Commercial Matrix Quadraphonic Cassettes?

[doity]

Remember they were sent the SQ masters from EMI for their Capitol Q8 's ,or should I really say that with those 2 Pink Floyd SQ masters in place of the Q4 copies , they should have been used for what they were made for, vinyl records.
Capitol screwed up, and should have issued SQ albums instead Of some weird upmix's. Those Pink Floyd Q8'S
would have eventually been released.

Yeah, but those EBay sellers then couldn’t sell their British Q8’s for so much $$. That was also part of the conspiracy....all pre-planned years in advance.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Yeah, but those EBay sellers then couldn’t sell their British Q8’s for so much $$. That was also part of the conspiracy....all pre-planned years in advance.

 

[fredblue]

That's one thing I liked ....no loved , about the German audio recording industry.

Most of what I've seen is that they are all Single Inventory matrix quads . Be they Classical or Rock .
Metronome/OHR/COSMIC COURIER , Bellaphon Bacillus , BASF , Acanta , Eurodisc , Ariola , Horzu , Electrola, etc.

For some reason the German Record Companies just seemed to favour their Quad matrix recordings. (This may be true for Japan as well).
So why the f$k couldn't the North American Record Companies follow suit ? (with a small number of exceptions)
Like Creative World , CTI/KUDU , Golden Crest , Ovation, Black Jazz ,ABC/Impulse/Bluesway/Blue Thumb , Passport , and a few with 1 or2 quads .( and perhaps Project 3)
Capitol Records initially had SQ and Q8 ......and then went solo with a Q8 only policy ,but did the reverse with their Angel SQ Recordings ??? I think there were too many old farts in charge of that Company , stuck in the past, 1940's 50's and with no foresight !



Simple my very good friend .
My vinyl album is The Polydor 1975 Movie Soundtrack . And yes it's different , it's much shorter ,by at least 10 minutes +.
It's always been an unmarked QS encoded album.....from day one. They couldn't and would not put the mono 5th channel (discrete center) on the album intact without affecting the 2ch QS encode.
But my edumacated guess is they did something to muck up the 2-channel QS encoded Discrete with some form of mixdown.
FWIW I have the U. S Copy on Polydor which is the one that The Quadrophonic Record Center in London shipped to me back in the 70's. Also I have the Canadian pressing on Polydor . As expected both copies are identical .
Played back via my Sansui QSD-2 it sounded pretty good. Especially the 2 Clapton tracks, Elton John , and Tina Turner.(Also some of Pete Townsend's solo tracks ,and Keith Moon's Wicked Uncle Ernie bit )

Audio engineers such as the famous A E S Member, John Eargle (quad engineer) picked this album as one of his favourite QS albums and wrote a short review of this very album he recommended for playback in QS.
Sources in both British Magazines and U.S. Magazines confirmed this album to be a "Quiet Quad" ,or "Closet Quad" or just an unmarked QS album as did also Sansui .

Polydor Japan also had the QS Quintaphonic emblem emblazoned on the O B I strip on the vinyl album they sold and promoted.

Although it was later made available on CD ,I never had it.....but should have. I blame my procrastination for that mis step.
In my opinion they should have made the entire soundtrack on vinyl LP available as it's one of the few Rock Movie's that starts off in the Who's music from start to finish.

Fizzy luvn' The Who's Music Epic.

Edit:
It's also worth noting Polydor never disputed this reported QS encoded album .......Nor did Sansui ?!!!
And they both had plenty of opportunities .

can you please provide catalogue number info, deadwax etc., so i can seek copies out?

i'm dying to hear the Tommy OST in QS Quad!!

 

[fredblue]

It was no rumour, Freddie.
Far too many in the know , the who's who from the audiophile world. reported this QS encode was available on Polydor .
I agree the blu-ray does not sound as good as the album soundtrack.
But your forgetting that the New Blu-ray mix in Quintaphonic doesn't have the original quad discrete mix by The Who''s Engineer from 75 , "Ron Nevison".
Yes John Mosely is mentioned but that's because the Quintaphonic System is his answer to surround on film ,
2ch matrix QS encode with a third channel (mono) center front. And it was the first to be played in full surround provided the Theatre was equipped with the Decoder for playback. And also the 3 front and 2 rear speakers

the Sony Blu-ray has a fully discrete (i mean, if you check out the channels in isolation it is seriously well-separated!!) 5-channel Quintaphonic mix presentation on it.

hang on, you mean there's a 4-channel mix by Ron Nevison, a 5-channel mix by John Mosely and the Soundtrack album with a QS-encoded 2-channel version of yet another mix altogether?? 3 Surround mixes of the Tommy movie?

fwiw the "5.1 mix" on the Sony Blu-ray is 'merely' the Quintaphonic with an added LFE.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

the Sony Blu-ray has a fully discrete (i mean, if you check out the channels in isolation it is seriously well-separated!!) 5-channel Quintaphonic mix presentation on it.

hang on, you mean there's a 4-channel mix by Ron Nevison, a 5-channel mix by John Mosely and the Soundtrack album with a QS-encoded 2-channel version of yet another mix altogether?? 3 Surround mixes of the Tommy movie?

fwiw the "5.1 mix" on the Sony Blu-ray is 'merely' the Quintaphonic with an added LFE.

