Music streaming on Apple Music in 5.1 (Dolby Audio)

[~dave~~wave~]

Aren't we lucky we can stream it now, and we don't need to buy it to find this out?

A controversial 50-year old quad mix, from back when all four speakers were matched with big fat woofers and placed in the corners of the room, not the modern home theater positions.

Nine pages of discussion here:

HiRez Poll - Mahavishnu Orchestra, The - BIRDS OF FIRE [SACD]

 

[Cheezmo]

Aren't we lucky we can stream it now, and we don't need to buy it to find this out?

A controversial 50-year old quad mix, from back when all four speakers were matched with big fat woofers and placed in the corners of the room, not the modern home theater positions.

Nine pages of discussion here:

HiRez Poll - Mahavishnu Orchestra, The - BIRDS OF FIRE [SACD]

And it appears that the streaming version has the original SQ front channel assignment (violin - keys - guitar) that matches the stereo version. So we can have another huge debate about whether AF screwed up the SACD.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

And it appears that the streaming version has the original SQ front channel assignment (violin - keys - guitar) that matches the stereo version. So we can have another huge debate about whether AF screwed up the SACD.

Thanks, haven't had a listen through speakers yet, will check it out when the wife crawls out of bed.

 

[fredblue]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/baby-dont-get-hooked-on-me/216333534

 

[JCDC]

Aren't we lucky we can stream it now, and we don't need to buy it to find this out?

A controversial 50-year old quad mix, from back when all four speakers were matched with big fat woofers and placed in the corners of the room, not the modern home theater positions.

Nine pages of discussion here:

HiRez Poll - Mahavishnu Orchestra, The - BIRDS OF FIRE [SACD]

Thank you. You made me realise how lucky I am to hear this. I would never be in a position to hear it any other way and it's amazing to have the opportunity to hear all these mixes.

Reading through that thread made me consider some tweaking of my system, which I did. Really firmed up things by changing sub crossover and levels. I then found myself marvelling how powerful it is to have Billy Cobham spread over two speakers. Totally changed my opinion.

Thanks again!

 

[sjcorne]

Quite disappointed with this one, if I'm honest. What is going on with drums? They sound like they're in another room.

It's an interesting mix for sure - there were a lot of CBS quads that had drums in just one of the back corners, but I can't think of many that had the kit span the entire back stereo field like this. I don't personally mind the drums in the back, what's more odd is the extreme stereo panning of the individual components of the kit - everything is pushed off to the sides, leaving a big 'hole in the middle' behind the listener's head. Even the snare is pushed off to one side!

However, like other quirky aspects of CBS' quad mixes we've discussed in this thread - such as the diagonally-panned drum kit in Loggins & Messina's self-titled album - this isn't just a weird mixing decision, it's a concession that had to made to ensure the quad LP was mono-compatible. As mentioned upthread, all center-panned information in the rear speakers will phase-cancel when an SQ-encoded quad LP is played through a mono system.

Interestingly enough, the quad mix of the Mahavishnu live album is arranged almost in a reverse fashion - Cobham's kit spans the front channels, McLaughlin's guitar is in the center, Goodman's violin is in left rear, and Hammer's keys are in right rear.

 

[Ephi82]

https://music.apple.com/us/album/just-like-you/303740798
this is really great. Wonderful mix.

 

[Ephi82]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/baby-dont-get-hooked-on-me/216333534

Wow, these mixes show just how many musical parts make up the original recordings, but are not heard with any level of detail In stereo and mono.

They did such a great job recording the instruments. 8 track?

 

[perzon57]

https://music.apple.com/us/album/just-like-you/303740798
this is really great. Wonderful mix.

Yes it's great, I have it on SACD.

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Wow, these mixes show just how many musical parts make up the original recordings, but are not heard with any level of detail In stereo and mono.

They did such a great job recording the instruments. 8 track?

One vote and three comments in the LP/Tape poll:
Quad LP/Tape Poll - Davis, Mac: Baby Don't Get Hooked On Me [SQ/Q8]

Only the title track holds any interest for me, it will go in my surround singles playlist.
A look at Wiki reveals:

Recorded	March 1, 1972
Studio	FAME Studios, Muscle Shoals, Alabama

Shoot, the first five notes from the Wurlitzer electric piano blasting from the RR should have told me that.
Muscle Shoals has got the swampers, there's some Aretha & Boz Scaggs vibes in there.

Apple classifying this record as country is flat wrong.
Number 1 on the Hot 100 & Easy Listening charts, only 26 on Country.
Number 8 on the 1972 Year End Hot 100.
That's certainly how I remember it, listening to mono AM radio in cars.

Mac Davis has a lot to answer for in my book for writing Watching Scotty Grow for Bobby Goldsboro.
Offset by In The Ghetto for Elvis.

