Surrounded On Sundays - 5.1/quad reviews and summaries

I wouldn't necessarily say pinging ... Just had a quick listen, because my memory of all the individual bits and pieces isn't top notch ... It seems to do two on the right, then two on the left, and then it seems like it is less structured than that. Perhaps one on each side ..... it seems to mix it up a little, rather than a straight alternation of sides. Seems to be predominantly towards the rears...
That is off the Meddle mix... I would need to listen to the Early Years mix to see if it was the same, and I am a little short on time at the moment.

 

For next week's choices

Foreigner debut album

 

Miles Davis Sketches Of Spain

 

Steve Hackett At the Edge of Light and Night Siren

 

Mozart the marriage of figaro - Rene Jacobs

 

Yes Relayer

 

Coltrane and Santana Illuminations

 

Ian Anderson Homo Eraticus

 

Pineapple Thief Your Wilderness and 8 years later

 

Dream theater- self titled 2013

 

David Bowie - David Live

 

Going to check out the new Pink Floyd Pulse now, while wrapping presents

Have fun peoples

 

Okay, thanks. It confirms that the piano note is not stationary in the mix. My extracted Early Years 5.1 mix of Meddle has it not stationary too but it moves back and forth between the two front speakers rather quickly, and because this is such an odd decision, IMHO, I have tried to get confirmation in TEY thread but no replies.

 

Yea it was just a quick listen, but it was definitely moving.

 

For the record the Pulse 5.1 mix is really nice.
Organ floating across the rears. Nice full mix.
It's just the first track, but it's always nice to me when a concert movie steps it up on the 5.1

 

the old Abraxas DTS CD utilised Larry Keyes' original Quadraphonic mix, repurposed to 5.1 with synthesised Centre & LFE. the Centre channel of which at the very least imho can be safely dispensed with, without adversely altering the surround soundfield. i should say a bigger problem with that old DTS release is not the mix itself but the quality of source, transfer and mastering used at the time.

two more Santana Quads have recently been issued on Hybrid Multichannel SACD by UK label Dutton Vocalion, unlike the Abraxas DTS CD both Surround SACDs are currently in print;

Illuminations with Alice Coltrane

Turiya Alice Coltrane*, Devadip Carlos Santana* - Illuminations

and

Live With Buddy Miles

Buddy Miles Express / Buddy Miles & Carlos Santana - Booger Bear / Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!

 

Is that why it sounds odd... the elements of the mix are really good, but it has some dodgy audio... I thought there may have been some phase cancellation issues or something?

 

I have the first one (excellent sonics) and will probably get the second as well, but of course these are Carlos Santana recordings rather than Santana, the group.

 

Also other Santana quad mixes sound great, even if the only way to get them is via tape. I’ve particularly enjoyed Caravanserai, which opens up the sound field is tracks that require that, or that are dense, like Every Step of the Way. Borboletta is another excellent quad mix, despite the different density of the music. Santana I and III both sound excellent, and much better than Abraxas (the DTS disc). Welcome is nice, but I prefer the stereo mix, as the quad is a bit disjointed but at least you get to hear all the layers in detail. Festival is to avoid, the quad mix seems fake.

 

Love this one. One of my most listened to DVD Audio discs.

 

could be, i've never pulled the DTS disc apart to scrutinize it for out of phase stuff but it wouldn't surprise me if there was its a strange sounding one.. "Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen" on Audio Fidelity's 'Collection' Surround SACD's more like it;

Various - The Collection An Adventure In Sound

 

most of the Santana Quad mixes are accomplished, solid examples of Quad, many mixed by the original engineer Glen Kolotkin but things really seemed to go awry with the last two Quads done in San Francisco by Fred Catero.. i don't know what happened or why, maybe the group were contractually obliged to release more Quad but there was little appetite for it by '76 or there was some technical reason why they turned out how they did because Catero did mix (or was involved in the mixing of) some good genuine Quad in previous years incl. Herbie Hancock's "Head Hunters" & "Thrust" but the Quads of "Amigos" & "Festival" are really strange concoctions. "Amigos" is bright and edgy where the Stereo's kinda dark and warm and there's this clangy reverb effect thrown over it, some elements feel like they're being panned about but none of its smooth or very convincing and "Festival" has all sorts of weirdness going on such as Rear channels that are just EQ'd copies of the Fronts.. neither does what 99% of CBS Quads do in decoded SQ form (Catero's Quad of Herbie Hancock's "Secrets" is another exception) and cancel out Centre Front position info when you sum the Rear channels to mono.. very odd.. a shame really as i like both albums but still the earlier Quads are all great, you can't win 'em all!

