PC Based SQ DECODING - ALMOST DONE!

[Bob Romano]

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Saw the above. Did I miss something? Has somebody finally posted a definitive step-by-step guide for SQ and QS conversions using AA 1.5? If so, can you (or someone else reading this) give me the link to these. Have they improved the scripts. The one I used to use would literally take forever and then I was not entirely pleased with the result. The big problem I have experienced with these conversions is that AA will not record to 24/96k but 32/96k. My software for burning onto DVD-A will not accept such, only 24/96k. I could down convert to 16/44.1k but I am loosing resolution. I there an "AA 1.5 for Dummies" out there.

While I am thinking about it, has anybody ever done one for CD-4? From what I understand, there are quite a few more problems with such a conversion. I remember reading that some have given-up. Just a thought.

Also, has anybody ever done a similar guide for recording 4 channel Q8s and Q-reels onto AA?

All of this trial and error stuff is getting me to the point of pulling my hair out (and I don't have much left to pull).

Thanks for your time and all of your great input.

To answer StarTrek1701's question, try here:

SQ Decoding with Adobe Audition for New Converters - Start Here

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...-Adobe-Audition-for-New-Converters-Start-Here

Also, after converting with 32/96 and to get to 24/96, import the 4 decoded sound files into the surround window and after minor adjustments to volume levels (if needed) export from here to 24/96 throwing away the extra Center and LFE as there is nothing on them. There are also scripts for AA 2.0 and 3.0 if you use your search tools here. There is also a free standalone Application for decoding if you do not have Adobe Audition.

 

[Lucanu]

I know Audition could save files in 24 bit mode too, just select "options" when saving to wav

 

[neil wilkes]

Matrix mode in AA4?
With Dolby options?
Yeah, that's likely..........where on earth did this come from?????

 

[oxforddickie]

As I am sure you know, 99% of all quad LP's, reels and 8-tracks have already been converted in one fashion or the other to either DTS, DVD-A or.bwav format.

.

And say's who? Your obviously living in a land where only a hundred or so albums were ever released in Quad. I've figured that i'll never be able to release all the Quad albums released in my life time. I suggest you wake up, and count the albums..........


OD

 

[ndiamone]

And say's who? Your obviously living in a land where only a hundred or so albums were ever released in Quad.

Hardly. With the thousands of titles released both domestically and abroad, simple math shows that there are millions of quadraphiles who purchased said titles, even the obscure ones. Discounting for a moment the dozens of university and other sound archives who have spent their grant money and numerous man-hours performing transfers of this material to either bwav dts or dvd-a for their own archives, that still leaves hundreds and hundreds of guys doing it in their basements for their own enjoyment and their own use.

I've figured that I'll never be able to release all the Quad albums released in my life time. I suggest you wake up, and count the albums...

Once again, discounting for a moment the drama-ridden fiasco that QpS and its' similar associations devolved into, that still leaves thousands and thousands of guys doing their own conversions in their own basements for the enjoyment of their own friends and family.

Even if there were a hundred thousand titles spread across the globe and across all formats, in the thirty years since this material was new, simple math states that a hundred thousand titles across the globe divided by even ten thousand guys across the globe still divides out to ten titles per guy.

Divide that by the 10 years in which digital audio workstations have been commercially available and financially feasible for the average basement hobbyist and mathematically speaking there's no excuse why every quadraphonic title in existence should not have been converted MANY times over in MANY varying degrees of quality by MANY different guys.

If I can find files of separate fronts and rears of obscure Q8 promo carts like The Movie Symphony Orchestra or Bonnie Kolon or Adeladi Barouhishni and then reassemble them in Adobe Audition and convert them to a bwav dvd-a or dts file then there's absolutely no reason why anybody could not find America or Santana or Elvis or whatever else they were looking for in hundreds of different places. Simple laws of averages shows this.

 

[Disclord]

Once again, discounting for a moment the drama-ridden fiasco that QpS and its' similar associations devolved into

OK, since I wasn't really 'around' as a member of QQ or the Google Groups quad forums, could someone fill me in on QpS and what all happened with it? From the little 'snippets' I've read, it seems like the awful Quad Bob was in the middle of the whole thing. So please, someone, fill me in - and don't worry about hurting someone else's feelings in doing so - I mean, I want to know the real dirt about what went on... and what the original goals/dreams for QpS were.

 

[oxforddickie]

Once again, discounting for a moment the drama-ridden fiasco that QpS and its' similar associations devolved into, that still leaves thousands and thousands of guys doing their own conversions in their own basements for the enjoyment of their own friends and family.

Even if there were a hundred thousand titles spread across the globe and across all formats, in the thirty years since this material was new, simple math states that a hundred thousand titles across the globe divided by even ten thousand guys across the globe still divides out to ten titles per guy.

