Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

[fredblue]

bought this many years ago......................just now getting to it.

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its been a long time since i played the SACD but i think this may have been one of ZTT's 5.1 upmixes..

 

[fredblue]

Hooverphonic, No More Sweet Music (DualDisc DTS 5.1, 2005). I think it might have been a recommendation from @steelydave that led me to this? I gather previous fans of the band weren't thrilled with the direction they took on this album, but it's all new to me, and I'm loving it. Two discs, with two different sets of mixes/arrangements of the same songs: More Sweet Music/No More Sweet Music. Discogs wants to call this "Trip-Hop" or "Electronic," but I don't think either of those shoes fits. Wikipedia suggests "dream pop," which seems more like it. Big, enveloping, cinematic mixes, though to be fair to Discogs, the remixes on Disc 2 might get me out onto the dancefloor if I were a few decades younger.

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some Prent & Proper MultiCh goodies discussed here;

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/ronald-prent-darcy-proper-great-mixes.19465/

 

[fredblue]

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/hooverphonic-no-more-sweet-music-dts-dualdisc.31274/

thank you for putting up your pole i shall refresh my databanks with a long overdue listen to the vacuumophonics and vote accordingly

 

[fredblue]

Billy Paul "War Of The Gods" (Dutton Vocalion Hybrid MultiCh SACD)

make lovely music not war ☮✌

 

[fredblue]

Johnnie Taylor "Ear'gasm" (Dutton Vocalion Hybrid MultiCh SACD)

friends, Romans, Quaddymen and women, lend me your Eargasms!

 

[fredblue]

Doobie Brothers "Captain & Me" (DVD-Audio; Mr. Scheiner's 5.1 mix)

 

[humprof]

"Tomorrow" has the vocal a bit out-of-sync with the music and it just doesn't work.

Most of the song has a "three-against-four" feel (6/8 over 4/4), which I kind of like (as opposed to the straight waltz time of the original). But maybe you're responding to the middle section, which drifts, almost "out of time" altogether (and there's a faint cymbal in the background that's definitely not hitting the same downbeats as the vocal)? Anyway, I don't mean to quibble--varying mileage and all that. I wish this disc had had a wider release, or that Sony would put it on Apple Music in "Dolby Audio." I see @timbre4 has a copy for sale...

 

[4-earredwonder]

 

[4-earredwonder]

Seriously, folks, when RHINO puts their nose to the grind, who better then to release a definitive THE BEST OF THE DOORS on pristine discrete 192/24 BD~A 4.0 and include in this lovely edition every single and B~side released by the Supergroup on two RBCDs????

 

[GOS]

Seriously, folks, when RHINO puts their nose to the grind, who better than to release a definitive THE BEST OF THE DOORS on pristine discrete 192/24 BD~A 4.0 and includes in this lovely edition every single and B~side released by the Supergroup on two RBCDs????

That release was such a freaking bargain!!!

 

[humprof]

It's an Isley Brothers Sunday at my house: Live It Up, The Heat Is On, Harvest For the World, Go For Your Guns (1974-77). I was given pretty good SQ LP conversions of a couple of these and a truly great Q8 conversion of Guns. (Most, maybe all, of the others also purportedly exist on Q8? Though I gather they're hard to find in any form, and Heat may be unobtainium.)

What a run! Not forgetting 3+3, which I haven't heard in quad. Can't wait a) for Dutton to get their hands on these, and/or b) for Sony to put them on Apple Music in "Dolby Audio." (They're already on Tidal in Sony 360.)

Good, workmanlike mixes on the first three, I think, and a certified fabuloso Larry Keyes mix on the final one. I like the pop tunes and the funk workouts more than the soul ballads, and I've got a particular soft spot for "Fight the Power" (from The Heat Is On). Otherwise, it's hard to pick a favorite.

