Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

[Tornado Red]

It's funny you say that as one of my (former) professors from MTSU (Matt Foglia) was actually the re-recording mixing engineer for this concert film. He essentially was the one who mixed the music, dialogue, and FX together to create the final mix for the film, but AFAIK, he was not directly responsible for the music mixing. That was David Kahne I think.

I myself have very fond memories of that tour. I was at the Houston, TX show where he brought the Space Shuttle crew of the Discovery mission on stage with him after doing a live wake-up for them a few weeks earlier in Anaheim, CA. Unless I can make it to another Macca show before he retires (or dies) it will have been the last concert of his I will have gone to.

Cool story! Should have prefaced what I wrote by saying I may be in the minority on the mix. I find it hard to listen at volume for extended periods, but it gets lots of love elsewhere. The jukebox thing is awesome, I'd love to see it on all discs (Water's The Wall comes to mind, it would allow you to get rid of his ramblings between songs if you wished )

 

[Spock]

Listening to Loggins & Messina, their s/t album, 4.0 sacd. I love the mix, I really like having the bass in the left surround for a song or two.

Earlier my 7.1.4 setup placed the two surrounds on each side of the sweetspot - perfect for movies - but not for multichannel music - especially quad music. And - who care about the sound in movies?

To enhance quad listening, I moved the surrounds farther back - way back to the corners of the room. Big improvement of the soundstage - but as a bonus the bass performance of those speakers massivly improved. They have the bass reflex port on the back side - and placing them close to the wall, in the corner, multiplied the bass response.

And now, listening to Loggins & Messina with the bass in one of the surrounds - is fantastic, you can feel it!

 

[rtbluray]

First full-listen through of the "Thrust" SACD has commenced.
I listened to a little bit of it yesterday after "Spectrum", and I was immediately disappointed in the fidelity. Not sure yet if the music is better on this one, but concerning the Quad mixes, it's a tie thus far.
Will vote after I have done a full listen, but so far, this one won't get any higher than an '8'.

 

[fredblue]

First full-listen through of the "Thrust" SACD has commenced.
I listened to a little bit of it yesterday after "Spectrum", and I was immediately disappointed in the fidelity. Not sure yet if the music is better on this one, but concerning the Quad mixes, it's a tie thus far.
Will vote after I have done a full listen, but so far, this one won't get any higher than an '8'.

Oh! Do you mean Thrust doesn't sound as good as Spectrum?

 

[rtbluray]

Oh! Do you mean Thrust doesn't sound as good as Spectrum?

That's precisely what I mean, but it's not that "Thrust" sounds bad but more that "Spectrum" just sounds that much better.
Concerning "Thrust", the entire mix (but the rhythm section in particular, bass & drums) has this very dull quality about it. The sound is more characteristic of vinyl. Lots of high-end roll-off, and with that, I'm missing clarity and pizzazz.
"Spectrum" on the other hand has the clarity and fidelity of a modern-day remix with the discrete separation of a 1970s Quad mix. It's really astounding!
And even though the material may be difficult at times, I do think it's actually more accessible than "Thrust" is, so that's my opinion for what it's worth.

 

[fredblue]

That's precisely what I mean, but it's not that "Thrust" sounds bad but more that "Spectrum" just sounds that much better.
Concerning "Thrust", the entire mix (but the rhythm section in particular, bass & drums) has this very dull quality about it. The sound is more characteristic of vinyl. Lots of high-end roll-off, and with that, I'm missing clarity and pizzazz.
"Spectrum" on the other hand has the clarity and fidelity of a modern-day remix with the discrete separation of a 1970s Quad mix. It's really astounding!
And even though the material may be difficult at times, I do think it's actually more accessible than "Thrust" is, so that's my opinion for what it's worth.

Very interesting, thanks Ryan
fwiw I find Spectrum musically more accessible than Thrust, too.. though Herbie's most impenetrable Quad by a mile is Sextant.. woo that is one seriously OUT THERE album...!!

 

[rtbluray]

Very interesting, thanks Ryan
fwiw I find Spectrum musically more accessible than Thrust, too.. though Herbie's most impenetrable Quad by a mile is Sextant.. woo that is OUT THERE...!!

Well maybe Audio Fidelity will release "Sextant" on Multichannel SACD too and then we can all get OUT THERE!

 

[fredblue]

Well maybe Audio Fidelity will release "Sextant" on Multichannel SACD too and then we can all get OUT THERE!

Haha.. ...if you've never taken a drug in your life (as I haven't ) its enough to make you want to go on drugs, its a bonkers album (and the Quad mix is possibly Columbia at its most "ping-pong-y" they ever got with Quad, with stuff popping up all over the place, its mind-altering..! :yikes

 

[rtbluray]

I can believe it!

Well now I've moved on to my favorite Audio Fidelity SACD, "Homecoming" by America (5.1 mix by Elliot Scheiner)

 

[fredblue]

I can believe it!

Well now I've moved on to my favorite Audio Fidelity SACD, "Homecoming" by America (5.1 mix by Elliot Scheiner)

Ah... my hero.. my heart aches to think he might have hung up his hat with surround and gone into the baseball game (or whatever it is he is upto these days!?) that man is a multichannel wunderkind / one of a kind.

 

[rtbluray]

Ah... my hero.. my heart aches to think he might have hung up his hat with surround and gone into the baseball game (or whatever it is he is upto these days!?) that man is a multichannel wunderkind / one of a kind.