Didn’t we discover that the BD rears were some kind of derived QS or something odd like that (sorry it’s early here, I may be all wet!)

 

[MidiMagic]

I think that a lot of this MESS was the result of company executives and audio men not understanding how quadraphonics works.

Examples of what they did wrong:

1. Making the matrix recording for the record using a discrete Q4 recording and the standard 4-corners encoder.

2. Making the discrete product from the matrix recording by decoding it with a basic decoder.

3. Having separate bins for quadraphonic records instead of putting them in with other albums by the same artist.*

4. Signed exclusive contracts to use only quadraphonic system, not knowing that they already had recordings in other systems.

5. Hiding the fact that they sold records in other quadraphonic systems because their contract says they can't use them.

6. Remixing a recording because of one of these contracts they signed.

7. Thinking that one matrix system can be converted into another. Only the great circle matrices can be converted - to other great circle matrices.

* A better idea would have been to put a colored "quadraphonic" on the tab for the artist if such recrods were in the bin. Then those looking for quadraphonic releases just need to look for the tabs.

 

[fredblue]

Didn’t we discover that the BD rears were some kind of derived QS or something odd like that (sorry it’s early here, I may be all wet!)

no, the UK 2-disc DVD Rears were (i suggested) from QS with some channel leakage, the BD's totally discrete, i mean, totally!!

 

[par4ken]

the Sony Blu-ray has a fully discrete (i mean, if you check out the channels in isolation it is seriously well-separated!!) 5-channel Quintaphonic mix presentation on it.

hang on, you mean there's a 4-channel mix by Ron Nevison, a 5-channel mix by John Mosely and the Soundtrack album with a QS-encoded 2-channel version of yet another mix altogether?? 3 Surround mixes of the Tommy movie?

fwiw the "5.1 mix" on the Sony Blu-ray is 'merely' the Quintaphonic with an added LFE.

Wouldn't the QS mix be the same as the original discrete 4-channel mix mix by Ron Nevison, why would there have to be another mix?

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Wouldn't the QS mix be the same as the original discrete 4-channel mix mix by Ron Nevison, why would there have to be another mix?

Correct.

But then they went and did a 5.1 Discrete mix of their own . 5 separate channels , not Ron Nevison's 1975 Q4 mix.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I think that a lot of this MESS was the result of company executives and audio men not understanding how quadraphonics works.

Examples of what they did wrong:

1. Making the matrix recording for the record using a discrete Q4 recording and the standard 4-corners encoder.

2. Making the discrete product from the matrix recording by decoding it with a basic decoder.

3. Having separate bins for quadraphonic records instead of putting them in with other albums by the same artist.*

4. Signed exclusive contracts to use only quadraphonic system, not knowing that they already had recordings in other systems.

5. Hiding the fact that they sold records in other quadraphonic systems because their contract says they can't use them.

6. Remixing a recording because of one of these contracts they signed.

7. Thinking that one matrix system can be converted into another. Only the great circle matrices can be converted - to other great circle matrices.

* A better idea would have been to put a colored "quadraphonic" on the tab for the artist if such recrods were in the bin. Then those looking for quadraphonic releases just need to look for the tabs.

Sorry midi ,your number 2 does not make any sense to me. I mean that would be something extremely rare.(ie Pink Floyd Q8).

 

[MidiMagic]

Sorry midi ,your number 2 does not make any sense to me. I mean that would be something extremely rare.(ie Pink Floyd Q8).

Some recording companies did this in early quad, either because it was the only version they had, or because those in charge didn't know the differences between discrete and matrix.

Several who got quad from foreign sources got only a matrix version, so they had to decode to have Q8.

 

[doity]

Well I got my Italian cassette today......the one in SQ (Nomadi) and it sounds better than I had expected. The pressure pad was loose and the case was unsightly, but after remedying those matters I gave it a go. I first listened to it on my Marantz w/auto-azimuth and I have to say that it sounded fantastic for a 45 year old cassette. Lots of high end there, but not as much when the azimuth correction was turned off. Oh well.

I then ran it through my Tate SQ decoder on a different deck and it decoded very well. Much better than the Angel classical cassette that I bought previous. I picked out a small selection of one song to videotape, and you can see how the decoder is ‘doing it’s thing’ with my fabulous “Wurlyscope”, that was devised and built by forum member Wurly1.

