I have fond memories of early experiments with broadcasting quad here in Philadelphia in the 1970's. They used *_two_* FM radio stations, one for the front and the other the rear. There were also a few live TV broadcasts in quadrophonic stereo using the same simulcasting system. Since few listeners had two stereo FM receivers they could set up for a one or two hour program there were only a very few of these experiments, probably only 5 or 6 in total.
I have a reel-to-reel tape recorded off of a Quadrophonic Detroit radio station back in the early 1970s. Neat idea, but the signals had bad out of sync issues with a lot of the music that was aired. Quadrophonic radio was probably the first to be abandoned from that format.
@@troykir Ithink most of the Philly tests used Sigma Sound Studio's facilities. They'd been doing a series of "live from the studio" broadcasts so they were very familiar with remote hookups and relays. I remember a couple of dropouts, especially during the first broadcast which I think was a nationwide syndicated program, but no sync problems. I wouldn't trust my memory though, it's been almost 50 years.
Our main radio stations were located in Pittsburgh. I recall one Saturday, (1970, or '71) a friend and I set up 2 stereos in his basement rec room. We tuned in and listened. We considered it unremarkable but interesting. The funny bit was when they took a break for commercials, the 2 different stations had 2 different commercials. All of a sudden there's all this jibberish going on until the program returned. Another thing was that if you didn't know which radio station was carrying which part of the QUAD. One was carrying the front, the other the rear. Anyway, I can say I heard FM QUAD... meh. Now, if you have Sony Vegas, you can create your own "Surround Sound" by processing the audio through its effects and rendering them as *.ac3* files, the Dolby Digital standard. Put the files on a USB stick, play it through a Raspberry Pi running "KODI" connected to a surround receiver, and you've got discreet 5.1. How do I know? I've done it, and it's awesome.
@@HammyTechnoid There is a way you can transfer an analog Quadrophonic mix through your computer to a digital file. What you will probably need to use is an old school DJ mixer with multiple slider channels. They're not expensive if you can hunt them down on Ebay. Audacity can do it, but you need to upload your tracks with the "Mono" option.
I prefer Q8 Quad with 4 Discrete channels over the Matrix vinyl formats with their poor channel separation. I like all your instructional graphics... You did an excellent job explaining the technology!
I had a 70s 8-track passed on to me in the 80s I never played tracks on it but I used it as a pass-through for recording live. I would plug microphones into it, turn up the recording levels.. and hook it up to my cassette deck... It always came out sounding great... I still have the radio shack stereo microphones.
I had a car 8 track quad player back in the 80's but only 1 quad cartridge, all my other carts were (are) stereo. The right rear amp blew up and couldn't fix it so I used the head to make a quad reel to reel. I still use my Allied Radio Shack 8 track stereo recorder (also got in the 80's). I have over 100 carts (a few in need of repair). Great vid!
Franko Walker my friend Jon has been repairing 8T carts as a side gig for a long number of years and his prices are very fair IMO. Check him out at 8TrackAvenue.com
This video literally educated me on 8 track and also answered all the questions I had pertaining to it. Thanks for making this, it was very helpful and much appreciated.
In 1976 did my university thesis on quadraphonics. I had a Trio (in the US Trio was known as Kenwood) quadraphonic receiver with SQ/QS/CD4 decoders / demodulators, a TEAC A3340 4 channel reel to reel tape deck, and a JVC quadraphonic 8-track player. Quadraphonic 8-tapes were difficult to obtain in London (England) but great fun! Happy days!
2:21 Wow! That BSR McDonald player looks almost identical to a unit I have here branded "Wien 8TD4". That's a normal stereo 8-track so lacks the STEREO/4 CHANNEL lights above the tape, but otherwise is almost identical apart from the legends. Even the SELECTOR button engraving is the same. Well I always wondered who the real manufacturer of that was.
Interesting! BSR originated from your neck of the woods. Birmingham Sound Reproducers was a private company started in 1932 in the West Midlands of England.
I love 70's tech! I didn't quad 8 track tapes existed. Rather a convoluted setup in you car though. I would probably set up separate amp for the rear channels, wire that into the car's rear speakers instead of using the bluetooth thing, and find some way of running the player directly of the 12 volts but that's just me.
I would think that virtually every car made after 1990 that had more than just an AM-only radio probably has 4 speakers. It would take some soldering, but you would get true no-lag discrete Q8 tape quadraphonic sound. I am also wondering when was the last time you could get a car that had just an AM-only mono radio...my mothers 1982 Plymouth Horizon had only a mono AM radio, but in 1987 it wasn't too bad because a lot of AM stations still broadcasted RIAA music.
