[ProAudio] 4-channel program distribution format(s)

[Richard L. Hess]

Hi, Bob,

Thanks for the confirmation. I was looking for standards for a reissue. 
Fortunately, the composer in my current project wrote on one of the 
boxes and told me his scheme, so we've actually ID'd the tracks as LF, 
LR, RF, RR to avoid confusion down the road. However none of the boxes 
until the 1970s ones had any metadata on them. However, the composer 
told me he was using noise reduction on all of them, but he was unsure 
if it was Dolby A or dbx. Well, considering the earliest was 1967, that 
dated it to Dolby A, but there were no tones on the tapes. I had an old 
1/2-inch 185 nWb/m single tone test tape which was Dolby level in the 
early days, so I aligned to that and it seemed to work well. The stereo 
CD release was obviously made without the Dolby decode. GRR. My pair of 
Dolby 363s accomplished that in real time.

Yes, everything like this becomes a science project...which is why I try 
and stress that knowing history is important--it really helps.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Richard

On 2023-01-24 9:36 p.m., Bob Shumaker via ProAudio wrote:
> I've worked with a number of electronic music composers since about 
> 1970 and there certainly wasn't any standard for the channels of 
> quad/surround concerts at the time.
>
>
> Hi, All,
> I was asked to digitize a small collection of the early work of of an 
> electronic music composer from the 1960s and 1970s. The person 
> sponsoring the work would like to know how to possibly distribute 
> these recordings, perhaps for sale, but is interested in preserving 
> them for as long as possible.
> The obvious suggestion is WAV files in a trusted digital repository. I 
> already have the sets of 4 mono WAV files at 192/24 that I made. The 
> question is "now what?"
> One friend says he doesn't know much about the mechanics, but his Oppo 
> player will handle just about any released quad he's found either on 
> an optical disc or on a thumb drive downloaded.
> Are there any standards for formatting multichannel WAV or FLAC files 
> (both are capable of this). The composer's standard was starting at 
> rear right (1) going clockwise to front right (4). My few 1970s 
> recordings in quad were 1,2 and 3,4 for front/rear--I think--though 
> the one quarter track one I did was perhaps LR LF RF RR to keep the 
> front channels away from the edges--I haven't seen that tape for 
> years, but I may still have it. I was fairly good with metadata from 
> the start.
> Is there any ISO standard for 4.0 distribution?
> Any help/suggestions on how to do the "right" thing would be 
> appreciated! I have spent time searching, but I'm not finding the 
> right keywords, I guess.
> Thanks!
> Cheers,
> Richard
> -- 
> Richard L. Hess                   email:richard at richardhess.com  <mailto:richard at richardhess.com>
> Aurora, Ontario, Canadahttp://www.richardhess.com/  <http://www.richardhess.com/>
> http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm  <http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm>  
> Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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-- 
Richard L. Hess                   email:richard at richardhess.com
Aurora, Ontario, Canadahttp://www.richardhess.com/
http://www.richardhess.com/tape/contact.htm  
Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.
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