HiRez Poll HAIR (Original Cast Recording) [SACD]

[sjcorne]

Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2024 Multichannel SACD from Dutton Vocalion of the original cast recording of "Hair".
This Multichannel SACD features the first official release of the Quadraphonic mix since the 1970s!

THE ORIGINAL BROADWAY CAST RECORDING
HAIR – THE AMERICAN TRIBAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL
LP LSO 1150 (1968) STEREO/ABD1 0245 QUADRAPHONIC

1 AQUARIUS Ronald Dyson and Company
2 DONNA Gerome Ragni and Company
3 HASHISH Company
4 SODOMY Steve Curry and Company
5 COLORED SPADE Lamont Washington and Company
6 MANCHESTER ENGLAND James Rado and Company
7 I’M BLACK Lamont Washington, Steve Curry, Gerome Ragni, James Rado
8 AIN’T GOT NO Steve Curry, Lamont Washington, Melba Moore and Company
9 AIR Sally Eaton, Shelley Plimpton, Melba Moore and Company
10 INITIALS Company
11 I GOT LIFE James Rado and Company
12 HAIR James Rado, Gerome Ragni and Company
13 MY CONVICTION Jonathan Kramer
14 DON’T PUT IT DOWN Gerome Ragni, Steve Curry
15 FRANK MILLS Shelley Plimpton
16 BE-IN Company
17 WHERE DO I GO? James Rado and Company
18 BLACK BOYS Diane Keaton, Suzannah Norstrand, Natalie Mosco
19 WHITE BOYS Melba Moore, Mary Davis, Emmaretta Marks
20 EASY TO BE HARD Lynn Kellogg
21 WALKING IN SPACE Company
22 ABIE BABY Lamont Washington, Ronald Dyson, Donnie Burks, Mary Davis
23 THREE-FIVE-ZERO-ZERO Company
24 WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN Company
25 GOOD MORNING STARSHINE Lynn Kellogg, Melba Moore, James Rado, Gerome Ragni
26 THE FLESH FAILURES (LET THE SUNSHINE IN) James Rado, Lynn Kellogg, Melba Moore and Company

Recorded: RCA’s Studio B, New York, 6 May 1968
Recording engineer: Mike Moran
Quadraphonic remix engineer: Sam Stellato
Producer: Andy Wiswell

Remastered from the original analogue tapes by Michael J. Dutton

Multi-Channel/Stereo
All tracks available in stereo and multi-channel

SACD
This Hybrid CD can be played on any standard CD player

CDSML 8586



Pre-release thread for all shipping/ordering queries and non-poll related posts:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...isley-bros-hair-ost-enoch-light-tomita.36138/

 

[Larry Geller]

My favorite quad ever. Easy 10. Was my only CD4 without end groove distortion but that no longer matters.

 

[Rhinojack]

Great quad sound and separation, really presents a new soundstage from the stereo. Requires a volume boost. Never been a huge fan of the songs, and the “hits” I’ve always felt were better covered and produced by others. Still glad I got this.

 

[zdjh22]

One of my favorite stereo LPs growing up. When I found a QR conversion last year I was amazed at how effective was the quad presentation. This DV SACD is even better fidelity-wise. Good separation, true quad (phantom C/SW). The listener is well-centered between the various instrument and singers. The into to “Walking in Space” swirls around you.

The “hits” were done much better here than by the various contemporary artists that covered them, “Hair”, “Easy to Be Hard” and “The Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In)” in particular. “Three-five-zero-zero” still gives me chills. A truly intelligent show, great lyrics and great music, that translated really well to Broadway from the original show. Where else can you listen to a song based on Allen Ginsberg and then the next on Shakespeare. An awesome quad SACD.

3 for content (I’ll listen to this over and over), 3 for the mix (as good or better a quad mix as I can expect for a theatrical show, and the mix really adds to the presentation), 3 for the fidelity (clear, balanced sound, great for understanding the lyrics, 56 years old by god), and 1 for the overall package (what can I say, I love SACD as a format). So a 10 for me.

“Silence tells me secretly, everything, everything.”

 

[uffeolby]

May I ask you who have heard this - how are the vocals placed in the quad mix? I am not a fan of lifting out the vocals to the middle of the room, I want them to be anchored to the front soundstage and/or descrete in the back channels. How would you describe the vocal treatment in the mix on this disc?

Thanks!

 

[fredblue]

May I ask you who have heard this - how are the vocals placed in the quad mix? I am not a fan of lifting out the vocals to the middle of the room, I want them to be anchored to the front soundstage and/or descrete in the back channels. How would you describe the vocal treatment in the mix on this disc?

