Hello from France

[Scytales]

Hello everybody.

I am in my 40ies.

I am a lawyer, but, more importantly for the circumstances, I am fond of Hi-fi since my 20ies. My passion for music, especially classical music, lead me to be interested in Hi-fi in order to be able to listen at home to the same sound I can listen to in concert.

I am also a great admirer of the work of one of the French fathers of Hi-fi after WW2, Georges Cabasse. As a very modest tribute to this man, I do the best I can to build up with others fellows a non-profit website dedicated to the history of the Cabasse company : Forum Cabasse

Georges Cabasse was also an advocate and experimenter of multichannel recordings and reproduction as early as in the 1950s, with very strong ideas.

I hope to be able to make a valuable contribution to this discussion forum.

Best wishes from France.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Hello and welcome. Can you tell us more about the multichannel experiments Georges Cabasse worked on. I noticed the site was in French, but it easily translated into English with the web browser. Thanks.

From Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabasse_(company)

 

[Scytales]

Thanks.

The ways of computer are mysterious.

It will be my pleasure to tell you about the multichannel experiments made by G. Cabasse.

By the way, I insist on the fact that the current company bearing the name Cabasse is non longer the propriety of the hairs of G. Cabasse, who sadly passed away in November 10, 2019. The current Cabasse company is nowadays more of a home audio consumer goods manufacturer than the crown jewel of French Hi-fi it once was. That is not to say the current company made bad products, but only to point out to the fact that it is not my intention to advertise for this company in any ways. I am very much more interested in the historical pioneering developments of the founder and his team and their radical philosophy about sound recording and reproduction.

About G. Cabasse's experiments on multichannel audio recording and reproduction, there are only a few pieces of evidence in the Wikicabasse : Les systèmes de stéréophonie à plus de deux canaux — Forum Cabasse

I plan to translate excerpts of this documents and the testimony of the sound engineer Bernard Neveu (still active at the age of 93!) from French language to English.

For the time being, I can tell that G. Cabasse had a seminal role in the introduction of multichannel cinema sound in France, for in 1952/53 he was chosen to build the loudspeakers (and perhaps electronics) of the Cinemascope equipment of Le Grand Rex, one of the most famous cinema theater in Paris. This fact is mentioned in the timeline of the company : https://www.cabasse.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CABASSE_livre_de_marque_2021_web3.pdf

I think Georges Cabasse was very much aware of the pioneering of multichannel stereophonic systems by US technicians in the 30s, perhaps through his connection with the movie industry. His ideas and realizations about multichannel stereophonic sound are very similar to William Snow's ones from the Bell Laboratory.

I wrote a short, unpretentious retrospective article on this subject in French. I will post it on this forum after translation if you allow me.

I think it could be interesting for you, because the way W. Snow, G. Cabasse an few others tackles multichannel sound is quite different from the numerous different techniques already discussed on the QQ forums. In any case, I haven't found any reference to their names or their techniques when I search on the forum.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Thanks.

If there’s any problems trying to post or anything please contact one of the Mods who are available.

 

[Tim Bucknall]

Hello everybody.

I am in my 40ies.

I am a lawyer, but, more importantly for the circumstances, I am fond of Hi-fi since my 20ies. My passion for music, especially classical music, lead me to be interested in Hi-fi in order to be able to listen at home to the same sound I can listen to in concert.

I am also a great admirer of the work of one of the French fathers of Hi-fi after WW2, Georges Cabasse. As a very modest tribute to this man, I do the best I can to build up with others fellows a non-profit website dedicated to the history of the Cabasse company : Forum Cabasse

Georges Cabasse was also an advocate and experimenter of multichannel recordings and reproduction as early as in the 1950s, with very strong ideas.

I hope to be able to make a valuable contribution to this discussion forum.

Best wishes from France

to the for

Hello everybody.

I am in my 40ies.

I am a lawyer, but, more importantly for the circumstances, I am fond of Hi-fi since my 20ies. My passion for music, especially classical music, lead me to be interested in Hi-fi in order to be able to listen at home to the same sound I can listen to in concert.

I am also a great admirer of the work of one of the French fathers of Hi-fi after WW2, Georges Cabasse. As a very modest tribute to this man, I do the best I can to build up with others fellows a non-profit website dedicated to the history of the Cabasse company : Forum Cabasse

Georges Cabasse was also an advocate and experimenter of multichannel recordings and reproduction as early as in the 1950s, with very strong ideas.

I hope to be able to make a valuable contribution to this discussion forum.

Best wishes from France.

Hello Scytales,
Allow me to belatedly join everyone in welcoming you to the forum
I’m a newbie from the UK. I’m 45 like the records
I don’t post much but I’m enjoying absorbing all the information on this wonderful forum.
I accidentally discovered I really enjoy the sound of SQ Quadraphonic recordings and the heyday of Quad (1970-81) coincides with my musical interests Classic Rock, Jazz Fusion, Punk and Post Punk.
So since then I’ve been tracking down old recordings
It’s a great feeling when you play an old recording expecting standard stereo and you’re suddenly engulfed in a world of sound!

Do you know if Quad broadcasting was in popular in France?

There’s an off air recording of the Clash live in Paris (may 1981 not sept 81) that was broadcast on (i think) Radio 7
Even though the recording isn’t very good it shows signs of being SQ Quad

Very best wishes

 

[Fourplay]

I wrote a short, unpretentious retrospective article on this subject in French. I will post it on this forum after translation if you allow me.

Thanks so much for posting. I am very much looking forward to your contributions!