I've calmed down a bit since I started this thread and I must say that for all us in this community that I for one am not into Quadrophony just for the gimmick of it.
Well, to be honest, there are some albums I would never have bought if they HADN'T been quad. Hearing Dennis Weaver sing, for instance, would not have been on my list of priorities, but I bought the album to find out how it would play back (fairly well), though it still isn't my kinda music.
I sincerely believe that certain music, and I'm talking about the music industry's failed attempt in the 70's to get us into multichannel versions of established artists, has with 21st century technology, and in particular the releases of Dark Side of the Moon, Pet Sounds and the Beatles in 'Quad', given new life and a breath of fresh air to the medium and shown the world that it is not just a gimmick but actually does enhance the music that we loved to hear on anything, all those years ago.
Yeah, but these titles are appreciated (if not bought exclusively) by multi-channel sound enthusiasts. For instance, I have a friend whose mother bought the Beatles LOVE on CD/DVD, not realizing that it was not only a remix album of songs blended and strung together, but that the DVD had multichannel mixes (that she didn't care about, so she thought she was buying more than she needed). So even after a media blitz and big sales, my guess is quite a few folks still don't understand what was going on there.
However some recent multichannel releases have most definitely NOT been a total success.
The idiot who remixed the Marvin Gaye Collection in surround for example. Appalling.
Well, anything that isn't mono from the '60s/early '70s isn't really 'The Motown Sound' anyway, since they put most of their time into perfecting the sound of hit singles, and that sound was, through 1972, mostly mono (that year the company finally began to make a habit of stereo 45's). I like that collection for its fidelity and clarity; fun to hear the isolated sounds that were often buried or part of the greater whole. Now, if you'd said that about the Supremes' CD-4 Japan comp, I'd almost agree with you though the culprit there was a 'pull any old tapes who cares if it's the master take' mentality.
I firmly believe that the only way we can ever hear all those quad mixes (whoever did them) is through the remastering of the original mixes preferably supervised by the artist and or the engineer, if still alive, in a high resolution format and buried on cd2 with the demos/outakes/alternative versions and bonus tracks.
Well, there are ways to hear them, but you may have to buy the original software and listen for yourself. After Sony gave up on SACD in general went their reissuing of original quad mixes from their extensive library. There just aren't enough of us to buy for them to care.
Hopefully not in an 'Anniversary' 6cd box set that costs the earth a la Station to Station by Bowie.
Yet fans have shown they will buy such lavish, limited edition sets, as they have done since long before digital audio: think of the Australian 'complete' Elvis box sets, the Buddy Holly UK/US box set, Charly's Jerry Lee Lewis Sun box, etc. The digital age made this sort of thing a regular habit, and what popular act hasn't had at least one comprehensive box? So boxes devoted to a single album, if enough material exists to justify release, can be a lot of fun. But they're not for everybody.
The King Crimson catalogue is a shining example how it should be done.
I like how the Talking Heads did theirs, even if DualDisc wouldn't have been my format of choice. No matter, the concept worked nicely.
Better still, the advent of HiDef streaming might circumvent the anti market antics of limited releases and prompt deletions by Sony and the record industry as a whole to wake up and give us the chance to actually purchase legally, old Quad mixes that have been withdrawn from the market.
The fact of the matter is they exist.
Crap or not, I wanna be given the chance to hear them.
That might work, but I'd still want a hard copy of anything I'm buying, and it would have to be playable on the 'big system,' not my computer setup. I want hi-fi sonics in a more analog setting, though I appreciate computer technology for the ease with which it brings material to us.
What else is new? But when modern, million-selling artists have no use for multichannel, hard to expect labels to put out catalog items that way with any regularity, 'cause the money they want's just not there. But once in a while we do get thrown a bone or two....
ED