 

That's good news, and gives hope that the whole album might be offered one day (hopefully sooner rather than later) in a better-sounding version, preferably the original quad without any tinkering. I suspect, though, that Sony is holding on to the Santana quad mixes for whatever reason; if not I think Dutton or Audio Fidelity would have already done them. Sometimes the artists themselves object: Bridge over Troubled Waters was about to be offered in the original quad by Sony Japan last year, but it seems Paul Simon pulled the plug (or so I heard). To my knowlege the only Simon and Garfunkel song on SACD in quad is "My Little Town," and that only because it's on one of Garfunkel's solo albums, the first two of which are available in quad thanks to Dutton. Several of the early Simon albums were also done in quad, and I would love to get my hands on them.

 

Also don't forget to run through any of the albums we have done, if you feel drawn to

Reference to the albums

Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Allman Brothers Band - Live At Fillmore East
Allman Brother Band - Eat a Peach
Anathema - We're Here Because We're Here thanks @riskylogic
Ayreon - The Source thanks @riskylogic

Band - Music From Big Pink ... I did this twice ... must occasionally sleep lol
Bass Communion - Loss thanks @riskylogic
The Beatles - The Beatles (White Album)
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Be Bop Deluxe - Futurama
Be Bop Deluxe - Sunburst Finish
Beck, Jeff - Blow By Blow
Beethoven - 3rd Symphony Eroica
Bjork - Vespertine
Blue Oyster Cult - Agents Of Fortune
Bowie, David - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Browne, Jackson - Running On Empty

Charles, Ray - Ray Sings, Basie Swings
Cobham, Billy - Spectrum
Cobham, Billy - Spectrum (Quad) thanks @-dave--wave-

Davis, Miles - In A Silent Way
Davis, Miles - Bitches Brew
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Depeche Mode - Some Great Reward
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Derek and the Dominos - Layla and other assorted love songs
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Doobie Brothers - The Captain And Me
Doors - LA Woman
Drake, Nick - A Treasury
Dream Theater - Distance Over Time
Dukes Of Stratosphear - Psurroundabout Ride
Dylan, Bob - Blonde On Blonde

Eagles - Hotel California
ELO - debut album
Emerson Lake And Palmer - Tarkus
Emerson Lake And Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

Fagen, Donald - The Nightfly
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Gabriel, Peter - Up
Gallagher, Rory - Big Guns (Best Of)
Gaye, Marvin - Lets Get It On
Genesis - Overview of all thanks @MikeF63
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Genesis - And Then There Were Three
Gentle Giant - The Power and The Glory
Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead

Hackett, Steve - Voyage Of The Acolyte thanks @riskylogic
Hendrix, Jimi - Electric Ladyland

Inxs - Kick
Iron Maiden - Dance Of Death

Jeff Beck Group - Rough And Ready
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Jethro Tull - Minstrel In The Gallery
Jethro Tull - Stormwatch
Jethro Tull - TAAB 2 thanks @riskylogic
Joel, Billy - The Stranger
John, Elton - Madman Across The Water

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band - The Traveller
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King 40th and 50th
King Crimson - Red
Knopfler, Mark - Sailing To Philadelphia
Kooper, Al (with Bloomfield and Stills) Super Sessions

Living Colour - Collideoscope
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Southern Surroundings

Marillion - Afraid Of Sunlight
Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed
Moody Blues - A Question Of Balance
Moody Blues - Seventh Sojourn
Morrison, Van - Moondance
Mussorgsky, Modeste - Carlo Ponti - Pictures At An Exhibition+
Mozart - 40th Symphony

