Quad mini-faq version 1.04 Last updated February 27, 1995. (Changed sections noted with a '*' in contents below.) Prepared by Roger Hand (rhand@slip.net) but frankly I'd rather not deal with ten million questions . . . pretty much everything I know about Quad is in here. I made this up so I wouldn't have to keep sending the same stuff out over and over! If somebody else would like to take this over, be my guest! Oh, by the way, if something terrible happens to you because of something you read here, IT'S NOT MY FAULT! Contents: 1.0 What is Quad? *1.1 What are the system requirements? 1.2 What inputs/outputs does TB Monterey have? 1.3 What recording rates can it use? 2.0 What are Quad's features? 2.1 How are effects done? *2.2 What are some of Quad's limitations? 2.3 Can Quad sync with a MIDI sequencer? *2.3.1 Are there problems with timing sync? *2.4 What changes will be in Quad 1.1? 3.0 What alternatives to Quad are there? 4.0 How can I find out more? 5.0 How can I get in touch with Turtle Beach? *** 1.0 What is Quad? Quad is 4-track hard-disk recording software that only works with these Turtle Beach cards: MultiSound: (I don't think it's still available) Monterey: $255 Tahiti: $239 (so why bother? - the Monterey is a Tahiti + Rio) Quad software: $139 All prices from Computability 1-800-554-9925 It's set up to act like a 4-track cassette recorder, with some of the limitations common to that system, notably no effects loop, and record two tracks at a time max. On the other hand, it also has some huge advantages (read on!) The current version is 1.00. Version 1.1 is due to be released in March 1995. (See section 2.4) *** *1.1 What are the system requirements? 486SX-33 minimum is specified. The faster CPU, and faster HD, and HD controller the better. The manual actually says 4MB RAM minimum but I wouldn't try it. It operates under Windows 3.1. A fast hard drive and hard drive controller certainly helps. Hard drive space can also become a problem. It's 5 MB/minute per track of CD quality audio. Half that for 22kHz sampling. So a five minute song at CD quality (4 tracks) consumes 100 MBytes. But then again, hard drives are cheap nowdays . . . Users may need to pay particular attention to the choice of hard drive controller (SCSI-2 vs. Enhanced IDE), what bus to use (ISA vs. PCI vs. VESA), and what BIOS is on their motherboard (PC BIOS chips older than Summer of 1994, roughly, don't have support for drives over 528MB in size.) There are two ways around the "old ROM-BIOS" problem, neither of which is without problems, at least for some people: - Use a software patch, such as On-Track Disk Manager. - Use a controller card with on board BIOS (Promise 2300+, GSI, etc.) Before deciding on any particular hardware the reader is advised to check out the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage newsgroup for advice, warnings and good tips. *** 1.2 What inputs/outputs does TB Monterey have? INPUTS: Stereo line in Stereo Aux in (also line level) OUTPUT: Stereo line out You can also use MIDI in/out but you need to buy a special connector (about $25) for this feature. Note that you need line input into the Monterey (which has no mic pre-amp . . . you wouldn't want all that computer noise), so you'll probably need an external box of some sort: either a mixer, or a multi-effects/reverb/compressor type thing. Note also that there is no digital I/O. *** 1.3 What recording rates can it use? 11.025 kHz, 22.05 kHz, 44.1 kHz 8 bit or 16 bit *** 2.0 What are Quad's features? Quad mimics the look and operation of a 4-track cassette deck. You've got four tracks, each with level, pan, solo and mute controls. Since the tracks are saved as standard .WAV files, you can swap tracks in and out (but NOT while playing or recording) to try to get that perfect vocal or guitar part. This is a huge advantage over analog gear; you'll never again have the dilemma of wondering if you should risk recording over that great take to get an every better one. (Unless, you're out of HD space, heh heh. . .) If you recorded something great but there's a tiny flaw you can either cut it out with a wav editor or else punch in. The punch in/out points can be set with great precision. You can also move tracks forward or backward in time (with a separate offset for each track) or cut and paste all you want with a .wav editor. Alongside the Pan and Mute buttons is an Edit button, which brings up an editor (TB Wave SE, which comes with Quad, although you can point it at a different one) so you can see your wav file and do sample level edits on it, cut and pasting, etc. The bouncing is digital, so you don't have the problems with degradation the way you do with analog tape. Plus you can bounce from all FOUR tracks down to one or two. This gives you the opportunity to easily record many more than just four tracks. Quad includes mixing recording and automation, so you can