Surrounded On Sundays - 5.1/quad reviews and summaries

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mark winstanley, Jun 15, 2019.

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  1. Captain Groovy

    Captain Groovy Senior Member

    Location:
    Freedonia, USA
    Yes - Sail Away and Good Old Boys. Both on quad vinyl and Reel to Reel. 1972, 1974.

    Jeff
     
  2. Galactus2

    Galactus2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Agreed! Since there was a surround version of bitches brew, finally, I really think there should be one for hot rats as well.
     
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  3. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Definitely. I know Zappa spent a lot of time in the seventies at least messing with surround mixes. Apparently he was quite fond of the idea.

    The only titles i see as actually being released in quad are Overnight Sensation and Apostrophe ... I want a dozen more, but if that is all they have, that will do.
    If there is some wizard out there that can make sense of Zappa's multitracks and edits, then I am not against them remixing a good deal of the catalog into 5.1 :)
     
  4. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Would it be a ZFT thing, or a Universal thing (or on the other hand, who would stop whom...?)(I mean, Gail's gone, so there's nothing to push it forward now but greed...:idea: )?
     
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  5. Tuco

    Tuco Senior Member

    Location:
    Pacific NW, USA
    No, I got mine from a vendor on Discogs. $52 with shipping. Sorry to hear you missed on ebay.
     
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  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  7. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    I you like good surround check out this Blu-ray:
    Return to Forever: Returns - Live at Montreux.

    I am not big on musical video discs as often they don't sound very good, but this one is excellent, dynamic, with great surround.
    Some tracks are from Romantic Warrior which can't be found in surround anywhere else.
     
  8. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I love concert videos. Not what we're looking at, but definitely an interesting band and show.
    Is Al Dimeola with them?
     
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  9. formu_la

    formu_la I'm not a robot

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Yes. Video is secondary for me here. It sounds more like studio recording.
     
  10. Sordel

    Sordel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    p.s. to my comments on Electric Ladyland ... I tried to listen to the Hollywood Bowl live concert today and only managed four tracks. That is one seriously rough live album. :cry:
     
  11. jhw59

    jhw59 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Rehoboth Beach DE.
    Agree, great sound and it really makes my Carver sub work!
     
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  12. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

  13. goodboyfred

    goodboyfred Forum Resident

    Keep up the good work. I don’t have the Ray Charles or Jimi Hendrix discs so i’m out till the next round.
     
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  14. Juggsnelson

    Juggsnelson Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island
    Busy week for me but I will get to Jimi tomorrow or Saturday! I remember the mix being a bit uneven and it isn't my favorite Jimi album but still a worthy pickup. More to come.
     
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  15. Juggsnelson

    Juggsnelson Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island
    Got the lawn mowed this morning and sitting down for ELL in 5.1 right now. This is not a favorite record of mine but it obviously has its moments. Interesting 5.1 mix from Eddie Kramer, whose name makes Kiss come immediately to mind for me. Its great that they included the original stereo mix in high-res.

    Surround notes:

    I dig the background vocals on Have You Ever Been.

    Crosstown Traffic on now....you have to crank it a bit or else it feels weak. There is some fun "cross-town" pans involving the guitars and backing vocals.

    Voodoo Child has much more presence to it. Close your eyes and the band is there with you. The organ in particular sounds great. Heck, the entire band rips it up and it sounds very nice.

    I really enjoy the dual guitar parts in the rears on Little Miss Strange. Great song.

    The intro to Burning of the Midnight Lamp sounds great but the rest of the track falls flat sonically. Jimi's guitar bouncing around is a bit of fun though.

    All Along the Watchtower has nice space in the mix. The fantastic percussion is well balanced. The bass could be a bit more prominent. This is a nice mix and deserves to be cranked up.

    The book is pretty cool and includes lots of interesting pics. The letter from Jimi to the record company is a great read. Detailed notes on the bonus tracks is a nice touch...credits too! I remember thinking the documentary was ok but I didn't rewatch it today. The photo gallery that plays while you listen is well done with lots of photos. Its fun checking out Jimi's wardrobe in detail each time a photo is repeated.

    To me this isn't an essential package but a worthy one. The surround mix works great in places. The extras are good enough and the book/documentary tell the ELL story very well. The music, for me, is just not killer all the way through.
     
  16. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

  17. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    I can agree with that. Sadly the older the albums, the harder to get a consistent mix, due to the amounts of channels to work with and some old recording techniques, but I enjoy them :)
     
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  18. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Great album ... and may well be up soon!
     
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  19. Juggsnelson

    Juggsnelson Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island
    I like that one!
     
  20. Juggsnelson

    Juggsnelson Senior Member

    Location:
    Long Island
    I feel Kramer did the best he could. A good listen. This is my go to for this record.
     
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  21. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Almost added the There's A Riot Goin' On SACD, but that one's just Hi Res stereo. Still a great listen though.

    Wish the Greatest Hits had more bass, but then the vinyl never really did either.
     
  22. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Great band, that I only discovered later in life. I just ended up just getting the album collection and the quad. Definitely worth the purchase.
     
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  23. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    Being 60, their music was always there, always a part of my life.
     
  24. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    There were a ton of R&B artists and such from the seventies that didn't really get much air time in Australia.
    I had heard the Woodstock track, but that was it. It was years later when I heard someone doing Everyday People, and I looked back to see where it had come from that I discovered their stuff.
     
