5 More Vocalion Surround SACD Releases - Earth, Wind & Fire, O'Jays, Harold Melvin & Blue Notes, Miracles, Helen Reddy (Jan 2020)

[key_wiz]

just checked my Q8 transfer and the ding dings are in the Rears and fairly muted.

they are more predominant in the Rear Left but can also be detected in the Rear Right albeit much more faintly than in the Rear Left.
the ding dings don't appear to be in the Front channels.

i'll pull out the DV SACD now and see what's what, what!

edit: the ding dings are very faint in the Rear Right altogether, at normal listening levels in the infamous "sweet spot" the ding dings appear to eminate pretty much only from the Rear Left.

edit 2: the ding dings are predominantly in the Rear Left on the new SACD, same as the Q8.

So, am I imagining things?

On the title tune to "That's the Way of the World", as the song starts, in the intro, I seem to remember hearing 4 very prominent Xylophone type dings starting at 25 seconds in through 33 seconds in. Sort of a 'ding ding', then 'ding ding'. I can hear them here in the rears, but they are not up front in the mix as I seemed to recall.

Am I...

1) Thinking of the stereo mix
2) Losing my mind
3) Losing my hearing
4) Just forgetting everything

Rear left quite prominent. I don’t really recall them from the stereo. At least not that prominent. I’d have to go back and listen

 

[weekendtoy]

These soul/funk albums do nothing for me at all. I've dipped my toes in the water with previous releases from AF and DV and never listen to them.

But I ain't complaining. Dutton has blessed me with a bunch of other great discs. So keep 'em coming!

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

Still waiting for my Dutton order. I didn't pay for tracking, so only the USPS knows where they are.
Oh well,

 

[quicksrt]

In a way for me EW&F and RTF, WR, and H. Hancock represent where we left off, DV picked up right where we left off with AF.

These soul/funk albums do nothing for me at all. I've dipped my toes in the water with previous releases from AF and DV and never listen to them.

But I ain't complaining. Dutton has blessed me with a bunch of other great discs. So keep 'em coming!

yeah, as long as Country/Western and some Classical & Jazz work for you then no problems.

I’m kidding of course - I think that their Rock and Pop stuff has balanced things out nicely.

 

[The56Kid]

These soul/funk albums do nothing for me at all. I've dipped my toes in the water with previous releases from AF and DV and never listen to them.

But I ain't complaining. Dutton has blessed me with a bunch of other great discs. So keep 'em coming!

To each his own, brotha!

 

[Fourpointone]

Can we compare TTWOTW DV version with the AF track? I’m still waiting for the DV disc to arrive.

Out of interest, I just did an EQ comparison of Shining Star on That's The Way Of The World with Shining Star on the AF compilation The Collection, using Voxengo CurveEQ. There is a slight difference in the mastering - the AF has a touch more bass and a little less treble than the DV, and it also has a boost to the very top end (above 7 kHz), probably intended to give it "air". The top end stuff is wasted on my ears but the AF does seem slightly warmer and fuller than the DV - or duller and more bloated, depending on your point of view. Whichever, the difference is small and it's more a curiosity than anything.

 

[Clement]

5 D-V discs crossing into America arrived today, and I listened to each one once:

VERY happy with each release--maybe the greatest single shipment I ever received; definitely my most awesome day of surround listening. I don't want to keep the missus up (these sounded wonderful LOUD), so I think I'll spin 'em all again tomorrow--TWICE. Rinse. Lather. Repeat!

 

[Quadgirl]

I got my first shipment yesterday, as well and have only listened twice to the EWF. Just wonderful! I will take my time and savor my listening rather than run through them all too fast. I guess mine were shipped in to shipments. I did have one cracked case and probably because it didn’t seem so much a box as cardboard-wrapped disks. Next time I may pay for tracking so as to know when/if to worry. Still, this is such an exciting time to have these available. Booger Bear is next on my list - it is one of my favorite q8’s. To not have to listen to sound of the cartridge in the player is great! These disks do point to some need to tweak the q8 deck innards and alignment. The music I am hearing in the rears is so fresh! Great weekend! I hope everyone can have such a weekend, especially in this cold SC winter!

 

[JonUrban]

Rear left quite prominent. I don’t really recall them from the stereo. At least not that prominent. I’d have to go back and listen

Back to the dings: I dug out some REAL OLD HARD DRIVES, IDE things that took me a while to connect to my modern PC (!!), and these go way back to 2000/2001. I found my original TTWOTW Q8 rip at 16/44 (ugh) with little or no skill used whatsoever, and sure enough, on the rear left, the dings were loud(er) than the SACD and the later Q8 rips I did, even the Neil Opus version that he did from my Q8. So what's the deal?

I can't figure it out. On this old rip, the dings are right out there whereas on every other version I've heard and am hearing now, they are very faint. OF course I eBay'ed that tape decades ago. Oh well.

These are the voyages of Quad Converting. You never know what you'll find or get.

PS - I'd post a sample, but I don't have access to the web space anymore! Oh well.

 

[fredblue]

Back to the dings: I dug out some REAL OLD HARD DRIVES, IDE things that took me a while to connect to my modern PC (!!), and these go way back to 2000/2001. I found my original TTWOTW Q8 rip at 16/44 (ugh) with little or no skill used whatsoever, and sure enough, on the rear left, the dings were loud(er) than the SACD and the later Q8 rips I did, even the Neil Opus version that he did from my Q8. So what's the deal?