8 track players were awesome when they became affordable! A lot of times the song would be interrupted by the loud clunk of a head change, but at least you didn't have to hear commercials from the radio. They worked well until the head got dirty and the tape stuck to it when you pulled out a cartridge. You could sometimes repair the tape with a pencil eraser, but they were never the same again. It was difficult to clean the head, so before long they started selling cleaner cartridges for them. I got my first 8 track player for my car from a pawn shop and used it for years.
If you have an aftermarket amplifier for your car's speakers that already uses RCA jacks from the head unit to it, quad hook up would be very easy, some of the higher end head units even have a 4 channel input section on the rear of them.
LOL! You certainly have a different collection of tapes than I did back in the day. Mine in part consisted of led zeppelin, Doobie brothers, Pink Floyd, Boston, lynard Skynard, Beatles, etc. As it's said, different strokes for different folks! 🤙 Thanks for the upload, I was just reminiscing about a "Tenna quad" 8 track I briefly owned before it was stolen..
Gotta say 8-track seemed very much like an American thing. Everyone I've spoke to in UK from the era went straight from vinyls to compact cassette, every old player I've seen was a cassette player. Never saw a car with an 8-Track player on any old UK TV show.
Did you know that Major Record Companies Columbia, Capitol, RCA, and Pickwick made some 8-track, cassette, and reel to reel tapes back in the ‘70s(and ‘80s as well)?
I had that same Star Wars soundtrack on 8-track back in '77. Wore the tape out so I learned my lesson and bought the double album and played it until I wore that out too. (For younger viewers unfamiliar with these formats, yes that means 2 records aka. vinyl in a folding album with a slot in each side for each record and stills taken from the movie.)
Mr, you literally have an audio museum there. You’re just missing the Marantz 4400 stereo receiver with the built in oscilloscope. Oh, and yes, Thank you for educating us on 8 track players.
Great idea,💡 you could connect ANY qaudraphonic 8 track player to two receivers and still be able to hear all of the channels.👍 My obvious reason for this is because; though it would be really cool to get a 4 channel receiver, they are few and probably expensive; so for me it wouldn't be worth it, where if you connected to two full sound systems you'd be able to have as many speakers as you'd want!😉 But I'm not sure if there is another reason to have a 4ch receiver because of the 4 volumes?
Yeah, I would have put that Ford demo tape up for sale on e-bay too.. LOL.. but, for QUAD sound, 8 tracks or open reel QUAD were the best options. For vinyl, the 4 channels had to be matrixed from a 2 channel source, not nearly as accurate. It didn't help that there were several different systems either. Columbia records had their "SQ" system, and I know there was at least one more. A quick hop to Wikipedia tells me the other one was the "QS" system developed by Sansui. PLUS another system called CD4, which was a *discrete* 4 channel system that required the playback needle to have a frequency response out to 45Khz. CD4 was proposed by JVC and RCA.
5:38 my moms had a very similar rotating tape holder... but the tapes hers held were 12 VHS in cardboard boxes. They stood in the thing vertically. Three perside.
And they are constantly telling us the ‘you could be listening to a k7, to a 8 track tape... if only you knew what that was...’ (at least so they do in Portuguese, in the non-Brazilian version)
Those Major Record Companies as I mentioned before made blank 8-track , cassette and reel to reel recording tapes in the ‘70’s(Columbia, Capitol, RCA and Pickwick)
since the infinite loop is achieved by pulling the tape from the inner most of the rolled up, if there is any friction built up (such as dust or dirt), won't that cause the tape to have difficulty to get pulled out and therefore, twist the tape and distort it?
Endless tapes like the 8-track have a graphite coating on one layer that prevents crinkling and also acts as a lubricant. Pulling out the tape is not a problem.
@@isaacposselt7089 ok so when the head is attracted to the tape it closes a circuit to the speaker causing a voltage change resulting in a static click, but since this happens very rapidly and quickly, the changes in voltage cause the speaker to make sounds
@@TheWASHINGMACHINEBOY yes and if your stereo 8 track without quadraphonic is misaligned it will play part of another track making dissonance, which is the problem I have with my 8 track player: and I'm not sure how to align the head. I'll try cleaning the head with a Q-tip, rubbing alcohol and see if that helps at all. I've heard of terrible things happening to the 8 track tapes getting tape pulled out of the cartridge and making a big mess, and so perhaps the dirty head caused the tape to get stuck because I'm sure that NO ONE CLEANED their 8 track machine, it is even simpler than the cassette player, and yet cleaning it would have lengthened the life span of the machine and cartridge. My 8 track head is pretty dirty and scumbed up, so we'll see and i will clean any other moving parts in the 8 track. If there's really anything else, just the head, switching contact and tape guide. thing
Isaac Posselt aligning the head is simple and needs to be done regularly. There’s a screw that goes to the housing that holds the head, and you just adjust that until the sound is perfect.
I have several Columbia TC8 - 8 track stereo tapes. Anything special about this sound? It doesn't have the indented notch but rather a notch which is raised above the rest of the tape.
