Good Grief! this is getting silly.
good thing a couple of us old timers are still around. Again DTS sent us HI-8 tapes of what we requested(minus a few artists they said NO). These are all original CBS mixes. We did these on the original DA-88 and were encoded by the Purple box DTS used at the time to encode everything. Brad and i were responsible for everything issued for DTS from CBS, Polygram, and EMI during those early years. I picked the titles we requested from CBS, Brad decided which to be issued. Bitch at me if ya wish. Some good ones did not get issued as we ran into the slow sales wall, will we ever get our $ back, much less make $. These all came from their SUPER vault which they store digital copies of all they have released including all the quad mixes. They are all there, we just have to figure out a way to get them released. SACD was only in engineering at that time, and we got these thru "Special Markets" which is reissue market. CBS is so big, one hand has no idea what the other is doing. WE got lucky! After a while they raised prices as they knew they had a multi system coming and discouraged us from further ventures.
How CBS got their mixes were highly experimental. CBS issued a handbook, which i have seen on ebay, had mine for 20 years. This"SQ Handbook for Recording Engineers" by John Worum, it has much info including this passage. This passage alone will tell you that every engineer did it different ways. Maybe Jon can tell me where i could post this material. Perhaps it is time to scan the "book" as it is only 44 pages and post it. Anyone interested in me doing that? an excerpt......
4. THEREFORE, SOME QUAD CONCLUSIONS
After some experimentation, you may agree with most or all of the following conclusions on quad sound:
1. Front—originating sounds are readily localized, with panning locations of extreme left, center, or extreme right the easiest to localize.
2. The ability to identify rear—originating sounds is improved during the absence of important front—originating program.
3. Left—to—right localization of rear—originating sounds is never so precise as the same panning location up front.
4. Side—originating sounds are difficult—to—impossible to localize with any sort of consistent accuracy.
5. Rear—originating sounds are generally most effective when there is a creative reason for the rear placement. Simply panning half of
ensemble to the rear without regard for musical values is often more
distraction than an enhancement over conventional stereo.
6. Soloists remain most effective in the traditional front—and— center location.
7. Subtleties of panning between speaker pairs are not nearly
as effective as instruments placed at a single speaker location. This is particularly true for side— and rear—originating sounds.
8. When there is important information coming from all four speakers at the same time, the listener has great difficulty in localizing the locations of any of the sounds.
7. THE STEREO FOLD
With the increasing industry practice of issuing a single SQ disc to serve both stereo and quadraphonic audiences, it is well to keep in mind how the encoded quadraphonic program “folds” to a stereo field —— particu larly with surround—sound performances. Note the channel placements as shown in Figure 6. The front channels —— left front, center front and right front —— will appear as any normal stereo program. The side signals ——
— CB —
— —
‘..‘ ,—
LB )( RB
— —
( CF LRFI
1
Figure 6. Stereo “Fold” of SQ-Encoded Signals
center left and center right —— will appear as being tucked inside and somewhat behind the left—front and right—front speakers with the left—back and right—back images positioned, respectively, on either side of center front.
8. SELECTING THE PROPER LOCATION FOR EACH TRACK
When assigning instruments to various locations within the quad sound field, the amount of leakage on each recorded track should be carefully SQ
studied. When there is a leakage component common to several tracks, it should probably be placed in the same location if this is artistically permissible. If not, the leakage component may act in the manner of a signal panned between two locations, thus tying the locations together and minimizing channel—to—channel separation.
In very many cases it will be found that the basic tracks sound best up front, while sel—sync’d tracks fall more naturally to the rear speakers. This expedient conveniently solves the problem of front—to—back separation, and more often than not makes musical sense too, since the basic tracks should sound like a cohesive unit. But in all cases, be guided by the musical content of the program, and try to arrange a four—channel placement that makes artistic sense rather than merely demonstrating engineering prowess.
Once some experience with quad mixing has been gained, it may indeed prove to be less demanding than conventional stereo production work, since the added quad dimension allows each instrument to be heard with greater clarity. On the other hand, quad sound often demands a higher level of musicianship, because it becomes more difficult to “bury” errors of pitch, phrasing and tempo in the mixdown.
In setting up a quad recording session, advance planning, together with some creative experimenting, will go a long way toward producing a better record. For example, the availability of the rear channels may suggest some additional musical lines that will serve as a contrast to the up—front signal.
When working with a multitrack tape originally intended for stereo production only, the simple addition of perhaps a new percussion part may help immeasurnbly in creating a more effective quad program. As always, try experimenting.
9. SOME TECHNICAL NOTES ON QUAD PRODUCTION
When mixing a multitrack tape in quad, the engineer has two production alternatives. He may either mix down to a discrete four— channel tape, as an intermediate step, and later on make an SQ—encoded two—channel master, or he may encode directly from the multitrack tape. Both alternatives have their advantages and disadvantages.
In the former case, the intermediate four—channel tape can be used in the production of submasters for 8—track cartridge use. But from the point of view of the SQ product, this intermediate step means an additional generation of tape noise in the final product. Also, it is usually possible to achieve a greater control over the encoding process by mixing and encoding directly from the multitrack tape.
However, if multiple copies of the SQ—encoded tape will be required, it is then often advisable to make each copy by encoding a previously mixed four—channel discrete tape rather than by making second generation copies of the SQ—encoded master tape. “Why is this so?” one may ask. Remember that the effectiveness of an SQ—encoded program depends on maintaining the integrity of the phase relationships produced by the encoder. A slight misalignment between two stereo tape recorders may very well deteriorate the overall SQ quality. By encoding each SQ tape from a single four—channel discrete tape, this potential problem is largely eliminated.
In any case, it is usually best to monitor a discrete four—channel output during the SQ encoding process, and then to study the effectiveness of the decoded program during the playback immediately afterwards.
Hope this helps a bit!
