Suggestions for Dutton Vocalion Multichannel SACD Releases

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I perused surrounddiscography's informative quad title archive and, without unrealistically dealing with licensing concerns, the following are some of the quad titles I wouldn't mind seeing released in hires by Michael Dutton and D-V:

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Nice list! A few things to point out, though:

- Hot Tuna is off the table as Warner/Rhino now controls that catalog

- The two early Guess Who titles are early quad experiments from RCA. Same style of mixing as the Best Of Vol. I quad that AF released a few years ago. Mostly "double stereo" with tons of panning instruments. "When Friends Fall Out" has the guitar riff circling the room for the entire song. They're interesting to listen to, but nothing like the superior quad mixes of Road Food, #10, and Best Of Vol. II

- Cat Stevens: as others have mentioned, the majority of them are fake. The only two worth anything are Foreigner and Buddha & The Chocolate Box, but even those aren't particularly discrete

- The Ohio Players' Skin Tight and Contradiction are vaporware. No one's ever turned up a copy. It's possible quad mixes were actually done and are sitting in a vault somewhere, but it seems the Q8s never came out.

- Wes Montgomery and Funkadelic: more fake quad.

- The Focus is an awesome mix, but most of the ABC/GRT quad masters are said to be off the table due to missing/destroyed masters :(

- As @fredblue pointed out above, Stills was released on DTS-CD in the '90s featuring the discrete quad mix with derived c/sub channels. I'd add that it's a bit of an odd mix. Certainly not your typical CBS quad mix with vocals upfront, isolated in each rear, etc.

Now this might all sound like doom and gloom, but still you've got four awesome CBS titles (Dave Mason, Argent, BoC, Wild Cherry) that would make great D-V SACDs :)
 
Dave Mason being the most likely due to several reasons, two-fer is doable, it's Sony controlled, it's easy on the nervous system rock. It's fallen into the mid-line price sheet.

Nilsson is the other artist I think is prime pickins' for the same reasons.

But from D/V's perspective, one has to look at the cost of licensing a prime but mid-line pop/rock title, vs an easy listening extravaganza and then compare unit sales numbers. I'd be surprised if Conniff or Mancini out sold Return to Forever or Weather Report but it's possible.

I get the feeling that the matter of it being previously out on an SACD by MFSL is a very minor concern or consideration for D/V. They sprang for a Return to Forever title only months after AF did that same title on SACD. D/V added the quad layer and let the chips fall where they may. Stated it was limited run and called it a day.

Anyway next batch should have a surprise or two or three!
 
Nice list! A few things to point out, though:

- Hot Tuna is off the table as Warner/Rhino now controls that catalog

- The two early Guess Who titles are early quad experiments from RCA. Same style of mixing as the Best Of Vol. I quad that AF released a few years ago. Mostly "double stereo" with tons of panning instruments. "When Friends Fall Out" has the guitar riff circling the room for the entire song. They're interesting to listen to, but nothing like the superior quad mixes of Road Food, #10, and Best Of Vol. II

- Cat Stevens: as others have mentioned, the majority of them are fake. The only two worth anything are Foreigner and Buddha & The Chocolate Box, but even those aren't particularly discrete

- The Ohio Players' Skin Tight and Contradiction are vaporware. No one's ever turned up a copy. It's possible quad mixes were actually done and are sitting in a vault somewhere, but it seems the Q8s never came out.

- Wes Montgomery and Funkadelic: more fake quad.

- The Focus is an awesome mix, but most of the ABC/GRT quad masters are said to be off the table due to missing/destroyed masters :(

- As @fredblue pointed out above, Stills was released on DTS-CD in the '90s featuring the discrete quad mix with derived c/sub channels. I'd add that it's a bit of an odd mix. Certainly not your typical CBS quad mix with vocals upfront, isolated in each rear, etc.

Now this might all sound like doom and gloom, but still you've got four awesome CBS titles (Dave Mason, Argent, BoC, Wild Cherry) that would make great D-V SACDs :)
Man, I'd really like to hear that Focus album in quad - Hocus Pocus was featured in "Baby Driver" a year or two back and gave them a bump in attention. Great comments regardless. The Wild Cherry album in particular is exactly what D-V has been open to releasing - a less known album from a group kind of known as a one-hit wonder from its first album. I'm not familiar at all, but should be fun. Ditto Argent, which I've never heard of.
 
