Recommendations for Creating Multichannel Files

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timalin

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2015
Messages
29
I've got some SQ and QS vinyl and probably quite a few "hidden quad" CDs in my collection. I've just started messing about with decoding scripts found here and have ended up with pairs of stereo WAV files. What I now need to do is combine them into single quad files to hear them on my system.

I've tried various versions of Adobe Audition and Sound Forge but to no avail. I'm not sure if the problem is that I'm doing this editing on a virtual machine without a multichannel sound card, but I can't find a way of pasting stereo or mono files into a multichannel file.

I've searched on the forum here and don't seem to be able to find any start-to-finish guide on converting matrix-encoded audio into multichannel files, so any pointers would be appreciated, even just a software recommendation.

I have past experience of audio editing (in stereo) and assumed this would be really simple, but I'm completely flummoxed.
 
You could use Audacity (freeware), import your 2 stereo files, split each of them to mono, then export as a 4 channel FLAC file.
Thanks - I'd forgotten I already had Audacity on my machine. I've had a quick go and managed to do it. I think I avoided Audacity in the past as I found myself inadvertently transcoding, but I'll have to play around with it to avoid that. Many thanks for your help.
 
Thanks - I'd forgotten I already had Audacity on my machine. I've had a quick go and managed to do it. I think I avoided Audacity in the past as I found myself inadvertently transcoding, but I'll have to play around with it to avoid that. Many thanks for your help.

You can also do this at the command line via SoX.

What's the latest script that people are using and where can it be downloaded from? I just tried my first script decode last week and wasn't very impressed. Maybe I have an old script or just did something wrong. Was using Barclay James Harvest's "She Said" as my test file and when doing an A/B between the software decode and the Surround Master in SQ mode, the Surround Master did a much better job.
 
TRY THIS:
I have recorded my SQ discs off a Full logic decoder into a 4 channel sound card with Soundforge PRO software, it lets me record 4 distinct wav files onto my hard drive. I then, after I edit them, use Minnatonka Surcode DTS and convert the four channels onto DTS. I then burn the disc and create a DTS-CD. I play that on my 5.1 theater sound system. I have also encoded my 4 CH 8 tracks into DTS-CDs. I am working on my CD4 discs now. Its working for me but (only downfall), the components and software were expensive!
 
TRY THIS:
I have recorded my SQ discs off a Full logic decoder into a 4 channel sound card with Soundforge PRO software, it lets me record 4 distinct wav files onto my hard drive. I then, after I edit them, use Minnatonka Surcode DTS and convert the four channels onto DTS. I then burn the disc and create a DTS-CD. I play that on my 5.1 theater sound system. I have also encoded my 4 CH 8 tracks into DTS-CDs. I am working on my CD4 discs now. Its working for me but (only downfall), the components and software were expensive!
Thanks for the tip, but I haven't had a disc player in my system for a number of years. I've got everything in flac plus the odd dts file and I've already trialled the above method successfully.
 
You could use Audacity (freeware), import your 2 stereo files, split each of them to mono, then export as a 4 channel FLAC file.
Thanks, that worked. Just did a two-minute edit of the Isley Brothers' Summer Breeze from the recent RCA collection and there was great separation - could have fooled me into thinking it was discrete. Now to see what I've got to decode...
 
Last edited:
You can also do this at the command line via SoX.

What's the latest script that people are using and where can it be downloaded from? I just tried my first script decode last week and wasn't very impressed. Maybe I have an old script or just did something wrong. Was using Barclay James Harvest's "She Said" as my test file and when doing an A/B between the software decode and the Surround Master in SQ mode, the Surround Master did a much better job.
That looks interesting and I'll have a go if anyone recommends a script to go with it. I haven't got any experience of command line editing, but I'd certainly like to learn.
 
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