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - Dig Lazarus Dig
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

Oldfield, Mike - Ommadawn
Oldfield, Mike - Five Miles Out
Oldfield, Mike - Crises thanks @Sordel 's overview
Oldfield, Mike - Return To Ommadawn thanks @riskylogic
Opeth - Pale Communion
Opeth - In Cauda Venenum

Pat Metheny Group - Imaginary Day
Pineapple Thief - Dissolution
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse Of Reason
Pixies - Doolittle thanks @Galactus2

Queen - A Night At The Opera

REM - Green
Rich, Charlie Behind Closed Doors
Roxy Music - Avalon
Rush - Hemispheres
Rush - Moving Pictures

Santana - Abraxas
Santana - Lotus
Sly And The Family Stone - Greatest Hits
Steve Miller Band - Fly Like An Eagle

Talking Heads - Fear Of Music
Talking Heads - Remain In Light
Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers - Damn The Torpedoes
Townsend, Pete/Lane, Ronnie - Rough Mix
T Rex - Electric Warrior

Uk - Night After Night
Uriah Heep - Gold From The Byron Era

Wakeman, Rick - Six Wives Of Henry The Eighth
Waters, Roger - Amused to Death
Wayne, Jeff - War Of The Worlds
Who - Quadrophenia
Wilson, Steven - The Raven That Refused To Sing
Wilson, Steven - Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Wings - Band On The Run

XTC - The Black Sea
XTC - Oranges and Lemons

Yes - Close To The Edge
Young, Neil - Harvest

Zappa - Quaudiophiliac

If the mood takes you, please feel free to give us your summary of any of these albums that we have done. For our purposes here, please try and give us information about the mix, in as much or as little detail as takes your fancy.
If you feel so inclined, review the album, and the mastering or anything else about the album that you feel drawn to.
Cheers,
Mark

 

Blood, Sweat & Tears

Studio album by
Blood, Sweat & Tears
Released December 11, 1968
Recorded October 7 - 22, 1968 CBS Studios, New York City using a 16-track recording facility
Genre Rock jazz rock
Length 45:36 (original)
Label Columbia
Producer James William Guercio

Blood, Sweat & Tears is the second album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in 1968. It was commercially successful, rising to the top of the U.S. charts for a collective seven weeks and yielding three successive Top 5 singles. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970 and has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA with sales of more than four million units in the U.S. In Canada, it enjoyed four runs and altogether eight weeks at No. 1 on the RPM national album chart.

• David Clayton-Thomas – lead vocals except as noted
• Lew Soloff – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Bobby Colomby – drums, percussion, vocals
• Jim Fielder – bass
• Dick Halligan – organ, piano, flute, trombone, vocals
• Steve Katz – guitar, harmonica, vocals, lead vocals on "Sometimes In Winter"
• Fred Lipsius – alto saxophone, piano
• Chuck Winfield – trumpet, flugelhorn
• Jerry Hyman – trombone, recorder
• Alan Rubin - trumpet on "Spinning Wheel" (subbing for Chuck Winfield)

Production

• Producer: James William Guercio
• Engineers: Fred Catero, Roy Halee
• Arrangers: Dick Halligan, Fred Lipsius, Al Kooper
• Cover art: Timothy Quay, Bob Cato
• Photography: Harrie George
• Design: John Berg

1. Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie (1st and 2nd Movements - Adapted from "Trois Gymnopedies')
2. Smiling Phases
3. Sometimes in Winter
4. More and More
5. And When I Die
6. God Bless the Child
7. Spinning Wheel
8. You've Made Me So Very Happy
9. Blues, Pt. 2
10. Variation on a Theme by Erik Satie (1st Movement - Adapted from "Trois Gymnopedies")
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be honest, I have never heard this album before. I have always really liked some song off it, but somehow never got around to getting it.
This was one of those albums that when I saw there was a quad available, I umm'd and ahhh'd too long and it became out of print. Then it becomes an issue of "well if I didn't get it then, why would I get it now"... Anyhow it is here now, and i am looking forward to the tracks I know, but have no idea what the other tracks will be like ... For some reason I think the opening track always made me hesitate ... who knows why, the mind is a strange companion.

