Ok, Pick Just ONE title you REALLY, REALLY WANT IN MC(with conditions)....

[etzeppy]

Rush '2112'.

I'll 2nd that one.

 

[EMB]

Why I ROBOT has never been mixed to quad is a mystery for the ages...a natural from its time, if ever there was one(along with the first two Boston albums), and from a fellow who could have mixed it for quad in his sleep...

ED

 

[dean de furia]

Led Zeppelin II for "Whole lotta Love"

 

[jaybird100]

Some great titles here, but I'm surprised I'm the first one to say...

Steely Dan - Aja

An absolutely iconic late-70s masterpiece. Becker, Fagan and their sidemen firing on all cylinders, and then some. Fantastic sonics, given Becker's audio monomania. Excellent songwriting, superb playing, and one of Gary Katz' finest productions. A true synthesis of jazz and rock, without Top 40 radio realizing it at the time! Every track a winner. And never, ever released in MC of any sort.[/QUOT


"Aja" was, in fact, mixed for surround, for release on SACD. But the powers that be at UMG told them
they would not release it. It appears the label lost too much money on a format that didn't sell. It would have, had the discs been hybrid all the way, and only released single-inventory.

 

[DrMabuse2001]

Massive Attack
Mezzanine

 

[EMB]

I believe we would have gotten more titles like AJA had these been 'single inventory' titles. But even DSOTM didn't get that honor, the old stereo CD was still in print while it was available. Made no sense, I think the hybrid aspect would have eventually brought in consumers who, heh, would have had no choice, really.

CRIMSON KING and all the faves listed here woulda been fun!

ED

 

[Almen]

I agree with Beatles as well as King Crimson (would really like to hear LTiA in surround), and decided to pick one of a later date:

Nine Inch Nails, The Fragile

Strangely enough, Reznor has released albums in MC both previous to and later than this one, so I'm wondering what's stopping him.

 

[DaneelOlivaw]

Massive Attack
Mezzanine

+1

BTW, for those who haven't heard this excellent album, here's one of the better tracks (IMO ) with a cool video that - for youtube - has very high video quality:

"Angel"

The trip-hop style music is rather somber but the lyrics are usually relatively happier. FYI: this CD has loads of looooow (and ominous ) bass & can easily bottom out smaller woofers, so beware.

 

[solaris]

Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld----the Orb

 

[fzappa]

Manfred Mann's Earth Band "Nightingales and Bombers".

 

[jeffty]

Third Matinee "Meanwhile"...the "follow-up" to the fabulous Toy Matinee Album that many of you already know about.

 

[PossumPete]

ELO - Out of the Blue. A double-album with some of the best songs Jeff Lynne ever created. I'd just love to hear the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" properly mixed into 5.1. C'mon Jeff, I know you can do it!

 

[rusinurbe]

ELO - Out of the Blue. A double-album with some of the best songs Jeff Lynne ever created. I'd just love to hear the "Concerto for a Rainy Day" properly mixed into 5.1. C'mon Jeff, I know you can do it!

By all accounts a lot if not all of the multitracks have been lost for this album a real tragedy !!!

 

[SoonerCaniac]

ELO

I'd take just about anything from ELO, what a perfect band for surround treatment. I would especially drool at the prospect of hearing Evil Woman, Mr. Blue Sky, and Secret Messages in surround (and there are many others!).

Best,
Josh

 

[ndiamone]

Enya.
Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) (with the aaahs and ooohs in the rear and the choruses in all 4 speakers and some front/rear splits with repeated lines).

Enigma
Return to Innocence (with the aboriginal chants and whispered lines in the rear).

Studio Cast: Jesus Christ Superstar [Original Brown Jacket]
(with the eight-note repeated guitar intro split up walking around the four speakers and (during instrumental passages) the electric guitar bouncing back and forth between front-center and rear-center

Bangles
Hazy Shade of Winter (same scenario as Jesus Christ Superstar)

David Byrne
Main Title The Last Emperor (with the high drums on the left, the low drums on the right and the xylophone bouncing around from left rear to right rear. (This one was on a dealer surround demo I heard once, but never seen it anyplace else since then).