Thanks!

fwiw, many RCA mixes have lead vocals in a Room Centre position (i.e. mixed in all 4 channels at equal loudness) rather than the more usual Front Centre position (i.e. phantom stereo imaged between Front Left & Front Right) used by CBS Engineers mixing in Quad at that time.

i will grab the disc, check it out and report back

 

[fredblue]

well, what more can i say, it's far from a "set and forget" mix!!

cor blimey, guv'nah, fingz ain't what they used to be in the swingin' sixties and seventies.. fingz get rather Hair-y on this one from the very start!!

track 1 ("Aquarius") has female lead Vocals in all 4 speakers, while track 2 ("Donna") has male lead Vocals in the Centre Front with the faintest return of the same in the Rears, detectable only at full whack, or if you put your ear right upto the speaker.. not advised! cuz fingz get loud and quiet - quick!

this is a seriously dynamic disc and the mix is quite extraordinary!! i'm getting high just sitting here listening to the.. music!!

i feel a suitably hirsute top mark with no haircut coming on once i've had several in-depth playthroughs

now where's my doobie, my brothers?

edit: i should add, not to deter anyone, i did detect what felt like some occasional saturation, i imagine the tapes are possibly somewhat knackered at this point but maybe not and i was hallucinating in the heady haze of the mix!!

so far, it's still looking like a "Top 10"

Peace, Love and Understanding

 

[fredblue]

ps. skip to track 16 ("Be-In") if you really want to give your system a workout!! WOW everything happening everywhere all at once!!

we've stripped down to our birthday suits and me-oh-my, we're letting the sunshine, letting the sunshine, letting the sun shine in where it don't normally shine..!!

nurse! come quickly with the gas and air and my Doobie Brothers won't you spare a dime and grab this Quad extravaganza with both hands!

prepare to be either amazed or horrified depending on your personal... proclivities in this crazy little thing we call... Life!!

 

[takicat]

Having heard a Q8 transfer of this years ago I was in heaven when DV announced their release of this. Just awesome all around.

 

[zdjh22]

May I ask you who have heard this - how are the vocals placed in the quad mix? I am not a fan of lifting out the vocals to the middle of the room, I want them to be anchored to the front soundstage and/or descrete in the back channels. How would you describe the vocal treatment in the mix on this disc?

Thanks!

I’ve just listened (happily!) to this again using a binaural headphone rig (Realiser A16) that allows me to listen to isolated speakers, or speakers in groups.

The mix is very immersive and dynamic. Lead vocals tend to be either in front of you (L/R), or sometimes centered (L/R + Ls/Rs, slightly forward). The chorus tends to be all around you, as if you are in the center of the tribe, but the individual voices in the chorus are well localized. In tracks with dialog (48 arguing with 68) the corners are used, with in that example 48 in the back right and 68 the front left.

Instruments tend to be in the corners, but not always. The two guitars are usually back left and well isolated, but on some songs back right or both backs. When obvious the bass guitar is back right. The electric piano is generally front left and well isolated.

According to the liner notes, this was recorded in RCA’s Studio B in NYC in 1968 (good god, I’m old). So no reverb or audience sounds from a theatre, and in my listening minimal reverb. If anything the mix seems to me to attempt to put you near the front of the stage, with some of the instruments behind you (but not all), some of the vocals (chorus) around you, and lead vocals before you. On a couple of songs, like “Walking in Space”, pretty aggressive (but slow) panning of the instruments around you occurs.

This is demo-level Quad material. It benefits, like many other DV SACDs, from rears behind you in the corners.

 

[atrocity]

we've stripped down to our birthday suits

Not the most recent time (out of a total of, I think, five) I saw it on stage.

 

[fredblue]

Not the most recent time (out of a total of, I think, five) I saw it on stage.

oh!! that feels like a cutback too far..
hope it was a good production in all other respects

 

[PurpleMoustache]

Giving this one an 8. I’m familiar with the source material having seen the revival on Broadway sometime in the early 2010s and it’s a solid mix and recording… however alongside it I ordered 3 Tomita discs which I have to say have a more impressive mix than this. A fun listen, however.

 

[atrocity]

oh!! that feels like a cutback too far..
hope it was a good production in all other respects

Small(-ish) town community theater/theatre. Guess they didn't want to take any chances or the cast was shy.

It was pretty good other than that, though!

 

[H.A.L.]

I was excited to get this! HAIR registers early in my listening experience as a young teen, and this was a fun "trip" back.

Funny that it was later in the mid-70s disco era that I was visiting a friend in Houston, and her sister came in the room complaining "I'm so tired of all the black music today!" and retreated nostalgically to the 60s by blasting this HAIR LP. White boys, black boys, they're all good .

I treasure this release

 

[fredblue]

Giving this one an 8. I’m familiar with the source material having seen the revival on Broadway sometime in the early 2010s and it’s a solid mix and recording… however alongside it I ordered 3 Tomita discs which I have to say have a more impressive mix than this. A fun listen, however.

something struck me this morning (that'll teach me to cross the street between parked cars ) the quality's been that high on the Dutton Vocalion releases that in a number of QQ Polls of DV discs, 8’s are outliers rather than the high or even average score and with 9 votes already in, this Hair-y DV disc needs just 1 more vote to get onto the QQ league table of dreams..