Exploring Billboard for Quadraphonic Information

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September 23, 1972

AES: Calm & 3-Channel

By EARL PAIGE

NEW YORK
Recording technicians and hardware designers on both sides of the matrix vs. discrete
4-channel "battle" were surprisingly cordial to one another as the 49th Audio Engineering Society
(AES) Convention opened here
Sept. 12. Though not interpreted as a concession, RCA engineer J. James Gibson said his firm is proposing a "3-channel" broadcasting system.
Emil L. Torick, CBS Laboratories, chief backers of the SQ matrix system, set the tone of the initial opening panel. He said, "The discrete vs. matrix differences have now been pretty well categorized.
Discrete is a long-term program," he added, alluding to industry tests and the Federal Communications Commission study of discrete broadcasting. "Meanwhile, it's a matrix world. Some 46 brands of hardware are available with matrix receivers." Gibson, however, said in reference to Torick's estimate of two years for Electronic Industries Association (EIA) and FCC tests, "Let's hope things move faster than that."
Broadcaster panelists Eric Small, WOR here and George Endres, WGNS-Washington,
D.C., expressed concern about potential listeners with 4-channel equipment and costs to stations. Small was moderator.
Small said he heard that no more than 20 to 30 percent of listeners to good music stations have 2-channel stereo receivers but said this falls off rapidly in afternoon drive time and when the portable radio audience swells in evenings.
Endres said, "Listeners don't identify with quadrasonic, most are scared about having to buy new equipment." Later, Small said many listeners with 2-channel stereo receivers prefer to listen to mono because of signal to noise ratio.
Endres said he was concerned about having to add to his $65,000 worth of equipment.
"Updating it (for discrete) scares me." Later he said, "What do we tell management they will get for discrete? Will it help them sell more soap?"
Gibson argued that the option of full discrete broadcasting must be kept open. "It may be something people will like."
All five panelists were concerned with not interfering with FM SCA or side board signals, the chief argument, of course, for going matrix. Duane Cooper, University of Illinois consultant for Nippon Columbia, said he is proposing a "sharpened" matrix system that will not use SCA.
Gibson was pressed hard on the question of whether RCA's 3-channel system is really discrete.
"It depends on your interpretation (of discrete).
Ours is a uniform resolution of the scene around the horizon, we do not matrix, there Is no 90-degree phase shift."
"However," he also added, "most of the costs will be for the equipment in the home. There may be a toss up there (between matrix and the newer approaches to discrete)."
 
September 23, 1972

"3-CHANNEL”

Engineers Respect
Playback Demands

By EARL PAIGE

NEW YORK-
Audio Engineers are taking a more patient view of 4-channel. At their convention here they were also less emotional about matrix vs. discrete and more conscious of the part playback equipment has in the total record-tape product.
Just four months ago at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Los Angeles convention, proponents of matrix labeled discrete advocates "skunks" (Billboard, May 13). The mood at this AES event, however, was one of matrix and discrete being viewed at different levels rather than as a heads-on battle.
In fact, the opening panel discussion on 4-channel broadcasting was noticeably low-key, though moderator Eric Small, WOR radio here, said afterward that he chose the panelists "with great care" (see separate story). In the broadcasting session, Emil L. Torick, CBS Laboratories, referred directly to hardware: "Meanwhile (until discrete vis-a-vis FM is resolved), it's a matrix world." He said 46 brands of hardware are available with matrix receivers.
Not the least bit submissive, however, was J. James Gibson, RCA engineer, who revealed his firm's proposal for "3-channel discrete" broadcasting. Pointing out that the system involves "no phase shifting," he said adaptation will be no great problem for hardware manufacturers of receivers.
He said one synchronous detector and essentially a simple resistor matrix network with maybe one transistor is all the modification required on present 4-channel receivers. RCA is proposing the 3-channel system for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) study.
Matrix, though, came in for more harsh criticism by recording technicians in the first evening session here where musician and studio expert Ron Frangipane referred repeatedly to the need for recording experts to interface with consumer electronics manufacturers.
Frangipane said he is "bugged no end" by the lack of separation in matrix 4-channel."
But he added: "All of us have to become more familiar with the vocabulary of craft, with what the equipment consumers have can accomplish."
Another delegate said “if people use hack rear speakers it destroys all the balance we (studio people) put in."
However, John M. Woram, Vanguard Records engineer, said, "Matrix is still young, we're only beginning to exploit it."
Contrasts between what studio people "hear" and how the product sounds on radio and television, particularly on small radios, was discussed at length. Arranger and conductor Lee Holdridge said, “Why go 16-track (in recording) for something that will come out of a tiny speaker in a TV set?" Producer Wally Gold said he often does two mixes, one the recording company executives will hear and one "sneaked out and mixed as it will sound on Top 40 radio.”
At Vanguard Records, Woram not only has a small speaker built into the console for monitoring, but even a transmitter for "broadcasting" to a small Sony radio 12 feet away to approximate how the finished product will sound.
 
