Looking for info on these Silverline titles

[steelydave]

Various Artists 'Inside the Music: Classic Country' 86037-9

No disk anymore but tracks 1 & 2 are fake

1	Merle Haggard And The Strangers (5)–	Mama Tried
2	George Jones (2)–	She Thinks I Still Care

and tracks 3-11 are discrete and varies track to track in whats in the rears. The rears need to be elevated by about 3 db.

3	Jean Shepard–	Slippin' Away
4	Sonny James–	Bright Lights, Big City
5	Willie Nelson–	Crazy
6	Del Reeves–	Girl On The Billboard
7	Billie Jo Spears–	Blanket On The Ground
8	Faron Young–	Hello Walls
9	Jessi Colter–	I'm Not Lisa
10	Crystal Gayle–	Why Have You Left The One You Left Me For?
11	Merle Haggard–	Movin' On

Thanks Mark, you didn't keep record of who mixed the discrete tracks did you?

I'll wait for reports from those who, unlike yrs truly, actually own the Silverlines before veering too far off-topic again.

For now I'll just add that I was totally off about Aubort's tenure at Vanguard (1958-1965), conflating that with his subsequent stints for Nonesuch and then Vox, where he supervised plenty of fine quad recordings in the 70s, even if he was never a fan of close miking, discrete mixing, or anything beyond hall ambience in the rears. One review I read named him as the supervisor of Vanguard's Utah/Abravanel's Sibelius cycle from 1977, though; he must have come back to do that on a work-for-hire basis. But surely, like everyone else, Vanguard was done with quad by then?

So yeah: of the select Utah/Abravanel titles on your list, the Berlioz Requiem and the Mahler 3d, both from among Vanguard's first batch of 1969 quad reels, should be safe bets for "real" quad. The Mahler 5th and 6th, both from 1975, had SQ LP releases, so in principle those are "real," too, unless Silverline messed with them.

Telling you more of what you already know: the Leroy Anderson and the famous Mahler 2d are from 1967, the Brahms set (like the Sibelius) from 1977, the Nutcracker from 1961, the Rachmaninoff from 1963, and the Vaughn Williams from 1966. So unless Silverline were given multitrack masters and were moved to take the initiative and do the right thing, the odds are on "fake" for those. Ken Ramos is listed as the 5.1 mixer for the Leroy Anderson; is he still with us? (Analogue Productions also did a reissue of that one; maybe AP survivors would know something about the existence of multitracks?)

That's good (and interesting) info, but I think the idea that if Silverline had quad masters to use that they'd use them is a faulty premise to start with. First, it presumes that they (or Artemis, who owned the rights to Vanguard at the time) knew there were quad mixes of any of these albums, and also that they even had those tapes in their possession.

Secondly, Silverline seemed entirely averse to using repurposed quad mixes - not a single one of their other releases utilized a repurposed quad mix, and for some of them they definitely existed, as was the case with a number of those tracks on the 'Inside the Music' compilations, which were all licensed from Capitol EMI. You have to remember as well that 20 years ago there was a serious stigma surrounding quad too, because of its failure as a technology 20 years before that - the general public saw it as technical folly in the same order as Betamax VCRs and the Ford Edsel. What they didn't realise (and we know now) is that the mixes were great for the most part, it was the delivery system that was flawed - but the stench around the whole thing was so great that the vast majority of the industry just steered clear of it entirely, and who can blame them.

As you mention, a few of the Silverline releases fall within the 1969-1975 Vanugard quad window, but the vast majority seem not to, and from the report above 'Peter and the Wolf' has discrete narration in the center speaker. It seems to me that Silverline would've stuck to form with these, ie they'll either be real (but unspectacular) 5.1 mixes or stereo upmixes, but not repurposed quad. Hopefully we can get some more first-hand accounts (and even waveforms) to really nail down what they were doing!

Imagine going to all the work of releasing this disc and not even getting the composer's name right!

 

[timbre4]

Here's one to add: ZIROQ - S/T 88067-9
5.1 mix by Gary Lux
I'd classify this one as discrete.

 

[Mark Anderson]

Thanks Mark, you didn't keep record of who mixed the discrete tracks did you?

Nope, that is all the info I have.

 

[barfle]

I do, but if you've got pictures or scans of the booklets and an opinion on the sound, please do post them here as they'd be more than welcome. Thanks so much for all the other ones above too!

