Toshiba-EMI Japan (Quad Reels & LPs) - info/history

[winopener]

Intresting... Japan is the only place that had a reel release of 1962-66 and 1967-70.
Thanks again, it is just beyond incredible.

 

[ubertrout]

Pretty sure this is the Karajan/Tchaikovsky recording that was released on quad, fwiw.

 

[steelydave]

Good catch, I think you're right. For anyone interested, the catalog number of the DTS CD (1998 DTS Entertainment release) is 71021-51034-2-6 and the catalog number of the original quad LP is ASD 2816.

 

[quadtrade]

maybe things have changed in the years since you were doing the DTS Quads?

No. They are not sending out masters when they have everything digitalized. They told us that back then. The tapes are too fragile anymore. Does that mean DV doesn't acquire a master and do it themselves. No, but i would bet a wad Sony is not doing transfers that way. Maybe someone else is that silly to send out masters. Maybe maybe 2nd or 3rd gen if around, and you have a relationship with the people. but not sony.

 

[ubertrout]

No. They are not sending out masters when they have everything digitalized. They told us that back then. The tapes are too fragile anymore. Does that mean DV doesn't acquire a master and do it themselves. No, but i would bet a wad Sony is not doing transfers that way. Maybe someone else is that silly to send out masters. Maybe maybe 2nd or 3rd gen if around, and you have a relationship with the people. but not sony.

Polyhymnia (which did all the quad transfers for Pentatone) is the former Philips classical recording unit in the Netherlands, formerly part of Universal classics before being shut down, and they still have a very close relationship with Universal Classics, including preparing a number of remasters this year for them (including the William Steinberg quad disc released recently). So there may be a special relationship, but I don't know.

 

[fredblue]

No. They are not sending out masters when they have everything digitalized. They told us that back then. The tapes are too fragile anymore. Does that mean DV doesn't acquire a master and do it themselves. No, but i would bet a wad Sony is not doing transfers that way. Maybe someone else is that silly to send out masters. Maybe maybe 2nd or 3rd gen if around, and you have a relationship with the people. but not sony.

ok, so when DV say they are using original analogue master tapes that is just bullshit then. their SACDs still sound good to me whatever tapes they're using. anyway, we're going OT so i'll drop it now.

 

[Mark Anderson]

Thanks Steelydave for digging into this further. Much appreciated

 

[steelydave]

I just added the following info about some EMI-Angel SQ classical quad LPs issued in Japan by Toshiba-EMI that aren't in Mark's list to post #1:

SQ Classical International Quad LPs
(EAY = Angel)
EAY-80001 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor "Pathetique"'
EAY-80002 -
EAY-80003 -
EAY-80004 - Rothenberger / Fischer Dieskau / Gedda / Boskovsky/Vienna Symphony Orchestra 'Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Highlights)'
EAY-80005 - Fremaux / City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 'Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3'
EAY-80006 - Ozawa / Orchestre De Paris 'Stravinsky: "The Firebird"'
EAY-80007 -
EAY-80008 - Berglund / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 'Sibelius: "Finlandia" (The Popular Sibelius)'
EAY-80009 -
EAY-80010 -
EAY-80011 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Bruckner: Symphony No. 4'
EAY-80012 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor'
EAY-80013 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Beethoven / Brahms / Wagner' *NEED MORE INFO*

According to a Japanese blog I found, these were released between 1973 and March 1974, and the 13 titles are the entirety of the series. I've listed the details of all the ones I could either find pictures of, or conclusive information about, but it's pretty much certain that all 13 exist so if anyone has photos or knows what 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10 are (and the full title of 13) please share so I can update the list.

I'm not positive, but I don't think any of the music on these is unique to Japan, they look to be reissues of EMI/Angel titles that were also available in Europe and the US. The only difference is the Japanese ones have different (unique) cover art and are presumably nice sounding as much of the stuff from Japan is.

