Stevie Wonder Quad?

[J. PUPSTER]

i haven't got a Cluemountain was just saying that his Surround mixing goes way back to the Quad days.

as for the Stevie story, it does feel unlikely that something would get mixed in Surround when Quad was to all intents and purposes done for and what we know as 5.1 wasn't even so much as a twinkle in the milkman's eye!

if Baker Bigsby worked on 4 of his Quad albums , maybe it turned Stevie a little sour on the whole thing

 

[fredblue]

Indeed, he did the quad mix of Synergy's Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra.

thanks to fizzywiggs41's sleuthing we know he also did that Climax Blues Band "Stamp Album" Quad mix that's yet to see the light of day in discrete form

 

[fredblue]

if Baker Bigsby worked on 4 of his Quad albums , maybe it turned Stevie a little sour on the whole thing

yes Siree, i think you may be onto something there Mister P., there's some underbakered mixes that ol' Bigsby turned out would definitely leave an ambient taste in the.. ears?!!

think Robert Margouleff may have also had a go at doing some Stevie in Quad? steelydave knows more about all that. if so i've a bit more hope for some Surround-y-ness.. but the real discrete-o-matic deal would come if Stevie would just hand over the tapes (at last) and let one of UMe's trusted guys like Kevin Reeves have a go.. or of course the big Quadhuna, SW himself could Atmosize in the key of life!

doo-bee doo doo doo, i wish those days could come back once more! i wish those days.. oh man, now i want to play some Stevie.. but i've got a meeting in like 10 minutes

 

[citysoundman]

What a fascinating thread! Great to learn about the history behind these amazing albums. There’s 2 interviews with Robert Margouleff on YouTube from maybe 5 years ago, and on Part 1 from about 30 minutes in he talks about having a quad monitoring environment at Record Plant, and recording Stevie while he overdubbed in the control room listening in quad. He also talks about mixing in quad but not releasing the mixes because the vinyl could not reproduce properly what the mix sounded like. Very interesting and well worth checking out!

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Clearmountain also mixed in quad ...The Climax Blues Band -Stamp Album.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Clearmountain also mixed in quad ...The Climax Blues Band -Stamp Album.

Oops didn't see your post...freddums

 

[Methuselah’s Grandpa]

Stevie’s music is perfectly suited for surround sound.
I found some of his multi-tracks to a handful of songs and in one case, there’s 6 or 7 separate tracks of just clavinet layers! I’ve mixed some of these into surround sound a long time ago and will likely re-do them because I’ve learned more since I mixed them but I’d really LOVE to see them officially released in lossless surround and mixed by one of the better surround mixers out there.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I read in Billboard , that when Hugo Montenegro recorded for quadradisc his tribute to Stevie Wonder.....Stevie was there in the RCA Studio .

 

[jaybird100]

Wasn't there at least one SW album mixed with QSound? Based on what I've heard, with Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" album, played through the Surround Master, the results were quite impressive. A Stevie album, if it were mixed with that format, would also sound amazing, through an RM-type decoder, would kick butt!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Wasn't there at least one SW album mixed with QSound? Based on what I've heard, with Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" album, played through the Surround Master, the results were quite impressive. A Stevie album, if it were mixed with that format, would also sound amazing, through an RM-type decoder, would kick butt!

I’m not aware of one; here’s their official list of titles-

https://www.qsound.com/spotlight/users/recording-artists.htm

 

[par4ken]

Clearmountain also mixed in quad ...The Climax Blues Band -Stamp Album.

While I have no firm opinion on that one, I don't even own it. It was long rumored to be a stealth QS encode. Our friend OD even "released" a script decoded version. Shortly afterward he withdrew it claiming that further testing proved that it was not in fact quad.

I (should) still have his decoded version and so might have to pull it out to give it a listen! The beauty of matrixed quad vs discrete is that you can get a decent quad effect from most stereo LP's!

 

[DuncanS]

Clearmountain also mixed in quad ...The Climax Blues Band -Stamp Album.

Its the only one I have on CD so I ought to play it through the SM2! I have a few of their albums on LP and some copies on R-to-R, they were one of the perennial bands to see as they toured most years in Autumn/Winter, saw them loads of times, good gigs. Lindisfarne were another perennial tourer, usually the Xmas tour, memories, nostalgia, its a wonderous thing how one thought leads to another, makes me forget the creaking and aching!

 

[barfle]

The beauty of matrixed quad vs discrete is that you can get a decent quad effect from most stereo LP's!

Certainly true, but that also makes it difficult to figure out if the effect was intentional (stealth quad?).

 

[jaybird100]

Certainly true, but that also makes it difficult to figure out if the effect was intentional (stealth quad).

 

[jaybird100]

If it were quad-encoded, it would only be right that they say so. ABC, on many jazz and blues releases, had a small blurb, in equally small print, that the record was encoded. If no such mention of quad exists, I assume it's stereo, but still route it through the SM.

 

[barfle]

If it were quad-encoded, it would only be right that they say so. ABC, on many jazz and blues releases, had a small blurb, in equally small print, that the record was encoded. If no such mention of quad exists, I assume it's stereo, but still route it through the SM.

One would think the producers would announce an encoded disc, but as we know, that doesn’t always happen. We ammateurs have, for example discovered that many CDs of quad rexords are the same as the record, even though they don’t carry the label.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

As @jaybird100 states all the ABC , Bluesway, and Impulse recordings had some indication that they were encoded.
But there are a small number that had no indication.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I read in Billboard , that when Hugo Montenegro recorded for quadradisc his tribute to Stevie Wonder.....Stevie was there in the RCA Studio .

Just thought I'd follow-up on that statement. SO.....
That mention can be found in Billboard , April 20 1974 , pg 54.

 

[humprof]

I think most of the pertinent info has been covered already, but yes, it seems that a bunch of Stevie's "golden era" albums were mixed for quad but never released.

Margouleff and Cecil apparently did Talking Book [...]

Baker Bigsby said in his Red Bull Music Academy interview that he'd mixed 4 albums for quad, Music of My Mind (1972) through Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974).

So I think we can safely say those exist, or existed at some point. Who knows for sure with UMG and their 2008 vault fire, but it's been said that nothing of the Motown archive was stored there (and stereo fold downs of the quad mixes of Diana Ross' The Last Time I Saw Him and the Jackson 5's Greatest Hits have been issued since then so it seems the masters still exist) so we can at least remain hopeful for the future.

And on that note ("For so to interpose a little ease, / Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise," says the speaker of Milton's Lycidas): maybe Stevie was just waiting for the golden anniversary of the last of those "golden era" albums mixed for quad to lay a surprise box set on us.
https://www.npr.org/2024/07/15/g-s1...ers-first-finale-remains-ripe-for-rediscovery

 

[fizzywiggs41]

One last curve regarding this Stevie Wonder in quad thread ......

I had a listing of binaural albums and one Stevie Wonder album,....
"The Secret Life Of Plants" was on that list , which was compiled by someone with The Binaural Sound ..Club.