Quad LP/Tape Poll Focus - Moving Waves [Q8]

[timbre4]

Please share your thoughts on this quad tape: Focus - Moving Waves

 

[Quad Linda]

Music:10
Quad mix:4

Not a very active mix, but a spectacular performance.

More new polls coming soon.

 

[Beefalo]

Q8 review:
Good fidelity. Nice bass & EQ.
Overall I really like this. I don't mind a little variety and that's what you get here.
Seems like the mix changes from song to song. Sometimes changes during a song.
There's a lot of instruments and they may come from different speakers. Sometimes discrete and other times mirrored. It's like they didn't want any channel to be silent.
The bass guitar seemed to come from all channels at times. Then it might just come from the front.
At times the drums are stereo. Part of the kit in front and part in back.
There is a counter clockwise vocal pan in one song and all channel vocals in a part of "Hocus Pocus"
Some lead guitar in front and parts in back.
The mix can get too wet at times. A surround may have a lot of echo and not much else.
I always vote conservatively in these polls.
I give this an 8

 

[jefe1]

Wish their quad mixes had been included on the recent box set.

 

[sroberts]

I asked Thijs about the quad mix of Focus II/Moving Waves at a recent Focus concert in the UK and if there is any hope of finding the missing tapes of the quad mix. He said he didn't even know there had been a quad mix!

Was it released as an encoded LP in any territory? Are all 8 track tapes of this album quad?

I would love to hear this mix - I'm wondering if buying a player via eBay and the 8-track cartridge via Discogs is the only option.

 

[Quad Linda]

Unfortunately, neither Focus Quad was pressed on a Quad LP, only Q8:

Live at the Rainbow. Sire 7147-7408H (Q8)
Moving Waves. Sire 7147-7401H (Q8)

I bought both of these Q8's when they hit the street. Wonderful music, IMHO Focus Quad mixes aren't worth the bother. I rebought these on LP, CD and CD Focus complete box. If you have the ability to synthesize Quad or 5.1 from 2ch, play the LP or CD and skip the Q8. Double stereo and not much more. A hugely disappointing mix of a spectacular album.

 

[steelydave]

I asked Thijs about the quad mix of Focus II/Moving Waves at a recent Focus concert in the UK and if there is any hope of finding the missing tapes of the quad mix. He said he didn't even know there had been a quad mix!

Was it released as an encoded LP in any territory? Are all 8 track tapes of this album quad?

I would love to hear this mix - I'm wondering if buying a player via eBay and the 8-track cartridge via Discogs is the only option.

The Focus quad mixes were only released on Q8 in the US - at the time Sire was distributed in the US by Famous Music, a subsidiary of ABC Records. ABC were big on quad so they presumably footed the bill for these mixes - it's possible they were never handed over when Warner bought Sire in the late '70s and it's also equally possible that they were burned up in the 2008 UMG (who acquired the MCA/ABC catalog in the early '80s) vault fire. But that's the direction I'd be looking in...

 

[sbrom]

To my knowledge most of the Focus catalog was remastered in 2020 for an 11-disc anthology (9 CD, 2 DVD). Sadly none in quad. Perhaps since the stereo tapes must have been available in 2020, so too might the quad tapes be around?

Heres a discussion of that remix: Focus - 50 Years Anthology 1970-1976 [box set 9 CD + 2 DVD] - release 13th November 2020

BTW, the 2020 stereo remastering on Moving Waves is WONDERFUL.