Quadraphonic Sound

Spatial audio for the masses, in particular quadraphonic audio, has been around commercially at least since Alan Parson's quadraphonic mix of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, released in 1973. Despite being an old technology, it is puzzling to see quadraphonic (or surround) being quite a niche setup in music shows today, when the available technology and complete take-over of spatial audio in some areas of the the arts and entertainments (like movie theaters or VR headsets) would make it an obvious improvement over stereo.

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Music shows could be happening everywhere in quadraphonic or higher surround systems, but yet they are not. Immersiveness has become a standard feature of many types of shows (especially high production AV installations), but somehow live music shows are still happening everywhere in good ol' stereo, if not mono.  And that's OK --there is nothing inherently wrong with stereo, but this situation feels more like a collective drop-of-the-ball, rather than a well thought-out choice. And there is no good reason why musicians, venues and audiences shouldn't have a choice about this.

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Especially in Brooklyn. Word.

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Building Community and Venue Capabilities

I had been working in my head the idea of setting up a quadraphonic show for more than a year. I realized quickly there were two main obstacles to my plan: musicians were not used to building sets in quad, and venues weren't really enabled or have the gear/mindset to power a quad setup.

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I took on the task of solving these two problems one at a time. First, I realized that it would be difficult to ask musicians to buy all the equipment to figure out how to set up a quad show, and that the answer to this would be sharing. I decided to build a small quadraphonic case for eurorack so I could learn myself how to patch in quad, but more importantly to share it with my fellow musicians for a few months to get them jump-started in their quad journey. This is the quad case I built (modulargrid):

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It worked.

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The second problem was easier to solve, but it still was something that I had to think about: how to enable a venue for quadraphonic sound. Based on F. Martin's technical raider below, I set up with the assistance of Frederick Foxtrott a similar arrangement:

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Our first quadraphonic show happened on March 1st, 2024 at Ridgewood SoundLab, an art community space in the border between Brooklyn and Queens. It was an amazing success, with 4 quad music sets built around modular synths, 3 visual artists doing live generative projections, and an audience of around 80 people. Not bad for a small venue. I produced and it was hosted by the New York Modular Society.

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Unfortunately, Ridgewood Sound Lab is no longer a viable venue for any show. I'm now looking for new venues with bigger footprint and better equipment for a meaner Quadraphilia II.