 

[steelydave]

So recently on a Japanese auction site I came across an auction for a huge lot of cassette tapes, and in amongst them were something I haven't seen before - 5 Toshiba-EMI RM encoded cassette tapes. I clipped out the relevant front and back images:

(You can see they have the same '4 Channel' logo as the quad reels shown earlier in this thread, but instead it says '4 Channel RM Sound')

Unfortunately the auction images are too small to get much info from them, but squinting really hard, it looks like they have the same catalog numbers as their LP counterparts, but with a ZA prefix. So doing some detective work from the list in the first post and the titles listed in the auction listing, I believe these tapes would be (left to right):

IPZA-90005 - Ray Charles Singers 'Love Me With All Your Heart'

ZA-9537Z - Akria Ishikawa & Count Buffalo 'Love Theme From "The Godfather" (4 Channel Exotic Sound)'

ZA-9515Z - Dynamic Latin Brass 'Latin Brass '77'

IPZA-90010 - Command All-Stars 'Spectacular 4 Channel Sound!'

ECZA-90012 - Lettermen 'Live In Japan'

ZA-9???Z - 'Sound · Effect · In · mood / 4 channel world with sound and music' (not sure which LP this is)

Based on the scattered catalog numbers, it seems likely that these are just the tip of the iceberg, and that most likely the majority of the TP-95xxZ series of Asian market QS LPs, and the 90000 series of 13 Western popular QS LPs probably have RM/QS encoded cassette equivalents.

 

[Mark Anderson]

SQ Classical International Quad LPs
(EAY = Angel)
EAY-80001 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor "Pathetique"'
EAY-80002 -
EAY-80003 -
EAY-80004 - Rothenberger / Fischer Dieskau / Gedda / Boskovsky/Vienna Symphony Orchestra 'Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Highlights)'
EAY-80005 - Fremaux / City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 'Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3'
EAY-80006 - Ozawa / Orchestre De Paris 'Stravinsky: "The Firebird"'
EAY-80007 -
EAY-80008 - Berglund / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 'Sibelius: "Finlandia" (The Popular Sibelius)'
EAY-80009 -
EAY-80010 -
EAY-80011 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Bruckner: Symphony No. 4'
EAY-80012 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor'
EAY-80013 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Beethoven / Brahms / Wagner' *NEED MORE INFO*

Photo of 80002

8003

 

[steelydave]

Excellent, thanks Mark, I've added them to the first post. I really had to use my noodle to figure it out, but the text under the obi of 80002 is "WAGNER: ORCHESTRAL WORKS". The LP is the same as the US/UK LP ASD-2812 'Sir Adrian Conducts Wagner'.

Funny that the other one is Belshazzar's Feast, it was finding a UK Q8 of that title that prompted me to star that EMI UK Q8s thread recently.

 

[winopener]

I just added the following info about some EMI-Angel SQ classical quad LPs issued in Japan by Toshiba-EMI that aren't in Mark's list to post #1:
...
I'm not positive, but I don't think any of the music on these is unique to Japan, they look to be reissues of EMI/Angel titles that were also available in Europe and the US. The only difference is the Japanese ones have different (unique) cover art and are presumably nice sounding as much of the stuff from Japan is.

Message for the future: If someone find one of these 13 classical titles, please full description of the run-out area matrix numbers and a photo of the entire vinyl side, will be useful to determine if these had been cut in Japan or had been pressed from imported stampers of UK/USA origin.

 

[bigbillquad]

Hi. All

Here are some more of these TOSHIBA EMI SQ classical LP`s

I have found that when you see on the Japanese sites on eBay when they are selling classical Toshiba EMI LP`s there are no indication that this is a SQ Quad LP because there is no indication in text on the front cover or SQ symbols on the back there is a indication on the LP ONLY and the inner grove, and when they quote the catalog number and not the smaller text under you may be missing on buying that LP below if you don't no that catalog number relate to a Quad LP here is a example....... they would quote EAC-77322 and not Q2EA-6685........ I thought this might be of interest for people to know when buying if there is a good close up of the LP label you can pick it out if no close up you could miss out on buying..

