THE LAST.. ( DODO.)...QUAD TITLE (80's)

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i don't know if it counts but i have this RCA demonstration Quad tape (with Star Wars, Walter Murphy etc) called "Quadrasonic For The 80s" released in 1980

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Quadrasonic-Sound-For-The-80s/release/9078210

Cool find Adam.
Now I wonder if RCA made anymore for "Ford " in 81 or later.

I have 4 that I picked up at a thrift shop a few years ago , 76 ,78(2), and 79 copyright dates on the back.
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In the booklet for one of the Devo compilation CDs there's a picture of a tape box with a very obvious handwritten "QUAD" on it. I had always assumed it was something done for their own amusement but now I wonder...

Any clue on which one it was? Freedom of Choice was co-produced and engineered by surround sound advocate Robert Margouleff, who did an unreleased quad mix of Stevie Wonder's Talking Book, along with the Isley's 3+3 quad, and some of those 5.1 DTS CD remixes, etc. so it would be intriguing indeed if it were that album.
 
Cool find Adam.
Now I wonder if RCA made anymore for "Ford " in 81 or later.

I have 4 that I picked up at a thrift shop a few years ago , 76 ,78(2), and 79 copyright dates on the back.

It's interesting that RCA featured a couple of Manilow's Arista tracks on their late 70's samplers - presumably Arista was looking to do something with their quad masters after GRT (their Q8 manufacturer) abandoned quad tapes sometime around 1977. I also wonder if the RCA hookup had something to do with Arista being sold to Ariola (Germany) in the late 70's, which then eventually ended up being bought by (and absorbed in to ) RCA in the early 80s.

There was also a little blurb in Billboard magazine from either '78 or '79 saying that RCA was getting back in to Q8 at the request of Ford, because they were still putting Q8 decks in their cars. I presume that's why those late 70's Q8 samplers continued to be made, along with the issuing of a couple of 'new' RCA Q8s in 1979, the Walter Murphy 'A Fifth of Beethoven' was one of them, along with an listening tape from The Living Strings and Voices called "Beautiful Sounds of the '70's". My guess there is that either they saw CD on the horizon after 1980 and gave up, or Ford simply bailed out that year and that ended any ideas of a Q8 resurgence.
 
Any clue on which one it was? Freedom of Choice was co-produced and engineered by surround sound advocate Robert Margouleff, who did an unreleased quad mix of Stevie Wonder's Talking Book, along with the Isley's 3+3 quad, and some of those 5.1 DTS CD remixes, etc. so it would be intriguing indeed if it were that album.

interesting angle, Dave..!! (y)
fwiw Mr. Margouleff also mixed the Quads of The Isley Brothers' "Live It Up" & "Harvest For The World" albums (and presumably also their "The Heat Is On" Quad, the Stereo of which he Produced with Malcolm Cecil, if indeed it exists in Quad.. ;) ).

does anybody here at QQ (possibly quadtrade?) have any way to contact Mr.Margouleff?

all i would really love to know is, the status for sure of that "The Heat Is On" Quad, if it ever truly was mixed in Quad, one way or the other, would be great!
 
I spoke to Margouleff via email and he didn't have any memory of even mixing 3+3 for quad (for which he has an actual credit on the quad sleeve) or any of the subsequent Isley Bros. quad albums, which have no specific quad remix credits. He suggested that I try and get in touch with Malcolm Cecil to ask him, but I just haven't found the time to do so yet.
 
I spoke to Margouleff via email and he didn't have any memory of even mixing 3+3 for quad (for which he has an actual credit on the quad sleeve) or any of the subsequent Isley Bros. quad albums, which have no specific quad remix credits. He suggested that I try and get in touch with Malcolm Cecil to ask him, but I just haven't found the time to do so yet.

whoopsy daisy! :LOL:

well, there's only one explanation for it :unsure:

..the whole experience was so earth shattering it blew his mind. o_O

that or Quad hating aliens abducted him and erased his memory. :alien:

my bad, looks like Margouleff didn't have anything to do with the "Harvest For The World" album at all, only Malcolm Cecil.! :eek:

plus the "Harvest WTF" SQ LP has no specific Quad remix credit.. eek..! :censored:

put me back on ignore y'all and let Mr.Margouleff go back to sleep will ya! keep it down in here with yer quadramasonic stereograms! sheesh! :sleep:
 
