John Lennon - Imagine (Apple / EMI UK Stereo VinylRip + 4 Channel MLP 24/96) 1971

Vinyl Ripping Session Notes, technical notes:

Media:
UK LP pressing by EMI, mastered by EMI.

Audio Equipment:

Vpi HW-17F Record Cleaning Machine,
Mains voltage cleaner and spike protection.
Technics SL 1210 Mk II turntable,
Origin Live! modified Rega RB300 Tone Arm,
Denon DL 304 M/C Cartridge.,
NAD 3130 Amplifier (Phono Stage Only),
M-Audio Profire 610 Outboard A/D sampling at 96Khz/32bit.
Measured S/N ratio for this system is -87 dB

Audio processing:
Younglove decrackling script across all tracks. I have applied zero noise reduction.
All tracks have been carefully, manually declicked. Tracks faded at most junctions (except 03-04).
Quadraphonic decode using the 'Lucanu' script in Adobe Audition 3.0.

The original stereo SQ LP cut was biased towards the left channel, so through trial and error I have balanced the channels (in stereo) prior to decode to get better separation.
On decode, I checked for phase and balance between both rear, front and front-rear volumes and adjusted accordingly, in effect 'mixing' the decode for better stability. On certain tracks I used Adobe Audition's automatic phase correction on the front channels (as a stereo pair). It seems to straighten up a lot of the sound stage - I hope it works for you too... although the general separation of the quad mix is typically only about 12 db front-rear (not the best), it does have a fairly good quad soundstage, although it needed severe tweaking as described.

For the Quad files I kept tracks 03-04 as one file due to a quick track change (else decoding would produce a glitch). The track change occurs at 4:12.916. All other tracks are faded in-and-out (after decode).
For the stereo version all tracks are separate.

For all versions burn gapless to preserve album program.

The downloads:

Presented in three parts MAKE SURE YOU DOWNLOAD THE RIGHT ONE!
(each part has the same artwork files included)

Artwork includes album cover art, CD case in Microsoft Word format (97), various stills for use in DVD-Audio assembly (including the 'Euripides Rip' still which I'd prefer you to use if you intend to share the ISO of your DVD-A project.
This text file and 'Album Notes' text file.

Sharing:
Please feel free to share but credit 'Euripides' for the vinyl rip and decode to 4 Channel. It was a lot of work!

1) JL_I_9624_4_SQ_MLP.rar =

MLP (Meridian Lossless Packing) 4-Channel files 'good-to-go' in a DVD-A authoring program that accepts MLP (Discwelder Chrome for example). Note: track change point on '03-04 is @ 4:12.916

2) JL_I_9624_4_SQ_MONO_FLAC.rar =

The quadraphonic files as individual Channels, marked by file name, ready to decode to WAV and assemble in a DVD-Audio authoring program or use in a DTS encoder or similar. Note: track change point on '03-04 is @ 4:12.916

3) JL_I_9624_2_SQ_FLAC.rar =

Stereo FLAC files like in any other rip you'll find on Avaxhome.
These files are SQ encoded and will decode to 4 Channel when played through a stand-alone SQ Decoder unit - for those that still have one!

NB 1: for those that only want 44/16, sorry I am limiting my uploads to 96/24 for the forseeable future for two reasons:
1) Bandwidth and storage.
2) because I don't think CD resolution is where this valuable, hard-won hi-res material belongs. I know it's a pain, but you are welcome to download the files and resample to 44/16.

NB 2: This is my 1st Quadraphonic share, I would love to know any way that I can make it better or easier for anyone to deal with quad for the future, as I have quite a few SQ decodes to share..? Any advice welcome.

Big up the man Son-of-Albion for posting this for me. Again.

Euripides Jan 2011

PS: As yer man once said 'Give Peace a Chance'.