Albums That Were Recorded FOR Quadraphonic Sound.

Synergy's first album "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra" was only released in QS quad (at least during the vinyl era).

 

I have that Synergy album on CD. Would love to hear the original multitrack, somewhere...

 

I heard a piece Herbie did in 11.2 at a demo at CES conducted by Tomlinson Holman (the TH in THX).

 

You're giving me ideas, lol. My wife has "tolerated" my recent quad acquisitions (although, she likes listening to The Q8 of the Carpenters I have. I found a good Q8 PB deck...) Anyway, ironically, I just received in the mail a copy of the Santana SQ album you're demo-ing. It sounds GREAT. (Thru a Lafayette SQ-W...) Personally, I need to stop playing Oye Como Va so often; it WILL eventually wear out... (I have a midline JVC quad R2R that needs some minor repairs to dub the LP onto. But it still won't be the same.

 

Rip it, and maintain an offsite backup. It's going to become almost impossible to replace these old quad recordings, and I doubt we'll ever get any of them released even on modern digital formats (like SACD or as high-res downloads), let alone on vinyl.

 

Thanks for the reply. You're absolutely right...

 

I agree. I have the same LP... I'd been listening to the SACD for a loooong time, though (ironically, huh?) before getting my hands on the quad stuff. But the SACD, SQ LP, the Q8 track, of course--each have their own unique 'signatures' (for better or worse, respectively...) But I keep going back to the 5.1 SACD, however. Maybe I'm just familiar with it(?). Alan Parson's knew what he was doing, though on the original mix. I've found some real quad duds over the past year or so. I can now see (hear?) what some listeners have said about "missed opportunities" on some albums, or lack of creativity.

 

i have the lp..havent heard it yet in quad but it sounds better in stereo than the stereo version with some different mixes

 

I like the SACD mix too. But keep in mind that the SACD 5.1 mix was a completely new mix done in 2003 by James Guthrie. The original Parsons Quad mix can be found on BluRay as part of the Immersion BoxSet

 

I found this on YouTube.



It talks about how some of the material was recorded with Quadraphonic sound in mind.

 

A shame it was also released on the hugely inferior SQ matrix system. QS was way better, and in the era, many times better on decoding. Sansui's Matrix decoders were the best. And if it had been released as QS, it could have also been single inventory for everybody.

 

One of Quad biggest failings (and it had a few) was that the formats were developed by record companies independently. If an electronics company had of developed either a matrix or discrete system that was willing to be open with licencing, then it could have lived on, at least for the Hi-Fi crowd into the 1980's. Surround sound music will wont be mainstream for a long time (if ever). Surround sound requires people to sit down an enjoy music. Most people don't engage with music like that and usually have it on in the background of another task.

But hey, it would have been cool to see albums like Thriller, Purple Rain, The Wall or Rumours in Quad.

 

Sansui was an electronics company (they developed QS) and had no Japanese record label. Does that count? Discrete was only practical on tapes. Quad came of age when the USA had the oil shortage, and vinyl pressing quality was becoming lesser.

 

That does. The format war between Quadraphonic standards was very messy and there were far too many standards.

The industry should have chosen between the three most common standards (QS, SQ and CD-4) and picked a winner before going to market.

If there was a format war - it really should have been a decesion between matrix and discrete. I feel matrix would have been the clear winner due to the ease of manufacturing of the discs and the consumer not requiring a new stylus and cartridge (also the ease of producing cheaper all-in-one systems with matrix).

I’m sure if reel to reel was more mainstream and 8 track was more accepted outside the US (or car systems had a fold down option for 4 channel cartridges) that may of helped too.

It’s interesting to look back and see how many consumer formats were fighting it out. To add Quadraphonic and it’s various encodings to the mix would have made consumers head spin and it’s little wonder it was rejected all together.

 

In the USA record industry in oil shortage, inflationary 1973, CD-4 was not a practical Quad format. It demanded half speed mastering, top quality plating and pressing on very expensive pure vinyl formulations. Pressings had to be far higher quality than the US record industry could produce at reasonable prices. It demanded expensive cartridges and Shibata styli, and very precise, finicky setup. SQ had phasing issues which hurt single inventory sales, and too poor performance. Sansui's QS worked the best which was practical for most needs, it was Stereo and mono compatible without phase artifacts, it didn't demand half speed mastering, the Vario-Matrix decoders worked well, and it also could be offered easily as single inventory for everyone and work for all needs. And the records lasted a lot longer for QS Quad than CD-4.

 

This is the Sansui we have. The built in decoder thing is problematic and a repair guy says parts are practically impossible to find. Aside from that, he also said, we would need a quad turntable cartridge or better yet, a quad reel-to-reel to make anything happen. Good luck finding a quad reel and reel tapes.

So we just use it stereo, and its ass-kickin' good.

 

When one thinks back to early stereo (Paulie and George out of one speaker and Ringo drumming way over there, anyone?), isn't it odd they couldn't have tried to get it consistently right while trying to sell the public on a similar development. At least they tried to support the "software" to back up the hardware for a number of years, rather than bailing out early (Sony SACD discs, I'm lookin' at you...).

 

Unless, say, Dutton-Vocalion starts to do really well with these lesser-clamored-for releases they're putting out, and it encourages others to dip their toes back into the water...

 

SQ was far superior to QS, which had severely compromised separation compared to SQ.

 

SQ was good when the Fosgate/Tate decoder was launched. Which was 5 years too late. Quad was best really on open reel tapes.

 

I think Jimi Hendrix envisioned surround but was limited to the stereo of the time and tried to use phasing to achieve a surround effect, especially with panning a la Electric Ladyland. There was actually prototype surround on my grandparents 1959 zenith console, it had a setting for 'extended stereo' by hooking up rear speakers. Just setting the rear out of phase would create a quad effect if something got panned or was presented out of phase.

 

not only that but it was more expensive from the get go.
quad 8-tracks get short shrift but they were acceptable on a consumer level, except of course waiting forever to repeat a song
of course the vinyl format war was silly on a level of vhs vs. Betamax.
I still love quad reel and to this day it's my preferred audiophile format. I copy all my Q8's and SACDs DVD-A etc. to this format and to my ears it just sounds terrific.

 

There are also a few torrents of DVD-A ISO file fan conversions going around of Quad albums. These have been circling the Quad community for years. My favourite is the Walls And Bridges Q8 mix that Lennon did himself!!!

 

Friends at QuadraphonicQuad can get a person up to speed on that...doubt we can really chat about that here.

 

this quad mix is much better than the Imagine one.