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Quadraphonic open reel tape

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A 4-channel reel-to-reel tape unit from the 1970s, one of the few ways to achieve true 4-channel sound at home

Quadraphonic open reel tape or Q4 was the first medium for 4-channel sound recording and playback. It was based on reel-to-reel tape, and was first used in European electronic-music studios by 1954[1]and introduced to the American market by the Vanguard Recording Society in June 1969 as "Quadraphonic open reel tape (Q4)" tapes.[2]

All available 4 tracks where used in one direction on the ¼-inch tape, playing at a speed of 7½ inches per second (twice the speed of the regular 4-Track reel to reel tapes)[3][4]. The 4 fully discrete tracks had full-bandwidth (unlike Q8 cartridges which had limited dynamic range).

Like other quadraphonic formats, it was unsuccessful and had disappeared by the late 1970s.


References

  1. ^ Cross, Lowell, "Electronic Music, 1948–1953", Perspectives of New Music 7, no. 1 (Autumn–Winter, 1968): 32–65. Citation on 50–51.
  2. ^ http://www.obsoletemedia.org/quadraphonic-open-reel-tape/
  3. ^ http://theartofsound.net/forum/showthread.php?1929-The-Official-Factory-Made-Reel-to-Reel-Tape-Thread&s=277907ddc0421c90b538c564d5d4f18f
  4. ^ http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-TC-788-4.html


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