The music kind of reminds me of King Crimson or The Moody Blues a little bit. That little guitar riff sorta reminds me of Black Sabbath ‘War Pigs’, I do believe is the song. I think that this concludes my search for SQ cassettes for now. I really don’t have the $$$ and there doesn’t seem to be all that many of them to begin with. Which is probably a good thing for me.........at this time at least.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Well I got my Italian cassette today......the one in SQ (Nomadi) and it sounds better than I had expected. The pressure pad was loose and the case was unsightly, but after remedying those matters I gave it a go. I first listened to it on my Marantz w/auto-azimuth and I have to say that it sounded fantastic for a 45 year old cassette. Lots of high end there, but not as much when the azimuth correction was turned off. Oh well.

I then ran it through my Tate SQ decoder on a different deck and it decoded very well. Much better than the Angel classical cassette that I bought previous. I picked out a small selection of one song to videotape, and you can see how the decoder is ‘doing it’s thing’ with my fabulous “Wurlyscope”, that was devised and built by forum member Wurly1.

The music kind of reminds me of King Crimson or The Moody Blues a little bit. That little guitar riff sorta reminds me of Black Sabbath ‘War Pigs’, I do believe is the song. I think that this concludes my search for SQ cassettes for now. I really don’t have the $$$ and there doesn’t seem to be all that many of them to begin with. Which is probably a good thing for me.........at this time at least.

This quad cassette has now officially been 'Wurlyscope confirmed'

 

[JonUrban]

I have this clipping I found online several years ago. I don't know where I got it.

View attachment 73978

You got it from the QQ Pink Floyd page

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/QQ-PFQ.htm
among other places in the forum. I scanned that years ago from Billboard. On the Pink Floyd page is also a very good look at the Pink Floyd AHM RM cassette

 

[doity]

This quad cassette has now officially been 'Wurlyscope confirmed'

Now if I could only understand the lyrics .

 

[jefe1]

I have that Nomadi album as an SQ encoded Italian CD
Easier to find than the cassette im sure but that tape would be cool to have...

 

[fizzywiggs41]

@doity

Just for info sake , I thought I'd list the other SQ cassette numbers(PMA), from the Italian EMI/PDU (Cosmic Couriers) Catalogue in the event you might be interested.

Klaus Schulze- Irrlicht....PMA 595
Ash Ra Tempel/Timothy Leary ...PMA 597
Popul Vuh - In Den Gaerten Pharaos...PMA 609
Popul Vuh - Einsjaeger & Seibenjaeger ...PMA 613
Roberto Cacciapaglia ...PMA 625
Wallenstein- Cosmic Century ...PMA 581
Popul Vuh - Seligpreisung ...PMA 582
Ash Ra Tempel- Starring Rosi ...PMA 583
Popul Vuh - Hosianna Mantra ...PMA 594

There may have been others ,but those are in my photo copied Catalogue . All told 4 pages of Cosmic Couriers.

BTW I used to have that Cacciapaglia LP and as you did I found it an excellent quad mix in SQ.

 

[doity]

@doity

Just for info sake , I thought I'd list the other SQ cassette numbers(PMA), from the Italian EMI/PDU (Cosmic Couriers) Catalogue in the event you might be interested.

Klaus Schulze- Irrlicht....PMA 595
Ash Ra Tempel/Timothy Leary ...PMA 597
Popul Vuh - In Den Gaerten Pharaos...PMA 609
Popul Vuh - Einsjaeger & Seibenjaeger ...PMA 613
Roberto Cacciapaglia ...PMA 625
Wallenstein- Cosmic Century ...PMA 581
Popul Vuh - Seligpreisung ...PMA 582
Ash Ra Tempel- Starring Rosi ...PMA 583
Popul Vuh - Hosianna Mantra ...PMA 594

There may have been others ,but those are in my photo copied Catalogue . All told 4 pages of Cosmic Couriers.

BTW I used to have that Cacciapaglia LP and as you did I found it an excellent quad mix in SQ.


View attachment 80697

Thanks! I might try to seek a couple of those out. I am not too big on the one that I have because I can’t get past the vocals with the foreign language. It’s one thing if the lyrics make no sense (as with Yes) but I at least know what he is saying.

I bet that there are some English or instrumental titles in there. Possibly the Klaus Schulze one?

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Thanks! I might try to seek a couple of those out. I am not too big on the one that I have because I can’t get past the vocals with the foreign language. It’s one thing if the lyrics make no sense (as with Yes) but I at least know what he is saying.

I bet that there are some English or instrumental titles in there. Possibly the Klaus Schulze one?

Well, they pretty much all are recorded for the English speaking market.
Ash Ra Tempel ,Starring Rosi switches back and forth from German to English ,but the music and quad mix are exceptional. Why ? Because Manuel Gottshing's fret work is top notch ,and he is considered by a UK poll to be one of the top ten guitarists of the day. Oh and I agree !!
Probably not as good as Clapton or Alvin Lee ,but definitely in their league.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I bet that there are some English or instrumental titles in there. Possibly the Klaus Schulze one?

Yes that's true and most but not all are primarily instrumental, Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh , and Klause Schulze pretty much all instrumental, as well as some combos such as Sci Fi Party , Planeten Siten and Galactic Supermarket ,that feature Klaus Schulze.