HiRez Poll Cobham, Billy - SPECTRUM [SACD]

[sjcorne]

Have you removed the center channel audio from the Japanese Jeff Beck Wired SACD on your copy Jonathan?

Yep! And the sub channel as well.

 

[Beefalo]

Managed to get a brand new sealed copy for less than my $100 limit. Very happy to finally have this in my collection.
This is probably the only MCH where I had to dramatically increase volume on the front channels to get a balanced sound. Gave it an 8.
I would have enjoyed it more with LFE & center channels. Similar to my preference with Jeff Beck's Orange SACD. I bought the Japanese 5.1 and the the AF quad versions. Granted there are no vocals on Spectrum to place in the center channel....
But the Japanese Jeff Beck Wired SACD makes good use of the center channel. I like bass guitar out of a capable center speaker.

My tastes in music have evolved in the last 5 months. This quad mix is incredible in part because it wasn't "manipulated" into 5.1.
It's taken repeated listens to fully appreciate these older quad mixes. Spectrum, Bitches Brew, Musicmagic and of course Santana/Buddy Miles live. These all sound great to me.
EW&F quad is on its way.....

 

[himey]

My tastes in music have evolved in the last 5 months. This quad mix is incredible in part because it wasn't "manipulated" into 5.1.
It's taken repeated listens to fully appreciate these older quad mixes. Spectrum, Bitches Brew, Musicmagic and of course Santana/Buddy Miles live. These all sound great to me.
EW&F quad is on its way.....

Birds of Fire fits in perfectly with the ones you mentioned. Just a heads up if you didn't know...

 

[quicksrt]

I love 4-channel quad and never turn on center or sub when I play them - regardless of what the mastering folks decide to generate to fill those speakers with.

S. Dave gave good explanation on what the hell they did in Stormbringer quad’s journey to EMI DVD. It’s a good example of what not to do.

 

[jimfisheye]

Oh hey, thanks for this thread! I had that mangled DVDA copy with stuff phase cancelled out of the main quad channels and the created mono C channel that was just fucked. This is just perfect.

Wow though. For all the kinds of mistakes you come across in flawed releases, that DVDA just thoroughly had the music so completely destroyed and unlistenable. They really outdid themselves there! Thought it was remastered by that Jakko Jaznik dude for a minute there!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I much prefer the SACD version - a 10.
Over the last few years I’ve really come to appreciate the uncluttered balance of Quad; my the center is great for dialogue on TV shows though

 

[jimfisheye]

This one has nothing to do with 4.0 vs 5.1. It's more that the 5.1 wasn't a legitimate master. It's 4.0 vs f'd!

 

[fredblue]

couple of interesting old walks down QQ memory lane, including Spectrum DVD-A (spectrum-al) analysis by our man steelydave

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/cobham-billy-spectrum-dvd-a.4672/page-2#post-147893
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ol-2-billy-cobham-spectrum.18645/#post-200834

 

[Beefalo]

couple of interesting old walks down QQ memory lane, including Spectrum DVD-A (spectrum-al) analysis by our man steelydave

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/cobham-billy-spectrum-dvd-a.4672/page-2#post-147893
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ol-2-billy-cobham-spectrum.18645/#post-200834

I'm very grateful that A.F. fixed this with the quad.
What a rescue !!!

 

[fredblue]

I'm very grateful that A.F. fixed this with the quad.
What a rescue !!!

absolutely, bordering on miraculous they made it happen! even though i'm Mr. Scheiner's number one fan its not his work that is my personal highlight of Audio Fidelity's Surround SACD releases, its this previously unreleased Spectrum Quad. superb from start to finish.

 

[4-earredwonder]

absolutely, bordering on miraculous they made it happen! even though i'm Mr. Scheiner's number one fan its not his work that is my personal highlight of Audio Fidelity's Surround SACD releases, its this previously unreleased Spectrum Quad. superb from start to finish.

Now if D~V could only resurrect those transcendent Larry Coryell 11th House QUADS from Vanguard..........

 

[quicksrt]

This one has nothing to do with 4.0 vs 5.1. It's more that the 5.1 wasn't a legitimate master. It's 4.0 vs f'd!

The Spectrum in 5.1 was just as legitimate as Machine Head 5.1 and Capt. and Me in 5.1 on DVD-A releases. It simply was not as great a redo as it should have been. Like Machine, I prefer the vintage quad mix over that 5.1 redo.

Unless I am missing something, I don't see how a Warner Atlantic released remix on DVD-A can be called illegitimate.

 

[quicksrt]

absolutely, bordering on miraculous they made it happen! even though i'm Mr. Scheiner's number one fan its not his work that is my personal highlight of Audio Fidelity's Surround SACD releases, its this previously unreleased Spectrum Quad. superb from start to finish.

