V.D.Q. : CD4 cutting centers: how many worldwide?

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winopener

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
4,208
Very Difficult Question:
USA and Japan were the only countries with CD4 capabilities. We do know that JVC had a cd4 cutting center in Los Angeles and IIRC RCA had one in Indianapolis; JVC in Japan surely has at least one, but... all the other labels (King, Philips, Teichiku...) were all cutting at a JVC center or there was another cd4 cutting facility in Japan other than JVC?
 
I have a couple of RDA CD-4 records that were definitely pressed in Australia. Maybe they imported a stamper?
 
Possible. Warner did that when they pressed some CD4 in Germany.
Or, disc pressed in Japan or USA, imported bulk in the specific country, then sleeved locally: Morricone Soundtracks CD4 had the disc cut&pressed in USA then sleeved in Italy and sold in Italy only.
Which RCA CD4 titles do you have that are Australian?
 
were those few UK Warner CD-4 releases from 1976 (Ralph McTell, Deaf School, Absolute Elsewhere w/Bruford) that were pressed at Sonopress in Germany originally mastered and cut in the USA?
 
Seems so. Sonopress didn't had yet a cd4 cutting facility, so they started with imported stampers with a "made in germany" added in the runout area.
 
thanks for the info.,
its intriguing those few Quad titles came so late in the day from Warner via Europe.. i wonder how that came about?

i imagine someone the ilk of Darrell Johnson (is he still a QQ member?) or bmoura, timbre4, steelydave might have insight on the history of CD-4 cutting?
 
Thanks for the links.
The Billboard magazine is from sept. 14 1974, and it states the availability of cd4 cutting in germany; IMHO probably they started later, since the early 1975 european cd4 release were pressed from USA stampers (America, Dionne Warwick...).
 
Side note on the Billboard article: on page 52-53 there is a description of worldwide quad market back in the (then) present, and it's quite telling that Italy is totally MiA: by 1974 it had few records from the majors (less than 10) but a big bunch of SQ LP and tapes from Vedette.
 
thanks for the info.,
its intriguing those few Quad titles came so late in the day from Warner via Europe.. i wonder how that came about?

i imagine someone the ilk of Darrell Johnson (is he still a QQ member?) or bmoura, timbre4, steelydave might have insight on the history of CD-4 cutting?

There were a few key places where CD-4 Quadradiscs were cut. Best known in the US was the JVC Cutting Center in Hollywood where Tom Nishida from JVC did many of the WEA CD-4 releases including the Doobie Brothers albums. And JVC Cutting Center was also the place to buy CD-4 Imports from Japan like the Jaws Soundtrack on MCA Japan and the Motown CD-4s (Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, Temptations, etc.) They also hired the legendary Stan Ricker to cut CD-4 albums before Stan worked on half speed masters and cutting for Mobile Fidelity and then later in his own firm. Other CD-4 cutting facilities included RCA in the US and JVC in Japan.
 
Possible. Warner did that when they pressed some CD4 in Germany.
Or, disc pressed in Japan or USA, imported bulk in the specific country, then sleeved locally: Morricone Soundtracks CD4 had the disc cut&pressed in USA then sleeved in Italy and sold in Italy only.
Which RCA CD4 titles do you have that are Australian?
 
"Return of the Pink Panther" soundtrack and "And I Love You So" from Perry Como. Australian printed cover and Made In Australia. on the center label.
As an aside I am only aware of two Q8's made in Australia (both from overseas masters) -nothing from local sources. Australia is a bit slow on the - uptake. We DID only get TV here in 1956, black and white until 1975.
 
May also be interesting: The german RCA has produced their own and first german CD-4 record. But unfotunately (to) late in 1977. It was cutted in Japan and there exist also a white CD-4 disc, which works fantastic.. There was heard among others also the song from Baccara "Yes Sire, I can Boogie". But as the RCA would press 1000 or more CD-4 records by JVC Japan, the german JVCManager told, that they have stoppen all the CD-4 activities for starting the VHS-battle. I know this from a RCA Manager in Germany from that time.
 
Pliz pliz pliz.... title and tracklist!!!! Original disco in 4 channel is a total rarity and RCA had quite a bunch.
Seems to be another case of closed-market dumbness: it happened with the Morricone Soundtracks CD4, virtually unknown outside Italy for decades even to the die-hard collectors.
 
One intriguing statement by Greg Bogantz about the RCA Quadulator:
"RCA eventually had a total of eight of them (not all in production)..."

I haven't found the exact post, but (IIRC) in the Yahoo Quad discussion board,
one person operating an independent record cutting business mentioned
they had an RCA Quadulator gathering dust.

Kirk Bayne
 
From my Billboard Magazine searches so far, I tripped across mention of the Quadulator and it seems that it was shown and demo'ed during the 1975 AES Show.
And the some of the demo CD-4 records that have been mentioned on another thread Test Pressings (any Quad system) fall right in-line with this old article.

Billboard Nov 1975 part 1.jpgBillboard Nov 1975 part 2.jpgBillboard Nov 1975 part 3.jpg
 
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