Still got about ten tapes ad a player but chewed up some tapes as you were pulling them out of the machine.perry como and I love you so for the good times parts one and two change halfway through the song.
how i think the audio head in the 8-track player works the pickups on the head are reed switches, which are attracted toward the magnetic film in the cartridge, and they turn on and off rapidly, creating a changing current that creates sound when amplified
Very interesting. It's similar to selecting songs on a Jukebox. I wonder what are the names of the songs that were played in the Video. Won't you get Copyright Claim for using these songs?
so it says it is 80 minutes max on the Wiki... does that mean 4 programs = each one 20 minutes... and 2 programs (quadraphonic) also 20 minutes each? (basically the "infinite loop" is about 20 minutes and then repeat)
19:38 - damn, that's real music! Could you please type songs and artists I just listened so I could search for more? I listen to rock, metal, electroswing, but this is totally different and full of life! I NEED IT! D:
@@databits Good idea, just tried that. I could find tape 4000GE, but can't find your 3000GE. Google told me it should be all recordings by Enoch Light, but it seems like he recoded a lot of things.
I'm sorry but I'm still confused, I have my 8 track but no speckers there rca so 2 wires, what can I plug them into or do I have to convert to 3.5mm aux
A good source of no-cost 4 channel music is found in the Amiga Protracker MOD format. I tried some C programming to make an SQ-encoded CD from some MOD songs but don't have a working amp to decode it on.
It would be great if you could share both the FRONT and the REAR parts in mp3 of each quadraphonic cartridge in your collection through the SOULSEEK program. To be able to search for them you could name Quadraphonic FRONT and Quadraphonic REAR and the name of the song and Artist
One thing to note is to make sure that you're using a pure sine-wave inverter and not one that says "modified sine-wave" or not telling you the nature of the sine-wave at all. The reason being is that modified sinewave inverters create a load on AC electric motors that tend to burn them out. Several years ago, I had a very bad experience with an oscillating fan when the power went out one year at my house. It turns out that my modified sine-wave inverter was actually putting out very dirty AC that caused the windings in my electric motor to heat up and short out. Just a thought.
I had Q8 tapes ba7 in the day. I got of them and went to cassettes. In a way, I kind of miss them, and in a way, maybe I don't. They like quad records are history. I've moved on to CDs.
You can't stream Spotify in discrete surround sound/quad. Another benefit of Q8 (Quad 8-tracks). One more thing.. That bluetooth speaker is most likely mono. So, you are playing your rear quad channels in mono using that bluetooth speaker. Thanks for posting this video.
Interesting. Thank you. I've owned 2. A side-load 8 Track single speaker portable & a foldable Sears stereo portable as a pre-teen. Listening to Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze; Isley Brothers; & James Brown movie soundtrack. The single speaker ran on 4 heavy D batteries for a about a day? Alkaline batteries weren't available then. Lol I actually still own 8-Track tapes! Never was interested in it as a recording format. Do to it's channel switching in the middle of a song?? Smh
There's an identical JCPenney 3331 made by MacDonald Instruments. I have a 3331 too.. also stuck meters, and cracked time counter gear, like most of them unfortunately. I have many decks, but my best recorder is a Realistic TR-883.
I like records better but if I had to choose between 8 track and cassette, I would choose 8 track because it has much better sound quality, but cassettes were much easier to use and record on, where you had to get special cartridges for recording, where your cassettes were always recordable and you could test how it was sounding before recording a whole tape.
I guess i could understand the Quad concept if I had 4 ears. Ive got an RS economy quad component system. I like FM stereo, cant see how it can get any better than that, the 8 track works nicely after 50 years. The stereo phono works well. I still have records !
also the reason tape players have a pre-amp must be because the current change from the tape head picking up data on the tape is too small for even an operational amplifier to amplify and i know operational amplifiers are extremely sensitive so it is mind blowing how small that current change is O_O
Get a female RCA to 3.5mm cable connect the 3.5 to the AUX in your car and the female ( or Male ) RCA cables to your 8 Track in your car screen tap auxiliary port and enjoy 8 tracks with the built in car speakers 🔊 👍
Growing up in the 80's my parents had a record player and 8 track player, I knew how to use an 8 track player at the age of 6 I thought 8 tracks were cool back in the 80's except for when they got worn out.
I just yesterday picked up 54 Eight Track tapes from a local thrift store,,, two of them were quad tapes. I have a quad home amp. I just need to find a Quad player now!! Cool video!! Actually, I would love to find a Quad decoder for vinyl as I have also found several quad records...Thanks for the upload!!
Thanks for the comment Jack! Those Quad tapes are few are far between! I too would love to get a Quad LP decoder, I've never had one. Congrats on your finds!
