Suggestions for Audio Fidelity Multichannel SACD Releases

[leahypc]

Was Draw the Line ever released as a Quad? I'd love to hear that one, especially for Kings And Queens.

I've always thought that Kings and Queens is one of their very best tunes. One of the few songs that propped up that album. The band was in really sad shape with drug problems when they recorded that...

 

[fredblue]

Was Draw the Line ever released as a Quad? I'd love to hear that one, especially for Kings And Queens.

Not afaik, it was "Rocks", "Toys In The Attic" and "Get Your Wings".. I have all 3 on SQ LP and they're terrific mixes.. one of them (I forget which, think it might be Rocks, is cut a wee bit bright.. but it's still a joy!).. I bet a Surround SACD would be killer.. the coconuts simulating galloping horses things going all round the room in that back in the saddle (agaaaaain) opener are fantastic in Quad! Gimmicky? Maybe! Fabulous? HELL YEAAAHHHH..!!!

 

[fredblue]

Thank you, I corrected my post with this addition. We really need "Rocks" if nothing else in quad from this band since we have Toys on previous SACD. "Get Your Wings" is such an (original generation) fan favorite too.... I love that album!!!

All 3 are nice but Get Your Wings sounds the best in SQ LP form, pretty much leaps out the speakers, amazing sound quality!

 

[bmoura]

Not afaik, it was "Rocks", "Toys In The Attic" and "Get Your Wings".. I have all 3 on SQ LP and they're terrific mixes.. one of them (I forget which, think it might be Rocks, is cut a wee bit bright.. but it's still a joy!).. I bet a Surround SACD would be killer.. the coconuts simulating galloping horses things going all round the room in that back in the saddle (agaaaaain) opener are fantastic in Quad! Gimmicky? Maybe! Fabulous? HELL YEAAAHHHH..!!!

Sony's edition of Toys In The Attic in Multichannel SACD is very good. Love the Cowbell in Right Surround on "Walk This Way"!

 

[skherbeck]

Sony's edition of Toys In The Attic in Multichannel SACD is very good. Love the Cowbell in Right Surround on "Walk This Way"!

It is good, but the quad mix is much better!

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Historically, when AMazon tells me a new date that is sooner, they've come through.

But...but...you are one of those "prime" guys...you are like those prep school dudes..living large in the fast shipping world:ugham:..while frugal guys like me have their purchases coming on the Marrakesh Express

[video=youtube;u7XIL67QSME]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7XIL67QSME[/video]

 

[Philip Spinner]

Listening to the source tapes is part of the process. Audio Fidelity has taken a pass on some albums for that very reason (the tapes are in poor condition and have poor sound).

Well that would be a cool job to have. You are probably not allowed to say but do they get a copy to take home and have a listen.

 

[quicksrt]

Ok I did a once over and redid for the final time my Quad-70s Super-Spectacular Various Artists Hits sampler disc?

I basically got rid of Gilbert, and New Seekers, as the Seekers hit is just too lightweight in this world of heavyweights, and added Croce, Spinners, Bread, and added alternative Seals and Crofts. Nicer now is it not. This is not the song order I would use, but the songs are all easy, fairly light, but solid hits.

Jim Croce - One Less Set of Footsteps or You Don't Mess Around with Jim
Davis Essex - Rock On
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Carly Simon - Legend in Your Own Time or another hit
Bread - Sweet Surrender or The Guitar Man
Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly
James Taylor - Mexico or How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Loggins and Messina - one of the big hits
Bette Midler - Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Ten Years After - I'd Love to Change the World
Eagles - One of these Nights or Lyin' Eyes
Doobie Brothers - Black Water or China Grove
Spinners - I'll Be Around
Chase - Get it On
Charlie Rich - Behind Closed Doors or The Most Beautiful Girl
Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden
Edgar Winter Group - Frankenstein or Free Ride
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
Chicago - Saturday in the Park or Just You and Me
Joni Mitchell - Free Man in Paris
Tommy James and the Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion or Sweet Cherry Wine
Grass Roots - Temptation Eyes
Aretha Franklin - Day Dreaming
--------------------------------------------------
alt cuts if needed due to licensing restrictions could be:
Seals and Crofts - We May Never Pass This Way Again
or
Barbra Streisand - Stoney End or Where You Lead
or
Joan Baez - The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
or
Rick Derringer - Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo

 

[bmoura]

Well that would be a cool job to have. You are probably not allowed to say but do they get a copy to take home and have a listen.

It's much more likely that the initial tape listening would be in the mastering/recording studio, not at home.
Although when a test pressing of the Multichannel SACD comes in, that can be evaluated in an office or at home.

 

[fredblue]

But...but...you are one of those "prime" guys...you are like those prep school dudes..living large in the fast shipping world:ugham:..while frugal guys like me have their purchases coming on the Marrakesh Express

[video=youtube;u7XIL67QSME]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7XIL67QSME[/video]

iirc this one was said to have received a 5.1 remix, together with C,S,N&Y's Deja Vu.. and then there's Stephen Stills' LP (the one with "Love the one you're with" on it) where the 5.1 DVD-A made it as far as pre-order status.. and then got cancelled.. will we ever hear any of these gems in surround..?? Lovely albums..

