SQ MATRIX Various Information ( BILLBOARD 1972-1976 )

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DAVID BOWIE - SERIOUS MOONLIGHT
That was originally on VHS and Beta HiFi. I had the Beta and now have the LaserDisc as well. The Beta tape suffered from a couple of drop outs but the LaserDisc sounds fine. I have it recorded on my hard drive ready to split into tracks. It was exciting to see new SQ releases in the eighties even though it turned out to be just a teaser as further new releases failed to materialise.
 
That was originally on VHS and Beta HiFi. I had the Beta and now have the LaserDisc as well. The Beta tape suffered from a couple of drop outs but the LaserDisc sounds fine. I have it recorded on my hard drive ready to split into tracks. It was exciting to see new SQ releases in the eighties even though it turned out to be just a teaser as further new releases failed to materialise.

Yes I agree Ken . I thought that Bowie SQ TATE tape was the start of much more SQ recordings to come.
I also had it on Beta HIFI, ....and also on VHS HIFI as well.
 
No. The original QS mix was taken directly from the movie (and is still in the movie, even though it is labeled Dolby Surround - the encoding is basicly the same).

Columbia probably added CD-4 processing to its labs so they could experiment with it, or to try the Leonard Feldman idea of matrixing the discrete disc.

Midi I could be wrong but...
I'm not aware that Len Feldman (inventor of EV-4) had any process proposal for a discrete with matrix disc format pro development. It's the first time I've read someone mention that Len Feldman came up with one.
Are you sure you don't mean Duane Cooper who worked with Nippon Columbia to develop the UD-4 format ?
 
Midi I could be wrong but...
I'm not aware that Len Feldman (inventor of EV-4) had any process proposal for a discrete with matrix disc format pro development. It's the first time I've read someone mention that Len Feldman came up with one.
Are you sure you don't mean Duane Cooper who worked with Nippon Columbia to develop the UD-4 format ?

I have the article.
"Why the Four Channel War need not Take Place" Leonard Feldman,
Audio 06/1972 pp. 30-32
 
Midi I could be wrong but...
I'm not aware that Len Feldman (inventor of EV-4) had any process proposal for a discrete with matrix disc format pro development. It's the first time I've read someone mention that Len Feldman came up with one.
Are you sure you don't mean Duane Cooper who worked with Nippon Columbia to develop the UD-4 format ?
CBS equipped its pressing plant for CD-4 in order to be competitive with other pressing plants, so they could get business from other labels that used that system. It just made good economic sense.
 
CBS equipped its pressing plant for CD-4 in order to be competitive with other pressing plants, so they could get business from other labels that used that system. It just made good economic sense.

Yes and also to keep an eye on the competition. At one time Ben Bauer said he would consider a
marriage with CD-4 with an SQ matrix carrier.
 
I have the article.
"Why the Four Channel War need not Take Place" Leonard Feldman,
Audio 06/1972 pp. 30-32

Thanks Midi-
Yep , I read it and Len Feldman proposed both a DISCRETE album with EV-4 and a Discrete album with an SQ carrier.
My guess is at the time both Sansui and Columbia/CBS were too busy with promoting their respective matrices.
This left a void for the creation of UD-4 (with a matrix carrier) namely Duane Cooper 's BMX(QX) which married up with Nippon Columbia , Denon Records to become the UD-4 format.
 
I never had a laser disc player ,although I kinda wanted one. Instead I kept with surround music with both a Beta HIFI and a VHS HIFI.

Anyway there were only a small number of tapes in SQ matrix ,and most were Dolby MP Surround matrix.
(And a small number in UltraStereo surround)

Although that music tape and laser disc period are now long gone ,I thought I'd post this Pioneer SQ mention from Starship Audio Industries from one of their 86 or 87 catalogs .Fwiw they carried the full line of Fosgate SQ and MP Matrix Decoders.

20220103_201608.jpg



And an ad from Pioneer Laser Video indicating their initial Concert music laser disc's.
BTW:The blurred image bottom left is Manhatten Transfer Live, then Stevie Nicks Live.

:cry:
And I missed out.

20220103_201556.jpg
 
This is great! Thanks for posting. I remember reading in Stereo Review that while Sony and Phillips were working on the Compact Disc, Pioneer was pushing for their Laser Disc Format to be the "album" standard.
 
So for any of you Laserdisc owners/collectors: do any of them actually indicate SQ surround sound on the packaging? It would be interesting to see a list of discs that were, as propertied by this Fosgate ad, even if they were eventually labelled as something else once released, like Dolby MP.
 
Thanks Midi-
Yep , I read it and Len Feldman proposed both a DISCRETE album with EV-4 and a Discrete album with an SQ carrier.
My guess is at the time both Sansui and Columbia/CBS were too busy with promoting their respective matrices.
This left a void for the creation of UD-4 (with a matrix carrier) namely Duane Cooper 's BMX(QX) which married up with Nippon Columbia , Denon Records to become the UD-4 format.

Actually, UD-4 was already in the works when Feldman made his proposal. Both of these articles were published the same month. The Cooper-Shiga article describes UD-4 in detail (minus that brand).

"Discrete-Matrix Multichannel Stereo" D.H. Cooper & T. Shiga,
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 06/1972 V 20 pp. 346-360

"Why the Four Channel War need not Take Place" Leonard Feldman,
Audio 06/1972 pp. 30-32
 
Pioneer was pushing for their Laser Disc Format to be the "album" standard.

My Pioneer VP-1000 Laserdisc player has an additional connector on the back which outputs the video without dropout compensation (for connection to a PCM audio decoder).

Watching videodiscs thru this output shows how much the video dropout compensator is doing (especially with the DiscoVision titles)

Also, the David Bowie Serious Moonlight Laserdisc doesn't mention SQ encoding (I haven't watched it for quite a while, IIRC, there's a brief mention of surround sound in the credits).


Kirk Bayne
 
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Well I never had laser disc's just Beta and VHS ,both hifi sound. So it saddens me that I missed out on this information after the fact.

As far as SQ indications go ; Kenny Loggins - Alive ; and Queen - Greatest Flixs are both indicated in the Starship Catalogue as SQ .
David Bowie -Serious Moonlight Tour is definitely an SQ Tate recording and not indicated as being SQ in the Catalogue, however the film credits do indicate such.

And on RCA Video laser and Tape formats: Dolly Parton -Live In London also mentions that it's a Tate SQ recording in the film credits.

As to which half of those Pioneer disc's are SQ ?? well it's next to impossible now ! to find out which ones are MP and which are SQ.
For me and most others it's too late , as we likely have tossed our laser disc ( and Tape ) machines.
I just find it interesting that Pioneer Video chose SQ , albeit short lived .
 
Also, the David Bowie Serious Moonlight Laserdisc doesn't mention SQ encoding (I haven't watched it for quite a while, IIRC, there's a brief mention to surround sound in the credits).


Kirk Bayne

Kirk,
Both the Beta HiFi and VHS HIFI tapes on Music Media Video , mention it's an SQ Tate Surround recording on the front cover , as well as in the film end credits. I used to have them both fwiw.




This is a cutout from the VHS Tape
16415173674091393013475646682634.jpg
 

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