  25. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product Thread Starter

    Greatest Hits
    [​IMG]
    Greatest hits album by
    Sly and the Family Stone
    Released November 21, 1970
    Recorded 1967–69
    Genre Psychedelic soul, funk, rock
    Length 39:56
    Label Epic
    Producer Sly Stone

    Greatest Hits is a compilation album by American recording group Sly and the Family Stone. It was first released on November 21, 1970, by Epic Records.[1]Comprising five singles and their b-sides along with one additional single and one album track, it includes all of the singles from the albums Dance to the Music(1968), Life (1968), and Stand! (1969), and all of their charting B-sides.

    The versions on this compilation are not the single mixes in all cases; some songs appear here in their album lengths and mixes. Mixes sometimes have different timings and differences in vocals and or instrumentation.

    Three tracks released as singles in 1969 appear on album for the first time here: "Hot Fun in the Summertime", "Everybody Is a Star", and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)".

    Greatest Hits was certified quintuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having shipped five million copies in the United States.[1] In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album number 60 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[2]

    The entire album was also remixed for 4-channel quadraphonic sound. The quad album release appeared in the SQ format on LP. This system was also compatible with conventional 2-channel stereo playback systems. For many years the rather rare quadraphonic LP was the only source of "true stereo" versions of the three single tracks, although, technically these were not stereo mixes.

    Normal stereo mixes of the three songs were finally done when the group's catalog was digitally remastered in the 1990s. The album was properly reissued in stereo by Epic/Legacy in 2007. The quadraphonic version was reissued as a hybrid SACD by Audio Fidelity in 2015. This edition also includes original mono single mixes in place of where the stereo recordings would ordinarily be.
    ----------------------------------------------------------
    Ok, today I am not going to be selfish and listen to whatever I feel like. There are a couple of albums some guys really want to check out, or have on here, so we'll go there. That in no way means I am not in the mood for this by the way. I am rather random in my listening, except obviously when doing album threads etc.

    This is firstly a fantastic album. It is a great sampler for someone wanting to check the band out. I don't know how popular they were, but based on the quality of the songs, I can only assume they did very well.

    The format for this one is a Quadrophonic sacd.
    Quadrophonic sound supervisor : Al Lawrence
    Quadrophonic remix engineer : Larry Keyes
    4.0 analog to dsd digital transfer : Gus Skinas
    Mastered for sacd by Steve Hoffman at Stephen Marsh Mastering

    I Want To Take You Higher
    The drums are chugging away on my right. The horns are across the left, with the harmonica. The vocals are spread across the front with Larry Graham's big fat bass sitting up there also.
    We get some nice lead guitar over to the left also. On paper that sounds odd, but this actually works well

    Everybody Is A Star
    Ok so it looks like they have gone with a stable base platform. We have the drums over to the right with the keyboards. On the left we have the horns and organ. Vocals across the front. It quite nicely balanced.

    Stand
    Here the drums have moved to the left. What we have here though is a beautiful spread of vocal. The main vocal is to my right, with backing vocals spread around wide.
    We have a drum roll that slides around the field as an intro.
    In the coda a percussion track fires up just right of the front speakers and the chordal stab comes from various instruments and various directions.

    Life
    Much like the Ray Charles disc, the horns encompass us here. Such a marvellous format for horn driven/augmented music.
    The organ is to my right, and guitar to the left. Drums are right side.
    All these mixes sound very good, but this one is particularly well balanced.

    Fun
    The drums are front and centre here. Guitar to the left. Horns spread. Keys right. Another nice balanced mix

    You Can Make It If You Try
    Drums are right. The vocals are spread all round. Keys right front, just wide. Guitar left front, just wide.
    As Myke said, to some degree the bass is a little low in some tracks. This still is an enjoyable mix though.

    Dance To The Music
    Drums are spread here, with percussion mixed in also. Snare right, kick center, tambourine left. Horns spread.
    Another unusual mix the works surprisingly well.

    Everyday People
    Drums right. Piano just left of center. Horns spread and nicely balanced. Guitar right.
    What a great song.

    Hot Fun In The Summertime
    Drums right. Strings and horns spread. A couple of keys, one front, one right.

    M'lady
    Drums right. Horns spread. Guitar front left. Lead guitar right. Bass right.

    Sing A Simple Song
    Drums front. Horns spread. Guitar left. Organ right.

    Thank You (falettinme be mice elf agin)
    Drums right. Bass right. Guitar left front. Wahwah lead guitar riff right front. Vocals spread.
    This mix sounds like it would be weird, but it really accentuates the groove nicely.

    ----------------------------------
    With a lot of the earlier quad mixes we have what from a 2019 perspective seem like unusual mix choices, but several things have to be taken into account. How many channels/tracks they have to work with is a big one. Another thing is, it is early on in the surround mixing days and just like stereo, people were trying things out.
    A mix like this, may really bug the purists, but the fact of the matter is, for this album, this mix works well. It doesn't sound out of balance at all, just a little unusual in terms of what we are generally used to in placement.
    On this album for example, the placements more often than not really add to the groove of the album/song. Particularly in Thank You, those unusual placements really add to the groove of this songs, giving it a super funky feel and, because the instruments are playing different accents on the rhythm, in makes you want to get your butt up and groove with it.

    Similarly to the Hendrix mix, you can hear some small limitations put in place by the time and equipment, but for me at least, they do not negatively impact my enjoyment of the surround environment.
    I started buying surround albums, because a) I enjoyed them a lot and b) because at the time I was running logic pro on my mac and enjoying mixing in surround. Some of these albums were somewhat teaching me what kind of things were possible. Sadly the studio is gone, and so is the time to actually use one, but it actually makes it really easy for me to now sit back and appreciate the thought and work that others have put into their mixes.

    A great album.
    A very interesting mix, that does work.
     
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