I heard David Byrne had a fit when he found out about his music being remixed to sound surround-gimmickey like that.

 

[jaybird100]

Enya.
Orinoco Flow (Sail Away) (with the aaahs and ooohs in the rear and the choruses in all 4 speakers and some front/rear splits with repeated lines)..

Ever hear this one through a QS or Dolby PL II decoder? it takes on an etherial effect that has to be heard to be believed. I doubt even discrete 5.1 could improve much on it.

 

[cutter]

OK Computer - Radiohead This disc always gets played all the way through.

 

[jaybird100]

I'm showing my age here, but anything from the Mamas and the Papas would be great. Their production was ahead of its time, and even in stereo they sound great. I understand they were multitracked when they were recorded, so all of their albums would make great 5.1 mixes. Doubt we'll ever hear it, though.

 

[ndiamone]

Ever hear this one through a QS or Dolby PL II decoder?

Yes, actually. I have a QSD-1 and a QSD-5 onto which I frequently tape onto half-inch. It's a little spacey for me, vs. my own 5.1 `unwrap' in AA 3.0. It was one of my many re-do's from 1.5 and 2.0 sinnce almost none of the echo effects preserve any stereo separation. Another 5.1 unwrap re-do was the Space Camp remix of Eric Carmen's Forever Man and Mike & Mechanics The Living Years.

It takes on an etherial effect that has to be heard to be believed. I doubt even discrete 5.1 could improve much on it.

Yeah, like I said: too spacey for me. In AA.3.0 when you do your reverb track first, have very little of the original or `dry' signal in the reverb channel, then toss the reverb channels out of phase 90 degrees left and 90 degrees right and mix back in. Doing that kills just enough of the reverb to sound really good and open it up really nice.

And besides that, using twin 90 degree phase-outs you don't have to worry about not having any center-rear, or any of the real bad phasey effects when listening in stereo AND you don't get that lopsided feeling with one channel 90 degrees out of phase and one channel 180 degrees out of phase like you get when encoding for any specific typs of SQ or DY or whatever matrix.

Of course, you also have to extract and isolate the center channel and mix that back in over the top of the 2-channel version or the center channel will get lost in the mix and it will sound diffuse and directionless.

I'm showing my age here, but anything from the Mamas and the Papas would be great. Their production was ahead of its time, and even in stereo they sound great. I understand they were multitracked when they were recorded, so all of their albums would make great 5.1 mixes. Doubt we'll ever hear it, though.

There's some foreign Q-8's of the Mamas and Papas.
I dunno what's on `em, I just saw it on eBay once for like $200 and some dollars.

Sessions for their first singles and their whole first album except for a couple examples were only twin-tracked, like California Dreamin' One of the first 4-tracked songs was I Saw Her Again Last Night and if you take either one of those songs and stereoize the left channel by itself and use that as the front and do the same for the right channel by itself and use that as the rear, using the above-mentioned method, it sounds pretty good.

But as you say, most of the 4-tracks still exist at Lou Adler's house in Malibu, including a number of Basic Tracks (i.e. underdub) reels, i.e where the band would record first on one 4-track, mix that to mono and lay that on one track of a 2nd 4-track, leaving three open for background singers and sidemen, mixing that to mono and laying onto a 3rd 4-track to lay in the lead vocal.

Of course in the case of The Mamas and Papas and Lovin' Spoonful and the like, a lot of the overdubs was mixed down into 2-tack instead of mono, as you hear on the final LP mixes, which is all that remains in the Universal (Polygram, ABC-Dunhill) vaults.

All the mono single mixes were ditched years ago `to make space', when ABC-Dunhill got taken over by Gulf+Western/Paramount and then the whole affair got taken over by Polygram, so all mono single selections on reissues and box sets are mint-condition styrene-single disc dubs.

Oh well.

 

[jaybird100]

All the mono single mixes were ditched years ago `to make space', when ABC-Dunhill got taken over by Gulf+Western/Paramount and then the whole affair got taken over by Polygram,.

I seem to remember ABC Records (including Dunhill and Command) being bought out by MCA (Universal) in about 1980. Paramount had, by then, gone their separate way with Gulf + Western. It was a totally different company.