Lou Dorren: A new CD-4 Demodulator!!! [ARCHIVE]

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It would be interesting to see if someone else could finish the project. It was so close to being completed. But we have our 4DD5's and we will carry on.
The Quadfather
 
It would be interesting to see if someone else could finish the project. It was so close to being completed. But we have our 4DD5's and we will carry on.
The Quadfather
 
Best wished to all. I don't know if it has been reported here, but Lou died last October.

He had made up some prototype boards for the demodulator, and he had even purchased some parts for the final product (meters, cartridges). I don't know exactly where the design drawings and PCB layouts are, the executor of the estate really doesn't really have any electronics (or computer) experience, so some of this may be lost.

If you post questions here, I may be able to answer them. I knew Lou for over 40 years.

...Herby

This was really sad. I have not been following the thread for quite some time, and when I check again, I learn Lou Dorren has passed away. I have learned quite a lot following this thread, a little late now, but thanks to Lou Dorren. ?
 
Those fans, who are further on interested for Lou Dorrens Demodulator, may look to the thread "next generation surround sound formats" and the chapter "Incolve CD4". The australieh engineers (Chucky) are willing to complete the Dorren demodulator. But now they need some furtherr interested fans with ordesr. As I understand it, one could cost $ 500, when 200 oders are together.

Dietrich
 
Checkout this thread:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...4-Is-there-any-life-in-it&p=258356#post258356


Those fans, who are further on interested for Lou Dorrens Demodulator, may look to the thread "next generation surround sound formats" and the chapter "Incolve CD4". The australieh engineers (Chucky) are willing to complete the Dorren demodulator. But now they need some furtherr interested fans with ordesr. As I understand it, one could cost $ 500, when 200 oders are together.

Dietrich
 
Very sad to here of Lou's departure. I don't come to this thread very often.
I had a google to see what I could find out about the man, he seems to have been a very well respected.
What I did find out was he wrote an article for popular electronics magazine about building a CD-4 demodulator.
A little while ago Obbop posted a thread with a link to all editions of that mag (thanks!) at https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?19842-Popular-Electronics-Magazine
The edition in question is September 75 pages 39-45 and is at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/70s/1975/Poptronics-1975-09.pdf I've extracted the relevant pages here View attachment lou.pdf
 
Very sad to here of Lou's departure. I don't come to this thread very often.
I had a google to see what I could find out about the man, he seems to have been a very well respected.
What I did find out was he wrote an article for popular electronics magazine about building a CD-4 demodulator.
A little while ago Obbop posted a thread with a link to all editions of that mag (thanks!) at https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?19842-Popular-Electronics-Magazine
The edition in question is September 75 pages 39-45 and is at http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Poptronics/70s/1975/Poptronics-1975-09.pdf I've extracted the relevant pages here View attachment 20750

I was looking for information about some CD-4 chips. There's a schematic in the Poptronics-1975-09.pdf file showing details about the QSI-5022. Good find.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?14620-QSI-5022-chips
 
Lou was a great advocate for multi-channel sound and I appreciate all the reporting of his endeavors over the years as they were just to cool! 4 Channel discrete FM Radio, yeah! Apply the principal to LP. YEAH!
I learned a lot as a kid reading his publications and articles by reporters.

I have one story to share about Lou.

One night a get a call from a lady who said she was dating Lou and was having a hard time believing all the stories he was telling her. I was contacted as an independent verification as I did not know Lou. I proceeded to answer her questions about 4 channel FM radio, Quadraphonics, etc. and after all the questions and telling her that this fellow is a hero in my book and what he is saying is true, I had the chance to talk with him for over an hour. I poured a glass of wine and asked everything I could think of at the time about the quad radio, FCC & stuff. It was really a great experience. I am sure I came off like a fan of some teen idle by knowing so much about him but when looked at from the audio world he contributed too, he was a really great man.
 
Lou was a great advocate for multi-channel sound and I appreciate all the reporting of his endeavors over the years as they were just to cool! 4 Channel discrete FM Radio, yeah! Apply the principal to LP. YEAH!
I learned a lot as a kid reading his publications and articles by reporters.

I remember when Lou Dorren taught a class on Quad Sound at the local Community College. Included some great stories, a visit to K-101 FM studios in SF for Quad demos and an invite to be one of the listeners for the NQRC tests for the FCC.
Great memories! :)
 
I just checked in. Its been a couple months. Read the sad news. Its been 40 years since I last saw Lou. I may have mentioned it here before but when I was in college I did an analysis of his FM broadcast system which led to an invitation to visit him at Quadracast Systems Inc. He provided our FM station with EPC-451 cartridges and gave me some assistance on the FM multiplex generator I was designing for the station based on his system. I graduated and left. The station used the generator for two or three years, but never implemented 4 channel studios. The FCC never approved a 4 channel system, and CDs and other things took the wind out of the sails, so nothing ever came of it.

