Suggestions for Audio Fidelity Multichannel SACD Releases

[bmoura]

Yes!

With Al Lawrence, who was the Quad Sound Supervisor (aka Producer).

 

[fredblue]

Hey Brian, we're compiling this QQ list of Quad mix engineers and we're trying to make it as comprehensive as possible.. could you please help us?

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...-UNSUNG-HEROES&p=268595&viewfull=1#post268595

 

[fredblue]

With Al Lawrence, who was the Quad Sound Supervisor (aka Producer).

A question, if I may, do or did you happen to know any of these fellows personally such as Al Lawrence, Don Young, Roy Halee, Jim Reeves, Bruce Botnick, etc?

It would be wonderful to have these chaps behind the Quad mixes we know and love drop by QQ some time for a Q & A..

..that is presuming they are still "with us" of course, I got a lump in my throat when I learned from steelydave that the great Larry Keyes passed away in 2007..
such a shame as I imagine he would be thrilled to see his Quad mixes finally done justice by Audio Fidelity's stunning Surround SACD programme.

 

[kap'n krunch]

OH!! :yikes

WOW.......!!!

Would you ever part with it?

Edit: How is the Quad mix?
I've never heard it (I know OD has "released" it to his devotees.. but I won't have anything to do with that **** - and you can quote me on that - so..)

Nope, won't ever part with my LP collection..., regarding the files, I'll email you! Can you play them? I have stereo FR and Stereo Rears..

 

[kfbkfb]

Many movies on Blu-ray also include the movie on DVD in the same package.

I encourage the makers of multichannel SACDs to include a DVD-Video with a Dolby Digital
(4.0 to 5.1 channel) soundtrack (the video could be just an image of the album cover).

I know Dolby Digital has less accurate sound than SACDs, but it might increase the sales to
make a (region free) DVD-Video/Dolby Digital version available since the population of
DVD-Video players is quite large.

Kirk Bayne

 

[rtbluray]

Many movies on Blu-ray also include the movie on DVD in the same package.

I encourage the makers of multichannel SACDs to include a DVD-Video with a Dolby Digital
(4.0 to 5.1 channel) soundtrack (the video could be just an image of the album cover).

I know Dolby Digital has less accurate sound than SACDs, but it might increase the sales to
make a (region free) DVD-Video/Dolby Digital version available since the population of
DVD-Video players is quite large.

Kirk Bayne

If Audio Fidelity would ever start doing what you suggest (which doesn't seem likely) then a DTS 96/24 stream would have to be included as a bare minimum in order to get any real sense of audio quality on a DVD.

 

[quicksrt]

A question, if I may, do or did you happen to know any of these fellows personally such as Al Lawrence, Don Young, Roy Halee, Jim Reeves, Bruce Botnick, etc?

It would be wonderful to have these chaps behind the Quad mixes we know and love drop by QQ some time for a Q & A..

..that is presuming they are still "with us" of course, I got a lump in my throat when I learned from steelydave that the great Larry Keyes passed away in 2007..
such a shame as I imagine he would be thrilled to see his Quad mixes finally done justice by Audio Fidelity's stunning Surround SACD programme.

Well, by you starting this thread and getting the names in order then I would expect some of them will get wind of the list and stop in to add a few more things from their resume, or have something removed that they now claim they never did.

Regardless their name is Google-a-ble and this stuff will show up!

It would be cool also if we got Rick Derringer to stop in and discuss all those albums he was involved with that got mixed to quad. Except none of them have come out in modern formats.

Anyway this ongoing thread is valuable. Thanks.

 

[fredblue]

Nope, won't ever part with my LP collection..., regarding the files, I'll email you! Can you play them? I have stereo FR and Stereo Rears..

Alright! Thanks!
(Not sure, I could just stick all 4 stems into Audacity and export it as a 4-channel wav, I did that for some 5.1 mixes once and it worked ok.)

 

[fredblue]

Well, by you starting this thread and getting the names in order then I would expect some of them will get wind of the list and stop in to add a few more things from their resume, or have something removed that they now claim they never did.

Regardless their name is Google-a-ble and this stuff will show up!

It would be cool also if we got Rick Derringer to stop in and discuss all those albums he was involved with that got mixed to quad. Except none of them have come out in modern formats.

Anyway this ongoing thread is valuable. Thanks.

One would hope so (though I've been saying on the open forum "how about Elliot Scheiner and Ronald Prent dropping by QQ sometime?" for years now and still no sign of them!)

