Creating a 4-channel audio file to go with a quad cassette - what's the best format?

[wordsplusdreams]

Hi quads, new to this forum and relatively to this world, but I'm plunging WAY into it. I have a little tape label and I'm currently working on a quadraphonic album of experimental guitar and electronics to be released on two stereo cassettes, designed to be played at the same time through 2 cassette players connected to 2 stereos, a vintage quad receiver, or a modern home theater receiver. Cumbersome! I know this is a weird way to do this, but I'm already running with the idea. I would love to hear any comments you may have on this concept, but I'm posting about a more specific matter relating to the release:

Since this format is so non-standard, and it's presumably unlikely that many people will have either the gear or the desire to set up their gear such that listening to both tapes at the same time is possible (though I hope some do) I plan to include with the digital download, along with a standard stereo downmix, the option to download 4-channel-encoded audio files. From my initial bouts of research and previous vague knowledge, I created a set of quad AC3 files with Audacity, and a set of quad DTS files with SurCode Pro. Unfortunately, while I do have the gear to listen to 2 tapes at once in quad surround, I actually do NOT have a digital quad setup currently, so I have no good way to test these files.

This actually brings me to my first point, which is, if anyone would be interested in helping me out by testing these files, that would be rule! If so, please feel free to grab the promo track from my mediafire folder here http://www.mediafire.com/?ipvgqyp9515e5 and throw it on. Do the files work? How do they sound? By way of comparison if necessary, the stereo downmix of the same is streaming here http://soundcloud.com/wordsplusdreams/patrick-higgins-pointillist and I'd be happy to make that available for download for you if it would help.

Secondly, I initially posted about this on AudioKarma, and a couple of people piped up to say that the quality of AC3 and DTS left a lot to be desired, and another recommended a simple multi-channel FLAC, which I wasn't even aware was an option. I'd be extremely grateful to learn more about these formats, your thoughts on which would be best to include, if multi-channel FLAC is indeed preferable to AC3/DTS, or if not, why, etc! While I could make multiple 4-channel file formats available, I don't want to overwhelm people — I want to offer what people will be able to use, will be comfortable with and understand, and what will sound good.

I'm also happy to share more info about the release itself if people are interested, but since I'm a new member especially, I didn't want to come in here and start posting my website link, etc. and make it seem like I'm just here to promote my label. I'm here to learn and I look forward to your comments!

Thanks

 

[sukothai]

...recommended a simple multi-channel FLAC...

Multi-channel FLAC is the way to go. No question about it. The format is free; it is lossless and relatively small in size (compared to raw PCM); and if you don't like it, you can turn it into anything you want.


FYI: I downloaded your DTS, extracted the channels to mono wave files and turned it into a multi-channel FLAC file. The FLAC file is about 2 times the size of the DTS file.

 

[par4ken]

Wow, just wondering how you would ever keep two cassette decks in sync. If you must use cassettes why not look for a four channel unit. They came out in the eighties slightly after the quad era, intended for musicians to make their own multitrack tapes. They ran 3 3/4ips four tracks in one direction. There might be some on eBay. The drawback is that others who would want to play this would need a 4 channel deck as well!

Best to get a multi-channel sound card and forget about cassettes. Audacity can map multi-tracks to any format that you like. Most other programs want to output only stereo or 5.1 (6-channel).

I listened to your DTS download it's very spacey, that file works fine. I converted it to wave with Foobar2000 it actually contains the four channels plus a blank centre channel. With Foobar you can convert and re-map files to whatever you want. With Audacity you can output (and remap) files as 2,3,4 (quadraphonic), 5, 6 (5.1 surround) to name only a few possibilities in wave or flac.