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Queen II is a stealth QS encode!!!
- Thread starter kap'n krunch
- Start date
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not completely unlike hitting the "wide" switch on an old boom box.
So anyway this begs the question , was there ever any quad for Queen ?
I did some digging and yes the first album was mentioned as an upcoming Q8 from Electra Records . Mentioned 5x consecutively in Billboard starting Jan 75 , and I quit looking after 5 weeks of reports.
Next we have mention that THE Venerable BBC did some Transcriptions album of Queen Live in SQ in 1975, exact date unknown.
Then we go to the BEEB once again , and Alan Freeman had a Matrix H transmission of 4 tracks from their album News Of The World....sometime in latter 1977.
And finally I have a listing for Queen-Greatest Flix on lazerdisc in SQ as reported by Starship Enterprises lazerdisc Catalogue....early 80's . The same catalog had only 3 other known SQ lazerdiscs fwiw.
That's all folks,
Fizzy
I did some digging and yes the first album was mentioned as an upcoming Q8 from Electra Records . Mentioned 5x consecutively in Billboard starting Jan 75 , and I quit looking after 5 weeks of reports.
Next we have mention that THE Venerable BBC did some Transcriptions album of Queen Live in SQ in 1975, exact date unknown.
Then we go to the BEEB once again , and Alan Freeman had a Matrix H transmission of 4 tracks from their album News Of The World....sometime in latter 1977.
And finally I have a listing for Queen-Greatest Flix on lazerdisc in SQ as reported by Starship Enterprises lazerdisc Catalogue....early 80's . The same catalog had only 3 other known SQ lazerdiscs fwiw.
That's all folks,
Fizzy
Doug G.
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
My Queen II second side (black) sounds great through my Sony SQD-2050. Totally engaging.
Doug
Doug
Owen Smith
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Of the various matrix H and SQ things you listed, none have ever surfaced. I've spent considerable time looking for them on Queen collector and sharing sites and there's nothing. There are a number of other bootlegs that various people claim are in SQ, but there is zero evidence and they neither decode nicely nor have any signs of phase encoding in Audacity or similar.
To make the most of it, you need the cartridge with as wide stereo separation as possible, and azimuth should be perfectly adjusted, you can use the SQ rear channels for that, the more azimuth gets perfectly dialed in the more of the rear channel stuff appears from stereo records. It makes a huge difference, from almost nothing to almost quad.
Keep digging Owen. And you will find that a member of QQ had the Queen H broadcast .
Quite unlike it actually.
So cool! Great surround mix hidden there!
Funny, it's not mentioned on the album cover. Like the 3 Mike Oldfield albums Platinum (1979), Heavens Open (1991) and Man On The Rocks (2014). It is a mystery to me that there is no information about it. The record companies didn't care since it was a small market for surround sound?
More about Oldfield here with a quad sound sample: https://printzmusic.com/the-mike-oldfield-mystery/
Funny, it's not mentioned on the album cover. Like the 3 Mike Oldfield albums Platinum (1979), Heavens Open (1991) and Man On The Rocks (2014). It is a mystery to me that there is no information about it. The record companies didn't care since it was a small market for surround sound?
More about Oldfield here with a quad sound sample: https://printzmusic.com/the-mike-oldfield-mystery/
Owen Smith
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Queen II is not a stealth QS encode. Remember that QS is both a matrix decoder and a synthesiser capable of turning plain stereo into quad. What's happening is the synthesiser function is working well on Queen II. Given how heavily multi tracked parts of the album are it probably has plenty of phase information to work with.
Hm.... I'm not sure about that. Have you checked out the Oldfield link? The Boxed set telling it is in surround sounds less surround-ish than the 3 mentioned albums (where QE2 is not at all)
I believe Oldfield always have had a sweet spot for surround mixes, and if an album easily could be made that way, why not?
Dolby PLII 'decodes' (upmixes) stereo much like QS (and actual QS recordings decode well with DPLII). There is zero reason to believe Queen II was QS encoded recording. What some excitable fans are hearing is a QS decoder i.e. a DPLII-like process acting fortuitously well as an upmixer.
I've listened to the album through the Surround Master, and while it does sound very good, I'm not convinced it was encoded. Decoders designed for the "Regular Matrix" standard, which includes QS, can do amazing things with plain vanilla stereo recordings, depending on the amount of out-of-phase information is present. SQ decoders can't do anywhere near as well in synthesizing quad from stereo.
I’m thinking the OP (our lovely kap’n k.) may be just pulling a mischief-maker old GOS trick; throwing a grenade into a room and running!
He’s been around long enough to know better.
He’s been around long enough to know better.
Seems like someone needs to get in touch with Roy. He'd be the last word on any stealth stuff.
I totally agree. And anyone who has experience with a decent QS Decoder such as those from Sansui would find numerous recordings that detect out of phase music ..providing a quad or surround display.
That is why there are a couple , maybe more , of threads on QQ pertaining to this phenomenon .
For what it's worth, I sent an email to Roy Thomas Bakers website today. We'll see if anyone responds. you never know.
MidiMagic
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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There are several reasons why records were deliberately made so they decode in QS and DS:
- Some sound engineers discovered that they could make sounds pan beyond the stereo speakers by panning hard to one side and a small amount of out-of-phase sound on the other side.
- There is a trick to make an instrument be indistinct in the stereo panning. They did it by putting the instrument out of phase in the stereo channels.
- I know of a few record producers and artists who faked Dolby Surround in their recordings.
All of them were effectively encoding QS or DS without realizing it.
- Some sound engineers discovered that they could make sounds pan beyond the stereo speakers by panning hard to one side and a small amount of out-of-phase sound on the other side.
- There is a trick to make an instrument be indistinct in the stereo panning. They did it by putting the instrument out of phase in the stereo channels.
- I know of a few record producers and artists who faked Dolby Surround in their recordings.
All of them were effectively encoding QS or DS without realizing it.
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