September 23, 1972

Setting 4-Channel Equipment With Disks Hit at Federated

By BOB KIRSCH

LOS ANGELES-
Putting hardware and software under the same roof is providing a major boost for 4-channel disk and tape sales at Federated Electronics.
"It's a great help to have the hardware and software together," says record buyer Chuck Fishbein,
"particularly with a relatively new configuration such as 4-channel.
When a consumer buys the hardware, he's generally excited enough to want something to play on it right away. We can provide him with this service."
Fishbein also feels that it's important for the hardware outlet to handle a full line of software, "not just the top 20 and whatever else can be picked up. This is what we would like to aim for.
"We started a record department several months ago to see if people buying systems were interested in software at the same locations, and they seem to be. We'd like to make this a real record store within a hardware outlet, kind of a sound supermarket. We're looking at this as an experiment and if the two match it will be great.
"When you look at it," he continues, "it's kind of silly to have to buy hardware in one place and software in another if there is room in one location for both." Federated is finding that this theory is working particularly well in 4-channel.
"There's a lot happening in 4-channel disks and tape now," Fish. bein says.
"We're selling a good amount of material in both configurations, with middle of the road music showing the best results. Fishbein feels this trend reflects several things, primarily the material available and the type of consumer purchasing 4-channel.
He added, however, that rock and classical music are doing well.
Fishbein also feels that 4-channel is "here now," and there is not as large a problem as many seem to feel in obtaining satisfactory software and hardware. "There are a lot of titles around," he said, "and most 4-channel equipment is compatible with stereo.
"I think you can sell 4-channel now if you promote it, which is what we're doing. We have a full bin of 4-channel records, demo rooms for the equipment and we advertise both in the newspaper. The big thing is to let people know that the configuration is here."
Fishbein thinks that "People are not afraid of spending money if they know something is ready. We emphasize that a new stereo system that is compatible with 4-channel will not become obsolete and that 4-channel is not in the future, it's now. I think that the more people realize this, the more it will convince software and hardware manufacturers to produce 4-channel material."
Fishbein finds that many of his 4-channel consumers are those who are getting rid of standard stereo systems and want to become involved in the new configuration.
These are the people buying compatible hardware. He finds it hard to pinpoint a specific age group, except to say that few teenagers are buying.
Federated plans to expand its 4-channel record and tape displays in the future, with records divided by artist and company. The store carries 4-channel disks in discrete and matrix.

1693222079550.jpeg
 
^^^
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."


Seems like he didn't he consider vehicle Q8 or [discrete] Quad FM listeneing (good luck being dead center)?

MCH/stereo listening for me:
Home surround systems (yes, at dead center)
Car stereo (off to the left)
Stereo boombox (right rear - near an AC outlet + good FM stereo reception in the basement)


Kirk Bayne
 
Sonic vs phonic. I've seen random variations on the label quadraphonic but in so many of these posted articles I see quadrasonic. All the SQ/QS/CD-4 I have say quadraphonic. I accept this as the norm and am puzzled at the use of quadrasonic. How did this naming convention come about? Oh sure there was ambisonic that was it's own little niche. But if quadraphonic can be seen as the evolution of stereophonic then indeed it should be quadraphonic.

