Dear All,
I should like to point out a feature of 8-track cartridges which hasn't
yet had a mention. As Richard says, there were a few "quadraphonic" ones, in
which four discrete channels were recorded on four of the tracks. I presume
these were marketed to car-owners so the music sounded equally good on the
back seat of the car <grin>.
However, my point is an archival one. Most "quadraphonic encoding
systems" used for LP discs made a poor job of encoding the sound, since they
involved ninety-degree phase shifts in the audio, plus compromises to keep
the back-front separation as high as possible. But discrete quadraphonic
eight-track cartridges might not have this problem. There are two potential
uses :
(1) So that present-day listeners may tweek quadraphonic disc reproduction
to get the same spatial results as the manufacturer's spatial intentions,
but with better sound quality than eight-track; and
(2) In anticipation that discrete eight-track tape may be upgraded so that
its sound is as good as a conventional LP.
Peter Copeland
Former Technical Manager, British Library Sound Archive