@@databits Thanks! I hope to one day find a decoder in a thrift store...you never know!! I never thought I would find a quad amp in a thrift store so...
There are different types of quad encoding used on vinyl. The worst but most common is SQ, which uses matrixing. It can be fairly accurately decoded with any modern home theater receiver that has a Dolby PLII Music setting.
It's too bad that qaudraphonic sound systems and their qaudraphonic 8 track players were SO disregarded, to some people I'm sure it was more like an experiment than a experience: I'm sure there were and are some people who do like the whole experience and I would if I had one. It would be cool to be able to record Q8 track tapes: some music would sound really cool on it! Like For king And Country !
I used it pretty regularly and love it. I can’t record Q8 tapes, but I have an Akai quadrophonic reel to reel and I’m able to copy Q8 tapes to it in quad.
I love surround sound music unfortunately it never took off, starting with Qaud L.P./Qaud 8 tracks tapes now to 7.1 Pure Blu Ray music, SACD, & 7.1 Digital Files. I don't know why? Listening to Clapton Unplugged in 7.1 it feels like old SlowHands is right in front of you!
The Original Gamer they’re not too terribly hard to come by. I picked up a Zenith Allegro AIO stereo that had both a cassette recorder and an 8T recorder in it, so you could copy from its radio, cassette, or record player onto an 8T tape. I have a couple/few blanks that have material on them and I think I still have a sealed blank as well.
As with cassette, studio made tapes, would rarely sound as good as homemade tapes. A good eight track recorder at home can make some delightful recordings.
born in 94, had no idea how these things work. thanks for showing this millennial something new and cool :)
Ha Spotify, now I know what an 8-track tape looks like 🤣😏😏
I came here because spotify too😭😂
Hahaha...spotify brought me here as well...🤣🤣🤣
Hated that advert, it's presuming only young people listen to Spotify.
I have fond memories of early experiments with broadcasting quad here in Philadelphia in the 1970's. They used *_two_* FM radio stations, one for the front and the other the rear. There were also a few live TV broadcasts in quadrophonic stereo using the same simulcasting system. Since few listeners had two stereo FM receivers they could set up for a one or two hour program there were only a very few of these experiments, probably only 5 or 6 in total.
I have a reel-to-reel tape recorded off of a Quadrophonic Detroit radio station back in the early 1970s. Neat idea, but the signals had bad out of sync issues with a lot of the music that was aired.
Quadrophonic radio was probably the first to be abandoned from that format.
@@troykir Ithink most of the Philly tests used Sigma Sound Studio's facilities. They'd been doing a series of "live from the studio" broadcasts so they were very familiar with remote hookups and relays. I remember a couple of dropouts, especially during the first broadcast which I think was a nationwide syndicated program, but no sync problems. I wouldn't trust my memory though, it's been almost 50 years.
Our main radio stations were located in Pittsburgh. I recall one Saturday, (1970, or '71) a friend and I set up 2 stereos in his basement rec room. We tuned in and listened. We considered it unremarkable but interesting. The funny bit was when they took a break for commercials, the 2 different stations had 2 different commercials. All of a sudden there's all this jibberish going on until the program returned. Another thing was that if you didn't know which radio station was carrying which part of the QUAD. One was carrying the front, the other the rear. Anyway, I can say I heard FM QUAD... meh. Now, if you have Sony Vegas, you can create your own "Surround Sound" by processing the audio through its effects and rendering them as *.ac3* files, the Dolby Digital standard. Put the files on a USB stick, play it through a Raspberry Pi running "KODI" connected to a surround receiver, and you've got discreet 5.1. How do I know? I've done it, and it's awesome.
@@HammyTechnoid There is a way you can transfer an analog Quadrophonic mix through your computer to a digital file. What you will probably need to use is an old school DJ mixer with multiple slider channels. They're not expensive if you can hunt them down on Ebay.
Audacity can do it, but you need to upload your tracks with the "Mono" option.
@@troykir Where there's a will.. there's a way! 2 digital recorders in tandem would do as well.
Thank you for the information! Just bought a lot of 42 8tracks all rock n roll
I'm super excited to get into this hobby
I love it too!
My uncle worked at a progressive-rock FM station and said back then, there was a lot of really good music on the radio...unlike today.
I prefer Q8 Quad with 4 Discrete channels over the Matrix vinyl formats with their poor channel separation. I like all your instructional graphics... You did an excellent job explaining the technology!
New Databits? Awesome I didn't need to sleep anyway....
Sleep is so overrated! lol.
@@jackallen6261 and tiring
If you oversleep
We can sleep when we die.
I love 8-track and Quad forever.
"Now let's switch channels (~8:07)." **ka-chunk!...*ka-chunk!*...ka-chunk**
I had a 70s 8-track passed on to me in the 80s I never played tracks on it but I used it as a pass-through for recording live. I would plug microphones into it, turn up the recording levels.. and hook it up to my cassette deck... It always came out sounding great... I still have the radio shack stereo microphones.
