Original Broadway Cast Recording: Fiddler On The Roof [Q8/QR]

[Ed Bishop]

Making a quad mix of this 1964 album must have been tough, for it seems it was a 3-track recording, and that means the mixing engineer didn't have a lot to work with. The solution was to either a) put vocals predominantly in the front channels and the orchestra/accompaniment in the rears, or b)put the orchestra more up front and vocals in back, depending on the song. That's pretty much what you get, so while there is plenty of separation, the mix is limited and not really very well balanced. Not bad, exactly, which is why I rated it a '5,' but only the popularity of the album--which stayed on the charts for four straight years--justified a Q8 release.


ED

[Q-Eight]

RCA certainly had a talent for digging through their archives for Quad releases.

[Ed Bishop]

That they did...but like THE SOUND OF MUSIC soundtrack album, the FIDDLER o.c. was logical to issue in quad simply because it was such a huge seller not only on monaural and stereo vinyl, but on stereo tapes--8-track, cassette, reels, etc. The pair were, simply put, the best-selling RCA Victor titles of the 1960's, stayed on the charts for upwards of four years, and sold well as catalog titles after they were off the album charts. That said, neither title was anything great in quad, and remixed solely because they were so popular (also the reason for Van Cliburn's 1958 Tchaikovsky album to find Q8 issue as well--millions sold, so why not?)

ED

[Larry Geller]

That they did...but like THE SOUND OF MUSIC soundtrack album, the FIDDLER o.c. was logical to issue in quad simply because it was such a huge seller not only on monaural and stereo vinyl, but on stereo tapes--8-track, cassette, reels, etc. The pair were, simply put, the best-selling RCA Victor titles of the 1960's, stayed on the charts for upwards of four years, and sold well as catalog titles after they were off the album charts. That said, neither title was anything great in quad, and remixed solely because they were so popular (also the reason for Van Cliburn's 1958 Tchaikovsky album to find Q8 issue as well--millions sold, so why not?)

ED

These 2 are my holy grails for quad conversions. I have been waiting for like forever for DVD-A coversions to show up on The 'Noid. Romano? Army Of Quad? Beuller?