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Not sure which test tones your talking about, the V2 ones (which are the only accurate test tones to use, not counting the officail CBS ones) are not mp3:

Is there a description which says where the beeps should come from? I was expecting one in the rar file but it contains just the FLAC. So if I decode this test file I will have no way of knowing whether the decode is correct or not.
 
Owen,

Tone sequence is:

Centre Front - Right Front – Centre Right – Rear Right – Centre Rear – Left Rear – Centre Left – Left Front – Centre Front

5 seconds of each. The tones are phase & amplitude correct, produced digitally. If your decode does not work as intended, it is not this set of test tones !

Malcolm
 
Thanks. That's exactly the opposite direction pan in a circle compared to the previous MP3 test tones I found. I'll trust the FLAC ones.

I can't do any quad tests this weekend, my parents are staying until Tuesday and won't be pleased with random beeps coming from speakers all round the room.
 
Owen,

Tone sequence is:

Centre Front - Right Front – Centre Right – Rear Right – Centre Rear – Left Rear – Centre Left – Left Front – Centre Front

5 seconds of each. The tones are phase & amplitude correct, produced digitally. If your decode does not work as intended, it is not this set of test tones !

Malcolm

Are there any official decodes of these available so I can see if my decodes are producing the same results? The matrix nature of SQ makes it impossible to do a proper job, but the results from SQDecode look very plausible in Audacity.
 
The matrix nature of SQ makes it impossible to do a proper job, .

Not true,if the tones are decoded correctly, then they will appear correct, but i must warn you there is more to decoding SQ than just having the toes in the correct order. There's a little thing called phase................
 
Thanks for the SQ test tones, I have downloaded them. I'm aware that a standard SQ decode provides only 3db front to back seperation. I'm OK with that.

If you can suggest something which does the job as a easily as SQDecode but gets the decode right then I'll happily use it. I'm even prepared to spend money. What I'm not prepared to do is a complex sequence of steps (which can easily be done wrong) as appears to be needed with Adobe Audition.

It is possible to improve the Front/Rear separation a little more by incorporating the 10/40 blend

To be honest, and as the person who created SQ*Final / QS-Final, i can say that so far the only way to accuratley decode to SQ and QS is to use a process that includes the use of Audition.

It is possible to create an accurate real-time SQ decoder with 10/40 blend, and maybe i'll do something about it for those happy with that. But at the moment the blog is my first priority


OD
 
These will be totally inacurate i'm afraid (i wrote SQplus so i know).

[...]

But these are the ones, which were made available to the public (claiming that they were supposed to create superb results ...) and which still seem to be more accurate than SQDecode. Nevertheless, the scripts OD currently is using (not made available so far) are again much better than those which had been issued before!

:phones :chill
 
It is, unfortunaltley, not a simple process, and never will be, as SQ is not simple.

I will do a full decode as promised of the Mk2 tones when i get home, but without a knowledge of the maths behind the SQ system, i'm not really sure what help they will be.

As i've said many times before: It's a maths thing

And on that note, i've decided to see how simple it would be to learn how to write 'java' programs, as an accurate 10/40 SQ decoder is possible (i believe), although a realtime decoder could also be possible in Audiomulcher


OD
 
It's recently been discovered that this early Queen radio broadcast was SQ encoded. I've run one track through SQDecode and made a short DVD Audio and it does decode quite nicely.

If you can suggest something which does the job as a easily as SQDecode but gets the decode right then I'll happily use it. I'm even prepared to spend money. What I'm not prepared to do is a complex sequence of steps (which can easily be done wrong) as appears to be needed with Adobe Audition.

What a dreadful mix, Freddie sounds as though he's in another studio. Plus it's not SQ encoded, just contains some out-of-phase information.

Doesn't have a lot going for it really.........


OD
 
It is known that the mix is dreadful and indeed it sounds like Freddie is in another studio. However this is the earliest live Queen recording that anyone has a copy of, so it has a special place in many fans hearts on www.queenzone.com. Someone on Queenzone said it was SQ encoded but uses an inferior copy of the recording and used early versions of the SQ scripts. I was trying to start from a cleaner source. I was also trying to track down whether it really was SQ encoded or not, what makes you say it isn't? If you just tried a decode, there are many sources of variable quality. I'd only trust the "Pop Spectactular" rip I tried to post a link to earlier in this thread, since it's a direct copy of the BBC Transcription Disc.

Talking of BBC Transcription Discs, did they always say SQ on the label if they were SQ encoded? Because this one doesn't say SQ, I've seen a picture of it.
 
Yes, i downloaded the version you gave the link for.

The BBC produced disc's in both SQ and QS, depending on what the station needed, and all encoded discs showed which system it was, so if it didn't have SQ on it, then it's straight stereo

OD
 
I've seen a label for a BBC Transcription Disc of this show. BUT, I haven't seen the label of the actual disc that was transferred onto the Pop Spectacular CD. Is it possible that some discs of the same show are SQ encoded and some are not?

I've had some contact with the person that said it was SQ encoded on Queenzone and he said he found the show on a list of SQ encoded radio broadcasts on this website ie. QQ. I've been unable to find any such list, but then the search facility on here doesn't seem to work too well (not that Queenzone is any better mind you).
 
I'd doubt there is a stereo version of this if it were SQ encoded as SQ is (supposed to be) stereo compatible. Like all the other disc's that have surfaced, they've only been made available in Quad versions.

I know of these lists, and unfortunaley, like the Quad LP lists, they are littered with titles that someone believes to be quad. After decoding it, i'd say there needs to be solid proof, like a photo of the label, that it is encoded before it can be listed as such.

OD
 
OK I've found a Mark Anderson list of quad radio broadcasts which includes this Queen concert. This seems to have at least some affiliation with QQ because I found a thread asking for updates to the list.

http://www.surrounddiscography.com/quaddisc/quadradi.htm

says:

Queen & Randy Newman March 2, 1975, 60 Minutes (SQ) Reel to Reel
(Queen-Golders Green Hippodrome, London, September 13, 1973, Sound
quality is Excellent - although the instruments are a bit louder
than the vocals.)

I have a link to a photo of a label for the transcription disc at home, I'll post it here at the weekend.
 
Here is a link to a page with a picture of the BBC Transcription Disc label:

http://www.popsike.com/BBC-TRANSCRIPTION-LP-QUEEN-RANDY-NEWMAN/250303111157.html

I note it doesn't obviously say SQ (or anything else), but maybe I don't know how to read these things. And the entry from the quad radio discography talks about reel to reel.

By the way, Procession didn't decode for me at all but then it was a studio created tape that the band came onto the stage during. The first track that seemed to have anything that decoded for me was Father to Son.
 
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