Discussion:
[Sursound] Matrix H lives ??
g***@btinternet.com
2017-04-13 10:09:32 UTC
Permalink
Hello,
I have approx. 30 minutes of Matrix H recorded off-air in 1977.
The bad news is that it's a 1-7/8 ips compact cassette.
The good news is that the sound quality is very good, no noise reduction was used, no perceptible azimuth drifting, and only occasional dropouts.
Programme material* is the Last Night of the Proms (excerpt) and some BBC drama.
My question is whether it is worth digitising these recordings for posterity? I have memories that this system utilised phase-encoded elements so would the cassette tape's performance have degraded any surround info?
I'm reluctant to throw away rare examples of our past technologies :-)
Best regards
Andrew Birt
Guildford UK.
* haven't even considered any copyright issues!
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Augustine Leudar
2017-04-13 10:14:49 UTC
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Jesus dont throw them away - Ill jave 'em (Im a terrible hoarder) . However
- if all 4/2 (?) channels are on the same tape they should automatically
stay in phase with each other ?I guess if there was more than one tape then
there could be a drift there could be an issue - but if all tracks are on
the same tape travelling at the same speed - phase relationships should be
the same.
Post by g***@btinternet.com
Hello,
I have approx. 30 minutes of Matrix H recorded off-air in 1977.
The bad news is that it's a 1-7/8 ips compact cassette.
The good news is that the sound quality is very good, no noise reduction
was used, no perceptible azimuth drifting, and only occasional dropouts.
Programme material* is the Last Night of the Proms (excerpt) and some BBC drama.
My question is whether it is worth digitising these recordings for
posterity? I have memories that this system utilised phase-encoded elements
so would the cassette tape's performance have degraded any surround info?
I'm reluctant to throw away rare examples of our past technologies :-)
Best regards
Andrew Birt
Guildford UK.
* haven't even considered any copyright issues!
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Augustine Leudar
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Eero Aro
2017-04-13 10:32:24 UTC
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Post by g***@btinternet.com
Programme material* is the Last Night of the Proms
(excerpt) and some BBC drama.
The Last Night of the Proms from 1977 is a rarity.

These two CD:s have been released of the Proms, and it is not certified,
if these are H-Matrix at all. They do decode well with an Ambisonic
decoder.

- Jessye Norman, BBC Chorus, BBC Symphony orchestra, -
The last night of the proms, cond. Sir Colin Davis. Live
recordings from the Royal Albert Hall, Philips 420 085-2
(Germany) H-matrix. Tracks 1-3 & 8-13 were recorded in
1969, tracks 4-7 were recorded in 1972

- The Last Night of the Proms. Philips 6502-001 (LP), Matrix H
(England), This was the original release of the 1969 Proms
concert.

- - -

Do you think the BBC Drama could be The Seventh Church from BBC Glasgow?
It was recorded in 1977. I have a good quality Compact Cassette UHJ
version of it
and also copies of parts of the B-Format master.

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland was recorded in 1978.

See:
http://www.surrounddiscography.com/uhjdisc/uhjhtm.htm

Eero
Sampo Syreeni
2017-04-25 00:57:50 UTC
Permalink
Post by Eero Aro
These two CD:s have been released of the Proms, and it is not
certified, if these are H-Matrix at all. They do decode well with an
Ambisonic decoder.
I'm pretty certain people on this list, perhaps combined with the folks
on music-dsp, can utilize modern statistical signal processing
algorithms in order to ascertain the encoding locus of just about
anything. If need be. 8)

But beyond that, everything has to be preserved. Everything. Every
four-track, and whatnot. That's the priority. Not really the debate over
what the material really *is* or *should be*.
--
Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - ***@iki.fi, http://decoy.iki.fi/front
+358-40-3255353, 025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2
g***@btinternet.com
2017-04-14 10:46:28 UTC
Permalink
It seems there is more material than I thought so I'm going ahead and digitising the whole lot. These cassettes are 40 years old now so I'm not going to leave it any longer.
The material is:-
--------
Liszt Prelude and Fugue on BACH for organ (excerpt)
Janacek Sinfonietta






(excerpt)
Charles MacKerras / BBC SO
Proms off-air TX date 2-9-1977
--------
'The Archers' BBC drama series (excerpt) off-air TX date Sept. 1977
--------
Last Night of 1977 Proms part 2. (45 minutes)
BBC SO
Proms off-air TX date 17-9-1977
--------
Eero >> I remember Last/Proms (Philips 6502-001). At the time it claimed the fastest ever recording-to-shop time of <48hrs ie Saturday night, on sale Monday morning!
It appears in the list of ambient info. records but must have been 'accidental-ambi', too early for matrix? Don't know whether Philips engineers miked it themselves or took (I suspect) the BBC's feed?
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland TX'd 12th December 1977, I don't know if the tape still exists... I believe all BBC Transcription tapes went to the UK National Sound Archive but I cannot find it on their database.
Shame if these experiments are now being lost.
Andrew Birt
Guildford UK
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Sampo Syreeni
2017-04-25 00:52:43 UTC
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Post by g***@btinternet.com
My question is whether it is worth digitising these recordings for posterity?
It always is. I'm one of the folks who are willing to bear part of the
brunt.

But only part of it. Full audio/video takes a lot of room, unlike my
beloved textual Motherlode. I'd think we'd have to establish a shared,
distributed backup for this sort of thingy. Beyond what I or anybody
else can singly put out, or retain.

Anybody game? Even if I'm rather poor right now, I can put down
something like 2-4TB of cold storage right now. Mirrored. In pure audio,
it goes a mile, I think. In video not so much. Still, anybody else,
game?
Post by g***@btinternet.com
I have memories that this system utilised phase-encoded elements so
would the cassette tape's performance have degraded any surround info?
They do. So, the brunt of it would be on the people having the original
material. Those who'd have to arrive at an arrangement which ensures
that the originals truly are digitized in the best manner possible;
without losing quality. Also, you can't lose the original even after it
has been digitized, but you have to preserve it as well; to perchance
have it re-digitized at a later date...
Post by g***@btinternet.com
I'm reluctant to throw away rare examples of our past technologies :-)
Indeed. That'd be pretty much an example of secular sin. Please let us
do better than that, as a crowd. 8)
--
Sampo Syreeni, aka decoy - ***@iki.fi, http://decoy.iki.fi/front
+358-40-3255353, 025E D175 ABE5 027C 9494 EEB0 E090 8BA9 0509 85C2
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