It came.
Four cute little five-inch albums, just like Chicago!
Love it. I think I like little mini versions better than the originals.
Very cool.
Unwrapped and put in my least fave first, Captain. Just press close and off it goes, no menu BS.
Straight to dts.
First thing is ... sound quality.
Jesus.
Even if you have the Dolby quad reels as I did ... forget it.
Not even in the ballpark.
First sound shocked me, turned my head. Really?
Sounds like 2020. Those transients!
There is no way to compete with 15 ips 1/2” masters direct to digital. Just isn’t.
Haven’t heard the quad mixes of the two hits in many years but remembered them well.
China Grove — those mentioning the harsh trebly EQ of the lead guitar are right. It’s in the tape. Ditto with the bass coming in (correctly) later than on Scheiner’s 5.1 mix. And it is somewhat “triphonic”, having not much in the right rear but tambourine, reverb, and lead guitar during the break.
As for
Long Train Runnin’, well ... the backing (answer) vocal is a little jarring in the rear. But that’s mostly because it’s mono. Had that element been stereo, it would have worked fine. Likely why Scheiner opted to leave it up front.
But wait ... what’s this? This mix is
not the one on my Q8 or CD-4. That mix I grew up with had an unmuted, unwelcome snare drum on the second verse. Or was that the 5.1?
Pretty sure it was the quad. However this happened, the track is better off without it.
South City Midnight Lady sounds great until the chorus with the background vocals in mono, front center, and too low in level. This is handled much more appropriately in Scheiner’s mix.
As I’ve said before, overall I prefer the 5.1 mix on this album.
China Grove in particular sounds fuller, less trebly, with better bass and balls on the 5.1 mix. But there’s no getting around one fact: every track here is discrete.
Very discrete. I couldn’t argue against that even if I were inclined — and I ain’t. If real old-school discrete quadraphonic is what you crave, get ready to chow down.
God bless our friends at Rhino.
When it comes to surround sound, I say this:
Fuck subtlety.