 

[Circular Vibes]

Thanks for the tips BBQ. I was wondering why I haven't seen any Angel quads on the Yahoo auctions. I have found some good stuff that wasn't listed as quad though. It usually means the seller doesn't know or care about quad and doesn't realise it just might be a selling point.

 

[Circular Vibes]

So recently on a Japanese auction site I came across an auction for a huge lot of cassette tapes, and in amongst them were something I haven't seen before - 5 Toshiba-EMI RM encoded cassette tapes. I clipped out the relevant front and back images:

View attachment 33895

(You can see they have the same '4 Channel' logo as the quad reels shown earlier in this thread, but instead it says '4 Channel RM Sound')

Unfortunately the auction images are too small to get much info from them, but squinting really hard, it looks like they have the same catalog numbers as their LP counterparts, but with a ZA prefix. So doing some detective work from the list in the first post and the titles listed in the auction listing, I believe these tapes would be (left to right):

IPZA-90005 - Ray Charles Singers 'Love Me With All Your Heart'

ZA-9537Z - Akria Ishikawa & Count Buffalo 'Love Theme From "The Godfather" (4 Channel Exotic Sound)'

ZA-9515Z - Dynamic Latin Brass 'Latin Brass '77'

IPZA-90010 - Command All-Stars 'Spectacular 4 Channel Sound!'

ECZA-90012 - Lettermen 'Live In Japan'

ZA-9???Z - 'Sound · Effect · In · mood / 4 channel world with sound and music' (not sure which LP this is)

Based on the scattered catalog numbers, it seems likely that these are just the tip of the iceberg, and that most likely the majority of the TP-95xxZ series of Asian market QS LPs, and the 90000 series of 13 Western popular QS LPs probably have RM/QS encoded cassette equivalents.

I found another cassette here. 4CH cassette This makes me wonder if they actually decode okay and is there any big releases like DSOTM...

 

[ubertrout]

I just added the following info about some EMI-Angel SQ classical quad LPs issued in Japan by Toshiba-EMI that aren't in Mark's list to post #1:

SQ Classical International Quad LPs
(EAY = Angel)
EAY-80001 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor "Pathetique"'
EAY-80002 -
EAY-80003 -
EAY-80004 - Rothenberger / Fischer Dieskau / Gedda / Boskovsky/Vienna Symphony Orchestra 'Strauss: Die Fledermaus (Highlights)'
EAY-80005 - Fremaux / City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra 'Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3'
EAY-80006 - Ozawa / Orchestre De Paris 'Stravinsky: "The Firebird"'
EAY-80007 -
EAY-80008 - Berglund / Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra 'Sibelius: "Finlandia" (The Popular Sibelius)'
EAY-80009 -
EAY-80010 -
EAY-80011 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Bruckner: Symphony No. 4'
EAY-80012 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E Minor'
EAY-80013 - Von Karajan / Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 'Beethoven / Brahms / Wagner' *NEED MORE INFO*

According to a Japanese blog I found, these were released between 1973 and March 1974, and the 13 titles are the entirety of the series. I've listed the details of all the ones I could either find pictures of, or conclusive information about, but it's pretty much certain that all 13 exist so if anyone has photos or knows what 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10 are (and the full title of 13) please share so I can update the list.

I'm not positive, but I don't think any of the music on these is unique to Japan, they look to be reissues of EMI/Angel titles that were also available in Europe and the US. The only difference is the Japanese ones have different (unique) cover art and are presumably nice sounding as much of the stuff from Japan is.