I have worked (and/or dabbled) in some of the fields Lou was involved in, and can say he was an incredible person. Just the wide range of expertise he had was amazing. He was obviously an important engineer in both the CD-4 development and his FM quadraphonic broadcasting (which was used by KIOI). He designed more than one integrated circuit, which is itself a specialty few people know how to do, and did so in the fairly early days of that field. He was a sound recording engineer who mastered several albums. And was also experienced at cutting vinyl masters, another field that only a small number of people ever entered. The broad range of sound and electronics that he mastered was unique.
 
The FCC never approved a 4 channel system, and CDs and other things took the wind out of the sails, so nothing ever came of it.

Actually the FCC did approve the use of discrete quad 4 Channel systems for FM Broadcast, including the one invented by Lou Dorren - along with the use of this portion of the FM spectrum for additional SCA services.
Unfortunately their action came long after Quad had "died" which rendered their action moot when it came to Discrete 4 Channel Quad FM Broadcasting.
 
Does anyone know if the QSI record cleaning fluid is still available anywhere? Or maybe, is it sold somewhere under another name?
 
Since Lou Dorren is gone, and the info here is now pretty much obsolete, a mod should release all those threads from being "sticky" and let them sink to the ground of the deep ocean of information now...

(And that goes for many other "stickies" in the various folders, too, methinks.)

-Kristian
 
Does anyone know if the QSI record cleaning fluid is still available anywhere? Or maybe, is it sold somewhere under another name?

Record cleaning fluid isn't alchemy, regardless of the opinions of people who think that they have found the ultimate formula. I make my own to use with my Nitty Gritty machine, and it costs just a few loonies a gallon (distilled water, 99% isopropanol, and a drop or two of 'secret sauce'). If you want something more 'professional', there is one in the Audio Asylum classifieds that a lot of people seem to like. Sorry, but I can't paste a link into this post for some reason.
 
Record cleaning fluid isn't alchemy, regardless of the opinions of people who think that they have found the ultimate formula. I make my own to use with my Nitty Gritty machine, and it costs just a few loonies a gallon (distilled water, 99% isopropanol, and a drop or two of 'secret sauce'). If you want something more 'professional', there is one in the Audio Asylum classifieds that a lot of people seem to like. Sorry, but I can't paste a link into this post for some reason.

I just learned that Nitty Gritty has been effectively a one-woman shop for some time and, sadly, her health has gone downhill. As a result, the products will no longer be available and the machines can't be factory serviced. I'm sure fluid won't be an issue, but parts will.
 
I will still say RIP, Lou. He was such an important man in the quadraphonic world that brought such joy to all of us. 40+ years on, I am still thrilled by it all.

Anyway, I know Lou's theory/application was to loosen the dirt in the groove and let the stylus "plow" it out. I would never doubt his word and I'm sure it works. However, I have just used my same old method (washing in the sink thoroughly with dishwashing detergent) on CD-4 records the same as regular two channel records and it works fine. Just don't scrimp on the number of times you make passes on the record, scrubbing it. And be sure you completely rinse all detergent off.

The important thing to remember related to those claiming CD-4 records were ruined by playing on a two channel system is that Lou proved them wrong (and liars, actually) by conducting experiments which showed the carriers still there after many plays at 3 grams (I believe) on a regular system.

Doug
 
Thank you, to the administrators of this forum, for accepting me as a new member.
I hope that I don't detract too severely - upon the earlier works of past members (since lost to old age & time itself, such as Lou Dorren - who sadly never made his electronic whizz-machine - digitally manipulating version of the CD-4 Demodulator. ? I wonder how it would have sounded ..?)

However - in saying that - I am also at a loss, to understand why no one (except myself) has stood by and thus worked with DISCOVERING that there are in fact many, many more - different - yet similar and semi-discrete multiple channels of "directly decoded" surround sound, easily obtainable in the lower order numbers up to NINE and a summated tenth channel - or make that 12 +1 = 13 channels..
Playable - from ANY (and I do mean any) audio recording format or transmission method, allowing the user to listen to - and thus absorb - the sounds of multiple channels of ANALOGUE audio, or that almost all people (unlike myself) that have never bothered to discover - or even let themselves learn, that digitally manipulating (by any electronic means whatsoever) actually detracts from the basic original recorded signal sources (or live signal sources - as that works too), imbedded DEEP within all 2 channels audio signals - that allow me to be extracting multiple channels of fully and or intrinsically intertwined within each other, audio signals - that can either be used immediately by sending directly to a speaker - (being a single speaker for that one channel - or one of many speakers in those sub-channels - being frequency split for tweeter/mid/base & subwoofers) - to allow the user of the DIRECT_PLAYING Deplexer-Decoder that I discovered how to hand make - back in 1965.
A full 11 years before a Ray Dolby - used a form of capacitance - to remove high end tape hiss, from his recordings.. and thus "invented" as that was called, surround sound?
ELEVEN YEARS after I had discovered this was easily obtainable by direct-play "with" - any two channel stereo format or LIVE stage performance too.