I thought he was great as an actor paired with Omaha native son Nick Nolte as (gridiron) football players in North Dallas Forty (1979).

 

[humprof]

More Temptations!
https://music.apple.com/us/album/skys-the-limit/1443182797
[Edit: I withdraw this post! (Sort of.) Not really knowing the discography, I just assumed this was quad in a 5.1 Dolby Audio wrapper. It's actually Atmos!]

 

[fredblue]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/joy/1231686343

 

[~dave~~wave~]

More Temptations!
https://music.apple.com/us/album/skys-the-limit/1443182797
[Edit: I withdraw this post! (Sort of.) Not really knowing the discography, I just assumed this was quad in a 5.1 Dolby Audio wrapper. It's actually Atmos!]

Since I listen in 5.1, I (sort of) veto your withdrawal.
This is a great record & surround mix, regardless of whatever fairy-dusting from the ceiling I might be missing out on.

I remember hearing the singles on the radio in mono 50 years ago, great tunes.
But wow, the two extended versions, especially the original Smiling Faces, are buried treasure.
A snapshot of the times, the brilliant house band and Whitfield / Strong writing & production.

Which I didn't appreciate at 17, as I had come to disdain "plastic, commercial" music in favor of "real" musicians who played their own instruments and performed in jeans & t-shirts, instead of dressing sharp and dancing choreographed steps.
Live & learn, thank goodness for second chances.
====================

"Smiling Faces Sometimes" was planned as the third single from Sky's the Limit, but when Eddie Kendricks, the song's lead singer, quit the group in late winter of 1971, Whitfield had to shift plans. "Smiling Faces" was given to The Undisputed Truth, whose recording of the song became a Top 5 pop hit, while the Temptations, reduced to a quartet while searching for a Kendricks replacement, re-recorded "It's Summer", from the Psychedelic Shack album, as a single. "I'm the Exception to the Rule" from Sky's the Limit was issued as "It's Summer's" b-side.

Psychedelic soul (originally called black rock[1] or conflated with psychedelic funk[2]) is a music genre that emerged in the late 1960s and saw Black soul musicians embrace elements of psychedelic rock, including its production techniques, instrumentation, effects units (wah-wah pedal, phaser, etc.) and drug influences.[3] It came to prominence in the late 1960s and continued into the 1970s, playing a major role in the development of funk and disco.

 

[fredblue]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/rockin-soul/1032798514

 

[~dave~~wave~]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/rockin-soul/1032798514

Freddy-baby, you continue to knock the ball right out of the old cricket pitch with these quad soul music finds!

Feel fortunate to get to hear this stuff streaming in surround I would never notice in stereo or consider buying in disc re-issue even if available.
I remembered Rock the Boat from this on mono AM radio or crap television speakers, but, wow.

That first track hit all four speakers and my old synapses fired a memory of Rockin' Soul!
Buddy, by the first refrain I was up out of my chair in a one-man Soul Train line boppin' around the man-cave!

 

[fredblue]

Freddy-baby, you continue to knock the ball right out of the old cricket pitch we these quad soul music finds!

Feel fortunate to get to hear this stuff streaming in surround I would never notice in stereo or consider buying in disc re-issue even if available.
I remembered Rock the Boat from this on mono AM radio or crap television speakers, but, wow.

That first track hit all four speakers and my old synapses fired a memory of Rockin' Soul!
Buddy, by the first refrain I was up out of my chair in a one-man Soul Train line boppin' around the man-cave!

glad you're enjoying it, its a lovely ol' Quad indeed! hoping Sony put up the other Hues Corporation Quad on Apple Music soon, it may lack the big hit on Rockin' Soul but to me its as good an album and mix if not better.
i'm curious if Sony are using Dutton's remaster for this Dolby Audio presentation as it does sound nice and punchy

 

[humprof]

I would never notice in stereo or consider buying in disc re-issue even if available.

But of course (as @fredblue implied) this particular one is available:
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8539&cat=2

 

[~dave~~wave~]

But of course (as @fredblue implied) this particular one is available:
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8539&cat=2

Well aware.
Point is, things like this that are too far out of my wheelhouse, I simply won't buy.
Can't vacuum up everything like some folks.
Got way more discs than I need, never as many as I want.

So, old boomer retiree gets with the 2022 program, rents more multi-channel music, buys less MC discs.
(Before I'm too old to learn or give a damn.)
Quits bitching about super-deluxe boxes like Grandpa Simpson yelling at a cloud.

 

[Mooserfan]

I know this is being impatient, but I’m starting to worry about the Paul Simon/Simon and Garfunkel quads not coming out on Apple now… That would be beyond disappointing after all this time waiting to hear them.

 

[fredblue]

https://music.apple.com/gb/album/nice-day-for-something/1383321652