Question about recording/channels

[boobtube21]

What I am about to tell you defies everything I understand about recording, playback, speaker wiring, etc. It still doesn't make any sense to me to this day, and everyone I've ever explained it to thinks I'm either full of crap or mistaken somehow. You be the judge.

Back in the day when I lived with my parents I had this huge wooden Magnavox radio (kind of like this) I hooked my Discman up to it and used it like that for years.

One day for whatever reason I wired up the speakers the wrong way, and on one of my cd's it brought out what seemed to be a track within the the songs that I had never heard before. The drums were louder, the bass was almost non existant, and the guitar and vocals suddenly had echo on them. Also, the backup vocals now dominated over the lead vocals whenever they kicked in. It was almost like the intended left and right channels were no longer being heard, instead I was hearing a room mic or something.

All I can remember is that on the receiver/amplifier, there were speaker terminals labeled L, R, and C. I think this phenomenon happened when I hooked up one of the speakers to "C" IIRC.

Does this make any sense to anybody? Can you explain how a "hidden track" could be brought forth like this? Thanks in advance.

[Wilko]

I knew a guy who had the same setup.

It's some sort of "center" channel effect from phase cancellation. I don't remember how it works, other than that.

[boobtube21]

Well at least I'm not crazy.

I always just thought that a tape or cd stored 2 channels: left and right. How could it be that this 3rd channel exists on there and isn't normally heard? Weird.

[Wilko]

Dude...
Check this out... I was flashing back to why we figured this out...

http://www.thewhippinpost.co.uk/audi...und-stereo.htm

It's time to watch Letterman. Nick Lowe is on.

[boobtube21]

Hmmm. I'll try that with my stereo here at home, though I think I did try something similar before I posted. I tried putting speakers out of phase, mixing positives and negatives of the L and R channels, etc. but couldn't get the same effect.

I'll give the 3rd "center" speaker thing a shot though, that would explain the "C" terminal on my old stereo. Thanks man.

[sting7777]

I have had a similar experience listening to 2 channel material on a 5.1setup with no processing enabled - the rear surrounds will have just the backup singers or something weird. Its kind of creepy.

[elicross]

I think that old stereo is doing something similar to what the old Dolby Pro Logic surround systems did. Unlike 5.1 systems like Dolby Digital, with discrete channels for each speaker, Pro Logic only had two channels of source material to deal with (like from a VHS tape or a CD). They used some kind of phase-cancellation stuff to send signals to various speakers depending on where they were in the mix; sounds that appeared equally in both channels were sent mostly to the center speaker; sounds panned far right or left went mostly to the rear speakers, and stuff in between went mostly to the left or right speakers.

Your old stereo probably does something similar, creating a "more expansive" sound field by adding a center speaker and sending sounds that appear equally in both channels mostly to the center. It would be about the same as playing a CD through an old Dolby Surround system with just left, right, and center speakers and no rear speakers. I wouldn't be surprised if your old stereo was designed to make that center channel louder than the left and right channels, too, so the "important" sounds (like lead vocals, solo instruments, etc.) would stand out from the mix.

Hooking up speakers to Left and Center instead of Left and Right would result in a strange imbalance that might sound like you'd discovered a "hidden" third track.

That's my theory, anyhow.