Thus - for the world to have people state that the 1970's Quadraphonic era - is somehow a forgotten system - when I discovered SEVEN instantly - then later - upwards of many many times that figure, EXIST NATURALLY - deep within any 2 channel stereo format - or two channels of LIVE STAGE (public concert) audio outputs.!

Thus - the world has lost out, in not being able to have it's small number of FOUR, but many & numerous other numbers, of "split channels" - all working semi-independently of all others, as well as cumulatively working together, as an immersive "ALL-AROUND™" QUIX™ analogue surround sound system - comprising a LOT MORE than a mere four channels - calculated by myself to be at least ‭16,581,375‬ (on a flat area of land - in a circular installation, or - when increasing the effective area UPWARDS into a semi-circular arch over the top of the sound area, one gets what is known as a spherical (or half sphere atively) sound stage - increasing the effective number - if one had a small planet such as Pluto to install one's speakers around totally - one then increases that effective useable number of DIFFERENT decodable channels (using a lot of extra amplifiers for the resultant many channels - which are inherently weaker in power output, than the master nine) - to the huge order of 64.77 MILLION different in some small way - to any other signal path, in that sphere.

I myself have ONLY tested these to a finite number of 25.7 (being 32 different channels).

QUIX4U - is what I use world wide - as a username & as a multiple variant domain name system - as well as a Google keyword.
I have many other KEYWORDS - that one can Google - such as my NZ Company's active initials - WSTLNZ
As:
Waitaki Sound Technologies Limited, New Zealand - & hence one only needs to use the first letters and bingo = WSTLNZ

As for four channel QUADRAPHONIC - yeah - I had a neighbour back in the early 1970's who BOUGHT a quadraphonic "player" system - for a lot of money back then, and who INVITED a lot of his neighbours around, to HEAR A PLANE on a vinyl record, FLY "around his lounge?
Oh wow, I thought BEFORE I GOT THERE, this will be good, it's a commercially made system.
?
What a load of junk.

Oh for sure, his "quad" vinyl with it's very delicate grooves, somehow managed a miserable take-off, and something FLY around the house, in & out of the walls, losing quality at times, deafening at others, taking seemingly forever - to get airborne..

And it was useless for playing normal stereo and yes we all at that time, still had a LOT of old mono 78's 45's, 33's & a couple of 16's we'd made with another "friend's" dad's cutting machine (it cut vinyl covered aluminium platters with a MONO microphone attached to thgis huge crawling arm, that allowed the stylus to CUT huge curls (as does a metal cutter on a lathe) leaving a 'playable" vinyl record ..
We made a few without his dad knowing, by talking, or as I did, by reading a dirty old newspaper I'd found on the studio/shed floor as I didn't have a ready story to yabber into the mic..?

Since discovering WHERE all the hidden channels resided, in 1965 - on a remote cold NZ Farm, middle of winter 1965 when I was merely 12 years of age, I have "developed" my unique & eclectic collection of own-remastered recordings, in ALL sorts of weird & wonderful ways, both crossing over lefts to rights and visa versa - but fronts to backs and insides and outsides, to also then BLEND any number "sdrawkcaB" into & thus onto themselves, to PLAY in both directions at the same time (looking as I always have done, for imbedded lyrics and "other songs sung" inside the words / plays of songs ..

But - I have also SOLD many variants over the years - hand built ON_SITE whenever anyone (a local) became aware of my system's ability to play anything they have - even TV and digital satellite movies, on-air local FM radio broadcasts of any 2 channel stereo format - yes all audio etc etc - (or just to have a way to "play better" their own record collections).

Thus - I have installed many a domestic system, several commercial premises, such as pubs and clubs, along with a few industrial building installs, and a couple or more of mobile home (car / caravan/etc) installs.
I even managed to "direct sell" - TWO complete systems, for a travelling Weber Bros Circus - that came through the area where I met with them during their BIG TENT erection the day before a few CIRCUS shows.

I met with their sound engineer who initially just said, look I'm really busy - so if you can come back later & erect your display out in the community "park", that would be OK, thus I just said - oh I have one in my briefcase - so I'll set it up out there now, take me a few minutes ..