I can not imagine myself belonging to a forum called QuadrasonicQuad.
I guess I don't have anything more important to be concerned about today...:sneaky:
 
gvl_guy said:
Ah, the ever fickle A&M Records. "We're all in for QS. No, wait. We mean SQ. Did we say SQ? We meant CD-4." 🙄
Click to expand...
Those ads make me think that A&M should have stayed with QS. I love the comparison to stereo, just as Len Feldman reported in his book "Four Channel Sound" a quad system is like having six stereo systems! They even used special vinyl. A&M records (especially Canadian pressings) always sounded great.

Why did they switch to SQ? Other than the possibility of someone getting kickbacks, I would suspect that SQ full-logic decoders had just been developed while Sansui QS was still using "Phase Modulation" with a more basic decoder. QS Vario-matrix then came out, without the gain riding side effects. Perhaps A&M should have stayed with QS a little longer, I'm sure that they didn't mix specially to get the best from SQ like CBS did, instead simply passed a quad mix through an encoder.

The A&M SQ records always seemed to me to be a tad noisy, not the same quality as the QS and even the stereo releases. I doubt that they still used the same vinyl.

When most of the bugs were out of the CD-4 system they switched again but that (sadly) was to be short lived.
 
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September 16, 1972

Panasonic Taps
Montenegro for
4-Channel Talk

LOS ANGELES-
Hugo Montenegro will explain 4-channel recording at Panasonic's convention in New York Sept. 26-27 at the New York Hilton. Montenegro is RCA's first pop artist to arrange and conduct music for the quadrasonic medium.
RCA, Panasonic and Japan Victor are the triumvirate which has worked on the development of a compatible discrete disk system.
Montenegro's "Love Theme From the Godfather" album was world premiered last April at the fourth International Music Industry Conference in Acapulco..
Montenegro was in attendance at the IMIC gathering to discuss the art of quadrasonic recording with world music industry execu-tives.
The LP has just been released by RCA for public sales following extensive work to get the sound balance equal to that of a regular stereo disk.
Once he returns from his goodwill junket, Montenegro will begin recording his second quadrasonic LP. He has begun mapping out the project with Pete Spargo his producer.
"It won't be a gimmicky album," Montenegro says. "I'm not going to prove if something works or doesn't like I did on the first album." The LP is slated for a November release, which means Montenegro will probably go into the studio the first week in October.
He is currently writing the music for the Partridge Family TV series and has completed an original score for an ABC-TV Wednesday night movie,
"Learn to Say Goodbye Maggie Cole" which airs Sept. 27. Dusty Springfield sings the main title song "Learn to Say Goodbye.”
Montenegro plans to record it as an RCA single within the next few weeks.
In doing the quadrasonic album Montenegro did his own independent research into the subject of psychoacoustics to discern how the brain and ears isolate sound sources. In this sense he has gained a vast amount of knowledge into the science of hearing, and the invitation by Panasonic is his first public appearance since IMIC.
 
Sonik Wiz said:
Sonic vs phonic. I've seen random variations on the label quadraphonic but in so many of these posted articles I see quadrasonic. All the SQ/QS/CD-4 I have say quadraphonic. I accept this as the norm and am puzzled at the use of quadrasonic. How did this naming convention come about? Oh sure there was ambisonic that was it's own little niche. But if quadraphonic can be seen as the evolution of stereophonic then indeed it should be quadraphonic.

I can not imagine myself belonging to a forum called QuadrasonicQuad.
I guess I don't have anything more important to be concerned about today...:sneaky:
Click to expand...
There is a thread some place here about the different names for four channel sound. As I recall Quadraphonic was not considered to be grammatically correct. I don't know if that is why Billboard likes to use the term Quadrasonic. The Germans and other Europeans prefer Quadrophonic. Then we can use Tetra as well. Tetraphonic or perhaps Tetrasonic or maybe Tetrophonic!