Divide that by the 10 years in which digital audio workstations have been commercially available and financially feasible for the average basement hobbyist and mathematically speaking there's no excuse why every quadraphonic title in existence should not have been converted MANY times over in MANY varying degrees of quality by MANY different guys.

If I can find files of separate fronts and rears of obscure Q8 promo carts like The Movie Symphony Orchestra or Bonnie Kolon or Adeladi Barouhishni and then reassemble them in Adobe Audition and convert them to a bwav dvd-a or dts file then there's absolutely no reason why anybody could not find America or Santana or Elvis or whatever else they were looking for in hundreds of different places. Simple laws of averages shows this.

Your point is a little off the track i think. The idea the four of us (i think that's right) who are producing "Quality" conversions, especially as far as Matrix encoded material is concerned, have is to make these "freely" available (no Qsp) to anyone on the planet. This i believe is of major importance, and hopefully will mean all the sub-standard releases that used hardware decoders (and often not even the correct one!) can be consined to the bin.

 

[ChristopherLees]

well there are thousands of conversions out there...but many of them are only good as drink coasters...

....".MANY varying degrees of quality"..... sadly tends to be towards the bad end of the audio spectrum
I've lost count of the number of sub standard audio conversions...rare and not rare..

even the legitimate cd companies can mess up...e.g Black Sabbath Paranoid...


and we are to assume that there are 10,000 people with q8 decks or fostex reels set up with azimuth and pitch correction to go into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel in a computer

or 10,000 people have good turntables with either awesome cd-4 , qs or sq decoders or they use computer sq/qs decoding into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel

or 10,000 people have q4 decks set up with adjustable azimuth and pitch correction set up to go into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel


I think all that we can deduce from the law of averages is that it is possible to overestimate conclusions.

 

[ndiamone]

OK, since I wasn't really 'around' as a member of QQ or the Google Groups quad forums, could someone fill me in on QpS and what all happened with it? From the little 'snippets' I've read, it seems like the awful Quad Bob was in the middle of the whole thing. So please, someone, fill me in - and don't worry about hurting someone else's feelings in doing so - I mean, I want to know the real dirt about what went on... and what the original goals/dreams for QpS were.

Like anything else, it started off as a great way to trade converted recordings, and get graded on the quality of your own.

well there are thousands of conversions out there...but many of them are only good as drink coasters...

Yes there is plenty of drink coasters out there, but we'll get to that in a bit.

But then the problems started when people started to get into it for the money and the recognition.

We ALL know that when something ceases to be a labour of love and starts to be all about the money and/or all about the recognition, then all of a sudden, like being a drug addict or alcoholic, the money and the recognition are never enough.

Eventually, everybody else gets tired of the drama-meisters and leaves, and then the group collapses under its own weight or else fractures off into a bunch of different boards, none of which can be self-sufficient or commercially viable from all the infighting and bickering.

The same thing happened at the reel to reel board, the Dan Gilmore talking machine board, the jukebox board, the talking-toys-from-the-60's board the 78 RPM records board, the list goes on and on and on, comic books stamps, action figures..... It's just culturally endemic to the hobby and the kind of men it attracts.

....".MANY varying degrees of quality"..... sadly tends to be towards the bad end of the audio spectrum.

Which is why as a long-time transcriptionist and restorationist, I ALWAYS insist on doing my OWN media transfers. I didn't pay all this money or spend all these hours restoring legacy media players that almost nobody cares about to have to sit up here and try to work with peoples transfers who have no idea about even the five BASIC head adjustments (rack, wrap, height, azimuth and zenith) nevermind more advanced transfer techniques.

It's also why I've had to fly to places with my laptop desktop and whatever legacy media player I need because the media is too fragile to survive a trip to the transfer lab on (pick a coast).

I've lost count of the number of sub standard audio conversions...rare and not rare..Even the legitimate CD companies can mess up...e.g Black Sabbath Paranoid...

See up-thread under ``if a label just slaps together what they have any old which way it's going to sound like it.''

and we are to assume that there are 10,000 people with Q8 decks or Fostex reels set up with azimuth and pitch correction to go into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel in a computer?

These days, absolutely. At least half or a fourth of the ten thousand anyway. You know how many places are trying to GIVE away their Fostex E-8's and A-8's and Tascam 388's and etc? Before the advent of DTS and Dolby Digital, every IMAX theatre in North America had at least three to play their multi-track surround audio-only introductions before the features.

That doesn't even count the hundreds and hundreds of churches, schools and civic groups who used quarter-inch 8-track for their production masters simply because the tape was ubiquitous. So maybe everybody doesn't have an E-8 or an A-8. 388's are a LOT more ubiquitous anyway and you can't tell me that all those 388's ALL went to E-Waste when digital came out.

You can't tell me there's not 2500 engineers and wannabe's who've picked em up for pittances and put em back together to use for their own.

...or 10,000 people have good turntables with either awesome QS or SQ decoders or they use computer SQ/QS decoding into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel.