As I was doing the after connection TESTS - I had a lot of travelling circus people come out of their trailer homes, to FIND - just where the hell this lovely music was coming from, so I then had the engioneer himself run back and ask ?
Oh it's set and going, be back soon, returning with a few CD's of his own.
The others also had their fav CD's & MP3 players, all able to be PLAYED DIRECT - via their 3.5mm headphone outputs, into a small multi-ch amp I'd kitbashed a few days before - run off a 9vDC battery ..

I was impressed to discover they BOUGHT (on the spot) two of my QUIX™ deplexer-decoders, as well as requesting I come back & install a few in their private trailers.

I got paid more than I thought was a fair price - along with four tickets to their circus show, PLUS - when I attended that night with two friends (I'd given the other ticket to my Dad as he wanted to go the next night - on his own), I was gobsmacked to discover - the first half of the show, was merely a showing of a few animals and human acts - with little to no music ?

After half-time intermission, the lights went down and suddenly - BOOM - outside the tent, several deafeningly loud, huge thunder claps, and the tent lit up with a series of blue flashes ..
Almost instantly - in the cool summer night - there was a stampede as almost the entire tent of people got up & rushed outside to CLOSE all of their vehicle's windows - and stopped - most just outside the tent itself, causing a bottleneck as others tried to push out..

I too - ran as my van's rear windows were pinned open, so I too saw..
STARS?
And a warm slow wind, wafting around - dry grass scent - no water (or rain) for miles.

What the - oh my sound system - yes (smiling I went inside and sat down to wait) .. then the lights dimmed and?
CAME ON AGAIN.

Ok everyone - that worked.

The lead audio technician started to tell a story about how Weber Bros had searched the entire world, for a circus style sound system - to no avail.
It was ONLY a chance meeting, with (as he said) a LOCAL Alexandra Farmer / bloke - that they had found the system they had always dreamt of, and never knew existed.,

I was "named" and (slightly shamed) lifted up - in the event's seated audience, as the perfect sound engineer, with a delightfully workable circus sound system, that had fooled everyone just a few moments before - it's inventor included (yes - they'd seen me scoot outside too).

Later, after they'd moved locations to a different town many miles away - I got a phone call - another of the travelling circus members, now wanted MY SYSTEM, installed in their caravan / van too.

As I installed it, I heard the speakers inside the tent and again - boom and a few moments later - my "name" mentioned..

I found out afterwards - form others that knew me - that the Weber Bros Circus - that year - continued around the South Island, then headed into the North Island - giving my name - a boosted FREE advert..

Thus for a few years - installs were hectic to say the least .. until - I came across a NEW digital amp - that short circuited itself, (it had isolated speaker outputs as they were internally bridged and COULD NOT be interconnected or even grounded.. oops - the electrician in me had grounded both outputs..?
Electrical Safety and ground bonding of high power outputs was my creed - see..

Thus - I am still researching - after all what else can I do with Covoid-19 and old age - meaning that I can't yet "open' for business?
Discovering something else about my electrical trade - that I never wanted to indulge myself in making audio frequency capable - isolation transformers - to allow me to ground high power speakers, without blowing any other digital internally bridged power amp's isolated outputs..

Needless to also say - I still only have a single microphone - on my cellphone, (and on an old Kodak camera - that I use to "video record" audio tests that I do

I can't upload anything halfway decent as the uploads are STILL all too huge (even at 25Mb)
Thus .. being an avid innovative & highly inquisitive KIWI inventor .. there has to be another wy..

What to do .. well maybe just fiddle a little..
&
Play them this playlist Dad - it'll confuse them.
After all, PLAYING audio recordings OUT into speakers is only one half of a multiple channel surround sound system - PLAYING WITH IT, to remaster whatever "new sounds & harmonics" that one wishes to create FROM that bog standard 2 channel audio feed you got from somewhere and PLAYED (as in played with - operative word play - one cannot PLAY something unless one PLAYS WITH "it" - differently.
..
Listen - this will explain everything, well - maybe
See - audio and four decoded (Quadraphonic) channels is nothing - when one knows there are vast quantities of them still hidden inside - that one can PLAY - as in
Play With.

Triple Dual Twin Quad MIX (Reverse-Invert Hash-Smash-Alert)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3211F34546C5E2CD
 
Hello You All,

Pickup cartridge to be announced. For every ones information. The Signetics CD4-392 and the CD-894 chips are actually a Signetics (NXP) NE565 or a National Semiconductor LM565. Still in production by both!

Lou Dorren

Although this post was made long time ago: I jut read this and was curious.

But NO, the "CD-4 392" and the "SI/NE565" might be similiar, but at least different. The "CD-4 392" has 16 pins, the "SI/NE565" only 14 pins. So a direct replacement is not possible.
 
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