Did you listen to The Moody Blues? My favorite two SACD's

[mandrix]

I'm pretty sure that "official" release was not close to the quality of the upmix I mentioned.

I and many others I'm sure have upmixed ISOTLC.

 

[barfle]

I really got into The Moody Blues in the very late 60's. You could say I lived and breathed them then. And although I've listened to a LOT of other great music in my lifetime, the Moodys are still closest to my heart. I guess it was the times, my age, etc.; it all came together back then. They are "officially" my favorite band when someone asks. I really can't say I have a favorite album. To me, the first 7 albums are inseparable; to be taken in as a whole. Listened to consecutively, in their entirety, in one session, is truly a Voyage; a "journey to the outer edges of your conciseness".

I was deejaying at a campus radio station in 1965/66, when “Go Now!” came out. Mono, of course, and before Justin showed up, but a great song that I played probably a bit too much.

 

[ar surround]

I always thought of the Moody Blues' music as a more intelligent form of rock. I've seen them in concert several times, always coming out feeling gratified. I took my sister to one of the concerts. She was in tears during "Nights in White Satin". I have all seven of the SACD's, and can only hope Universal will see their way clear to release the subsequent albums on BD-A.

The critics considered The Moody Blues music to be pompous, high-brow and snooty. That's one reason it took so long for them to be inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. I think I'll go downstairs and listen to a bunch of their stuff right now.

 

[4-earredwonder]

The critics considered The Moody Blues music to be pompous, high-brow and snooty. That's one reason it took so long for them to be inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. I think I'll go downstairs and listen to a bunch of their stuff right now.

As Far As I'm Concerned...the Moodies WERE THE KNIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN!

 

[JohnN]

The critics considered The Moody Blues music to be pompous, high-brow and snooty. That's one reason it took so long for them to be inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. I think I'll go downstairs and listen to a bunch of their stuff right now.

60 Minutes used Question on a segment about world food waste back then.
A Question Of Balance is one of my favourite albums of all time. West German CD only.

 

[jimfisheye]

I'm just rediscovering those SACD copies. I ended up hearing what I now know in hindsight to have been a fully botched transcode of those discs. There must have been some rogue software around in the mid 2000s or something. Heard botched copies of the Genesis SACDs around that time as well.

I'm glad I stumbled on the discussion and decided to reevaluate! Finally retiring those old reel copies now. The SACD disc images I found all have the original quad mixes. The apparently added derived C and Lfe tracks don't appear to be content removed from the quad mix. I didn't make a deep dive investigation but they're probably generated from the main quad tracks and more of a mastering faux pas as discussed. At any rate the quad mix doesn't sound altered like someone pulled some low sub bass out or pulled some vocals out.

I've mentioned that there are at least two copies of the Q4 reels shared around with one having a brutal 10k eq boost. Turns out the other one had some of that too in varying degree album to album. The SACD quad copies are all upgrades to me.

I remember hearing ISOTLC and EGBDF when I was little. The 1st 3 tracks on EGBDF are still magical sounding music to me. I looked up everything else down the road and there's a lot to like. I'm drawn to the more psychedelic tracks and especially Mike's songs with that. I still don't get that first album and I really don't like the popular song from it. The 7th is showing the cracks forming. I though LDV was a return to form though! I don't understand the MTV era albums after that at all.

But these quad SACDs are the real deal! It's the original quad mixes, not 5.1 remixes. Transcode them properly and drop the C and Lfe channels and you're in! The reel copies might sound louder, brighter, and like they have more depth before volume matching. Listen again and match the level between them in the high end instead. Now listen again. Fat and dynamic and there's nothing missing. It's the other way around.

 

[jaybird100]

The critics considered The Moody Blues music to be pompous, high-brow and snooty. That's one reason it took so long for them to be inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame. I think I'll go downstairs and listen to a bunch of their stuff right now.

Yeah, well, what do the critics know?

 

[mandrix]

Yeah, well, what do the critics know?

Amen Brother.

 

[ar surround]

But these quad SACDs are the real deal! It's the original quad mixes, not 5.1 remixes. Transcode them properly and drop the C and Lfe channels and yo

While we are discussing this, the Quad reel rip of A Question Of Balance has the rears boosted a bit. The SACD could use about a 3db boost of the rears in certain songs, but I need to go through it track by track.

I've also boosted the rears of certain tracks on DOFP.