I can live with any of those names!
 
Last edited:
November 18, 1072

Era 'Q' Album Set

LOS ANGELES
Era Records has joined the 4-channel fraternity with the release of "Rare Moments,” a love song instrumental
album, featuring the Rare Moments orchestra. Album is done in Sansui quadrasonic. Herb Newman, Era president, said all 4-chan-nel product will list at $5.98.
 
November 18, 1972

Ovnamics ‘Q’
Sampler Deals

By BOB KIRSCH

LOS ANGELES -
Continental Dynamics, Inc. here has provided more than 50,000 4-channel demonstration tapes and 10,000 disks to four leading hardware manufacturers to date, as part of their complete program of production packaging and display plans.
The firm began in 4-channel
two years ago when they produced a tape for Teledyne Packard Bell.
Since then they have produced tapes and disks for Packard Bell, Sanyo, Toyo and one other firm.
Harry Mynatt, vice president of Continental Record Co., a division of Continental Dynamics, explained how his program works. "Take Packard Bell as an example," he said. "With them we started a tape with monaural sounds of the street, had an announcer point this out, then we went to stereo and then to street sounds in 4-channel. From there we went to various types of music in 4-channel, including breaking down the various parts of the orchestra into the four speakers." Mynatt explained that his firm goes to a client and offers a complete program. The firm has no catalog, and salesmen work out a plan with the client. On tapes and disks which they do, costs vary according to studio time and other fees.

Stuffer Promo

The firm also creates dealer loaders for certain clients, such as Packard Bell. They offer a five-pack of 4-channel tapes and a 10-pack of stereo tapes to be given away with the hardware units and to be used in demon-strations. In addition, every holder of a Carte Blanche card this month received with his bill a stuffer ad for a Packard Bell 4-channel unit with tapes and disks prepared by Continental as a bonus.
Continental also worked with Capitol on their recent series of
4-channel matrix disks. "Capitol did them for us," Mynatt said. "We developed the display for them that would be delivered to Packard Bell dealers and now Capitol is offering the product at retail.
The firm also works with Columbia, RCA, Alshire, Ovation and Enoch Light, in all 4-channel modes with each firm doing its own duplicating, With Alshire, Continental put together 20 titles for Toyo. Also included in the selection of discrete tapes for Toyo were five from Capitol, five from Light and 10 from Ovation.
Mynatt is also involved in stereo demo tapes and records, and has produced a number of premium disks and tapes for retail, including the Johnny Mathis Christmas offer on Columbia which is featured in the Safeway and A&P chains nationally. Continental also provides a selection of direct mail disks and tapes, including the four-volume Greatest Rock and Roll Hits advertised nationally on tele-vision.
The firm is currently working out programs with two other major software firms, one of which has hired a "major rock group" according to Mynatt to appear on the tape.
 
1693284009247.jpeg


THE WORLD IS A GHETTO- War- United Artists UAS 5652
The group who gave the term "Afro-rock" its original meaning now forces us to broaden the definition. On their latest, their musical scope is matched only by their abilities to synthesize, organize and relate in the most artistic and commercial sense. Without a doubt, this is the album to etch them into the rock pantheon of supergroups. Every cut is its own reason why. There is not a weak spot to be found, and the strengths are blinding. See the light and know this is a War to which everyone will come.
Cash Box - November 11, 1972
 