listen to your mix over and over, tweaking the pan on the guitar or the level of the vocal as you go through the song, and when everything's perfect mix it down to stereo output. If later you decide - after listening to it on your girlfriend's car stereo - that the bass needs to come up during the last chorus, you can call up the saved automation info and change just that one thing. That was a big selling point with me - with analog equipment I'd sometimes spend longer mixing than I'd spent recording, but still I was never completely happy with the result, of course. You can also use the mixer automation for a bounce - going from 4 tracks down to 1 or 2. You can set up "markers", with names, to quickly go to different sections of the song. You can also set up a loop between two markers. You can also sync to a MIDI sequencer (see below). *** 2.1 How are effects done? Quad gives you a stereo input and digitizes that directly. If you want to, there are any number of utilities that can operate on .WAV files for adjusting EQ, adding reverb, etc. Most of these do not operate in real time (ie, you set it up, click on a button, then wait while the disk grinds as your sound is transformed.) What you can't do with the setup is insert effects on mixdown. If you want effects (reverb, say) you either record the audio through an external effects box, add effects with PC software, or add the effects to the stereo output as you mix down (not a good solution). One solution is to add EQ and reverb with a separate unit (the "old fashioned" way!) I use a Yamaha SPX-90 multi-effects box which you could probably get pretty cheap used these days. Plus, you need something to plug the microphone into; unlike cheaper soundcards with (cheap and noisy) preamps, Turtle Beach accepts line-level inputs only. I suppose you could also play back a single track and send it to an effects box while recording the effects box output on another channel. But is this really how you want to spend your life? Except for the occasional oddball effect that isn't a realistic setup. *** *2.2 What are some of Quad's limitations? You can only record TWO tracks at a time (one stereo) even if you have two or more TB cards. (Note that the 1.0 version of this faq had incorrect detail about this fact! Sorry if that created any problems.) You can only output two tracks at a time from a single card, since the applicable TB cards only have one stereo output. With two cards, however, you can output four discrete tracks. If you record two tracks it is done as a stereo wav file, which is then split into two mono files after you're done recording it. The downside is that you have to sit patiently while the computer grinds away at doing this. Compared to a playlist based (non-destructive) editor like SAW (or CoolEdit or, reportedly, SoundForge) Quad can take a long time to do its thing. For example, although you can punch in and out with great accuracy, after you've recorded the punch-in you have to wait for Quad to grind away combining the original track with the punch. And you can hit the Edit button and fiddle with individual samples, cut and paste, etc., but that 5MB or 10MB wav file has to get written to disk again, and that takes a long time. There is no effects loop (see above.) Can't sync to external timing (see below.) Timing sync may be buggy (see below.) In a more general sense, there are several areas where the program could be altered for the better; it should be easier to exactly set punch-in and punch-out points, for example. *** 2.3 Can Quad sync with a MIDI sequencer? Yes. Quad can output MIDI time code (MTC) in four formats: SMPTE 30 non-drop SMPTE 30 drop SMPTE 25 SMPTE 24 Explicit instructions are given in the manual for configuring CakeWalk Pro for Windows 3.0 and Master Tracks Pro for Windows. However a limitation is that Quad can SEND timing signals, but can't sync to them. So you can run Quad and Cakewalk together, but you can't force Quad to sync to an external source, such as analog tape deck with SMPTE striped tape, etc. And you don't have to use up a track for timing code! *** 2.3.1 Are there problems with timing sync? Sometimes, but the full answer might not be in yet. Having recently upgraded to a 486DX33, I changed the timing precision for Cakewalk (Settings/Midi Devices, I think) to "high 486". I noticed that Quad didn't seem synced up properly . . . it would be off by enough to be noticeable and annoying. Thinking that CW might be using up too much CPU time in the high precision mode, I changed it back to "medium 386" mode and now everything seems okay. (I'm also running CakeWalk at 120 ppq). On the other hand, I've been doing my recording at the less strenuous 22 kHz rate. Others have found that they must turn off their disk cache programs when using Quad. Remember that disk caching doesn't help with a continuous stream of data such as digital