Mr.Margouleff was an old fuck when we dealt with him in the late 90s. He must be 90. I don't remember a lot i did 40 years ago either.
 
thank you for the information.

all i would like to know is.. was The Isley Brothers' "The Heat Is On" album ever actually mixed in Quad - and then released in Quad?

its listed in Mr. Anderson's Discography and its been listed elsewhere over the years, yet the proverbial 'nobody' seems to be able to give any proof.. there's a listing on Discogs and several people there say they own it, yet not one member there has ever been able to give any photographic or sound clip evidence of the existence of an SQ LP or Q8 copy of it. hmm.. :unsure:
 
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CD-4 went completely dead in the US in 1975, but they kept releasing them in Japan for a few years (it was something of a moderate sucess there). My Japanese CD-4 copy of Tomita's Bermuda Triangle is dated 1979.

Yep -- that was my last CD-4.
Got my copy in 1980.

The hell of it was, on my B&O 1000 linear-tracking turntable and JVC 4DDS, it decoded perfectly.
No distortion, no extra surface noise.
With jet-black virgin vinyl and half-speed mastering, the format now actually worked.

Too late.

As with life, by the time you've figured it out, it's time to go.
 
Yep -- that was my last CD-4.
Got my copy in 1980.

The hell of it was, on my B&O 1000 linear-tracking turntable and JVC 4DDS, it decoded perfectly.
No distortion, no extra surface noise.
With jet-black virgin vinyl and half-speed mastering, the format now actually worked.

Too late.

As with life, by the time you've figured it out, it's time to go.


I got mine around the same time I believe . I have Evolution/4 Quad to thank as they made those Tomita Japanese titles available , all three of his last quad titles . And they were not pricey and quick service for member subscribers .
 
The latest QS releases I can confirm I've seen were Turnabout/Vox classical releases in 1979, but I swear that in one of my boxes of records I've got one that's 1980. I could be mistaken, and it could be an Angel SQ classical from 1980 or 1981.

Well, I finally had the chance to dig through my box of classical LP's and found the QS-encoded album that I might have been hinting at: Turnabout, Saint-Saens, QTV 34723 with a copyright of 1979. Still not a 1980, and I didn't double check the inserts in any of my Voxboxes. Looks like my mystery's still not solved until I can revisit my self storage unit again. The interesting thing is this is one of their quad's that didn't begin with QTV-S #####.
 

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Well, I finally had the chance to dig through my box of classical LP's and found the QS-encoded album that I might have been hinting at: Turnabout, Saint-Saens, QTV 34723 with a copyright of 1979. Still not a 1980, and I didn't double check the inserts in any of my Voxboxes. Looks like my mystery's still not solved until I can revisit my self storage unit again. The interesting thing is this is one of their quad's that didn't begin with QTV-S #####.
I'm going to try to track this down - there's bits on Spotify, but I don't think it's ever been released on CD in full. Darn shame - I think Saint-Saens is one of the most underrated composers.

Edit to add - nevermind, this was appended to fill out CD3 of this set. I'm pretty sure the other recordings in the set were quad releases also, and I'd buy them in digital in a hearbeat:
51ZOYyr%2BJOL._SS500.jpg
 
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I'm going to try to track this down - there's bits on Spotify, but I don't think it's ever been released on CD in full. Darn shame - I think Saint-Saens is one of the most underrated composers.

Edit to add - nevermind, this was appended to fill out CD3 of this set. I'm pretty sure the other recordings in the set were quad releases also, and I'd buy them in digital in a hearbeat:
51ZOYyr%2BJOL._SS500.jpg

Brilliant Classics released a 2 CD set in 2014 which can also be found on iTunes (alas, without any of the content from QTV 34723). A shame they did not release it as a SACD.


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Brilliant Classics had also previously released the content of these two discs along with recordings from other orchestras in a 6 CD set dedicated to the composer. Seeing Martinon's name there, I can't help but wonder whether those recordings could be SQ encoded.


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And yet another release from Brilliant Classics with a third disc by another orchestra.


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Brilliant Classics released a 2 CD set in 2014 which can also be found on iTunes (alas, without any of the content from QTV 34723). A shame they did not release it as a SACD.