I had a car 8 track quad player back in the 80's but only 1 quad cartridge, all my other carts were (are) stereo. The right rear amp blew up and couldn't fix it so I used the head to make a quad reel to reel. I still use my Allied Radio Shack 8 track stereo recorder (also got in the 80's). I have over 100 carts (a few in need of repair). Great vid!
Franko Walker my friend Jon has been repairing 8T carts as a side gig for a long number of years and his prices are very fair IMO. Check him out at 8TrackAvenue.com
This video literally educated me on 8 track and also answered all the questions I had pertaining to it. Thanks for making this, it was very helpful and much appreciated.
Glad it was helpful!
Fun fact: The voice of 2-XL is his inventor, Michael J. Freeman.
Thanks 🙏 you are a real vintage audio format lover
I love this video, I grew up with 8 tracks as a kid in the 1970s
In 1976 did my university thesis on quadraphonics. I had a Trio (in the US Trio was known as Kenwood) quadraphonic receiver with SQ/QS/CD4 decoders / demodulators, a TEAC A3340 4 channel reel to reel tape deck, and a JVC quadraphonic 8-track player. Quadraphonic 8-tapes were difficult to obtain in London (England) but great fun! Happy days!
Yay! Very happy!
2:21 Wow! That BSR McDonald player looks almost identical to a unit I have here branded "Wien 8TD4". That's a normal stereo 8-track so lacks the STEREO/4 CHANNEL lights above the tape, but otherwise is almost identical apart from the legends. Even the SELECTOR button engraving is the same. Well I always wondered who the real manufacturer of that was.
Interesting! BSR originated from your neck of the woods. Birmingham Sound Reproducers was a private company started in 1932 in the West Midlands of England.
Excellent explanation and graphics. Thanks
great video. i am currently trying to repair my moms old 8 track. your explanation of the inner workings is a big help in my troubleshooting
Great to hear! Let me know if I can assist further.
0:19 nice PBS/ PBS kids reference (they always say that either before or after a show)
I love 70's tech! I didn't quad 8 track tapes existed. Rather a convoluted setup in you car though. I would probably set up separate amp for the rear channels, wire that into the car's rear speakers instead of using the bluetooth thing, and find some way of running the player directly of the 12 volts but that's just me.
I would think that virtually every car made after 1990 that had more than just an AM-only radio probably has 4 speakers. It would take some soldering, but you would get true no-lag discrete Q8 tape quadraphonic sound. I am also wondering when was the last time you could get a car that had just an AM-only mono radio...my mothers 1982 Plymouth Horizon had only a mono AM radio, but in 1987 it wasn't too bad because a lot of AM stations still broadcasted RIAA music.
Sounds like another fun project Brent!
Brent Fisher there’s a really good oldies station where I live on AM. I listen to it a lot when I’m out at my storage units.
That’s a really convoluted way to do quad 8 in the car. Makes my bedroom quadraphonic setup seems really straight forward
8 track players were awesome when they became affordable! A lot of times the song would be interrupted by the loud clunk of a head change, but at least you didn't have to hear commercials from the radio. They worked well until the head got dirty and the tape stuck to it when you pulled out a cartridge. You could sometimes repair the tape with a pencil eraser, but they were never the same again. It was difficult to clean the head, so before long they started selling cleaner cartridges for them. I got my first 8 track player for my car from a pawn shop and used it for years.
Q tip and denatured rubbing alcohol is probably the best.
The heads are super easy to clean. I use the cotton swabs on a stick that are sold as medical supplies and denatured alcohol.
I didn't know how 8-track works, nice video to be more clear
If you have an aftermarket amplifier for your car's speakers that already uses RCA jacks from the head unit to it, quad hook up would be very easy, some of the higher end head units even have a 4 channel input section on the rear of them.
thanks for this awesome information about the last century, that gave us an idea how we got here in a cool exciting way
8-tracks reminds me of my father driving our 72’ Ford LTD and 72 Mustang.
How I miss my old man....
great video!, cheers from Argentuina!
You had me hooked with the 2-XL in the thumbnail. Good stuff sir! Well done.
Thank you Dan.
LOL! You certainly have a different collection of tapes than I did back in the day. Mine in part consisted of led zeppelin, Doobie brothers, Pink Floyd, Boston, lynard Skynard, Beatles, etc.
As it's said, different strokes for different folks! 🤙
Thanks for the upload, I was just reminiscing about a "Tenna quad" 8 track I briefly owned before it was stolen..
P.S. I don't think I ever owned any quad tapes, LOL.
Wow that is sweet the starwars tapes.
Gotta say 8-track seemed very much like an American thing. Everyone I've spoke to in UK from the era went straight from vinyls to compact cassette, every old player I've seen was a cassette player. Never saw a car with an 8-Track player on any old UK TV show.