This album is a quadrophonic sacd.
On Amazon from about $60 https://www.amazon.com/BLOOD-SWEAT-TEARS-Blood-Sweat/dp/B00PRL168M
On discogs from about $60 Blood, Sweat & Tears* - Blood, Sweat & Tears
On Ebay from about $45 (this one is still factory sealed BLOOD SWEAT & TEARS AUDIO FIDELITY MULTICHANNEL SACD FACTORY SEALED 780014219826 | eBay

I am not sure who did the original Quad mix, but
Transferred from 4.0 analog to dsd by Gus Skinas
Mastered by Steve Hoffman

Variations on a Theme by Erik Satie
I know this...
The acoustic gtr sits up front nicely. The flutes create a really pleasant surround field. Beautiful sounding.
We then move into a somewhat psychedelic variation on the theme
Nicely placed horns all around us.
The drums get a really wild mix with cymbals and Tom's dancing all over the field with a flanger effect on them.
It actually sound pretty cool

Smiling Phases
Organ right side. Horns left side and across the rears.
Piano left side.
Bass sounds nice up front.
Drums centred with some nice width.
The piano lead break is an excellent little foray into some jazz-like stuff.
Tambourine right rear.
The horns take the lead and are spread nicely from left side to right side.
The vocal track comes back in. This guy has an excellent voice.
A really nice mix, and an excellent sounding album. I must say I notice how well it has been mastered too.

Sometimes in Winter
Keys on the left side.
Again the horns figure nicely in the immersion. Also percussion adds some nice surround. The muted trumpet in the rears is really nice.
Another nice mix.

More and More
Gtr left side. Drums right side. Organ front. Horns all round. Again the bass sounds really nice.
Another great sounding track even though I would prefer centered drums.

And When I Die
Harmonica left side.
I always loved this song.
Drums with a nice body in the mix.
Horns again make this really nice and immersive.
Hand claps right rear. Percussion all round in various sections also.
Excellent.

God Bless the Child
Lovely arrangement of the horns again.
Guitar left side.
In the change the piano comes in on the right, and we get a nice percussion ensemble. Nice horn lead on the left side.
These guys really knew how to work an interesting arrangement.
Harmonica right side.
We end with another nice horn arrangement.

Spinning Wheel
Probably my favourite BST song that I know.
Drums front. Percussion right. Horns again get good field coverage. Piano left side.
This drummer is really cool too.
Gtr on the left. Trumpet blasts on the right side.
Great arrangement again. Another excellent mix too.

You've Made Me So Very Happy
Possibly the most famous song from the band. And another great track.
Beautifully immersive horn intro.
Organ right side. Gtr left side.
Nice muted trumpet in the rears.

Blues, Pt. 2
The organ fills the whole field. 2 organs?
About 2:45 of really nice organ solo/duo.. not sure.
Drums come in in the centre of the room .
We get a really nice little bass lead.
Then we get a really cool drum solo that really makes use of all channels.
We move into a more structured section with more great horns.
We mellow out to a nice sax lead up front. The guitar right side.
We move into a Sunshine of your love section, that works really well with the full band. A quick quote of Spoonful.
Then we move into a more traditional blues.
Organ left side. Drums rears. Guitar right side.
This is a long and interesting jam that manages to hold the interest and again, although slightly unusual, an excellent immersive listening experience.

Variation on a Theme by Erik Satie
We move into a reprise of the opening theme, that gives the album, a sort of dreamlike, thematic feel.

Well, i have to say that I am really happy that I got this. i think it is an excellent mix, a great album, and really good sounding also.
Apologies if my descriptions aren't quite right for positioning, but the Meniere's is playing up. I must have had too much salt or something in the last couple of days.... but anyway, I feel confident that I can highly recommend this album and quad mix.

Have a great Christmas folks