Four Top 40 hits, including one #1.
One of the very last pop quad releases, this album has to be near the top of many collector lists just for the content.
One track, Daybreak, was actually the only quad cut to chart into 1978, making it the format's swan song.
Now for the bad news.
One of two pop titles released in CD-4 only -- God only knows why. That wouldn't be much of a problem but for the fact that parts of the album are unlistenable due to horrendous distortion.
Only a cruel Quad God could take one of the biggest albums ever offered in the format, release a botched quad disc and then cancel the promised quad tape.
I have only my copy to judge, but I've heard they're all bad.
One time I'd sure love to be wrong.
What went awry?
I never read anything about this, but here are my observations.
Early CD-4 pressings were pretty bad: laboratory perfection ran smack into crap grey vinyl. To minimize -- a relative term here -- distortion, albums were compressed, sonically (squishing dynamic range) and physically (restricting grooves to the disc's outer rim). Arista, latecomer to the format in 1976, generally had decent CD-4 pressings that benefited from incremental improvements. Said improvements included a wider dynamic range and the ability to cut grroves closer to the center. Just compare any Arista CD-4 to, say, an early Warner one and the difference is apparent.
But in their excitement, someone forgot who they were dealing with.
Manilow -- the King of Dynamic.
He virtually invented the explosive ballad, the kind that starts soft and low and ends like a nuclear bomb.
I just listened to this tonight and man, does this thing get loud. Somebody got a little carried away with NOT compressing this enough. Two of the hits -- the title track and Daybreak demodulate just fine. But then A) they don't build to an apocalyptic climax, and B) they're both near the record's outer edge, so not so prone to distortion anyway.
As for the two bigger hits ... ugh.
When too loud meets inner groove, it gets ugly.
Looks Like We Made It sounds like it just might make it until the final, key-changed chorus when that same Quad God throws lightning bolts of distortion. But that's a picnic compared to Weekend in New England, whose entire second half is a hellstorm of audio terror rained down by You-Know-Who.
For all this audio misery to be slogged through, how's the mix?
Call it "Arista Eh" -- the same malady afflcting previous Manilow's and Eric Carmen's solo debut.
Druns front, strings rear, but nothing's entirely discrete. Background vocals sometimes (mostly) in rears, but then also in front. And my pet peeve: lead vocal in all channels almost equally. Can't stand that.
Dunno what equipment Tab used on my dts conversion, but I could swear I got a better result on the old B&O back in the day.
Anybody get those two tracks to work, maybe by adjusting carrier level or something?
Anything?
Sure like to know who was in charge of Arista quality control for that release.
"Sounds good!
Let's ship it!"
One of the very last pop quad releases, this album has to be near the top of many collector lists just for the content.
One track, Daybreak, was actually the only quad cut to chart into 1978, making it the format's swan song.
Now for the bad news.
One of two pop titles released in CD-4 only -- God only knows why. That wouldn't be much of a problem but for the fact that parts of the album are unlistenable due to horrendous distortion.
Only a cruel Quad God could take one of the biggest albums ever offered in the format, release a botched quad disc and then cancel the promised quad tape.
I have only my copy to judge, but I've heard they're all bad.
One time I'd sure love to be wrong.
What went awry?
I never read anything about this, but here are my observations.
Early CD-4 pressings were pretty bad: laboratory perfection ran smack into crap grey vinyl. To minimize -- a relative term here -- distortion, albums were compressed, sonically (squishing dynamic range) and physically (restricting grooves to the disc's outer rim). Arista, latecomer to the format in 1976, generally had decent CD-4 pressings that benefited from incremental improvements. Said improvements included a wider dynamic range and the ability to cut grroves closer to the center. Just compare any Arista CD-4 to, say, an early Warner one and the difference is apparent.
But in their excitement, someone forgot who they were dealing with.
Manilow -- the King of Dynamic.
He virtually invented the explosive ballad, the kind that starts soft and low and ends like a nuclear bomb.
I just listened to this tonight and man, does this thing get loud. Somebody got a little carried away with NOT compressing this enough. Two of the hits -- the title track and Daybreak demodulate just fine. But then A) they don't build to an apocalyptic climax, and B) they're both near the record's outer edge, so not so prone to distortion anyway.
As for the two bigger hits ... ugh.
When too loud meets inner groove, it gets ugly.
Looks Like We Made It sounds like it just might make it until the final, key-changed chorus when that same Quad God throws lightning bolts of distortion. But that's a picnic compared to Weekend in New England, whose entire second half is a hellstorm of audio terror rained down by You-Know-Who.
For all this audio misery to be slogged through, how's the mix?
Call it "Arista Eh" -- the same malady afflcting previous Manilow's and Eric Carmen's solo debut.
Druns front, strings rear, but nothing's entirely discrete. Background vocals sometimes (mostly) in rears, but then also in front. And my pet peeve: lead vocal in all channels almost equally. Can't stand that.
Dunno what equipment Tab used on my dts conversion, but I could swear I got a better result on the old B&O back in the day.
Anybody get those two tracks to work, maybe by adjusting carrier level or something?
Anything?
Sure like to know who was in charge of Arista quality control for that release.
"Sounds good!
Let's ship it!"