I remember seeing a few of them around in the late 70s. But "few" means probably about 4 cartridges, ever.
Did you know that Major Record Companies Columbia, Capitol, RCA, and Pickwick made some 8-track, cassette, and reel to reel tapes back in the ‘70s(and ‘80s as well)?
I had that same Star Wars soundtrack on 8-track back in '77. Wore the tape out so I learned my lesson and bought the double album and played it until I wore that out too. (For younger viewers unfamiliar with these formats, yes that means 2 records aka. vinyl in a folding album with a slot in each side for each record and stills taken from the movie.)
I saw one that have 4-track option...the 8track tape ws recorded in 4-track stereo...never seen 4-track stereo casettes for sale.
Mr, you literally have an audio museum there. You’re just missing the Marantz 4400 stereo receiver with the built in oscilloscope.
Oh, and yes, Thank you for educating us on 8 track players.
Great video. Thank you. We had a ton of these.
Great idea,💡 you could connect ANY qaudraphonic 8 track player to two receivers and still be able to hear all of the channels.👍 My obvious reason for this is because; though it would be really cool to get a 4 channel receiver, they are few and probably expensive; so for me it wouldn't be worth it, where if you connected to two full sound systems you'd be able to have as many speakers as you'd want!😉
But I'm not sure if there is another reason to have a 4ch receiver because of the 4 volumes?
The earlier home theater receivers had 5.1 channel RCA input jacks, try to find one of those and it should work just fine.
grassulo that’s how I do my vintage quad. It works great!
Yeah, I would have put that Ford demo tape up for sale on e-bay too.. LOL.. but, for QUAD sound, 8 tracks or open reel QUAD were the best options. For vinyl, the 4 channels had to be matrixed from a 2 channel source, not nearly as accurate. It didn't help that there were several different systems either. Columbia records had their "SQ" system, and I know there was at least one more. A quick hop to Wikipedia tells me the other one was the "QS" system developed by Sansui. PLUS another system called CD4, which was a *discrete* 4 channel system that required the playback needle to have a frequency response out to 45Khz. CD4 was proposed by JVC and RCA.
CD-4 aka QuadraDisc gives the best results, but is a pain in the ass to get to work and requires very expensive cartridges and styli
@@danieldaniels7571 Yes.. I recall that the cartridge had to have some ridiculous freq. resp. like flat to 45Khz.
5:38 my moms had a very similar rotating tape holder... but the tapes hers held were 12 VHS in cardboard boxes. They stood in the thing vertically. Three perside.
You can’t listen to true genuine quadraphonic sound on spotify
You would need 'fake' quadraphonic sound such as a matrix format like QS or SQ or 2-4.
Good point!
You could if they used AC3 or DTS. Both can easily do 4.0 multichannel sound.
And they are constantly telling us the ‘you could be listening to a k7, to a 8 track tape... if only you knew what that was...’ (at least so they do in Portuguese, in the non-Brazilian version)
Those Major Record Companies as I mentioned before made blank 8-track , cassette and reel to reel recording tapes in the ‘70’s(Columbia, Capitol, RCA and Pickwick)
How does the player know if it is a quad tape vs stereo tape?
since the infinite loop is achieved by pulling the tape from the inner most of the rolled up, if there is any friction built up (such as dust or dirt), won't that cause the tape to have difficulty to get pulled out and therefore, twist the tape and distort it?
Endless tapes like the 8-track have a graphite coating on one layer that prevents crinkling and also acts as a lubricant. Pulling out the tape is not a problem.
@@Bob-1802 oh so high tech
Sir where can I order a belt for this same BSR? I have one also.
is the audio head a magnetic sensor or is it a light sensor?
Magnetic head
@@isaacposselt7089 ok so when the head is attracted to the tape it closes a circuit to the speaker causing a voltage change resulting in a static click, but since this happens very rapidly and quickly, the changes in voltage cause the speaker to make sounds
@@TheWASHINGMACHINEBOY yes and if your stereo 8 track without quadraphonic is misaligned it will play part of another track making dissonance, which is the problem I have with my 8 track player: and I'm not sure how to align the head.
I'll try cleaning the head with a Q-tip, rubbing alcohol and see if that helps at all.
I've heard of terrible things happening to the 8 track tapes getting tape pulled out of the cartridge and making a big mess, and so perhaps the dirty head caused the tape to get stuck because I'm sure that NO ONE CLEANED their 8 track machine, it is even simpler than the cassette player, and yet cleaning it would have lengthened the life span of the machine and cartridge.
My 8 track head is pretty dirty and scumbed up, so we'll see and i will clean any other moving parts in the 8 track. If there's really anything else, just the head, switching contact and tape guide. thing
@@isaacposselt7089 ok
Isaac Posselt aligning the head is simple and needs to be done regularly. There’s a screw that goes to the housing that holds the head, and you just adjust that until the sound is perfect.
