Thanks for the feedback.
I think I'm going to shift gears on the shoot out. The interest just isn't there. Not for the shoot out, not for the channel....the youtube channel has pretty much been a failure.
I realize this round of the shoot out has a rather limited selection of tracks. When I first started putting together a short list for an SQ shoot out, it was anything but short. And I did receive a comment on the length of the EV4 shoot out, and noticed there was a rather limited response to that one.
I started my process of narrowing down the SQ selection by focusing on quad mixes that hadn't been released in a modern format. An arbitrary way to narrow down the selection, but I figured, why put things out there that we've had plenty of opportunity to burn out on already? Sure, that eliminates classics like Dark Side of the Moon, but, I'm sure so many are burned out on that. Also, thinks like the isolated moving trumpets on the opening cut of Chase seem like a typical SQ sample. But, we all know a basic SQ decoder can do a decent job of isolating easy things like that. I really wanted to focus on more sophisticated quad mixes. The Aerosmith track was one that was on my list from the start, specifically because of the subtleties I noticed in the mix. Once I narrowed things down, and lined up my different versions, I found it was still rather long, so I narrowed it down more to the 4 tracks I have. I had also considered Frankenstein, which is rather long, Evil Ways by Santana, but I didn't have a good discreet source (that has since changed), a longer classical cut....it was difficult to balance keeping the shoot out reasonable to not chase people away with a large selection, and still have a selection that is a well rounded test of SQ, but I felt my 4 tracks reasonably covered it.
I'm still not sure how to deal with decoder vs. script. I don't want to speak to specifics of the decoders and state anything that suggests a preference at this point, but there's no doubt they're different. Comparing the script to the surround master is a comparison of current methods, and a relevant shoot out of modern decoding. But the question of whether or not it's worth seeking out a tate is a big question as well. But comparing 3 different decodings to a discreet source is quite a task.
But, what am I really trying to accomplish with a blind listening test and a score at the end. Is this a competition? No, this is an exercise in allowing people to decide for themselves what they like. I may have unintentionally carried on a pissing match in my blind testing method with score card at the end process I decided on. That wasn't my intent.
Anyways, I did receive some results on this first part of the test, and I will speak to that in a youtube post sometime this weekend. But, that's the last of the blind listening shoot out with score card. After this....I'm going to put out the full SQ shoot out. It will be a large disc, with these 4 selections, plus more, Frankenstein, Evil Ways, something off the shaft soundtrack, another classical cut, and it will include the script, the tate, and the surround master. Free to download, and listen to as you like. And it will include discreet, both decoders, and script, randomly selected order for the decodes, and unlabeled. But, no submissions necessary, and after a period of time I'll release the answer key. So, you are free to do what you like with the source, and listen as you like, but no time frame, and no submissions necessary, and then when I post the answer key, you can check it as you want.
At the end, I'll do my own review of it. If anyone wishes to pass along their own comments to me to include in my review at the end of the process, great. But I'm not holding my breath on that.
So, stay tuned, I'll speak to the results of the first round of the shoot out this weekend, and hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have the full SQ shoot out prepared for you to grab and do what you want with.