OK maybe that's a little harder to come by, but since all the matrix formats can be mastered right onto CD just as they are, it leaves people with the varying forms of Dolby Pro Logic to decode it on their own with whatever they have handy. Unless you're not counting the undecoded matrix titles.

...or awesome CD-4 demodulators and styli (Lou Dorren)

Well, once Lou Dorren is done, then there'll be 500 more CD-4 guys ``with decent equipment from which to perform good trnsfers and restorations'' so.... (shrug)

..or 10,000 people have Q4 decks set up with adjustable azimuth and pitch correction set up to go into a computer that records at 96/24k multichannel.

Again, tape is going to be a LOT easier to come by. Everybody and their brother in failed garage bands of the 70's and 80's had 4-track 4-channel quarter-inch reel to reels from the mundane Teac 3340 to the high end Akai DSS's all of which were once again permeated throughout the industrial, civics and religious groups of the period, all of whom eventually went digital. All those quarter-inch 4-track 4-channel decks had to go SOMEWHERE.

I think all that we can deduce from the law of averages is that it is possible to overestimate conclusions.

Or not. Course that don't count all the guys who have all this stuff in their garages or basements and whose wives won't let `em set up a media transfer room in ``her house'' to be ``tripped over every day''.

Your point is a little off the track I think.
The idea the four of us (i think that's right) who are producing "Quality" conversions, especially as far as Matrix encoded material is concerned, have is to make these "freely" available (no Qps) to anyone on the planet.

See above under ``labor of love vs being all about the money''

This I believe is of major importance, and hopefully will mean all the sub-standard releases that used hardware decoders (and often not even the correct one!) can be constrained to the bin.

Hopefully.

 

[ChristopherLees]

If there are 2500 engineers playing with quad gear and doing transfers can some of them please join our group...

 

[StarTrek1701]

I greatly appreciate you comments.

I have tried your program/process and the results were not really to my liking. It is probably me. That is why I recently happened upon a Sony SQ decoder. From there, I go 4 channels into my soundcard (M-Audio's Delta 1010LT). Only had time to make one attempt and burned to a DTS-CD. Not entirely sold.

Thanks again.

 

[Lucanu]

If there are 2500 engineers playing with quad gear and doing transfers can some of them please join our group...

Amen Bro!

 

[oxforddickie]

I greatly appreciate you comments.

I have tried your program/process and the results were not really to my liking. It is probably me. That is why I recently happened upon a Sony SQ decoder. From there, I go 4 channels into my soundcard (M-Audio's Delta 1010LT). Only had time to make one attempt and burned to a DTS-CD. Not entirely sold.

Thanks again.

Just wondering who this is addressed to?

 

[StarTrek1701]

Old Quad Guy

 

[imploder]

People,

I just popped in aftere some years (!) to see what happened to this old thread....
As the initial inventor of the SQ decoding process I can state:

It was not because of money.
It was about wanting to hear my DSOTM album in quad, that is all.

I gave the idea to the world for free and got back tons of conversions, good and bad ones, also for free.

This is a give-and take deal and I am happy it worked that way.

All discussions about the real intention for people decoding SQ recordings are NULL in my eyes.

It is about the fun, that is all!

Greetings to all,

Imploder

 

[JonUrban]

Hello Andreas! Welcome back.

Look what you started!

 

[imploder]

Hi Jon,

thanks ! That is amazing...

I suddenly got back into the whole thing by accidently buying the SQ version of Don Ellis' "Tears of Joy" album, which I have in a QR-conversion and I wanted to hear it from an SQ source.

Beacuse I have the setup for 5.1 realtime processing with VST or DX based plugins, I suddenly wondered if there maybe a possibility to decode SQ in realtime six years later.

My conclusion is: No.
The basic matrix decoding can be done by phase changers and mixers without any noticeable CPU load.

But it seems so, that there is no DX or VST plugin that covers the functionality of the Adobe "Center Channel Extractor" because of its ability to filter at different phases.

Maybe we should start a new thread covering this?


Andreas

 

[par4ken]

I finally got around to trying-out the SQ software decoding process in Adobe Audition 2 and the results seem excellent so far. I initially had a problem with the script running so far and stopping. I finally realized that I had labeled the SQ data file back instead of rear. In the good old Quad days they were the back channels, in the 5.1 surround sound days they have become the rears, I prefer the former and will adjust the script to reflect my preference. I have to thank OxfordDickie for all his great releases at Dreaming-Spires as well as all the others who have contributed to it. I appreciate all the hard work that must have went into it. This is not meant as a criticism but if it was me I would include the original SQ or QS mix for legacy decode/comparison and stereo playback compatibility, but that's just me others might not require it.

Thanks All
Ken

 

[watzman]

... but if it was me I would include the original SQ or QS mix for legacy decode/comparison and stereo playback compatibility, but that's just me others might not require it.

Thanks All
Ken

I like your idea