What contact cleaner do you use?
I have several Columbia TC8 - 8 track stereo tapes. Anything special about this sound? It doesn't have the indented notch but rather a notch which is raised above the rest of the tape.
Still got about ten tapes ad a player but chewed up some tapes as you were pulling them out of the machine.perry como and I love you so for the good times parts one and two change halfway through the song.
You own a very rare collection,very nicr
how i think the audio head in the 8-track player works
the pickups on the head are reed switches, which are attracted toward the magnetic film in the cartridge, and they turn on and off rapidly, creating a changing current that creates sound when amplified
Very interesting. It's similar to selecting songs on a Jukebox.
I wonder what are the names of the songs that were played in the Video.
Won't you get Copyright Claim for using these songs?
so it says it is 80 minutes max on the Wiki... does that mean 4 programs = each one 20 minutes... and 2 programs (quadraphonic) also 20 minutes each? (basically the "infinite loop" is about 20 minutes and then repeat)
I love this story. I would love to have quadrophonic sound that would've been cool. Great channel. Quad is awesome.
Thank you for being a fan!
can I split this up to play individual channels/stems?
19:38 - damn, that's real music! Could you please type songs and artists I just listened so I could search for more? I listen to rock, metal, electroswing, but this is totally different and full of life! I NEED IT! D:
Also that Ford tape reminded me of Electric Light Orchestra and their Roll over Beethoven
Look for the tapes on ebay, the listings should include song titles. Thanks for watching!
@@databits Good idea, just tried that. I could find tape 4000GE, but can't find your 3000GE. Google told me it should be all recordings by Enoch Light, but it seems like he recoded a lot of things.
CREAM had some nice Quadraphonic recordings...
Good video
I had a pair of Pioneer quad head phones. They were big soundproof earmuffs turned sideways with 2 little speakers in each. Had 2 stereo jacks.
I'm sorry but I'm still confused, I have my 8 track but no speckers there rca so 2 wires, what can I plug them into or do I have to convert to 3.5mm aux
I wish jcpenney still sold cool stuff. Now it's all clothes and the occasional cheap plastic pair of headphones or something else horrid.
A good source of no-cost 4 channel music is found in the Amiga Protracker MOD format. I tried some C programming to make an SQ-encoded CD from some MOD songs but don't have a working amp to decode it on.
Sounds like a really fun project!
amazing
It would be great if you could share both the FRONT and the REAR parts in mp3 of each quadraphonic cartridge in your collection through the SOULSEEK program. To be able to search for them you could name Quadraphonic FRONT and Quadraphonic REAR and the name of the song and Artist
One thing to note is to make sure that you're using a pure sine-wave inverter and not one that says "modified sine-wave" or not telling you the nature of the sine-wave at all. The reason being is that modified sinewave inverters create a load on AC electric motors that tend to burn them out. Several years ago, I had a very bad experience with an oscillating fan when the power went out one year at my house. It turns out that my modified sine-wave inverter was actually putting out very dirty AC that caused the windings in my electric motor to heat up and short out. Just a thought.
I had Q8 tapes ba7 in the day. I got of them and went to cassettes. In a way, I kind of miss them, and in a way, maybe I don't. They like quad records are history. I've moved on to CDs.
OMG, my parents had that exact same spinning tape holder thing.
You can't stream Spotify in discrete surround sound/quad. Another benefit of Q8 (Quad 8-tracks). One more thing.. That bluetooth speaker is most likely mono. So, you are playing your rear quad channels in mono using that bluetooth speaker. Thanks for posting this video.
No sir, it’s stereo. Thanks for watching!
Looks like the only thing left with car stereos is a plug in and speakers .
No format at all
Yeah we just bought a 2019 Hyundai.same setup.
Interesting. Thank you.
I've owned 2. A side-load 8 Track single speaker portable & a foldable Sears stereo portable as a pre-teen. Listening to Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze; Isley Brothers; & James Brown movie soundtrack.
The single speaker ran on 4 heavy D batteries for a about a day? Alkaline batteries weren't available then. Lol
I actually still own 8-Track tapes!
Never was interested in it as a recording format. Do to it's channel switching in the middle of a song?? Smh
There's an identical JCPenney 3331 made by MacDonald Instruments. I have a 3331 too.. also stuck meters, and cracked time counter gear, like most of them unfortunately. I have many decks, but my best recorder is a Realistic TR-883.
Very cool!
Nice!
Thanks Mike...I appreciate your long time fan-ship!
I like records better but if I had to choose between 8 track and cassette, I would choose 8 track because it has much better sound quality, but cassettes were much easier to use and record on, where you had to get special cartridges for recording, where your cassettes were always recordable and you could test how it was sounding before recording a whole tape.