audio. Likewise, having compression enabled slows things down: digital audio doesn't really compress well, or at all, so the compression software just slows everything down. *** *2.4 What changes will be in Quad 1.1? The following section was emailed to me from Turtle Beach: -----START OF TURTLE BEACH DOCUMENT---- Quad 1.1 Fixes and Features February 14, 1995 This document details the defect fixes and enhancements that are planned as part of the Quad 1.1 upgrade. Fixes for the following are planned to be included: - Improved overall stability (less GPFs and crashes) - The track misassignment defect will be fixed - The MIDI Time Code synchronization mechanism will be made more reliable and less prone to drift - Record and playback fader levels will be better matched - Punch In will be more accurate Enhancements for the following are planned to be included: - Cancel button for long file operations - Turtle Recall data will be "replaced" instead of "added" in mix mode - Clear All button for project files - Turtle Recall data will be limited by available memory - Main window will be resizable - More hot keys and menu items for major functions - MIDI Machine Control support Quad 1.1 will be available in the second quarter of 1995 and all of the above are planned fixes and enhancements. For current registered users, the only charge will be a nominal shipping and handling fee. A Read Me file detailing the finalized fixes and enhancements will be part of the Quad 1.1 upgrade. Specifications are subject to change without further notice. -----END OF TURTLE BEACH DOCUMENT---- The section on Turtle Recall created some apprehension when this document was first posted. I obtained this clarification from Turtle Beach: -----START OF TURTLE BEACH DOCUMENT---- I think the Quad fix document could be clearer in that respect. It will add data if there is none, or replace data if the alterations are in a region where automation data already exists for that control only. -----END OF TURTLE BEACH DOCUMENT---- *** 3.0 What alternatives to Quad are there? While nothing else occupies the market niche Quad occupies, there are three alternatives I know of. Each of these products uses playlist based editing. This editing concept lets you rearrange parts of a sound file by setting marker points in memory. When the file is played back, the list of marker points (the "playlist") is consulted, and you get the audio back in the order you specified. If you want to change the order, all that needs to change is the marker point - the .wav file on disk remains unchanged. This "non-destructive" method is MUCH faster than the Quad/Wave method, which rewrites the .wav file when you make some changes. SAW: (Software Audio Toolworks) This software works with TB cards as well as some others. It gives you 4 STEREO tracks (8 total tracks, but realize that you must operate tracks in pairs). This software gets rave reviews. In order to sync to MIDI, however, a MQX-32M card is required. A demo is available at ftp.vortex.com in the directory of '/audio/saw'. The files that will be of interest are 'sawinfo.txt' which is a good bit of detailed documentation of the program and 'saw3demo.exe' which is a self extracting PKZIP file dated 9th August 1994 which is the demo program. It costs about $400 mail order. SoundForge: Uses mono tracks rather than stereo. Lists for about $500. You can FTP the demo (sforge.zip) from either of the following: bach.nevada.edu /pub/software ftp.eng.ufl.edu /pub/msdos/demos/music/programs/samplers Or on CompuServe: GO SONIC FastEddie: No details yet! *** 4.0 How can I find out more? There is a Turtle Beach faq, usually be posted around the 10th and 25th of every month to comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.misc on Usenet. A copy of the TB FAQ is also available on the World Wide Web at URL: http://www.engin.umich.edu/~tazzzzz/faq or at the Turtle Beach Users Group: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~mccreary/tbeach. There is a Turtle Beach mailing list. To subscribe, send mail to listserv@lists.Colorado.EDU, with the following body: subscribe multisound Your Real Name The Listserv software will extract your e-mail address automatically from the header of your subscription request, so you should be sure to send this message from your normal e-mail address. There is also a hard-disk recording faq, which is posted around the first or fifteenth of each month to the Usenet groups comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.music and comp.sys.ibm.pc.soundcard.misc. It is also available via the Web at URL: http://www.engin.umich.edu/~tazzzzz/faq. *** 5.0 How can I get in touch with Turtle Beach? Customer Support: 717-764-5265 fax: 717-767-6033 BBS: 717-767-0250 (up to 38.4k) 717-767-5934 (2400 baud) CompuServe: 71333,2432 GO TURTLE and GO TBMIDI (two different forums) email: support@tbeach.com *** Phew! End of faq!