Romeo & Juliet.

I also have a pretty good scanner!

 

[barfle]

I do, but if you've got pictures or scans of the booklets and an opinion on the sound, please do post them here as they'd be more than welcome. Thanks so much for all the other ones above too!

Nutcracker:

As far as my opinion on the sound is concerned, I won't say that any of them are outstanding, although they are all acceptable. I remember having a "From the front row" of Rick Wakeman, and it sounded like someone had a cassette recorder in their purse, (ask me how I know) so I sent it back.

 

[Quadmon]

Here’s a couple on your list. Getting late so can’t listen to give an opinion. Maybe tomorrow. Hope this helps.

 

[Quadmon]

I’ll try again. Dark is Dave Edmunds, light is Lynyrd Skynyrd Xmas.

 

[steelydave]

I’ll try again. Dark is Dave Edmunds, light is Lynyrd Skynyrd Xmas.

Thank you - any thoughts on the mixes? I'm guessing they're both fake?

 

[LennonCobain]

The London Symphony Orchestra 'Classic Christmas' 288045-9 (DVD-A)

5.1 mix is fake.

 

[LennonCobain]

Nutcracker:

As far as my opinion on the sound is concerned, I won't say that any of them are outstanding, although they are all acceptable. I remember having a "From the front row" of Rick Wakeman, and it sounded like someone had a cassette recorder in their purse, (ask me how I know) so I sent it back.

There is a variant of The Nutcracker. The copy I own is a DVD-V and not a DVD-A. All artwork is the same as what @barfle posted except for the UPC number and the disc label. My copy has a catalog number of 86008-9 (and I am assuming the DVD-A catalog number is 88008-9). Strangely, notice that my disc has a catalog number of 81008-9 (possibly another variant or just a typo?).

 

[ubertrout]

I have Peter & The Wolf. The narration is in the center channel, so I'm pretty sure it's really 5.1.

That's really interesting - from 1957 this was surely an early stereo recording, but it also stands to reason they have a separate track or tape for Karloff's narration.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

The "Master Series" Lynyrd Skynyrd/Van Zant- Face To Face dualdisc DD.

Collected from Live and Studio albums on Silverline , kinda hard to classify this one but I'd say a combo of 5.1 discrete( poorly done)and upmixes....so mainly upmixes I'd say.....but I could be wrong and they just sound poor.
I certainly wasn't impressed with this disc. And it's the new iteration of Skynyrd.
Interesting engineers lineup though.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

*** Pistols -No Future UK DVDA

Definitely upmixes, but that being said their stereo albums did not sound very good as well , so maybe this is the best they'll ever be.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

One last one, Steely

The British Are Coming. DVDA Dualdisc
I took the liberty of trying to find the actual or initial release dates for those tunes from their respective artists. Hope that helps.

These are all upmixes from either mono ,or Stereo sources . The 5.1 is mostly poor , Mungo Jerry sounds ok though, as do some I indicated with that red dot.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I have a small number of others ,but they aren't on your list request so I assume you have all the information you need. Also it's worth noting the bonus tracks such as those on the Skynyrd /Van Zant and Master Series editions.

 

[Quadmon]

Thank you - any thoughts on the mixes? I'm guessing they're both fake?

I’ll get back to you on that. It was late when I saw your post and I had just finished listening to three full albums.

 

[barfle]

I gave the Tchaikovsky a spin last night. It sounded like the room was particularly live, with a long reverb time, so I suspect that there was some added reverb. Sound came from five speakers, although the sub never kicked in.

A pleasant recording, although the piano concerto seemed a bit rushed to my ears.

 

[humprof]

Sidenote: amazingly(?), a number of the Silverline Utah/Abravels (and one of the London/Boults) still show up, using the link from one of @ubertrout's posts from the "Hits and Misses" thread:
https://www.broinc.com/record-label/silverline-classics/

 

[Quadmon]

Thank you - any thoughts on the mixes? I'm guessing they're both fake?

I agree. On both the music comes from the front.

 

[ubertrout]

I gave the Tchaikovsky a spin last night. It sounded like the room was particularly live, with a long reverb time, so I suspect that there was some added reverb. Sound came from five speakers, although the sub never kicked in.

A pleasant recording, although the piano concerto seemed a bit rushed to my ears.

So, that disc is pretty clearly this recording...I'd be shocked if it was anything but a stereo source.