Any and all 8-track cartridges can be recorded on. No special tape needed.
Shouldn’t sound come out of all 4 speakers if you plug into the aux port in the car? Why do you need a Bluetooth speaker?
Because the tip of each minijack only has 2 signals - right and left. It would only amplify 2 of the 4 tracks.
I guess i could understand the Quad concept if I had 4 ears. Ive got an RS economy quad component system. I like FM stereo, cant see how it can get any better than that, the 8 track works nicely after 50 years. The stereo phono works well. I still have records !
I do have 4 ears. Muhahaha!
Never seen an 8-Track other than on youtube going.
Cool man
also the reason tape players have a pre-amp must be because the current change from the tape head picking up data on the tape is too small for even an operational amplifier to amplify and i know operational amplifiers are extremely sensitive so it is mind blowing how small that current change is O_O
I have a BTO Quad 8-track tape that probably hasn't been played in almost 50 years. 😁
I gave my 2-XL to 8Bit Guy last year .... lets see if he does a video for it. :)
Hopefully!!
Get a female RCA to 3.5mm cable connect the 3.5 to the AUX in your car and the female ( or Male ) RCA cables to your 8 Track in your car screen tap auxiliary port and enjoy 8 tracks with the built in car speakers 🔊 👍
Walter Murphy - A Fifth Of Beethoven 🎵 for the win! 🔥
Growing up in the 80's my parents had a record player and 8 track player, I knew how to use an 8 track player at the age of 6 I thought 8 tracks were cool back in the 80's except for when they got worn out.
I just yesterday picked up 54 Eight Track tapes from a local thrift store,,, two of them were quad tapes. I have a quad home amp. I just need to find a Quad player now!! Cool video!! Actually, I would love to find a Quad decoder for vinyl as I have also found several quad records...Thanks for the upload!!
Thanks for the comment Jack! Those Quad tapes are few are far between! I too would love to get a Quad LP decoder, I've never had one. Congrats on your finds!
@@databits Thanks! I hope to one day find a decoder in a thrift store...you never know!! I never thought I would find a quad amp in a thrift store so...
There are different types of quad encoding used on vinyl. The worst but most common is SQ, which uses matrixing. It can be fairly accurately decoded with any modern home theater receiver that has a Dolby PLII Music setting.
That robot looks like the ghosty thing in My Neighbor Totoro.
Electrophonic was my first system
You sound like Charles 🤝
Do you remember 4 tracks
Yes, I have a video about them!
I miss this type of media format
*"If you knew what an 8-track tape looked like." -Spotify*
Discreet quad was the best invention since Edison's phonograph
It's too bad that qaudraphonic sound systems and their qaudraphonic 8 track players were SO disregarded, to some people I'm sure it was more like an experiment than a experience: I'm sure there were and are some people who do like the whole experience and I would if I had one.
It would be cool to be able to record Q8 track tapes: some music would sound really cool on it!
Like For king And Country !
I used it pretty regularly and love it. I can’t record Q8 tapes, but I have an Akai quadrophonic reel to reel and I’m able to copy Q8 tapes to it in quad.
"Just some more nonsense on this side"
Hey now, the Irish Rovers are most certainly not nonsense.
I love surround sound music unfortunately it never took off, starting with Qaud L.P./Qaud 8 tracks tapes now to 7.1 Pure Blu Ray music, SACD, & 7.1 Digital Files. I don't know why? Listening to Clapton Unplugged in 7.1 it feels like old SlowHands is right in front of you!
that awkward moment that 8-track tape could've replaced 7.1 surround sound in cinema or at home, if the digital technology didn't take over
Record on two qaudraphonic tapes!!!!!!😆💩🤪 make a true 8 track sound!
Honestly, I don't think I've ever actually seen an 8-track recorder, or a blank tape.
The Original Gamer they’re not too terribly hard to come by. I picked up a Zenith Allegro AIO stereo that had both a cassette recorder and an 8T recorder in it, so you could copy from its radio, cassette, or record player onto an 8T tape. I have a couple/few blanks that have material on them and I think I still have a sealed blank as well.
Mancini was glorified elevator music back in the day
Lol didn't he do the Newhart theme?
@@redfalcon9 Yes, I Believe so and many others that were commercially successful
Still some excellent music. Aesthetics being a preference. At the very least it was well produced.
I have never seen a Quadraphonic 8-Track in my life
Too young!
I listened to two this morning. I have a nice little collection.
One thing is for sure, if you like sound quality don't buy an 8-track.
As with cassette, studio made tapes, would rarely sound as good as homemade tapes. A good eight track recorder at home can make some delightful recordings.
Guess Ford made a lot of demo tapes. My late Grandfather gave me a Ford demo cassette tape he got at the dealer.