MI0003789200.jpg



MI0003803571.jpg



Brilliant Classics had also previously released the content of these two discs along with recordings from other orchestras in a 6 CD set dedicated to the composer. Seeing Martinon's name there, I can't help but wonder whether those recordings could be SQ encoded.


R-1028323-1277655453.jpeg.jpg



R-1028323-1277655461.jpeg.jpg



And yet another release from Brilliant Classics with a third disc by another orchestra.


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R-4253561-1378655410-5833.jpeg.jpg
Martinon's Symphony cycle was indeed recorded in Quad: https://www.discogs.com/Camille-Sai...-Martinon-Sämtliche-Sinfonien/release/7759110

And none of those include the recordings from the 1979 "last quad" issue, as you mentioned.

Vox recorded a lot in quad, and their catalog is now owned by Naxos. Unfortunately, Naxos seems more interested in monetizing their catalog for streaming than for stuff like quad reissues, but I kind of suspect that they'd be interested in taking a small amount of money for allowing quad transfers to be made from the masters and sold online. HDTT has been inching towards legitimacy for a while, this would seem to be an opportunity for them.

And...sorry to sidetrack the thread.
 
Just a little info from 1983 from "Evolution/4Quad " magazine regarding the three Mirror Image quad releases in Space-EX (SQ ) .

I had no idea that BrandX Squared was available in 2 different versions : MIP 1004 , and MIP 1004CX

:)

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In the booklet for one of the Devo compilation CDs there's a picture of a tape box with a very obvious handwritten "QUAD" on it. I had always assumed it was something done for their own amusement but now I wonder...

Maybe , just maybe it was their Beverly Hills, Halloween Concert or Project .

Info as per MCS review 1982.


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thank you for the information.
all i would like to know is.. was The Isley Brothers' "The Heat Is On" album ever actually mixed in Quad - and then released in Quad?
its listed in Mr. Anderson's Discography and its been listed elsewhere over the years, yet the proverbial 'nobody' seems to be able to give any proof.. there's a listing on Discogs and several people there say they own it, yet not one member there has ever been able to give any photographic or sound clip evidence of the existence of an SQ LP or Q8 copy of it. hmm.. :unsure:

Thanks for bringing this up as I have not seen it either. I will make a note of this for future updates.
 
I’ve long been interested in the quadraphonic LPs of Czech label Supraphon. They were not amongst the very first studios in Europe to jump onto the quad bandwagon but when they did so it was with a commitment and dedication that far outlasted most if not all of the others. I’ve been trying to identify the last ever SQ title they produced. Their actual quad recording sessions seem to have continued until the early eighties, but releases and re-releases went on for much longer.

They also remained much more promotional in the use of quad than their competitors. After a few short years the major companies were down-playing their quad content as a prelude to phasing it out and the quad logos and indicators soon disappeared from their discs and packaging. Supraphon proudly announced their LPs as quad and they all carried the SQ logo long after the others had abandoned the whole thing.

So what was the last Supraphon SQ disc manufactured?

In this regard the collector is well served by Supraphon’s disc labels which very helpfully carry a three digit manufacturing date code. The first two digits are the year and the third digit is either a 1 or a 2 indicating the first or second six months of the year (thus 88 2 would be the second half of 1988).

As far as the evidence of my collection goes, for some time I just assumed it was probably this Smetana opera:

H1.JPG


simply as it was in a very ‘modern’ style of packaging and even carries a bar code (!):

H2.JPG


It was certainly a late quad era recording according to the booklet:

H3.JPG


and the manufacturing code shows that my particular pressing was from the second half of 1989 :

H6.JPG


But it was not until recently that I noticed the dates on the discs of another box set, this Honegger oratorio recording:

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This was actually a fairly early quad recording session as identified in the booklet:

JDA901-4.JPG


But the set itself seems to have been re-issued several times and I have one with the date code shown as:

JDA901.JPG

  • Yes, that’s the first half of 1990!
Moreover, even in 1990 Supraphon were happily declaring it to be in quad in big letters on the front of the box (when was the last time that any of its competitors had done that?!):

JDA 901-5.jpg


If there was anything later I’d love to hear of it.
 
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