He already gave us so much though, and there's probably other unreleased 5.1 mixes of his that could be exploited at any time the labels choose to.
Let's face it. He is now a part of the old guard when it comes to 5.1 surround mixes.
Steven Wilson, Jakko Jakszyk, Andy Jackson, Kevin Reeves, Rob Reed, Bruce Soord, and others are the new guard, and they are the ones who will (hopefully) continue to carry the torch forward long after ES has officially hung up his cap.
Regardless of if we get any new or unreleased surround mixes from ES going forward, we certainly will always appreciate how his surround mixes paved the way for just about everything else that followed, which is why I'm now spinning "The Nightfly", another one of my favorite surround mixes of his!

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Tonite;

STEVE MILLER-FLY LIKE A EAGLE, in both versions the quad dts cd, and the DD 5.1 dvd






and some SQ matrix quad on cd,

PROCOL HARUM-LIVE AT THE BBC (great mix btw)
and

The rare and recommended quad cd in SQ of ELO-EARLY YEARS (quad songs from the first album and two from the unreleased quad 2nd album)

 

[fredblue]

He already gave us so much though, and there's probably other unreleased 5.1 mixes of his that could be exploited at any time the labels choose to.
Let's face it. He is now a part of the old guard when it comes to 5.1 surround mixes.
Steven Wilson, Jakko Jakszyk, Andy Jackson, Kevin Reeves, Rob Reed, Bruce Soord, and others are the new guard, and they are the ones who will (hopefully) continue to carry the torch forward long after ES has officially hung up his cap.
Regardless of if we get any new or unreleased surround mixes from ES going forward, we certainly will always appreciate how his surround mixes paved the way for just about everything else that followed, which is why I'm now spinning "The Nightfly", another one of my favorite surround mixes of his!

True.. "Many a good surround tune from the old guard played on an old fiddle".. :ugham:
Lets hope his Steely Dan surround mixes are liberated from the vaults (sooner rather than later would be preferable..!)
..or something like that (seriously, Scheiner was exceptional back in the early 00's, I don't think anybody else truly "got" how to remix for surround music in the modern era as he did.. I hope he has a long and fruitful retirement.. and maybe when he gets bored with the basketball or whatever it is, he will come back and remix some more surround beauties for us..!! )

 

[Tornado Red]

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell blu ray 5.1. Wearing The Inside Out, Richard Wright's last lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album. I suppose this is another song that Gilmour will never play live again. Also interesting, this the only song post Dark Side that lists neither Gilmour or Waters in the writing credits.:yikes

 

[Tornado Red]

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here blu ray 4.0. Welcome To The Machine rumbling at the onset of the song is hitting 106 db. Is that too loud?

 

[Snood]

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here blu ray 4.0. Welcome To The Machine rumbling at the onset of the song is hitting 106 db. Is that too loud?

View attachment 25371

Nahhhhhhhhh Snood has always found that neighbors love loud music coming from next door : scroooooooooooooooooooooooo em arty:

 

[4-earredwonder]

I just spent the better part of my long days journey into night listening to some recently acquired HDTT BD~As (24/192) from QUAD Open Reels......

What magnificent DISCRETE Quadraphonic sound. The Bernard Hermann "Fantasy Film World of Bernard Hermann" in FULLY Discrete quad transferred from a 1974 Dolby b encoded London Phase IV Open Reel is Un f*cking believable. Soaring melodies from classic films such as Journey To The Center of The Earth, the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Truffaut's Farenheit 451 make this sonic marvel the one to own.

Charles Gerhardt conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra in "The Classic Film Score" series of Bernard Hermann's "Citizen Kane" is positively brilliant as well.

Charles Gerhardt again conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra in "The Classic Film Scores of Franz Waxman is another slam dunk. The discrete quad sound is simply amazing (again from dolby b QUAD Open Reel)

And finally, Eugene Ormandy conducting the fabulous Philadelphia Orchestra in prime form for "Bach's Greatest Fugues...." Again, FULLY discrete.

These puppies are FULLY discrete and on my system give any recent mch SACDs I've heard a run for their money. They're THAT good. And with HDTT's 20% off sale........ridiculously inexpensive.

I capped off the evening listening to three new HDTT DVD~A 24/192 Stereo DV~Rs: Modern Jazz Quartet: No Sun In Venice from an Atlantic Records OR and two Verve chestnuts: Ella [Fitzgerald] Swings Lightly and Oscar Peterson Plays the George Gershwin songbook. All Sounded great in the Music Surround mode on my Meridian 861.

Dutton Vocalion just emailed me with their latest mch SACD offerings.....but they're ALL classical titles [bottom six titles] but it's encouraging that they are committed to releasing future releases in QUAD http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/

 

[ji eff]

The Bernard Hermann "Fantasy Film World of Bernard Hermann" in FULLY Discrete quad transferred from a 1974 Dolby b encoded London Phase IV Open Reel is Un f*cking believable. Soaring melodies from classic films such as Journey To The Center of The Earth, the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Truffaut's Farenheit 451 make this sonic marvel the one to own.

Can this be purchased anywhere? Or is this a transfer from someone's private collection? I'd love to hear these classic Herrmann scores in quad :banana:

I checked the Dutton Vocalion website, but it didn't turn up in a "Herrmann" search.

* nevermind, I just found the HDTT website
** ooooooooooooo, just saw they also got Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake in quad... always wanted to hear this one in surround !

 

[JanBakker]

Ambra - Child of the Universe SACD

 

[JanBakker]

Foreigner - 4 SACD

Adam I tried to respond to your pm but it said your mailbox is full :yikes