I can't figure it out. On this old rip, the dings are right out there whereas on every other version I've heard and am hearing now, they are very faint. OF course I eBay'ed that tape decades ago. Oh well.

These are the voyages of Quad Converting. You never know what you'll find or get.

PS - I'd post a sample, but I don't have access to the web space anymore! Oh well.

if its ok to put up a brief ding ding clip link to my Gdrive, i'll do so tomorrow

 

[skherbeck]

I don't have other versions to compare to, but the bells in the left rear of the tune "That's The Way Of The World" sound good to me... I've only ever heard the song on the radio, and while I love it, I don't know it overly well... sometimes that's a bonus when listening to surround mixes, I guess... I tend to be more critical of surround mixes of music I know well.

 

[key_wiz]

Back to the dings: I dug out some REAL OLD HARD DRIVES, IDE things that took me a while to connect to my modern PC (!!), and these go way back to 2000/2001. I found my original TTWOTW Q8 rip at 16/44 (ugh) with little or no skill used whatsoever, and sure enough, on the rear left, the dings were loud(er) than the SACD and the later Q8 rips I did, even the Neil Opus version that he did from my Q8. So what's the deal?

I can't figure it out. On this old rip, the dings are right out there whereas on every other version I've heard and am hearing now, they are very faint. OF course I eBay'ed that tape decades ago. Oh well.

These are the voyages of Quad Converting. You never know what you'll find or get.

PS - I'd post a sample, but I don't have access to the web space anymore! Oh well.

What I don’t understand is why you hear it faint on the new SACD. I hear it very prominent

 

[fredblue]

such a big ting being made of them lil' ding a lings!

 

[Q-Eight]

It's either the mastering of the SACD or the mastering and quality of the actual tape. Somewhat pertaining to this topic, I noticed on the Paul Revere & The Raiders disc, while the overall sound is quite good, it was hard to hear the hi-hat and snare hits in the Back Right Channel on "The Turkey". They're quite prominent on the Q8 and even audible on the SQLP, but kind of buried on the SACD. I just chalked it up to high frequency loss on the master tape and I would imagine Mr. Dutton is hesitant to apply EQ if not absolutely necessary.

I was playing with the Chase SACD last night and found the self-titled Chase album sides to be a little on the hissy side. Again, probably just reluctance to throw some noise reduction on it. I don't have it in me to fault someone showing restraint. I'm sure we'd all piss and moan if something got NR'd to death.

Hopefully, my latest load of SACD's shows up this week. I'm unemployed again, so I got time to burn.

 

[The56Kid]

It's either the mastering of the SACD or the mastering and quality of the actual tape. Somewhat pertaining to this topic, I noticed on the Paul Revere & The Raiders disc, while the overall sound is quite good, it was hard to hear the hi-hat and snare hits in the Back Right Channel on "The Turkey". They're quite prominent on the Q8 and even audible on the SQLP, but kind of buried on the SACD. I just chalked it up to high frequency loss on the master tape and I would imagine Mr. Dutton is hesitant to apply EQ if not absolutely necessary.

I was playing with the Chase SACD last night and found the self-titled Chase album sides to be a little on the hissy side. Again, probably just reluctance to throw some noise reduction on it. I don't have it in me to fault someone showing restraint. I'm sure we'd all piss and moan if something got NR'd to death.

Hopefully, my latest load of SACD's shows up this week. I'm unemployed again, so I got time to burn.

Hang in there, Q. Hopefully you’ll be gainfully employed again soon.

 

[jefe1]

Im about to order some of these now that I finally got my Christmas batch of six.

Should I gamble?
Should I order with no tracking, no priority AND an odd number of cases?

What do you think?
What about Gos's law?

Should I roll the dice?

Living dangerously through the US mail service.....

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Im about to order some of these now that I finally got my Christmas batch of six.

Should I gamble?
Should I order with no tracking, no priority AND an odd number of cases?

What do you think?
What about Gos's law?

Should I roll the dice?

Living dangerously through the US mail service.....

I'd say go for it for sure!
Got both of my orders (one before Christmas and one in early Jan.) just fine with no problems; the one before Christmas took a little longer, understandably.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Im about to order some of these now that I finally got my Christmas batch of six.

Should I gamble?
Should I order with no tracking, no priority AND an odd number of cases?

What do you think?
What about Gos's law?

Should I roll the dice?

Living dangerously through the US mail service.....

IMHO always go for tracking, when it’s just a buck or two extra. How fast to ship it depends on your location and what you want.

 

[sjcorne]

I can't figure it out. On this old rip, the dings are right out there whereas on every other version I've heard and am hearing now, they are very faint.

Is it possible your Q8 deck was out-of-alignment at the time? When I first started doing Q8 conversions, I noticed that the overall volume and treble response of each channel would vary from tape-to-tape. So maybe you're hearing the left rear louder and/or brighter than intended on that old rip.

You could always boost those dings a couple dB in your DAW if you really want to bring 'em out

 

[JonUrban]

Time to go back to Ding-Dong School

(Now there is a VERY VERY VERY old reference. Even I barely remember that!)