 

[quicksrt]

There's a well-done transfer of Roots knocking about.. even though it has obviously had a lot of love and care lavished on it, it still sounds pretty underwhelming.. who controls his back catalogue?

At some point, someone somewhere should take the "Superfly" or "Curtis" multis and do the proper 5.1 on it. Rhino controls the catalog in the US btw, and they house the master tapes as well. "Root's 4.0 is doable if the tapes are still there, and Curtis himself did not chuck them out long ago, and if they sound worth a damn.

 

[skherbeck]

Judy Collins rocks.

 

[Q-Eight]

Not to mention Bread and Loggins & Messina. They're both right up there with Sabbath, Deep Purple, AC/DC and Bubble Puppy.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Bubble Puppy!!

With a name like that, it better be good. And they were!

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

[EDIT] Oops! Double Bubble Puppy!!

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

...and then there's Stephen Stills' LP (the one with "Love the one you're with" on it) where the 5.1 DVD-A made it as far as pre-order status.. and then got cancelled...

Gaaahhh!!!

< fingers in eyes > I didn't read this, la la-la la...

 

[skherbeck]

Bubble Puppies are great! And because they spend their lives in germ-proof enclosures, the rest of your house stays clean.

 

[fredblue]

Gaaahhh!!!

< fingers in eyes > I didn't read this, la la-la la...

So disappointing.. what on earth happened there, after Warners had got the similarly configured CD/DVD-A sets of Crosby/If I Could Only Remember and Nash/Songs For Beginners, who can say.. maybe Audio Fidelity can resurrect this one too..??

 

[steelydave]

Just to bolster fredblue's case for Rick Derringer's quad albums, a picture from Jim Reeves' website, which has a lot of neat vintage studio pictures including the CBS/Columbia studios.

"Larry Keyes at his CBS Quadraphonic Suite 4th floor room 414 with
Rick Derringer and Al Lawrence. Larry was not only a great all-around
engineer, but highly knowlegable about electronics and designed this
Quad room built in-house for him by the CBS R&D staff."​

The neat thing about this picture is that it shows Derringer obviously had some level awareness of the quad mixes of his albums, and maybe involvement even. I think the prevailing wisdom up until somewhat recently had always been that quad mixes were like bastard stepchildren, farmed out to second-rate engineers who weren't ready for prime time. The more of these old quad mixes that come out in digital formats that don't compromise the presentation of the mix due to their deficiencies, the more this myth is being dispelled which I'm really happy about. Guys like Larry Keyes were involved from the earliest Columbia quad mixes (Sly's Greatest Hits) right up to the last ones (The Isley Brothers 'Go For Your Guns' LP pictures that Fred posted the other day have his name in the credits) and regardless of style or genre, they're uniformly excellent which is no small feat.

Also, check out that 'Columbia Quadraphonic Records and Tapes' poster in the background - I'd kill for one of those!

I also found this short biography about Larry in a newsletter from his alma mater:

Larry Keyes was a recording engineer from 1963 to 1998. He was originally with Columbia Records and continued on when it was later bought by SONY. Some of the artists he worked with include Barbra Streisand, Paul and Linda McCartney, and Leonard Bernstein. Larry earned a Gold Record for his work on a reengineering of Janis Joplin recordings and was nominated for a Grammy for recording Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra performing "The Planets". It's still widely considered one of the best sounding classical recordings by vinyl enthusiasts. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of NARAS.

Larry‘s son, Jim, recalls that his father was one of the first engineers to mix in quad. "He did the quad mix of Leonard Bernstein‘s "The Mass". Upon hearing the mix, Bernstein autographed the session score, handed it to Dad and said "This will be valuable after I‘m dead". The day Bernstein died, Dad came home and said, 'Well, now we‘ll see.'"

For a short time in the 1970s, Larry and another Crestwood resident, Don Puluse, started their own company, Ax Electronics. Well-known band Chicago was their first client. The band came to Crestwood, and Larry and Don recorded them on the stage at P.S. 15. Larry eventually returned to Columbia Records. He passed away in 2007.

Renowned producer, Elliot Mazur, sent the following to Jim when his father passed away. "I first started working with Larry in the late '60s. I was producing various records and, at that time, Larry was a staff mixer at Columbia. Larry was a musician and an engineer. He knew and loved music and was able to draw his love of music into his work. Very few engineers are musicians, and very few engineers have Larry's technical chops and patience."

"We put together a 2 LP package called Joplin In Concert. It was the first posthumous Janis Joplin recording. The tapes we found ranged from audio cassettes up to 16 track masters. Our goal was to make each side of the record feel like a live show. To do this, Larry had to set up something like six machines. We would start one and on cue start an applause loop and then the next tune. We had to rehearse this many times. Each tune required real-time mixing too. Any mistakes would require a new start or a series of edits. The result was amazing, and it stands up today. In recent years, other engineers have remixed the same tapes, and they do not sound as good as Larry's mixes from the '70s."

 

[steelydave]

I guess Rick must have liked what he heard!