. By feeding delays to the ambient channels he got the feeling of circular motion.
After trying unsuccessfully to get the strings to "run" up and down the sides, he changed them to appear to cross front and back. That was a compromise he admits.
In trying to get his rocking motion on "I Feel The Earth Move, " he found he could get a better rocking sound by reversing the front and rear sound sources, so the keyboards and guitar and organ and harpsichord shifted places. Now the high frequency sounds emanated from the rear and did not cover the bass tones. The tympani solos was greatly improved by using four kapex units to block out leakage. He took the eight horns on
"Norwegian Wood" and moved their positions during the midown an eighth of a turn. This improved the localization of the antiphonal calls.
Some other effects:
On the "Godfather" theme he put the drums through a phase shifter and moved them around the room in a figure eight.
On "Baby Elephant Walk," he envisioned the music representing a safari. So he used six joy sticks and some pan pots to move the sound so that it came in from the front left, walked around the room and left by the right front channel.
Montenegro doesn't believe that the purpose of quadrasonic sound is to recreate the concert hall in the listener's living room. It's one of its potentials, but it's not the only one.
Explains the composer:
Ambience works best on beautiful, long lines, on strings, woodwinds, legato brass. It creates an enormous space. It's unnecessary on a rhythm section.
The listener tends to be front oriented so that rear placements have to be done very delicately. A counter line can be written to come from the rear and from the opposite side.
Montenegro suggests putting low frequency solo colors in the front like cellos, low clarinets and soft trombones. High frequency counter melodies should go in the rear.
"The highs will tend to mask (cover) the lows when the lows are in the rear.”
Montenegro believes that if the only way to listen to 4-channel is to be cemented dead center in the middle of a room, quadrasonic "will never get off the ground."
During mastering, the producer should constantly move around the room, using the epicenter as a starting point and testing what he hears. If it becomes a jumble of sound, he's got to cut back on echo and ambience and localize the sound more.
Montenegro additionally suggests: always having some sound coming out of each speaker to reduce hiss. He prefers drums split in front. Bass on all four channels, the guitar in the back on either channel and the piano center rear.
One consideration which should always be remembered is that the quadrasonic LP may be played on a regular stereo system, so you have to have a good stereo mix.
During his early writing stages, the composer lays out a four speaker chart in his den, penciling in where he intends to put his instruments. "It's a way of organizing the mixdown," he says.
As to the future, Montenegro envsions engineers learning how to use the Gotham delay units so the composer doesn't find too much sound swimming around but does have the desired effect of space. "Engineers will have to become sounding boards more and advise composers and producers on what things won't work in the mix."
Admitting there were many things to be "anxious about" before doing that first big record session, Montenegro now feels that future 4-channel projects will be easier for him and for other composers who choose to tackle the big "Q” from both the song and technical aspects. "The new generation of electronics oriented musicians," he says, "will have it easier than we did.
HUGO'S TIPSHEET
The composer planning to develop a 4-channel album has to "learn what works and what won't come off in the mixdown," and the only way to gain this knowledge is to try things. According to Hugo Montenegro-who is the creative source behind all these attitudes-the composer has to try and plan those devices he knows will work musically, in a palatable way, for the listener.
"When a person's attention is constantly drawn to a gimmick, like too much motion or over use of four speaker electronic effects, the result is unsatisfying because the listener hasn't yet learned to listen to four channel sound."
Artistic devices like a four channel interplay between orchestra sections of percussion (a form of ping pong) should be carefully planned and spotted, but shouldn't be the whole effect. The song is the thing and the device should enhance it. Other devices to plan for carefully are motion between any pair of speakers and a spacious environmental sound.
Here are several tips which Montenegro offers to composers planning to write for the quadrasonic medium:
• Plan 4-track arranging layout with a description of the devices on a mastering chart before you write the arrangement. This chart will be a valuable time/saving guide during mastering
• Use devices sparingly and well spaced, (not consecutively), or the mastering of one band will require days instead of hours.
• Create imaginative instrument placements that will entertain the listener not jar him
• Go for maximum isolation on live recording sessions. Leakage will reduce the localization of the sound source and render motion devices ineffective.
