June 2019 DV Releases (MFSB, Guess Who, Herbie Hancock, and Donald Byrd)

[John Svensson]

3 of the new 4 ordered....Sextant? Well I have a decent conversion sitting here that I never listen to, so sorry Herbie.

 

[H.A.L.]

Both my orders (two batches - 2 in first, 4 in second) were acknowledged, but no shipping notice. No biggie, I trust them.

(For the record I got Guess Who II / Sextant and Byrd / Musicmagic / B. & Rubenstein Beethoven concertos 1 & 2 (have DV's 3 & 4) / and Rosza conducts Rosza)

 

[fredblue]

3 of the new 4 ordered....Sextant? Well I have a decent conversion sitting here that I never listen to, so sorry Herbie.

if Herbie's lurking he will be going bananas!

 

[bnyhof]

Ordered Black Byrd, Sextant, and The Guess Who. Already bought Tomita and one other when it came out.

 

[Juggsnelson]

I'm a big fan of D-V, not only for their superior product but also for opening my eyes up to some new music at an incredible price point. A few years ago, I hardly owned any Jazz, Easy Listening, or Classical titles outside the bare essentials....and my collection is large. I took a relatively safe risk in adding a few of DV's titles to my first order that were a bit outside of what I normally would listen to. A calculated risk. I knew they would sound great and I knew the liner notes would be awesome (not to kiss up but the notes @steelydave writes are amazing). None of these have disappointed me and I just keep my fingers crossed that this amazing run of releases keeps truckin' on.

 

[fredblue]

I'm a big fan of D-V, not only for their superior product but also for opening my eyes up to some new music at an incredible price point. A few years ago, I hardly owned any Jazz, Easy Listening, or Classical titles outside the bare essentials....and my collection is large. I took a relatively safe risk in adding a few of DV's titles to my first order that were a bit outside of what I normally would listen to. A calculated risk. I knew they would sound great and I knew the liner notes would be awesome (not to kiss up but the notes @steelydave writes are amazing). None of these have disappointed me and I just keep my fingers crossed that this amazing run of releases keeps truckin' on.

AF started the Quad SACD renaissance when they..

"Opened Our Eyes..."
with Earth, Wind & the almighty mighty Flatulence of sweet surround Soul music with their Heads to the sky right up in the clouds 🌬

and they recruited more Quaddies to the cause when they went

"truckin' down the highway!"

with The Breast of Bed!

..and now DV have taken up the mantlepiece to stoke the windy earth fire, they're making Pure Musicmagic in 360 Degrees in The War Of The Quads they got the Spring Fever and There Ain't Nothin' Stoppin' them NOWWWW (oh no!!)!!!

ahh.. everything's better in Quadramawhatsit, what what..!!

 

[MIDIQ]

Ordered 3. Woo hoo.

 

[Q-Eight]

Then perhaps @Q-Eight is misremembering.

Possibly? It was about 20 years ago....

 

[fredblue]

I wonder if the separation on Rockin' is a little better than the Q8? Rockin' comes from that era of Guess Who Q8's where they were almost in glorious quadramono. Or, am I mis-remembering and Rockin' is the one with the semi-wonky mix because they put a different guitar in FL and BL and then had Burton's keyboard (either in mono or tight stereo) in the FR and BR channels. (It kind of almost makes it seem like the mix should've been turned 90 degrees to the left.)

But those two are no-brainers for me. Do you realize that's now FIVE Quad Guess Who titles that have been released on a modern format? Would you have ever guessed a few years ago that would ever happen? Didn't they once announce they were going to give ALL the Guess Who albums the 5.1 treatment and then NOTHING ever came of that?

I'll probably get Herbie, Byrd and the Tomita just to .... well, support the cause.

fwiw i just had a quick flick through the files of my Rockin' Q8 transfer and you were right, it is the one with BC in the FR and BR and different guitar parts in the Left channels. it may be that the channels on the tape were wrongly assigned, it's hard to know for sure since its a "vocals all-round" style Quad mix but there's definitely more unique stuff going on in each channel than one of the notorious fake Quad mixes.

 

[steelydave]

As a couple of people above have said, the quad mix of Rockin' isn't conventional 4-corner discrete like some of the CBS mixes, but I grew to really appreciate it, especially after spending quite a bit of time with the stereo version as part of my research process for the liner notes for this disc, and also reading up on the circumstances surrounding the recording of the album.

In a nutshell, the Guess Who had spent a ton of time in the studio in the two years or so preceding Rockin', recording something like 5 albums and a single in that period, and Rockin', was kind of a reaction to that - a quick and dirty "return to the roots" album recorded in something like a week. The quad mix isn't a whizz-bang affair, but having listened to the stereo mix quite a bit, I believe it's entirely by design and not a lack of ambition on the part of the engineers that mixed the album. The stereo mix of the album is very dense, and one of the songs, Running Bear, is so narrowly mixed that it might very well be entirely mono, probably in homage to its origins as a song from the '50s. So I think the quad mix wanted to honour that vibe - often you'll hear criticisms from stereo purists that quad mixes don't maintain the vibe of the stereo version, but this is definitely one where that criticism can't be levelled. Count me in the camp that doesn't prefer the "vocals in all four speakers" style of mix, but I actually like having the keyboards (which I think are actually recorded in stereo, rather than double-mono) across the side wall - there are very few quad mixes I can recall that have stereo panned instruments along one of the sides, so Rockin' is unique in that regard.

Also, for anyone who's waiting for a dispatch notice or correspondence reply from D-V's, hang in there. I had a message today from Simon, who heads up D-V's shipping department - apparently they've been "overloaded" with orders over the weekend (that can only be a good thing, right?) and they're prioritizing getting shipments out the door. E-Mail replies and shipping notices will follow in due course - so even if you haven't had one yet, it's very possible your orders are already in the mail.