Nice list! A few things to point out, though:

- Hot Tuna is off the table as Warner/Rhino now controls that catalog

- The two early Guess Who titles are early quad experiments from RCA. Same style of mixing as the Best Of Vol. I quad that AF released a few years ago. Mostly "double stereo" with tons of panning instruments. "When Friends Fall Out" has the guitar riff circling the room for the entire song. They're interesting to listen to, but nothing like the superior quad mixes of Road Food, #10, and Best Of Vol. II

- Cat Stevens: as others have mentioned, the majority of them are fake. The only two worth anything are Foreigner and Buddha & The Chocolate Box, but even those aren't particularly discrete

- The Ohio Players' Skin Tight and Contradiction are vaporware. No one's ever turned up a copy. It's possible quad mixes were actually done and are sitting in a vault somewhere, but it seems the Q8s never came out.

- Wes Montgomery and Funkadelic: more fake quad.

- The Focus is an awesome mix, but most of the ABC/GRT quad masters are said to be off the table due to missing/destroyed masters :(

- As @fredblue pointed out above, Stills was released on DTS-CD in the '90s featuring the discrete quad mix with derived c/sub channels. I'd add that it's a bit of an odd mix. Certainly not your typical CBS quad mix with vocals upfront, isolated in each rear, etc.

Now this might all sound like doom and gloom, but still you've got four awesome CBS titles (Dave Mason, Argent, BoC, Wild Cherry) that would make great D-V SACDs :)
Thanks for the clarity, Jonathan!
 
Man, I'd really like to hear that Focus album in quad - Hocus Pocus was featured in "Baby Driver" a year or two back and gave them a bump in attention. Great comments regardless. The Wild Cherry album in particular is exactly what D-V has been open to releasing - a less known album from a group kind of known as a one-hit wonder from its first album. I'm not familiar at all, but should be fun. Ditto Argent, which I've never heard of.
Argent In Deep is a fantastic album, Trout.
 
Argent In Deep is a fantastic album, Trout.

it is a gem! though to me it is a better album than it is a Quad, the surround mix is not the usual CBS mega discrete style. i enjoy it all the same but i can see why it divides the crowd, there have been a few folks expressing their disappointment with the Quad over the years. until or unless DV do it the biggest problem for me
is that neither SQ nor Q8 can do that Argent Quad justice.. it wasn't mixed to make the most of SQ like so many CBS Quads were and its a really dynamic recording there's so much light and shade, quiet passages that burst into raucuous, its all too much for the humble 8-track (in my humble opinion!) ah well, maybe it'll appear in the next batch. probably not and everyone can have a grumble when it's a Mac Davis and Dolly Parton 2-fer instead! yee-haa!! 🤪
 
Man, I'd really like to hear that Focus album in quad - Hocus Pocus was featured in "Baby Driver" a year or two back and gave them a bump in attention. Great comments regardless. The Wild Cherry album in particular is exactly what D-V has been open to releasing - a less known album from a group kind of known as a one-hit wonder from its first album. I'm not familiar at all, but should be fun. Ditto Argent, which I've never heard of.

you know, i've been wittering on about that Wild Cherry album ever since i found out Sony had cancelled their upcoming SACD release of it like 15 or something years ago! as soon as i went down the old Quad route with the Surround Master it was one of my absolute first purchases (not easy to find cheap and in good nick but i lucked out on a still sealed SQ LP!) and i wasn't disappointed. its a fantastic album, every track a toe-tapper (even the ballads have a kind of propulsive momentum, probably not making sense as usual but check it out and see what i mean!!).. the surround mix is fairly restrained by CBS Quad standards but still very enjoyable, engineered by the late great Larry Keyes (who did so many great Quads i wouldn't know where to start) and Don Puluse (who did the excellent Labelle Quads).. its one i've been hoping and praying Vocalion might do someday. fingers crossed its in the next batch and not Nana Moskouri does Hello Dolly on the stylophone! actually on second thoughts that could be rather cool.. screw Wild Cherry lets go bananas with Nana! :LOL:
 
I don't think, at least I hope not - to see Mac Davis quads appear while I'm waiting for Waylon, and Dolly Pardon.
 