• During playback of your finished master, if you can't visualize your device, it's not coming off. Test your work tape for leakage. If there is no leakage, determine if the device is being masked by something else in the arrangement. If so, make the necessary change and drop the masking components.
If the device is not being masked, reduce the ambience, (both the time delay and the level). If it still isn't working, forget it and create a simpler alternate way of mastering your device.
Above all, don't over arrange. The listener's mind can't attend to a lot of things going on at the same time and all around him.
Learn as much as you can about recording and mastering techniques, both concepts and technology.
• Try to stay adaptable. If what you preconceive doesn't come off, try to effect a change even if it means moving to another speaker, or changing the direction of the motion, or even dropping a track to let something come through.
HUGO MONTENEGRO OFFERS TIPS ON HOW TO COMPOSE FOR 4-CHANNEL
OR
YOU GUYS BETTER LISTEN TO THE QUADFATHER
OR ELSE
By Eliot Tiegel
IT IS 115 DEGREES in the Palm Spring's sun by the pool. Hugo Montenegro sits in a lounge chair looking tanned and comfortable and admits that if he hadn't been living in this quiet desert environment, he couldn't have completed RCA's first pop quadrasonic album within the short deadline proffered
him.
"If I had been living in Woodland Hills I would have been tight as hell writing it. I sat in the sun, relaxed and figured out my ideas. I spent one week thinking about the music and the effects wanted and one week writing it."
Sitting around the pool he thought of material which could be interpreted in 4-channel sound. "Most of the planning of the arrangements was done outside. At night I'd put the arrangement onto score paper and send the arrangements by bus to my copyist in Los Angeles."
During the week the veteran composer /arranger/conductor spent “thinking” about material, he was focusing in on the psychophysics and psychoacoustic concepts he had learned from Dr. Archer Michael.
Montenegro had what amounted to a mini course in psychophysics with Michael, during which time the sub study of psychoacoustics became a new term for translation into musical composition.
The need was of prime importance.
RCA wanted a pop quadrasonic album to debut before the world music community at the fourth International Music Industry Conference in Acapulco last April. And Montenegro seemed the right person to develop it. On his own, out of his own curiosity, he had done some experimentation last September in arranging music for 4-channel, but was only 30 percent successful and this puzzled him. Why couldn't he achieve the desired effects he had thought out and had carefully annotated on his sheet music? Why for example hadn't he been able to achieve a merry-go-round effect with sound in motion on “Me And My Arrow?" Why hadn't he been able to produce other movement and directional effects on the discrete tape?
The answers to these puzzles can be found on several levels. There wasn't any wealth of knowledge about 4-channel arranging available and Montenegro wasn't aware of the complex nature of how we psychologically perceive sound. He now has a broader scope of knowledge into the field of quadrasonic recording as a result of making a test tape, studying with Dr. Michael and having recorded the first pop 4-channel discrete disk for RCA.
During a trip to New York, Montenegro met Jack Pfeiffer, an executive producer in RCA's Red Seal division, whose electronics background gave him expertise into the physical sciences and thus the understanding needed for 4-channel recordings. Pfeiffer explained the concept of ambience to Montenegro; Michael helped with an understanding of how the ear hears and what the brain can perceive.
When he first heard a discrete tape in May of 1971, Montenegro recalls feeling something was missing. He felt the potential was there to create a complete circle of sound, motion in all directions and a spacious environment, but those first tapes didn't achieve this.
In July of 1971 he talked with RCA engineers and producers and found it was very difficult to "get precise answers to questions about 4-channel.
Everyone was experimenting and learning by trial and error.
So Montenegro flew a Los Angeles engineer to New York and tried to mixdown for quadrasonic an album he had just done. It didn't achieve the dramatic effect he felt should happen.
"The first conclusion I came to was that what I had written for 2 channel stereo was too much for four. I found myself distracted and having to turn around too much. It wasn't until the end of my research at RCA that I found Jack Pfeiffer and he told me why I felt those gaps in the music. He began expounding concepts and words new to me.
