Owen Smith
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
I have a superb CD-4 rip of AWB. When I manage to get hold of the Quadio I will attempt a comparison, but it will be by ear not in an audio workstation.
4 more Quadio titles coming in January 2024! (Titles Announced)
- Thread starter ForagingRhino
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Out of the bundle I ordered I got all of them except Randy Newman on Saturday. I guess I will get Randy on Monday. The three I got were all damage free.
Ok, this is actually rather interesting. I was only able to get through three songs thus far, but it seems that "You Got It" has the vocals slightly to the left on the mix, which becomes centered if the front right channel is made 3dB louder. In contrast, "Pick Up the Pieces" looks like it has the same thing going on if you look at the waveform alone, but if you listen, the vocals ARE centered between the two channels. I'll look at things more either tonight or tomorrow.
I can't say whether this is or isn't unbalanced, but matching channels by eye or by using a peak meter is absolute folly. The things that make waveforms appear "big" are usually not lead vocals, they're usually percussive transients made by drums, rhythm guitars, or sometimes horns.
You wouldn't expect waveforms in a stereo image to be identical either, because that would make for a mono recording. Especially back in the early-mid '70s when engineers were still being pretty aggressive with left-right placements in the stereo soundfield - The Spinners disc, both the quad and the original stereo mix even have the lead vocals pushed slightly to one side of dead center on several of the tracks, intentionally.
If you're going to look at this kind of thing I reccomend a plugin like Voxengo SPAN (which is free) So you can compare the entire spectrums of both channels in real time, and see if it's unbalanced across the board, or if it's just certain elements (or ranges) within. It's also wise to have the stereo mix available for reference so that you can try and discern what the original engineer was trying to do - most quad mixes (especially from the WEA family) were either made by the same engineers who did the stereo mix, or with a high level of faithfulness to it.
You wouldn't expect waveforms in a stereo image to be identical either, because that would make for a mono recording. Especially back in the early-mid '70s when engineers were still being pretty aggressive with left-right placements in the stereo soundfield - The Spinners disc, both the quad and the original stereo mix even have the lead vocals pushed slightly to one side of dead center on several of the tracks, intentionally.
If you're going to look at this kind of thing I reccomend a plugin like Voxengo SPAN (which is free) So you can compare the entire spectrums of both channels in real time, and see if it's unbalanced across the board, or if it's just certain elements (or ranges) within. It's also wise to have the stereo mix available for reference so that you can try and discern what the original engineer was trying to do - most quad mixes (especially from the WEA family) were either made by the same engineers who did the stereo mix, or with a high level of faithfulness to it.
Yeah, I was comparing using Voxengo Span. I will definitely compare to the stereo mixes when I can!
All this channel level talk is interrupting the gripping dialog regarding everybody's shipment status updates. 
Owen Smith
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Wouldn't it be more relevant to compare to the original CD-4 and whichever of Q4/Q8 it was originally released on?
Both are important. I don't have the prior releases though, so I can't compare them.
My Randy Newman disc arrived today (Sunday). Don’t know where the other three discs are at. This is the third bundle I ordered. I have never received an email saying my order or discs were shipped.
Look at the reproductions of the quad tape box covers in the booklet. A note next to "You Got It" says "(Bring Down 4db)". "OK" is written next to the other tracks for Side 1.
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Let me see what Dr. Rhino finds out.
It seems my other 2 shipments actually "caught up" with the first shipment. lol! Not sure how that happened. Anyway, getting a little giddy now. I'm going to predict, all 4 of my discs arrive on my modest doorstep......TOMORROW!! Yay!!!!
"Still processing at the warehouse."
Added to the next priority ship list.
I've gotten two of my discs, and the other two should arrive on Tues. (maybe even Monday 1/29)
So my glass is definitely more than half-full!
So my glass is definitely more than half-full!
gvl_guy: (I have JttFSotS on VHS/DVD/Blu - the cars used in UFO are from the movie)
I'm reluctant to buy music on PAL DVDs [Quadio type or music video compilations or concerts], I don't have a "universal" Blu-ray player, one movie I bought about 15 years ago (amazon.uk) plays 134 min USA/NTSC and 129 min UK/PAL, it's just sped up by 25/24, I don't know if a particular title has been sped up or not.
Kirk Bayne
I'm reluctant to buy music on PAL DVDs [Quadio type or music video compilations or concerts], I don't have a "universal" Blu-ray player, one movie I bought about 15 years ago (amazon.uk) plays 134 min USA/NTSC and 129 min UK/PAL, it's just sped up by 25/24, I don't know if a particular title has been sped up or not.
Kirk Bayne
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Received 2 of the 4 titles on Saturday (RandyN and AWB) in individual packages/shipments. Still waiting in the other 2 Quadios.
RatzNest666
Active Member
Anyone know to how to physically differentiate the original Spinners quad disc from the replacement? Have ordered one from Amazon which should be here tomorrow. Want to make sure it’s the newer one…
Owen Smith
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
That's not your player at fault that's what they did to transfer 24fps films to PAL. We had to put up with it for decades and still do on broadcast TV. This only got fixed when blu ray came along with 23.976 frame rate.
EDIT: that said, music specific DVDs are nearly always NTSC region free and with correct pitch.
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RatzNest666
Active Member
Fantastic- thank you
