Tomita SACD (and their quadraphonic sources)

[J. PUPSTER]

Since dreams comes true... maybe D-V can do a first fully-dicrete digital release of The Bermuda Triangle as a 5 channel SACD

"Pyramid Sound
This album is different from my others in that the master was recorded onto five tracks. Ideally, it should be heard through five speakers, four in the conventional rectangle and the fifth suspended above the center - thus a sonic pyramid. Although it is impossible to encode this onto a phonograph record, as much as possible of the five-channel effect has been incorporated into standard discs through the help of the engineering staff of Japan Victor.
"

Tomita - The Bermuda Triangle

Apparently there's some kind of message encoded also-

A Coded Message

Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System.

- Isao Tomita

I received the CD-4 of this one from @Sonik Wiz and it sounds great. I didn't entirely trust my CD-4 capabilities so I sent it off to @Bob Romano for a great conversion using the Ortofon CD4 system.

I'm now wondering with this 5TH channel info, if you have to get just the right balance between the channels, the right EQ and probably 4 matched speakers; then that would show up as a kind of Phantom upper middle. If we knew what notes / passages were using that 5TH we could fine tune it. Or is it just ambience from the rest of the speakers?

There're supposedly interior images, text, whatever, on the inside of the cover. But getting the tight OBI off and cutting open the cover was something I wasn't prepared to do.
If anyone has photos of the cover interior, I'd like to see those.

 

[winopener]

Pupster you have to squirt lemon juice all over the cover to see the coded messages. Use two whole lemons and liberally squeeze on both sides.

Does this apply to the stereo cover version too?

 

[MidiMagic]

"Firebird" is available on discrete SACD, so unless you don't have a player for those discs, why would you necessarily need a Dolby Surround version of this?

I prefer it.

I just bought a Dolby Surround recording that is everything I ever wanted in surround sound.

 

[artwwweb]

Apparently there's some kind of message encoded also-

A Coded Message

Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System.

I've just been looking up the Tarbell system and it seems it was a version of the audio input of data that was used in the 80s - the bleeps or fuzzy noises that you used to get on a dial up modem and before that on cassettes for inputting programs. So presumably this album has a data track somewhere? I wonder if anybody has decoded it? There are similar examples of tracks from the 80s e.g.
Pete Shelley XL1 (You Tube)

 

[furui_suterioo]

I've just been looking up the Tarbell system and it seems it was a version of the audio input of data that was used in the 80s - the bleeps or fuzzy noises that you used to get on a dial up modem and before that on cassettes for inputting programs. So presumably this album has a data track somewhere? I wonder if anybody has decoded it? There are similar examples of tracks from the 80s e.g.
Pete Shelley XL1 (You Tube)

I think the tones are mixed somewhere in the music
http://www.isaotomita.net/recordings/bermuda.html
"A Coded Message

Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System.

- Isao Tomita

Side A

THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. SLOW DOWN. TARGET 50 MILES OFF SOUTH FLORIDA, A GIANT PYRAMID AT OCEAN BOTTOM.

Side B

THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. LOOK OUT! THE CYLINDRICAL OBJECT JUST LIKE THE ONE EXPLODED OVER SIBERIA AND CRASHED INTO TUNGUSKA IN 1908, HAS JUST COME INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM."

 

[artwwweb]

I think the tones are mixed somewhere in the music

That's the impression I got, but it seems amazing if it really is mixed in with the music. Maybe there's a piece that sounds like waves crashing on the seashore or something that is really data. Or maybe the Tarbell (it seems it is spelled with 2 'L's) system filtered out particular frequencies - to avoid the background hiss of cassettes - and there is the data mixed in with some higher or lower musical notes.

 

[jefe1]

Pupster

A coded message deciphered through the Tarbell system:

Pupster time to take your medication again

You remember what happened last time you didn't take your pills.......

 

[Muppet69]

I haven’t listened to BT for a while but I seem to remember the computer code noise that lasts for several seconds is near the beginning of each side and is clearly audible as old style computer code you’d use for programming via cassette tape’s back in the day. I read somewhere that all it does is type out the two messages that are in the posts above. Nowt stunning.

 

[furui_suterioo]

Just thinking.. if the pyramid sound channel exists somewhere maybe could be used as a height object with the quad in Atmos container for true pyramid sound.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Just thinking.. if the pyramid sound channel exists somewhere maybe could be used as a height object with the quad in Atmos container for true pyramid sound.

it is on my to do list to give the version I have a good listen and try and determine just where that 5 channel info may be, we have to know that, before it could be extracted somehow for heights' inclusion. Other folks here that have that album should also give it a good going over with suggestions, but it's been too long ago since I've heard it for me to even have a clue about this.

 

[furui_suterioo]

it is on my to do list to give the version I have a good listen and try and determine just where that 5 channel info may be, we have to know that, before it could be extracted somehow for heights' inclusion. Other folks here that have that album should also give it a good going over with suggestions, but it's been too long ago since I've heard it for me to even have a clue about this.

I was thinking more about whether it still exists on a discrete master tape somewhere, whoever owns it. The website does say "as much as possible of the five-channel effect has been incorporated into standard discs" so maybe close eyes and listen for dead center sounds with simulated height effect.

 

[fetchmybeer]

I would've never known about this dude if not for this place. I've received 2 already, with 2 more from DV on the way. This stuff is stellar. It's classical music meets Logan's Run or some other corny 70s sci fi movie. And then it's in surround sound to boot, but not just surround sound, but living, breathing, ever-moving surround sound. These are reference disks for what surround sound has the potential to be for music. I don't like every song, but there is no question about the proper use of surround channels here. I almost want to throw a party in these Covid times and just play this stuff to freak people out.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Probably a good time to bump this thread and mention that Tomita + Dozan Fujiwara SACD...
響 [COGQ-36]

So that makes...9!

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Not SACD, but DVD-Audio...quadraphonic!
The Planets 2003 [COAQ15]

 

[jaybird100]

Not SACD, but DVD-Audio...quadraphonic!
The Planets 2003 [COAQ15]

Do you have more information on this?

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Do you have more information on this?

https://www.discogs.com/release/5196982-Tomita-The-Planets-2003

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

There's also a DVD-A of the 1999 Genji performance in 5.1
https://www.discogs.com/release/5058332-Isao-Tomita-源氏物語幻想交響絵巻-The-Tale-Of-Genji-Symphonic-Fantasy

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

So that makes...11!

 

[JediJoker]

There's also a DVD-A of the 1999 Genji performance in 5.1
https://www.discogs.com/release/5058332-Isao-Tomita-源氏物語幻想交響絵巻-The-Tale-Of-Genji-Symphonic-Fantasy

Is that the same recording and surround mix as found on this?

https://www.discogs.com/release/302...e-Of-Genji-Symphonic-Fantasy-Ultimate-Edition
Discogs has them both listed under the same master release.

 

[jaybird100]

https://www.discogs.com/release/5196982-Tomita-The-Planets-2003

Thank you.