"The problem was I wasn't aware of psychoacoustics and how people react and perceive sound phenomenon around them."
Then after returning to the Coast he did an experimental session with Pfeiffer as the producer and consultant engineer. "My main purpose was to see if we could create motion in all directions and a feeling of depth and an environmental atmosphere. We focused in on three songs.
"On 'Norwegian Wood' I wanted to create a tranquil feeling of a spacious wooded area with antiphonal brass calls. I set up eight solo brass in the same four speaker configurations the listener would hear them. That was a mistake because there was too much leakage and this made it difficult to localize the source of each brass solo accurately. If I has set them up four and four widely separated, there wouldn't have been as much leakage, resulting in better localization. Then we went from the wooden area to a string quartet to show that the classical format could be distributed over four channels, that we could break away from the proscenium frontal arrangement of the strings.
"On Me And My Arrow” I wanted the environment of an amusement park and wanted motion, a merry-go-round effect. I wanted to utilize ping pong et-fects and tried motion across the sides with string runs.”
"On 'I Feel The Earth Move,' I tried to create the effect of the room rocking back and forth and I wanted four timpani to play an exciting solo on four channels. We also used a vocal group to demonstrate a four speaker distribution of voices.
"When we got to the mixing stage, we got into a nightmare, in order to mix these three sides, we worked seven straight days and nights.
"We were able to create a feeling of a very spacious environment on 'Norwegian Wood,' but we couldn't accurately localize the brass calls because of leakage, though they had a feeling of depth. The string treatment came off great.
"On 'Arrow' we couldn't get the merry-go-round effect. I had used a caliope and xylophone, bells, and some synthesizer sounds. We felt it moving across the front, but lost it across the sides and back. The string runs didn't feel like they were moving on the sides either, only across the front.
"On 'I Feel The Earth Move' the timpani solo was exciting but wasn't accurately localized (again because of leakage). The room rocking effect was more of a mental illusion than an actual effect. But the distribution of the vocal group was great."
In utilizing ambience, Pfeiffer devised a way of using an 8 track machine, taking the original sound and sending it on a delayed basis to the other three channels.
Eight months after he recorded his experimental tapes, Montenegro recorded his first discrete LP "Love Theme From the Godfather." Therefore, could he be called the "quadfather" I wondered.
He took several of the tracks from the tape and modified them as a result of what he had learned about psychoacoustics.
Psychoacoustically, the following applies; the frequency level of one color will hide the apparent level of another. This is called masking. It's important in terms of where you place the instruments (high versus low.)
There is also the condition called sensory discrimination which means the listener has learned to hear sound in a certain way-right now it's front oriented.
The accurate localizing of a sound source requires a reflected sound to the other ear several milliseconds later and a little softer.
By using Gotham delay units and better ambience levels, he was able to eliminate 16 and 8-track units and 32 Dolbyizers for the mixdown.
By cutting down the ambience on some tunes, Montenegro found less swimming effects. By increasing ambience he developed more spacial feelings.
Remixing "Me And My Arrow," he got a better merry go round effect. On the original tape he had the sound dividing among four channels. They were moving but the listener's mind couldn't focus on it all. So he put all the merry-go-round effects on two channels, all the melody on one and the accompaniment on the other. By feeding delays to the ambient channels he got the feeling of circular motion.
After trying unsuccessfully to get the strings to "run" up and down the sides, he changed them to appear to cross front and back. That was a compromise he admits.
In trying to get his rocking motion on "I Feel The Earth Move, " he found he could get a better rocking sound by reversing the front and rear sound sources, so the keyboards and guitar and organ and harpsichord shifted places. Now the high frequency sounds emanated from the rear and did not cover the bass tones. The tympani solos was greatly improved by using four kapex units to block out leakage. He took the eight horns on
"Norwegian Wood" and moved their positions during the midown an eighth of a turn. This improved the localization of the antiphonal calls.
Some other effects:
On the "Godfather" theme he put the drums through a phase shifter and moved them around the room in a figure eight.
On "Baby Elephant Walk," he envisioned the music representing a safari. So he used six joy sticks and some pan pots to move the sound so that it came in from the front left, walked around the room and left by the right front channel.