 

[fredblue]

As a couple of people above have said, the quad mix of Rockin' isn't conventional 4-corner discrete like some of the CBS mixes, but I grew to really appreciate it, especially after spending quite a bit of time with the stereo version as part of my research process for the liner notes for this disc, and also reading up on the circumstances surrounding the recording of the album.

In a nutshell, the Guess Who had spent a ton of time in the studio in the two years or so preceding Rockin', recording something like 5 albums and a single in that period, and Rockin', was kind of a reaction to that - a quick and dirty "return to the roots" album recorded in something like a week. The quad mix isn't a whizz-bang affair, but having listened to the stereo mix quite a bit, I believe it's entirely by design and not a lack of ambition on the part of the engineers that mixed the album. The stereo mix of the album is very dense, and one of the songs, Running Bear, is so narrowly mixed that it might very well be entirely mono, probably in homage to its origins as a song from the '50s. So I think the quad mix wanted to honour that vibe - often you'll hear criticisms from stereo purists that quad mixes don't maintain the vibe of the stereo version, but this is definitely one where that criticism can't be levelled. Count me in the camp that doesn't prefer the "vocals in all four speakers" style of mix, but I actually like having the keyboards (which I think are actually recorded in stereo, rather than double-mono) across the side wall - there are very few quad mixes I can recall that have stereo panned instruments along one of the sides, so Rockin' is unique in that regard.

Also, for anyone who's waiting for a dispatch notice or correspondence reply from D-V's, hang in there. I had a message today from Simon, who heads up D-V's shipping department - apparently they've been "overloaded" with orders over the weekend (that can only be a good thing, right?) and they're prioritizing getting shipments out the door. E-Mail replies and shipping notices will follow in due course - so even if you haven't had one yet, it's very possible your orders are already in the mail.

"Overloaded"..!!

LOVE IT

 

[DuncanS]

I had wondered why they were slower this time but the more they can sell the better , so come on QQers lets overload them some more!

 

[Glenshoreham]

It's not the same album - AF did the Best Of Vol. I, which covered hits from Wheatfield Soul through Share The Land. D-V is doing the Best Of Vol. II, which covers hits from later albums such as So Long Bannatyne and Artificial Paradise.

Whoooops. Whoa, that was a heavy oversight on my part! Still: it's even better, as I'll get to hear another batch of their tracks in quad. Thanks for pointing it out, sjcorne.

 

[JerseyEd]

Ordered The Guess Who.

 

[jdmack]

The music of "Sextant" is definitely not going to be to everyone's taste. But I've heard the quad mix from 8-track, and not only is it discrete, it creates a true aural space in a way that I've never heard on any other 1970s quad mix. It's really amazing at times! That said, I'm going to wait for some reviews before I buy this so I have a sense of how good the quad source is that D-V used.

 

[Q-Eight]

As a couple of people above have said, the quad mix of Rockin' isn't conventional 4-corner discrete like some of the CBS mixes, but I grew to really appreciate it, especially after spending quite a bit of time with the stereo version as part of my research process for the liner notes for this disc, and also reading up on the circumstances surrounding the recording of the album.

In a nutshell, the Guess Who had spent a ton of time in the studio in the two years or so preceding Rockin', recording something like 5 albums and a single in that period, and Rockin', was kind of a reaction to that - a quick and dirty "return to the roots" album recorded in something like a week. The quad mix isn't a whizz-bang affair, but having listened to the stereo mix quite a bit, I believe it's entirely by design and not a lack of ambition on the part of the engineers that mixed the album. The stereo mix of the album is very dense, and one of the songs, Running Bear, is so narrowly mixed that it might very well be entirely mono, probably in homage to its origins as a song from the '50s. So I think the quad mix wanted to honour that vibe - often you'll hear criticisms from stereo purists that quad mixes don't maintain the vibe of the stereo version, but this is definitely one where that criticism can't be levelled. Count me in the camp that doesn't prefer the "vocals in all four speakers" style of mix, but I actually like having the keyboards (which I think are actually recorded in stereo, rather than double-mono) across the side wall - there are very few quad mixes I can recall that have stereo panned instruments along one of the sides, so Rockin' is unique in that regard.

Also, for anyone who's waiting for a dispatch notice or correspondence reply from D-V's, hang in there. I had a message today from Simon, who heads up D-V's shipping department - apparently they've been "overloaded" with orders over the weekend (that can only be a good thing, right?) and they're prioritizing getting shipments out the door. E-Mail replies and shipping notices will follow in due course - so even if you haven't had one yet, it's very possible your orders are already in the mail.

Don't get me wrong, I almost like the mix! I just wish it had been a little more conventional either with Burton's keys across the front channels and the guitars in the back corner.
When I play it, I do what I often criticize other mixes for: I swap Front Right and Back Left so that guitars are in diagonal corners and the keys are in the opposite corners.
Not the greatest, but it allows for some much better ping-pong Quad with the guitars - especially on HeartBroken Bopper!

I often thought the mononess of Running Bear was also an homage to the fact that it's a 50's song. Burton is like that.

 

[Scott65]

Also, for anyone who's waiting for a dispatch notice or correspondence reply from D-V's, hang in there. I had a message today from Simon, who heads up D-V's shipping department - apparently they've been "overloaded" with orders over the weekend (that can only be a good thing, right?)

Yep. A happy 'problem' for DV - much better than stock sitting there unordered - good for us too

 

[oxenholme]

They've shipped!

Great that they've been overloaded with orders.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

They've shipped!

Great that they've been overloaded with orders.

 

[H.A.L.]

My orders have shipped too -- let's hear it for DV!!! Yay!