Newsgroups: comp.music
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!dgbt!ted
From: ted@dgbt.doc.ca (Ted Grusec)
Subject: Re: What is "QSOUND"
Message-ID: <1991Mar31.214440.19139@dgbt.doc.ca>
Organization: The Communications Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada
References: <91090.130526AARIE@BGUVM.BITNET>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 91 21:44:40 GMT

This is in response to the question about what is Qsound. Qsound is a
recording process that tries to provide some degree of 3-dimensional
or spatial sound, but using only the conventional 2 stereo channels.
It was developed and being marketed by a Canadian company, Archer
Communications. The process is "secret" but probably involves phase
shifting differentially across the frequency spectrum. It is not clear
at this time how successful the process is from a perceptual
standpoint. Some technical people are enthusiastic. Others believe
it's a gimmick which sounds unnatural. A feww record companies are
trying it on some records. Related schemes have been tried in various
forms since the 70's or earlier. In my personal opinion it will go
nowhere on serious music - at best may have some future "special
effects" audio. If you get such a recording, play around with speaker
placement, listening position, etc. You may or may not hear a
difference.