Montenegro doesn't believe that the purpose of quadrasonic sound is to recreate the concert hall in the listener's living room. It's one of its potentials, but it's not the only one.
Explains the composer:
Ambience works best on beautiful, long lines, on strings, woodwinds, legato brass. It creates an enormous space. It's unnecessary on a rhythm section.
The listener tends to be front oriented so that rear placements have to be done very delicately. A counter line can be written to come from the rear and from the opposite side.
Montenegro suggests putting low frequency solo colors in the front like cellos, low clarinets and soft trombones. High frequency counter melodies should go in the rear.
"The highs will tend to mask (cover) the lows when the lows are in the rear.”
Montenegro believes that if the only way to listen to 4-channel is to be cemented dead center in the middle of a room, quadrasonic "will never get off the ground."
During mastering, the producer should constantly move around the room, using the epicenter as a starting point and testing what he hears. If it becomes a jumble of sound, he's got to cut back on echo and ambience and localize the sound more.
Montenegro additionally suggests: always having some sound coming out of each speaker to reduce hiss. He prefers drums split in front. Bass on all four channels, the guitar in the back on either channel and the piano center rear.
One consideration which should always be remembered is that the quadrasonic LP may be played on a regular stereo system, so you have to have a good stereo mix.
During his early writing stages, the composer lays out a four speaker chart in his den, penciling in where he intends to put his instruments. "It's a way of organizing the mixdown," he says.
As to the future, Montenegro envsions engineers learning how to use the Gotham delay units so the composer doesn't find too much sound swimming around but does have the desired effect of space. "Engineers will have to become sounding boards more and advise composers and producers on what things won't work in the mix."
Admitting there were many things to be "anxious about" before doing that first big record session, Montenegro now feels that future 4-channel projects will be easier for him and for other composers who choose to tackle the big "Q” from both the song and technical aspects. "The new generation of electronics oriented musicians," he says, "will have it easier than we did.
HUGO'S TIPSHEET
The composer planning to develop a 4-channel album has to "learn what works and what won't come off in the mixdown," and the only way to gain this knowledge is to try things. According to Hugo Montenegro-who is the creative source behind all these attitudes-the composer has to try and plan those devices he knows will work musically, in a palatable way, for the listener.
"When a person's attention is constantly drawn to a gimmick, like too much motion or over use of four speaker electronic effects, the result is unsatisfying because the listener hasn't yet learned to listen to four channel sound."
Artistic devices like a four channel interplay between orchestra sections of percussion (a form of ping pong) should be carefully planned and spotted, but shouldn't be the whole effect. The song is the thing and the device should enhance it. Other devices to plan for carefully are motion between any pair of speakers and a spacious environmental sound.
Here are several tips which Montenegro offers to composers planning to write for the quadrasonic medium:
• Plan 4-track arranging layout with a description of the devices on a mastering chart before you write the arrangement. This chart will be a valuable time/saving guide during mastering
• Use devices sparingly and well spaced, (not consecutively), or the mastering of one band will require days instead of hours.
• Create imaginative instrument placements that will entertain the listener not jar him
• Go for maximum isolation on live recording sessions. Leakage will reduce the localization of the sound source and render motion devices ineffective.
• During playback of your finished master, if you can't visualize your device, it's not coming off. Test your work tape for leakage. If there is no leakage, determine if the device is being masked by something else in the arrangement. If so, make the necessary change and drop the masking components.
If the device is not being masked, reduce the ambience, (both the time delay and the level). If it still isn't working, forget it and create a simpler alternate way of mastering your device.
Above all, don't over arrange. The listener's mind can't attend to a lot of things going on at the same time and all around him.
Learn as much as you can about recording and mastering techniques, both concepts and technology.
• Try to stay adaptable. If what you preconceive doesn't come off, try to effect a change even if it means moving to another speaker, or changing the direction of the motion, or even dropping a track to let something come through.
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Steven Wilson Tears For Fears - Seeds Of Love (New Atmos mix by SW)!
- Latest: minimumtumbleweed