The one where you need more info is probably: https://www.discogs.com/Herbert-von-Karajan-Dirigiert-Beethoven-Wagner-Und-Brahms/release/3087264

@quadtrade presumably remembers that a number of these made it to DTS CDs, namely the Tchaikovsky 5th and 6th Symphonies (the latter I previously mentioned). As for the Berglund /Bournemouth Sibelius, I had thought it made it onto a disc coupled with Grieg, but it turns out I was mistaken; https://www.discogs.com/Grieg-Paavo...rchestra-Peer-Gynt-Suites-1-2/release/2087785

 

[quadtrade]

You presume i remember classical anything you would be better betting no. I have all that DTS stuff on file, but just listened little. I know a bunch about all the rest of quad other than classical, cause i collected it and listened for decades. DTS came and went so fast in the big scheme of things. And I paid little attention to the classical stuff. Even at trade shows, it was not what most folks yearned to hear. Glad some made it out at all and wish the run was longer.

 

[steelydave]

I found another cassette here. 4CH cassette This makes me wonder if they actually decode okay and is there any big releases like DSOTM...

There are indeed RM quad cassettes of both Atom Heart Mother (EOZA-3523) and Dark Side (EMZA-3534) There are some photos of them on this page, and more information about them on this page.

Thanks for the link to that 4 channel cassette, it appears the seller has listed a couple more, and I was able to grab the photos, and with a little detective work and help from Google translate I was able to figure out what these tapes are. The main revelation is that they don't correspond directly to the numbering of their LP equivalents, so we really have no idea how many of these tapes there are unless we locate and identify them out there 'in the wild'.


ZA-9001Z - Rushing Steam Locomotive 4 Channel Charm / 驀進 蒸気機関車4チャンネルの魅力


This tape may be unique - there are a few "locomotive sounds" quad LPs in this Toshiba series (TP-92016Z, TP-92016V and TP-92017V) but none of them seem to match this one at all.


ZA-9003Z - Yukio Nagisa 'On Stage' / 渚ゆう子 'オン ステージ 昭和47年3月5・6日　日比谷公会堂にて収録'


The sub-heading on this tape translates to "On stage March 5th and 6th, Showa 47 / Recorded at Hibiya Public Hall" - I'd seen the '47' designation on another Japanese live quad LP, I think maybe it was one of those Polydor Japan live quad albums and I was curious what it meant. I was pretty sure it wasn't an inverted '74, and it wasn't the birthdate of the singer either. So I did a little investigation, and it turns out that in Japan, there are two ways to denote the date, the Western way that we use, and the other is by stating the year of the reign of the current Emperor. So using this handy conversion table I found, I discovered that Showa 47 is 1972, so this album was recorded March 5 & 6, 1972 and presumably released the same year. This is the same at the RM-encoded LP catalog number TP-9532Z.

 

[steelydave]

ZA-9004Z - Ohyan FiFi 'In Bel-Ami' / ナイトクラブの欧陽菲菲 '47年4月7・8日京都ベラミにて収録'


The subtitle on this one translates to "Recorded at Kyoto Bel-Ami on April 7th and 8th, Showa 47 (1972)". The LP equivalent is TP-9533Z - as you can see from the picture below, the cassette artwork is a cropped and zoomed portion of the original LP.

I've added all of this information to the first post in the thread, along with the two Pink Floyd tapes as well.

 

[quicksrt]

ok, so when DV say they are using original analogue master tapes that is just bullshit then. their SACDs still sound good to me whatever tapes they're using. anyway, we're going OT so i'll drop it now.

They are most likely using true master tapes. Sometimes it is required that the licensee come to the vault and do their transfers in the local studio sometimes on premises. Sometimes not. But some labels (but not all) will refuse to let their masters go off site. Other labels let the masters out, and demand return within one day. It really is different for each project.

It is simply not true that everything has been digitized and that is what you get when you request a quad master (from Sony) for SACD reissue, etc.

AF certainly got the true analog masteres for Earth Wind and Fire, and Loggins and Messina, etc.

I can't speak for what DTS Entertainment was getting, perhaps for them it was digital copies on beta or another format. But this was not the standard which would be the way it always will be.