DIY but not striclty Hifi

[stupinder]

I'm working on a small project where I will be using 2 stereo amplifiers to power 2 stereo pairs of loudspeakers that will be positioned AROUND the listeners. A single stereo source will be sent to the amps.
I want to be able to "spin" the sound around the audience. A bit like a 4 way balance control I suppose.
I'm thinking some kind of joystick affair placed between the amps and the speakers but further than that I have absolutely no idea about how to achieve this spinning effect.
Ideas please.
Mods feel free to remove this!
Stu

[The Grand Wazoo]

Sort of such a thing does exist!
Some quad receivers had built in joysticks. Others had knobs to control the balance, but you could get a wired remote.
Panasonic SH-1010 - pretty rare. They connected to an appropriate receiver, such as the SA-6400X Also available as a Technics SH-1010 depending on where you were.

http://www1.picfront.org/picture/uurfQarr/img/technics.sh-1010.03.jpg

Marantz made a thing called an RC-4

http://marantz.pytalhost.eu/RC4/marantzRC4-1.jpg

Some of the big Sony receivers like the SQR-8750 had them too.

[Mr Kipling]

What about this? :

11735

[stupinder]

What about this? :

11735
Thanks TGW...
Mr K - that's more like my level of sophistication

[walpurgis]

Back in the seventies, Dynaco sold a small 'Hafler circuit' quadrophonic control box which permitted ambient, out of phase information to be output by a rear pair of speakers to complement the stereo front speakers. This control box if I recall, also allowed the front/rear and side to side balance to be moved around. Something like this may be suitable, if your amps are tolerant of the lower impedances and have common negatives for the speakers.

A dual pot control circuit for each amplifier would certainly allow you to move the sound around. You'd need suitable impedance speaker pots of reasonable power handling and the effect on the sound would be unpredictable. A small multi channel line level mixer could probably achieve much the same.

I actually know of one of the original Dynaco 'Hafler' boxes which may be available, but I'm not sure if that would meet your needs.

[The Barbarian]

Geoff:
Do you mean the Dynaco 'QD-1: Quadaptor'?

[walpurgis]

Geoff:
Do you mean the Dynaco 'QD-1: Quadaptor'?

That's the one I believe Andr'e. I don't have one in front of me to double check the name, but a friend has one. I keep toying with making him an offer for it, as it's an interesting bit of Hi-Fi history, even if I probably wouldn't use it.

[The Barbarian]

Aye i won one off E-bay.. not in great condition, slider knob missing but was basically bought to try out, i can say im looking for a minter now.

http://www.the-planet.org/dynaco/Misc/Quadaptor.pdf

[nat8808]

Is this kind of thing encompassed by Ambisonics?

Was some old system which has received a resurgence in interest with modern DSP.

Here's a website to do with it: http://www.ambisonic.net/

Otherwise there are definately plug-ins for certain home studio software for surround type set-ups and then joystick controllers.

Actually it would be nothing more than a four-channel output and a four-way fader set up using a joystick midi controller - just need to worl out how to set up each of the four directions on the joystick to correspond with each of the four channel faders within the software.

You know, if you don't mind disassembling a straight mixer, you could probably just cobble together some elabrate system to make a joystick move the faders attached to some levers beneath.

[nat8808]

For example, use a Korg Kaoss pad in Logic (Logic is a music making/mixing software package - buy an old verison on ebay..):

http://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=130894

Korg Kaoss pad: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSajO_XZAMmSflc1VAVP7c6PYsNTorXC gk2MEjtWQKriicUtM_w

It's just a trackpad with Midi output basically!

[stupinder]

Thanks guys. Lots to think about. The software I'll be using is Ableton Live (It's what I've known for years so don't want to change it). I'm thinking that with clever routing this may well be achievable in software and the use of a 5.1 (or similar) soundcard to output to.
S

[walpurgis]

Aye i won one off E-bay.. not in great condition, slider knob missing but was basically bought to try out, i can say im looking for a minter now.

http://www.the-planet.org/dynaco/Misc/Quadaptor.pdf

Yes that's the one Andr'e. As I recall, my mate's one was in very good nick!

[The Grand Wazoo]

As if by magic!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sansui-QBL-100-4-Channel-Remote-Controller-/111289407097?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item19e95d9679

You'd need to sort out a different wiring arrangement though.