November 11, 1972

Chains Pushing ‘Q’;
Penney 4-Unit Line

By BOB KIRSCH

LOS ANGELES
The J. C. Penney Co., Inc. will be expanding their Penncrest line of four-channel equipment to include at least four models by next year, including the addition of a matrix disk system in December which will feature an SQ premium demonstrator record as part of the package.
According to a Penney spokesman, the line will be upped from its current one 8-track four-channel player because of the "great consumer interest in the configuration and the sales potential that four-channel is showing."
The expansion plan from Penney's is another example of large chain and department stores getting involved in the configuration, and bears out industry predictions that the item is becoming more of a mass consumer item.
"We're only carrying four-channel in our larger stores at the moment," the spokesman said, "and we are providing modular displays which can be adapted for four-channel. We are now approaching a hundred outlets which are stocking four-channel."
This spokesman added that while there is not now quadrasonic disk material being carried by Penney's, this is set for the immediate future.
"We are looking at the discrete as well as the matrix systems," he added. "We're not in the business of backing any one mode and we will have whatever the consumer eventually decides upon."
Another Penney's spokesman added, "We are only carrying four-channel tapes now because there has been too much confusion in the disk area. There has also been a lack of consumer acceptance in disk. When we feel disk has met with acceptance on a larger scale, we will go right into it."
Another chain planning more activity in four-channel is S. Kresge Co. "We think Christmas may be the taking off point for four-channel as far as we are concerned," said company executive Harvey Kresge. "The gift season may give someone a reason to purchase a four-channel unit and we will play it up in our brochures.”
Kresge added that the basic problem in four-channel now is a cosmetic one. He feels that the confusion concerning the various modes has hurt somewhat, but that most immediate sales have been hurt because of the size of the configuration.
"We have had a fair number of verbal complaints from people who want to know where they are going to put the extra two speakers," he said, "but we think this will clear up once people get really acquainted with four-channel.”
Kresge displays its quadrasonic hardware on a free-standing coun-ter. A card is set up explaining the system "in layman's language," said Kresge. "If one of our sales people notices a consumer reading that card, they have been instructed to approach the consumer, show him a four-channel system and add some further explanation to what is on the card.
Kresge is carrying matrix disks and a large selection of tapes. He said the best sellers in tape so far have covered a wide spectrum of music, including rock, country and MOR.
Tape sales so far, Kresge said, have been better than originally expected. One explanation for this, he feels, is that Kresges keeps its record and tape department next to the hardware department, the theory being that a person purchasing a four-channel unit will want something to play it on.
The executive also added that he will be speaking to his automotive department about the possibility of carrying some four-channel models for the car. He said he has had several customer requests for this, and feels the car is not only a good place for the consumer to be introduced to the configuration but does not present the cosmetic problems it does in the house.
What other home entertainment products are moving particularly well for the chain. "Home 8-track playback/record units have really started to take off,” said Kresge. "They have become steadily more popular over the past year and we expect them to move very well at Christmas. Cassettes are also doing well, but not so much in the high-er-end. We think most people upgrading their music systems have gone to the 8-track but the cassette market is still growing in other areas."
Along with the growth in tape equipment sales, Kresge said there has been a noticeable gain in blank tape sales, especially in the cassette configuration.
 
November 11, 1972

Japan Bows ‘Q’

TOKYO-
The first budget-price
"fall" quadrasonic home stereo system being marketed at 136,000 yen or about $450 retail by The Victor Company of Japan (JVC/ Nivico) as the number of compatible discrete & channel (CD-4) disks shot up to the 115 mark at the same time.
The new model DF-19, like the other three of the DF series, comes with four separate speakers and a built-in CD-4 disk demodulator.
The other three models are the
DF-11 which is being retailed at 169,800 yen ($566), the DF-9 at 195,000 yen ($650) and the DE.5 at 268,000 yen ($890).
All models are equipped with a matrix decoder that is claimed to be compatible with CBS/Sony quadrasonic records and other derived 4-channel (RM) disks. Accessories include the JVC model CCR-667 stereo cassette tape deck with ANS (automatic noise reduction system) at 46,000 yen or $156 extra.
Also Japan Victor is marketing its budget-price model MS-303 modular stereo system at 41,800 yen or $139 retail. Two extra speakers will be connected to this model for derived quadraphonic reproduction by means of its built-in speaker matrix.
 
