8 track quad-oddity?

[callmez]

(NEWBIE ALERT, I'm still new to all this so please forgive if you see these all the time...)

Picked this 8 track up last weekend at a thrift store, saw the "quad notch" and grabbed it...

GRT 8184 281 E Gabrieli, "Processional & Ceremonial Music" (etc. etc.) Brand new in the sleeve. (Not listed in the Quad discography, and justifiably so)

When I got it back & looked closer, I spotted this notice on the label (pic attached). "Quadraphonic compatible", again the case *is* quad-notched but on a quad system it just plays double stereo! So, thinking this out.. instead of four different sets of two channels (stereo) or two different sets of four channels (quad), it must have four sets of two channels, but all four are identical... and presumably the tape is double length. Does that seem right, or did I miss something?

I thought that all Q8 players were downward compatible to stereo, and would play stereo 8s in double stereo anyway. If so, I guess this makes it just a marketing ploy. Seems strange though, takes more tape to do the same job if I have this figured right.

Are these common, or ??? -- just curious.

Mark

 

[JonUrban]

These classical "Q8's" are one of the most curious of the '70s quadraphonic era.

They are essentially "double stereo", with the rears being duplicates of the fronts. I can't recall if there was a slight delay between the fronts and rears, because quite frankly I never gave these much notice back then - even when they flooded the cut-outs at Woolco.

Not sure what they meant by "simulating true quadraphonic". Maybe these folks evolved into Silverline!

Still, a good find, if only for their notoritey.

 

[The Quadfather]

Yeah, sounds like a case of marketing fraud. Yes, it's true that all (as far as I know) quad eight track quad players were backward compatible with stereo, and would give you double stereo when playing stereo. So the way this tape is recorded is a total waste of tape, and limits your selections with the track changer to two, when you would have had four with a normal stereo tape. Plus, quad formatted tapes were more prone to being eaten by the player than stereo ones due to the fact that it has twice the tape in the cartridge.

The Quadfather

 

[The Quadfather]

However, it is interesting to note that this tape will play equally well in a stereo player as a quad one. But it will never give quad sound.

The Quadfather

 

[timbre4]

"Simulating true quadraphonic" is just an amazing phrase. It appears that marketing sanity had turned south much sooner than previously thought...

 

[callmez]

Not sure what they meant by "simulating true quadraphonic". Maybe these folks evolved into Silverline!

Ah yes, I bought one of the Silverline disks too, before I read more about them here!

Thanks for the opinions guys, if nothing else I guess I can use it as a paperweight. Maybe the extra tape will help make it more useful in that regard....

Mark

 

[winopener]

Don't worry, it could turn very useful when a *real* quad tape cart get cracked.