That AF was able to do it twice, once with the Spectrum album and also with the Laura Nyro previously unissued quad mix, it a double miracle performed right there. I want to see this happen again over at DV, where they pull a couple of rabbits out of hats.

 

[JohnA]

Straight 10
Had the DVD-A since it came out. It was OK, but something was missing, it felt just not there.
Voted 8 for it in the poll here back then. It still feels like a 7.x Not offensive, but we deserve better.

Now the SACD puts it right.
The tiny tear in the Matrix has been repaired.

 

[ssully]

This one has nothing to do with 4.0 vs 5.1. It's more that the 5.1 wasn't a legitimate master. It's 4.0 vs f'd!

Of course it was 'legitimate'...you just don't like the mix. Me neither. But I don't question its legitimacy. Does Billy Cobham?

(There are two quad mixes of Machine Head plus a 5.1 ; is one more legit than the others?)

 

[quicksrt]

This one has nothing to do with 4.0 vs 5.1. It's more that the 5.1 wasn't a legitimate master. It's 4.0 vs f'd!

Were you referring to the botched channel(s) generated for Stormbringer when UK EMI put out the quad in fake 5.1, which I touched on in this thread?

Of course it was 'legitimate'...you just don't like the mix. Me neither. But I don't question its legitimacy. Does Billy Cobham?

(There are two quad mixes of Machine Head plus a 5.1 ; is one more legit than the others?)

Now with Stormbringer manipulation into 5.1, that one indeed could be called illegitimate. At least that one is a simple matter of turning off the center and sub, and up the treble a tad, a volume a lot.

I wonder about some of these quad mixes - if this was really the last chance in our lifetimes for them to get released. Spectrum being mia in any format and Stormbringer coming out in lossy Rez with a couple bum channels added.

And yet I remain grateful as I never thought we’d get even this far with old quad released in new discs. I’m actually pretty satisfied.

 

[perzon57]

Upped my vote for this from 9 to 10.

 

[humprof]

Burning Ambulance makes the case for the follow-up album, Crosswinds:
https://burningambulance.com/2021/04/13/the-runners-up-billy-cobham/

 

[steelydave]

Burning Ambulance makes the case for the follow-up album, Crosswinds:
https://burningambulance.com/2021/04/13/the-runners-up-billy-cobham/

In an age of clickbait-y TOP 10 BEST! TOP 10 WORST type web content, it's nice to see stuff like this that explores a bit of the grey area in music.

I still think Spectrum is Cobham's best album, but as this article makes the case, there's a lot of merit in his subsequent albums, especially the handful immediately following - Crosswinds and Total Eclipse from 1974, A Funky Thide of Sings from 1975, and Life and Times from 1976.

I think what really puts Spectrum on top is the band he had on that album, in particular Leland Sklar on bass and Tommy Bolin on guitar. Bolin, of course, launched his own solo career shortly after, and joined Deep Purple in 1975 before his untimely death barely a year later, so Cobham had no choice but to find another guitarist, and while John Abercrombie is a real talent in his own right, he just doesn't have that rock fire in his playing that Bolin did.

I also wish that Cobham would've employed more bassists with a R&B/groove feel (which he did very successfully on the Billy Cobham/George Duke Band On Tour in Europe album) instead of guys who worked more in the jazz idiom. Spectrum was one of the first jazz-fusion albums that really emphasized R&B and funk rhythms (a sound that would increasingly dominate the genre from 1973 onward) in stark contrast to the fusion of the very early '70s (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis) etc that had a much stronger jazz-rock tilt. On Spectrum Cobham really locks in with Sklar (who can seemingly play convincingly in any genre, as his session credits go from this, to Mac Davis, to James Taylor to Phil Collins) but on some of those subsequent albums it's like his inclination to groove is fighting a bit with the bassists on those albums who want to "float" a bit more and not just lock it in the pocket with Cobham. It's by no means enough to make these albums bad, but it is enough to prevent them from being better than Spectrum.

On the plus side, however, Cobham's band on Crosswinds, Total Eclipse and Funky Thide includes the Brecker Brothers (one of their signature songs, Some Skunk Funk, makes its first appearance on the latter) and at times George Duke amongst others. Cobham's output gets less essential as the '70s wears on, but there are gems in amongst all of them, even the oft-maligned B.C. from 1979, which was produced by Wayne Henderson (of the Crusaders) and features several members of one of my favourite underrated funk bands, Pleasure.

 

[bgf1973]

Snoopy´s Search/Red Baron is a fucking crazy song!!