November 11, 1972

See 60 Firms, 100,000
at Japan Hi-Fi Fair

By HIDEO EGUCHI

TOKYO
The 21st All Japan Fair Wednesday (8) will give an expected 100,000 enthusiasts clearer picture of world trends in stereo hardware.
Among 60 exhibitors already registered for the five-day fair being sponsored by the Japan Audio Society at the Tokyo Oroshiuri (Wholesale) Center near Sony headquarters, are the 12 major Japanese companies that displayed consumer products at an earlier show sponsored by the Electronic Industries Association of Japan the Tokyo International Trade
Fairgrounds near Harumi pier.
The 12 majors are (in alphabetical order): Hitachi, Matsushita
Electric Industrial (Panasonic),
Mitsubishi Electric (MGA), Nippon Gakki (Yamaha), Onkyo, Pioneer Electronic, Sanyo Electric, Sharp, Sony, Tokyo Shibaura Electric (Toshiba), Trio Electronics (Kenwood), and the Victor Co. of
Japan (JVC/Nivico).
At the audio fair, Matsushita, Toshiba and JVC (maybe Pioneer and Trio) are expected to demonstrate their respective discrete 4-channel FM broadcasting systems which were introduced during the 3rd Kansai (West Japan) Audio Fair, April 12-17, but were not featured at the electronics show.
The 12 major Japanese manufacturers will be joined by Nippon Columbia (Denon) and Sansui Electric, both of whom declined to participate in this year's electronics show.
Denon will demonstrate its latest line of QX matrixed 4-channel stereo ensembles equipped with
"Voice Changer" mike mixing device and play disks produced under the PCM (pulse code modulation) system jointly developed by the Japanese
"music maker" and
Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), the national broadcasting corporation.
Sansui will exhibit its new line of stereo components being introduced to the audio market this winter. Sansui also will demonstrate its QS regular matrix in direct comparison with discrete 4-channel tape.
Nine other manufacturers who participated in the electronics show have registered for the audio fair.
They are: Aiwa, Alps-Motorola, Ashida Sound, Audio-Technica, Beltek, Foster Electric, Micro
Sound, Otari Electric. and TDK Electronics.
They will be joined by, among others, Akai Electric, BASF, Fuji Photo Film, Hitachi Maxell, Lux, Nikko Electric, Philips Japan, Roland Electronic Industries (Rotel), Sumitomo 3M (Scotch), and TEAC.
Also participating in the audio fair will be Braun Electric Japan, more noted in this country for its handy shavers and hair dryers; also Marantz Far East, newly established in Tokyo. Marantz products were exhibited at the '71 Japan Electronics Show and the 20th All Japan Audio Fair by Standard Radio, now half-owned by Superscope, parent company of Marantz.
The audio fair will offer would-be buyers a better chance to compare different systems and components than the electronics show, which featured televisions, radios and video tape recorders besides stereo phonographs and record players among other consumer products.
Quadraphonic record turntables will be exhibited at the audio fair by Denon, JVC, and Micro; 4-channel pickup cartridges by Audio-Techrica (Electro-Voice in U.S.), Micro and Shinagawa Musen (Grace brand): tuners/receivers by Pioneer, Sony, and Trio; amplifiers by Matsushita, Pioneer, and Sansui; demodulators by JVC and Matsushita; decoders by Mitsubishi and Sanyo; speakers by JVC, Matsushita, and Pioneer; tape decks by Akai, Sony, and TEAC; loaded tape blanks by Fuji Photo Film, Sumitomo 3M, and TDK, among others.
Exhibitors of audio products from the U.S. and Europe are expected to spring some surprises.
Even the sponsor does not know the nature of the product to be exhibited by Nagase, the sole Japan agent for Eastman Kodak.
The audio fair is expected to set new all-time highs in the numbers of visitors and exhibitors. Last year's fair attracted 63,249 persons and 62 exhibitors, although the Japan Audio Society modestly prepared 50,000 brochures.
 
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