I came across a FLAC of Wish You Were Here that I'd (hem hem) acquired a long time ago, before I had any way of playing it back. I've now got a Sony 5.1 setup, so I figured it was time to have a go.
The source of this was the quad 8-track, so it promised to be 'proper' discreet quad rather than something decoded from a matrix.
Opening it in VLC revealed that it was indeed four channel: off to a good start. But my WDTV box only interpreted the FLAC as 2.0. I then opened it in Audacity, and it pulled out the four separate channels. So far, so good. Now came the tricky bit. Which channel was which? I guessed that in number order they'd be FL, FR, RR, RL going clockwise.
On that basis, I created a new 5.1 project in Logic and assigned each exported WAV to the appropriate channels, leaving the centre and sub absent. That resulted in a 4gb MOV file, which I converted via Handbrake to an MP4.
And - it worked. Now, I don't know if I got the channel order right - the front two sound fine but I don't now if the rear channels are reversed or not. But it sounds absolutely IMMENSE - there's just no other word for it. There are so many little details that you don't here on the stereo mix (more 'oohs' during the verse of Shine On) or actual differences; more tinkly synths in Shine On, an extra synth line in Welcome to the Machine, different cuts of Have A Cigar and Wish You Were Here...
It took a good solid afternoon to do (my first version rotated the front channels by 90 degrees and mis-assigned one of the surrounds as mono) but it was well worth it.
The source of this was the quad 8-track, so it promised to be 'proper' discreet quad rather than something decoded from a matrix.
Opening it in VLC revealed that it was indeed four channel: off to a good start. But my WDTV box only interpreted the FLAC as 2.0. I then opened it in Audacity, and it pulled out the four separate channels. So far, so good. Now came the tricky bit. Which channel was which? I guessed that in number order they'd be FL, FR, RR, RL going clockwise.
On that basis, I created a new 5.1 project in Logic and assigned each exported WAV to the appropriate channels, leaving the centre and sub absent. That resulted in a 4gb MOV file, which I converted via Handbrake to an MP4.
And - it worked. Now, I don't know if I got the channel order right - the front two sound fine but I don't now if the rear channels are reversed or not. But it sounds absolutely IMMENSE - there's just no other word for it. There are so many little details that you don't here on the stereo mix (more 'oohs' during the verse of Shine On) or actual differences; more tinkly synths in Shine On, an extra synth line in Welcome to the Machine, different cuts of Have A Cigar and Wish You Were Here...
It took a good solid afternoon to do (my first version rotated the front channels by 90 degrees and mis-assigned one of the surrounds as mono) but it was well worth it.