Ummm...

[Scottmoose]

If you haven't already got a copy of Rick Wakeman & the New English Rock Ensemble's latest album 'Out There', then may I tentatively suggest that you do. Sort of now-ish. In stereo, it's brilliant. Fire it through Variomatrix or a Prologic II decoder and experiance Prog as it hasn't sounded for twenty years! Hell, it even works well through a passive Hafler setup like my friend's.
Enjoy -I am!

 

[KevinD9052]

Okay, after months of lurking on eBay I FINALLY got a copy of the DCC gold disc of RAM for a decent price. I listened to it in its entirety the other night through my QSD-1 and it sounded so good that I listened to it all the way through a second time!

Yes, I would have to agree with others who have said this one sounds great in quad. I am almost inclined to agree that this is really a "hidden quad gem", although it could just be a happy stereo accident. This one is definitely next in line for a DTS conversion!

Am I missing something here? Does this CD of Ram have to be a DCC gold disk? Or will any plain vanilla CD of this disk decode as well?

 

[cb70]

Okay, after months of lurking on eBay I FINALLY got a copy of the DCC gold disc of RAM for a decent price. I listened to it in its entirety the other night through my QSD-1 and it sounded so good that I listened to it all the way through a second time!

Yes, I would have to agree with others who have said this one sounds great in quad. I am almost inclined to agree that this is really a "hidden quad gem", although it could just be a happy stereo accident. This one is definitely next in line for a DTS conversion!

Sounds great. Now how to obtain a copy?? I need to hear this in surround soon.

On another note, Surcode is releasing a program this Winter that is going to convert stereo to 5.1 surround. Not sure if it's DTS of DD but judging from their other programs, I'd go with the former and presume it might be pretty good.

Seriously though, contact me at [email protected] to arrange a trade or *anything* for a copy of Ram in surround.

Chris

 

[Cai Campbell]

Am I missing something here? Does this CD of Ram have to be a DCC gold disk? Or will any plain vanilla CD of this disk decode as well?

Any copy would probably be sufficient. I just wanted the DCC gold disc since it is such highly regarded as being as true to the master tape of any CD version. I figured if I was going to check it out that I'd get the best. Also, RAM was the last McCartney DCC CD I needed to complete my collection.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Sounds great. Now how to obtain a copy?? I need to hear this in surround soon.

On another note, Surcode is releasing a program this Winter that is going to convert stereo to 5.1 surround. Not sure if it's DTS of DD but judging from their other programs, I'd go with the former and presume it might be pretty good.

Seriously though, contact me at [email protected] to arrange a trade or *anything* for a copy of Ram in surround.

Chris

I'm wary of these software surround processors, but then, I don't have experience with them either, so I shouldn't really comment on them. I love the performance of my QSD-1 so much, I just can't think of messing with a good thing.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Okay, finished up the RAM DTS CD today. For the curious, here is how it was produced:

- DCC 24kt Gold CD used as source
- Upsampled to 132.3 kHz using MSB Link DAC III
- DAC fed directly into Sansui QSD-1 set to surround mode
- Output of QSD-1 digitally recorded at 24-bit, 44.1 kHz (four channel quadraphonic)
- LFE subwoofer channel created by downmixing four main channels to single mono channel, and then applying paragraphic EQ to roll off frequencies above 150 Hz.
- No processing whatsoever of four main channels.
- Encoded to 24-bit DTS.

The results? Pretty darn good. If you don't like vocals in the rear then you won't like this disc. Much of the time the vocals are up front, but a lot of the time vocal placement is haphazard. Still, I like the results.

 

[JonUrban]

Just listened to Cai's conversion. Very interesting, as there are a lot of vocals in the rear. Tracks like "Back Seat of My Car", "Dear Boy", "Ram" and "Uncle Albert, Admiral Halsey" are quite impressive. There is a lot of directional sound coming from all channels.

I forgot how much I liked this album, it's easy to bash PM, but the guy did write some real good music throughout his career.

Macca Aside - I once read somewhere that Paul's biggest problem was that he was a great songwriter, a genious at that, but he was a horrible lyricist. If you think back on his career (post Beatles), he mostly gets trashed for writing "stupid" songs. "Stupid" comes from the lyrics, not the music. All of those "stupid" songs have very catchy melodies, yet the lyrics are lacking.

Just a thought - Good Job Cai, and THANKS!!!

 

[Cai Campbell]

Jon, thanks for the comments. Yeah, I never listened to RAM a whole lot until I started this project. I was surprised to find how consistently good this album is. RAM is a great album from start to finish and has a very unique feel among McCartney albums. It is very natural and down-to-earth sounding, which does reflect McCartney's state-of-mind at the time.

I know the rear vocals are going to be annoying for some but I don't mind them. Since the vocals come from the rears much of the time, I'm guessing this album was not purposefully mixed for surround but rather it is a "happy accident" that it decodes so nicely. Vocal placement aside, it does offer a very involving surround experience.

 

[JonUrban]

Cai,

What would it sound like if you swapped the rears for the fronts before SurCode? Did you listen to it that way?

:-jon

 

[Cai Campbell]

Cai,

What would it sound like if you swapped the rears for the fronts before SurCode? Did you listen to it that way?

:-jon

You know, I had considered trying that. However, since some of the songs have "correct" vocal placement as-is, it would mean selectively flipping the fronts/rears on a song-by-song basis, and this is just more hassle than I want to contend with. Also, it wouldn't be a simple font/back flip, since that would alter the soundstage by inverting it. What is really needed (possibly) for some of the songs is a soundstage "rotation" of 180 degrees. This means that BR becomes FL, BL becomes FR, FR becomes BL, and FL becomes BR. This would be fine if I was doing the whole thing, but doing it selectively on a song-by-song basis becomes an editing nightmare when dealing with four PCM files! One of these days I might revisit the project but for now I'm going to leave it as-is.

 

[sspsandy]

If you really think that Paul wrote lousy lyrics, it would be recommended to give the first McCartney solo album a re-listen (the one with the bowl of cherries on the cover). Personnally, I think that the lyrics on this album are thought provoking, insightful, and deep. Songs like "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Teddy Boy", and "Junk" are still haunting after all these years. My feeling is that Paul knew he would never be able to compete with John in the deep meaning department, and never lived down being the "cute" one in the band. I also think that he was very attached to whimsey, evidenced by writing the song "Yellow Submarine", and couldn't take the whole music scene that seriously after the breakup of the Beatles. Not to mention that his "Silly Little Lovesongs" sold mega amounts of records. "Ram" is a super record, and "Venus and Mars" is really neat too (there's a Q8 version of it too). :brew

 

[JonUrban]

I did not mean all of his lyrics were lousy, I think it is more that he spent 80% effort on the music and 20% on the lyric.

 

[dprokopy]

I also think that he was very attached to whimsey, evidenced by writing the song "Yellow Submarine

Actually, John wrote "Yellow Submarine."

"Ram" is a super record, and "Venus and Mars" is really neat too (there's a Q8 version of it too).

It's available as a DTS CD release (from the original Quad mix) along with "Band On The Run").

 

[BrownRB]

dprokopy said: "Actually, John wrote "Yellow Submarine."

I disagree. Here it is from the man himself, from the 1984 Playboy magazine interview with Paul McCartney. They were asking Paul who wrote certain songs:

PLAYBOY: All right, from the sublime to the . . . less sublime: How about
Yellow Submarine?

PAUL: I wrote that in bed one night. As a kid's story. And then we thought it would be good for Ringo to do.