 

[Fourplay]

Since AF is dipping their toe into the soundtrack waters, how about Live & Let Die in quad? An excellent release with a great quad mix! I demo this often.

 

[steelydave]

Live And Let Die is an excellent quad mix indeed, even in spite of the awful United Artists Q8 tapes which seem to have no high frequency response above about 8kHz - an SACD of this title would be an absolute sonic revelation. The only roadblock may/could be that UA's catalog is now owned by Universal who I don't think have licensed out any of their quad mixes yet. Also obviously there's the question of whether or not they could find the tape of the quad mix in the vaults if they even wanted to.

If the UA quad catalog could be found/licensed it would be pretty intriguing. Aside from the stuff that was actually released (the Bobby Womack and War titles are good, I think) the titles they had scheduled for release on Q8 that never came out are really interesting too, including ELO's 'El Dorado', two Hawkwind titles, and Traffic's 'John Barleycorn Must Die'.

Getting back to the topic of quad soundtracks, it's pretty slim pickings. My top choice would be the three Isaac Hayes quad soundtracks - obviously Shaft is the best known one, and the quad mix is excellent...the wah-wah guitar in the title track pans around the room exactly how you'd expect it to. The problem with Shaft is that the stereo mix was already released on a (somewhat compressed) SACD in 2004. The other two are soundtracks to blaxploitation films Hayes starred in in 1974, 'Tough Guys' and 'Truck Turner' - I haven't heard the quad mix of Truck Turner, but the Q8 of Tough Guys is outstanding and the quad mix is easily the definitive one compared to the stereo mix. I think the use of surround really suits the widescreen ambitions of the music. The two 1974 albums obviously don't have a classic single on them that's in league with 'Theme From Shaft' but musically I think they're better, more interesting albums on the whole. Also, they've only ever been available digitally on an early 90's 2-on-1 CD that sounds absolutely terrible - it has that congested midrangey quality of Chicago II if you're familiar with that album. I suppose your enjoyment of these albums would depend on how much you like this kind of music, but personally I can listen to Isaac Hayes' brand of funky soul all day long.

Beyond that you start to get more in to soundtracks from musicals territory, and in that vein there are a couple of Streisand ones, 'Funny Girl' and the sequel 'Funny Lady', the original cast recording of 'Hair' (I suppose Age Of Aquarius would be alright in quad), 'Fiddler On The Roof' (two versions, one on RCA and one on United Artists), 'The Wiz' ('The Super Soul Musical!'), 'Godspell', 'Purlie', and the London Symphony Orchestra version of Tommy (which the quad masters of are probably lost due to being an A&M/Ode title).

 

[Eggplant]

"An improved two-channel experience doesn't cut it."

That about covers it for me.

Even if you really believe it's worth chasing that rainbow in the post-CD era (and I don't), pretty tough to argue it's worth rebuying an album at 3 to 10 times the price. YOU might -- but there are very few of you.

 

[winopener]

Steelydave,
i know these are extra hard to find, however the BIG problem on all the Liberty/UA USA Q8 of a sh***y duplication line is NOT present on the Canadian releases, which were duplicated there by RCA. Between a beated-up Canadian UA cart and a Still Sealed USA UA, i will choose the Canadian without a second thought.
However i've never seen a Canadian Q8 for Stax/Enterprise, or at least for Shaft, and the USA version - duplicated by Liberty - is saturated to hell, so a quad+stereo SACD would be a perfect choice.

 

[keenly]

Soundtracks in surround would be great! The ones we have out as 5.1 SACDS are really just multi channel stereo.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

It would be Mega-sweet to have some of those UNITED ARTISTS unreleased quad albums in SACD .

I would buy multiples of TRAFFIC'S JOHN BARLEYCORN MUST DIE, ELO'S EL DORADO, and of course any HAWKWIND albums in quad !!


Put me down for........three of each!!

 

[jonmrife]

I would be all in for Tres Hombres! I hear good things about the quad mix.

 

[Franklin]

I think Sony own the ELO catalogue now, aside from the first two Harvest albums and possibly anything after Balance of Power.

 

[fredblue]

I think Sony own the ELO catalogue now, aside from the first two Harvest albums and possibly anything after Balance of Power.

After the Hyde Park stereo only as the Good Lord intended DVD thing, where does Jeff Lynne stand on surround now, I wonder..

 

[Franklin]

Yes, some ELO is crying out for a good surround mix.

 

[fredblue]

Another couple of titles Quad-Blocked by MFSL
(they're newly announced as future MFSL SACDs in the Music Direct book apparently)..

Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline,
Janis Joplin - Pearl