I perused surrounddiscography's informative quad title archive and, without unrealistically dealing with licensing concerns, the following are some of the quad titles I wouldn't mind seeing released in hires by Michael Dutton and D-V:

Hot Tuna - America's Choice & Yellow Fever
Nektar - Remember The Future
Guess Who - Wheatfield Soul & American Woman - Can't even imagine Friends Of Mine in quad!!!
Focus - Moving Waves
Passport - Hand Made
Funkadelic - Cosmic Slop
Larry Coryell & Eleventh House - Introducing Eleventh House
Eric Burden - Sun Secrets
Blue Oyster Cult - Tyranny & Mutation
ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
Rare Earth - Get Ready
Argent - In Deep
Cat Stevens - Any
Harvey Mandel - Get Off In Chicago
Dave Mason - Dave Mason
Black Oak Arkansas - Raunch & Roll Live
Curtis Mayfield - Get Back To The World
Wes Montgomery - Greatest Hits
Ohio Players - Skin Tight
Stephen Stills - Stills
Wild Cherry - Electrified Funk
Please, can I get Focus, Cat Stevens' Foreigner and NEKTAR? Where can I sign for these?
 
ah well, maybe it'll appear in the next batch. probably not and everyone can have a grumble when it's a Mac Davis and Dolly Parton 2-fer instead! yee-haa!! 🤪

Man, I'd be down for Dolly, Waylon, and Mac Davis! There's some really nice mixes on the Mac Davis Quads! More Guess Who would be great, or how about a 2-fer of Papa Nez's two Q8's? Those should be ripe. Hell, even some of the Jose Feliciano's are nice mixes but feature some GREAT tunes.
 
I would like to think that after the release of the two Art Garfunkel titles that almost anything on Sony is possible. I’m sure these haven’t been big sellers for Sony over the last couple of decades, but still— These were big hit albums at the time by a major, still well-known artist.

I certainly hope that any extra licensing fees DV may have had to pay to secure these titles were recovered in extra sales.

I would love to see the remaining EWF quads see the light of day. And we can be pretty certain the artist is cool with it since AF released 2 of them.
 
I've mentioned this one before, but I have to mention it again since I spent some time working with the Q8 recently and I'm still really hyped up about it.

3908839087

The quad mix is basically a perfect "3-D" version of the original stereo. Guitar, drums, and bass are across the front channels, while the violin is in the left rear speaker and the keyboard/synthesizer is in the right rear speaker. I found it to be more enjoyable both music and mix-wise than the Birds Of Fire studio quad mix.

Tim Geelan is credited for both the stereo and quad mixes, which implies that this may be one of those CBS titles that was actually developed from the ground up with quad in mind. I'm not sure if it was released concurrently with the stereo LP or if the quad version came out later. Geelan is also credited with a number of other great CBS quad mixes such as Blue Oyster Cult's Secret Treaties and Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller.

Here's waveforms for track 2, "Sister Andrea", so you can see just how discrete this is. You can clearly make out Jerry Goodman's violin solo in the left rear channel. Surround mixes of live material don't get better than this.
39089

It also seems to check several boxes for D-V release:
  • It's a Sony title
  • Goes well with the several fusion quad titles DV have released
  • The artist will likely approve as AF was able to license the Birds Of Fire quad mix
  • It's never had any sort of hi-rez or audiophile release (according to discogs)
@steelydave is on the record as a big fan of this quad mix, so I assume he's probably already mentioned it to D-V at one point or another :)
 
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I've mentioned this one before, but I have to mention it again since I spent some time working with the Q8 recently and I'm still really hyped up about it.

View attachment 39088View attachment 39087

The quad mix is basically a perfect "3-D" version of the original stereo. Guitar, drums, and bass are across with front channels, while the violin is in the left rear speaker and keyboard/synthesizer is in the right rear speaker. I found it to be more enjoyable music and mix-wise than the Birds Of Fire studio quad mix.

Tim Geelan is credited for both the stereo and quad mixes, which implies that this may be one of those CBS titles that was actually developed from the ground up with quad in mind. I'm not sure if it was released concurrently with the stereo LP or if the quad version came out later. Geelan is also credited with a number of other great CBS quad mixes such as Blue Oyster Cult's Secret Treaties and Weather Report's Mysterious Traveller.

Here's waveforms for track 2, "Sister Andrea", so you can see just how discrete this is. You can clearly make out Jerry Goodman's violin solo in the left rear channel. Surround mixes of live material don't get better than this.
View attachment 39089

It also seems to check several boxes for D-V release:
  • It's a Sony title
  • Goes well with the several fusion quad titles DV have released
  • The artist will likely approve as AF was able to license the Birds Of Fire quad mix
  • It's never had any sort of hi-rez or audiophile release (according to discogs)
@steelydave is on the record as a big fan of this quad mix, so I assume he's probably already mentioned it to D-V at one point or another :)
Having recently listened to a great conversion of this, I can attest to Jonathan's claim that this bests the Birds Of Fire quad release on SACD. It’s even more amazing to hear the level of guitar, keyboard, violin instrument separation given this is a live album.This is definitely a fantastic D-V SACD release candidate!
 
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