DTS-CD DTS Sources

[John Svensson]

A DTS conversion question question...forgive if this is old hat an dthe long windedness......I recently made the acquaintance of a fellow surroundaphile in my local neighborhood (quite by accident, I bought a HDCD off Ebay from him which led to "what music do you like?"), who does have several DTS conversions in his collection. I have not heard any yet to comment on the merits of the work but he did not produce these himself so.... can anyone identify a common source for the following? I guess my meaning here is if you see "X", well that was surely done by Tab back in 2003..is it that straightforward or are there literally thousands of poorly done conversions floating around? Also, some of these are not from quad sources as far as I know (I Robot, Blind Faith, Diamond Dogs, Relayer, ELO titles as examples) and they are not listed on the TOUPS site, are these somebody else's pseudo quad tinkerings? Is it allowable on here to ask if any of these are worth one's while? I guess there is no list of these anywhere...who has done what? (legitimately of out of production quad titles, and never released titles). Quad examples.....Best of Bread, Chicago Greatest (IX), Court & Spark, Atom Heart Mother, Countdown To Ecstasy. Are there basically standard examples of these that everyone has or have they been done by everyone under the sun? As you can tell I haven't entered the DTS conversion world myself, just trying to get a sense of how much buyer beware is needed.

John

 

[winopener]

Until you compare them to something else you can't be sure what is what.
Back in the dts days Tab was surely a great source but there were also some others doing dts from quads (WFH, Obbop...). I did some dts but hardly traded any of them... it has been a excellent route to try different ways of getting the most from Q8 for good dvd-a.

 

[Cai Campbell]

It is certainly okay to talk about DTS conversions as long as public discussion does not include questions or instructions on how to acquire these items.

You can't really be assured of a particluar source unless you have reliable information about the source. Listening to a title might offer clues if you are familiar with a particular converter's work. But if you like the results, does it really matter what the source is?

There are lots of folks doing conversions of surround material and even more doing upmixes of stereo stuff. By and large I stay completely away from the fake stuff. Maybe one in twenty sounds okay and comes from somebody who knows what the fuck they're doing. Generally these come from script kiddies who think they're doing the world a favor by upmixing their over-saturated 64 kbps MP3 files using god-knows-what routines, not even considering whether the source material lends itself to upmixing or not. There is a definite art here that completely eludes your average dinkus.

Okay, sorry, getting off on a tangent here, but I wouldn't waste my time on the glut of DTS upmixes polluting the surround pond.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

For those who do not do DTS or DVD-A conversions yet, if you can play a Quad record at home, I would encourage you to instead save your irreplaceable Quad stuff for your own playback. These items are literally destroyed a small bit every time you play them IMO. This way we can all help to save Quadraphonic recordings in our own way, since we can't get the record companies to release them....yet. I still haven't given up speaking to those in the music industry encouraging them to release Quad stuff again. I know many are doing their best to raise awareness of this issue to the power's that be.

Which bring up an even more important matter: saving analog Tape recordings before they're unplayable anymore! Lost like silent films we're. Unfortunately - in general - at the top of major record companies IMO we have a bunch of "suits" sitting on their asses just letting their "intellectual properties" turn into dust. These bums are nothing but "paycheck collectors" who get off from hanging around "Rock Stars" and care nothing, nor know anything about music. They spend their time suing people over crappy MP3 - one 10th the sound of a CD - instead of looking towards the future on how best to present music in a better format. I fear by the time they get a clue the recordings will be lost and the copyright expired and in the public domain anyway. Fortunately, there are many in the industry who do care, who do put up the good fight and are doing what they can to get releases to us all and what they can for Tape preservation.

So, until we ever get those releases I encourage those who have not taken the step to do so now and buy a sound card and some simple software. You can do this. Don't bother buying another mint Quad record off of Ebay if all you're going to do is wear it out anyway. I only play my records once, that's it. You can own the best sounding DVD-Audio or DTS discs by doing it yourself, mixing and matching equipment until you get a nice clean sound. It is an art and takes a little effort, but it's not that hard or expensive to do and you have the greatest people here to help you succeed with experience and knowledge.

 

[winopener]

Totally agree with you, that's what i am doing.
However... sometimes i am suprised that 8track carts that looks like these were used in the Paris-Dakar trip can still sounds excellent. Got a dvd-a of JL "imagine" from a UK Q8 that look so worn you would not bet a dime on it... but the tape inside is still perfect. And sometimes in am pissed out that a still sealed cart for a moment in a distant past was stuck were it wasn't supposed to and the tape is half erased.

 

[JonUrban]

I've been shocked at times as to how "good" a Q8 can sound, no matter how it looks. There are also hundreds of them out there with "crunchies" at the beginning, poor tension, and just a plain mess.

Most converters start with stuff they like, that's why there are so many different conversions of the same title. You're going to find many more "Court & Sparks" out there than of Jim Nabors titles.

Best way to get conversions is to do them yourself. For those that can't, there are other ways. No matter the deal, at least the stuff is being preserved by people who care.

 

[winopener]

Some old country music can be intresting - i did also a Lynn Anderson GH - but i can't stand (and understand) - all the Danny Davis titles!

 

[Old Quad Guy]

I've got to lay off so much coffee in the morning.

Yes, even if you buy or collect Quad stuff and don't play or use it, that's still a form of preservation that's important. People are saving stuff so it doesn't end up at the dump. I almost got a sealed Jim Nabors Quad record from an Ebay seller here in the Bay Area a few months ago. But I hesitated too many days and a Jim Nabors collector got it first. I see a lot of odd Quad records on Ebay come and go without bids, many in great condition.

Converting Quad 8 tracks has to the one of the hardest Quad formats to convert. I totally respect those who get any sound let alone great sound from them. I'm surprised any of them still work, they we're always problematic in the 1970's and prone to getting munched.

 

[winopener]

Q8 are not so hard to work with if you just separate the tape from the cart; the cart was the main source of problems.