 

[Jim.olga]

I collected all the core 7 in the various forms SACD, DVD and DTS a few years ago. It took a while to find the good deals. I missed out on the Timeless Flight set! That set is going for so much money now it's not accessible. So, I have a few of their original vinyl, some recent re-issued vinyl, and all the rest in CD from the Octave album through the polydor years. I even have an autographed box set! I have some of the concert albums and compilations. I have some of the solo works. I enjoy them all. The core 7 are my favorite. Even more so in quad and 5.1! I guess you can say I'm aMoosy Blues fan.

 

[Jim.olga]

I collected all the core 7 in the various forms SACD, DVD and DTS a few years ago. It took a while to find the good deals. I missed out on the Timeless Flight set! That set is going for so much money now it's not accessible. So, I have a few of their original vinyl, some recent re-issued vinyl, and all the rest in CD from the Octave album through the polydor years. I even have an autographed box set! I have some of the concert albums and compilations. I have some of the solo works. I enjoy them all. The core 7 are my favorite. Even more so in quad and 5.1! I guess you can say I'm aMoosy Blues fan.

Or Moody Blues fan.....

 

[stoopid]

 

[Quadmon]

These are great if you’re ever moody or blue! Have cheered me up for over 50 years!

 

[rasalas]

But these quad SACDs are the real deal! It's the original quad mixes, not 5.1 remixes.

FWIW, the original quad mixes were created by Tony Clarke, whose contribution to the band's sound was so vital that he became known as the "sixth Moody Blue." There is no surround sound mix of the band's work that is going to sound more authentic than that. The SACDs, whose mixes were overseen by Justin Hayward, were simply minimal conversions of the quad mixes for 5.1.

 

[andyp]

FWIW, the original quad mixes were created by Tony Clarke, whose contribution to the band's sound was so vital that he became known as the "sixth Moody Blue." There is no surround sound mix of the band's work that is going to sound more authentic than that. The SACDs, whose mixes were overseen by Justin Hayward, were simply minimal conversions of the quad mixes for 5.1.

Does anybody else think the 5.1 releases aren't really 5.1? I don't think any of the "5.1" SACD's have a center channel or LFE....or is it my system?

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Does anybody else think the 5.1 releases aren't really 5.1? I don't think any of the "5.1" SACD's have a center channel or LFE....or is it my system?

They are definately formatted as 5.1. If whats actually in the CC and the LFE is anything worthwhile is a different question. Ive heard you can turn them off with no degredation to the presentation. Ive also heard they are at such a low level leaving them in dosent cause any degredation either.

 

[andyp]

They are definately formatted as 5.1. If whats actually in the CC and the LFE is anything worthwhile is a different question. Ive heard you can turn them off with no degredation to the presentation. Ive also heard they are at such a low level leaving them in dosent cause any degredation either.

There's absolutely nothing coming out of the center channel or the LFE. It's very simple to make a 5.1 mix with dummy/blank channels in the center channel and the LFE. I would check mine but I just sold them a few years ago.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

When i get a chance, ill check my copies.

 

[ar surround]

They are definately formatted as 5.1. If whats actually in the CC and the LFE is anything worthwhile is a different question. Ive heard you can turn them off with no degredation to the presentation. Ive also heard they are at such a low level leaving them in dosent cause any degredation either.

Yes. I found that turning off the center and LFE makes no difference on my set up. Now, if the Bills could find some way to turn off Mahomes and…oops, wrong thread.

 

[jimfisheye]

The copies I just found are 100% the original quad mixes and not in any way 5.1 remixes. There's a very low level of program in the C and Lfe and the discussion is that this was generated from the mix after the fact. A mastering faux pas as it were.

I can't know for sure without the actual master quad mix to compare to. I have compared the SACD copy sans C and Lfe to the Q4 copies I have of the original quad mix. I can say these seem like cleaner less generational copies of the exact same quad mixes from the reels. There's no phase weirdness and/or lowered vocals in the front channels like you might expect if someone tried to separate out the vocals with some software technique. Likewise there's sign no sub bass removed from the 4 quad channels either. The rogue C and Lfe channels appear for all the world generated after the fact. We've seen this phenomenon before and I think it's an errant move that started in some movie mastering house circa the 2000s. Someone had a heavy hand and couldn't come to terms with silent unused channels or something.

If you have a copy with silenced C and Lfe, you probably got someone's rip after they already cleaned that up.