All of these but Guns have invisible polls.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/isley-brothers-live-it-up-sq-q8.21724/https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/isley-brothers-the-heat-is-on-sq-q8.21727/https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/isley-brothers-harvest-for-the-world-sq.21725/https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/isley-brothers-go-for-your-guns-sq-q8.21728/
And while I'm at it (though I haven't heard it):
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/isley-brothers-3-3-sq-q8.21726/

 

[4-earredwonder]

Beck SEA CHANGE [Geffen Records/Pure Audio BD~A 192/24 5.1] Another astonishing BD~A in pristine discrete sonics

 

[humprof]

Charles Ives, Symphony No. 4. London Philharmonic, John Alldis Choir, cond. Jose Serebrier (RCA Red Seal, 1974). Very good conversion from quad reel.

This may be the only surround recording I've heard of a work by Ives (whose music famously has dissonant melodies--sometimes entire ensembles--pitted against each other, and elements meant to emanate from different corners of the room) that really begins to use the format to do justice to him. Even on this relatively hi-fi format (for its day), though, it only hints at the dynamic range and the depth of soundfield that I imagine it would have it were remastered for, say, SACD. I hope this one is on Michael Dutton's workbench!

 

[humprof]

Keith Jarrett, Death and the Flower (1974). Nice SurroundMaster conversion from SHM-SACD, which (like some earlier CD reissues) apparently retained the QS encoding of the original. Despite all of its Super-Highness, the fidelity of the SHM-SACD doesn't strike me as breathtaking, maybe not even markedly superior to the QS LP conversion I was already familiar with. Still. SurroundMaster does a better job with QS than a software script.

I'm grateful for the run of Jarrett "American Quartet" quads, as uneven as they are (music-wise) and unremarkable (mix-wise). This one isn't necessarily my favorite, though it has its moments--e.g., the last half of the side-long title track.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Speaking of conversions from QUAD OPEN REEL...transferred to BD~A @ 192/24 resolution:

 

[humprof]

Speaking of conversions from QUAD OPEN REEL...transferred to BD~A @ 192/24 resolution:

For weeks I had a tab open in my browser as I thought about buying this from HighDef Tape Transfers, 4EW. Now I see that disappeared from their site--sometime in the past week or so. I can only hope this is an omen that Michael Dutton has beaten me to the punch...

 

[humprof]

Jóhann Jóhannsson, Virðulegu Forsetar (DVD-A, 2004). I know I'm not the first person to ask, but what is it about this tiny island on the edge of the world that produces so many singular musical voices?

I don't quite know how to categorize this; I guess it's Ambient Contemporary Classical or Slow Minimalism or something. Whatever it is, it's one of the favorite albums in my collection. Jóhannsson gets tossed into the same bin with Max Richter and Peter Gregson, but I think he has more substance. Tragic to have lost him. It was his Arrival soundtrack that first put him on my radar. Until Deutsche-Grammophon began remixing (upmixing?) some of his back catalogue into Atmos for Apple Music, this was--I think--the only work of his available in surround. I find it mesmerizing. Performed by the CAPUT Ensemble (who also appear on some Sono Luminus titles), augmented by other instrumental soloists. Definitely some pedals on the organ, and/or the electronics?, that descend into the room-shaking LFE register.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Jóhann Jóhannsson, Virðulegu Forsetar (DVD-A, 2004). I know I'm not the first person to ask, but what is it about this tiny island on the edge of the world that produces so many singular musical voices?

I don't quite know how to categorize this; I guess it's Ambient Contemporary Classical or Slow Minimalism...or something. Whatever it is, it's one of the favorite albums in my collection. Jóhannsson gets tossed into the same bin with Max Richter and Peter Gregson, but I think he has more substance. Tragic to have lost him. It was his Arrival soundtrack that first put him on my radar. Until Deutsche-Grammophon began remixing (upmixing?) some of his back catalogue into Atmos for Apple Music, this was--I think--the only work of his available in surround. I find it mesmerizing. Performed by the CAPUT Ensemble (who also appear on some Sono Luminus titles), augmented by other instrumental soloists. Definitely some pedals on the organ (and/or the electronics?) that descend into the room-shaking LFE register.

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And humprof, I thought I was the only one who had this wonderful DVD~A ........

 

[user 1679]

Van der Graaf Generator - Still Life

 

[user 1679]

Stephen W Tayler - Da Capo

With each listen I pick up a different subtle nuance in the dynamics of the playing and the mix...it's things like that that make me pull a disc off the shelf again and again.