Also, Rhino needs to put out some Graham Central Station quadio!..
HiRez Poll Sly and the Family Stone - GREATEST HITS [SACD]
- Thread starter JonUrban
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An interesting title to evaluate, as it is one of the early quad mixes. It would be unfair to place its mix to the same standard as one would expect from a modern release because of that.
That being said, it is often ridiculous and audacious in the best way. Sometimes the drum kit is in the back, sometimes it is between the front two channels, and sometimes it's in one of the two front channels. Sometimes the two vocal leads play with each other in separate channels. When the mix succeeds, it's an excellent party mix, filling out the corners of the surround sound space, without any side feeling as though it's getting preferential treatment.
Where the mix falters is when it doesn't take advantage of that aggressive mixing style. "Everyday People" suffers from sounding like disparate elements were just kinda shoved in the back because of the recording limitations. ("Hot Fun in the Summertime" suffers from that as well to an extent.) "Dance to the Music" and" M'Lady" feel awkward because there's very little unique audio in the front right channel, and the mix sounds skewed away from that side of the room as a result. "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf)" is perhaps the weirdest sounding of the bunch, as it sounds like the lead vocals are coming out of three of the four channels.
Overall, a great (if imperfect) blueprint for surround sound music to come.
As for the rest of the disc, it also includes the mono single mixes of all the songs, which I feel is the best way to listen. The stereo mixes on Greatest Hits sound awkward, unbalanced, and feel like an afterthought in the same vein as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's original stereo mix. To boot, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Everybody is a Star" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" were released on Greatest Hits in this awful-sounding "re-channeled" mono mix, not given proper stereo mixes for the album until its 2007 release.
Because of all this I listed, I feel the mono release stands as the most cohesive and thoughtful presentation of Sly and the Family Stone's Greatest Hits. As for this release, I think the surround sound mix is worth a 7, but a bump up to 8 as a whole is necessary for these mono mixes.
That being said, it is often ridiculous and audacious in the best way. Sometimes the drum kit is in the back, sometimes it is between the front two channels, and sometimes it's in one of the two front channels. Sometimes the two vocal leads play with each other in separate channels. When the mix succeeds, it's an excellent party mix, filling out the corners of the surround sound space, without any side feeling as though it's getting preferential treatment.
Where the mix falters is when it doesn't take advantage of that aggressive mixing style. "Everyday People" suffers from sounding like disparate elements were just kinda shoved in the back because of the recording limitations. ("Hot Fun in the Summertime" suffers from that as well to an extent.) "Dance to the Music" and" M'Lady" feel awkward because there's very little unique audio in the front right channel, and the mix sounds skewed away from that side of the room as a result. "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf)" is perhaps the weirdest sounding of the bunch, as it sounds like the lead vocals are coming out of three of the four channels.
Overall, a great (if imperfect) blueprint for surround sound music to come.
As for the rest of the disc, it also includes the mono single mixes of all the songs, which I feel is the best way to listen. The stereo mixes on Greatest Hits sound awkward, unbalanced, and feel like an afterthought in the same vein as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's original stereo mix. To boot, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Everybody is a Star" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" were released on Greatest Hits in this awful-sounding "re-channeled" mono mix, not given proper stereo mixes for the album until its 2007 release.
Because of all this I listed, I feel the mono release stands as the most cohesive and thoughtful presentation of Sly and the Family Stone's Greatest Hits. As for this release, I think the surround sound mix is worth a 7, but a bump up to 8 as a whole is necessary for these mono mixes.
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After watching the Sly Stone documentary, I think this quad mix is as crazy as Sly. Itās all over the place. I love it!
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- Jan 9, 2013
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I just bumped up my vote from a 9 to a 10. On my new system played at 82 dbs it really sounds absolutely SENSATIONAL. Kudos to AF for releasing it.
LOVED the Sly doc and hopefully, we'll get other surround QUAD SACDs from THE MAN! D~V, are you listening?
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE (see also SLY STONE) -
Dance To The Music B/W Stand. Epic JBQ-503 (SQ45)
{Special Coin Operator release}
Greatest Hits. Epic PEQ-30325 (SQ), EAQ-30325 (Q8), Epic ECPN-94
[previously ECPN-7] (SQ) [Japan], EQ 30325 (SQ) [Canada]
{When the stereo version of "Greatest Hits" was mixed, the master tapes
for three songs, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Thank You" & Everyone's
A Star" were not available. These three songs were put on the stereo
album re-channeled. When it came time to mix the Quad version, the
master tapes were found and used for the project. Thus, the Quad
version is the only format were you can hear these songs in true
stereo}
Small Talk. Epic PEQ-32930 (SQ) [US & Philippines], EAQ-32930 (Q8)
LOVED the Sly doc and hopefully, we'll get other surround QUAD SACDs from THE MAN! D~V, are you listening?
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE (see also SLY STONE) -
Dance To The Music B/W Stand. Epic JBQ-503 (SQ45)
{Special Coin Operator release}
Greatest Hits. Epic PEQ-30325 (SQ), EAQ-30325 (Q8), Epic ECPN-94
[previously ECPN-7] (SQ) [Japan], EQ 30325 (SQ) [Canada]
{When the stereo version of "Greatest Hits" was mixed, the master tapes
for three songs, "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Thank You" & Everyone's
A Star" were not available. These three songs were put on the stereo
album re-channeled. When it came time to mix the Quad version, the
master tapes were found and used for the project. Thus, the Quad
version is the only format were you can hear these songs in true
stereo}
Small Talk. Epic PEQ-32930 (SQ) [US & Philippines], EAQ-32930 (Q8)
I have the quad disc (two actually, the original and the -3 pressing). But when in Apple Music today, I noticed the album is in Dolby Atmos. Wish they had done Anthology which has later songs ("Family Affair", "Runnin' Away", "(You Caught Me) Smilin'", and "If You Want Me To Stay", but, oddly enough, not "Time for Livin'" and "High On You".
With the renewed interest in this release, I must say that it is one of those quads where upmixing to Auro 3D 5.1.5 works wonders on improving the sound stage. Give it a try if you can.
Was not aware of a documentaryā¦
Will you please tell me the title & where you found it?
Being a little bit of a Sly Nut, seen 3 times live, as I am from San Francisco. I can't read through all these pages but as a remibder AF's put out two defective discs, I own the first and the 3rd.
- Audio Fidelity SACD remaster series. SACD layer includes Mono and Quadraphonic mixes. CD layer contains Mono mix. Numbered edition sticker is only on outside slipcover and does not appear on CD.
"AFZ5 215" has a defective SACD (MONO) layer - There is an authoring issue on the DSD layer only which caused the L and R channels to be slightly out of sync (thus sounding imbalanced). The CD layer and the SACD (Multi) are AOK.
The first attempt at correcting the defect was issued as Cat # AFZ5 215-2 but was not successful.
The second attempt at correcting the defect was issued as Cat # AFZ5 215-3 and fixed the problem - So if you are interested in playing the SACD (MONO) layer this is the one to get.
As a further complication, whilst the Cat # was updated on the label side of the disk, it was not updated on the slip case - so you need to check the disc to establish which version it is.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
- Barcode: 7 80014 22152 2
SLY LIVES AMAZON CD MUST PURCHASE
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2010
- Messages
- 465
and Disney+
