Mark Brown's Quad Article is UP!!!

A great article by Mark Brown is now up on the L.A. Times Magazine website:

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/06/hear-and-now.html

It mentions lots of stuff about the history of quad as well as the current "underground" conversion scene.

Well done Mark!!

Nice job. I would bet that there is probably a lot more to it on the cutting room floor.

Yikes, the blurbs from Elliot Schiener and Brad Buckles are a bit daunting! :yikes

QQ name dropping everywhere, cool....
Well, of course the producers will state the obvious about "sharing"-I'd have said that too if I were going on record...
Excellent article Mark, thanks!

Good job, Mark!

Excellent article!

I love that quote:
"Excuse my laughing, but it seems so unlikely the Archies would be in quad,” says Parsons.

And it really was, dear Alan.

Like it...makes us "converters"(although he didn't use that word ..or did he?) seem like...cool "nerds"-which is a contradiction in terms..but I like it...

Bob Romano said:

A great article by Mark Brown is now up on the L.A. Times Magazine website:

http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/06/hear-and-now.html

It mentions lots of stuff about the history of quad as well as the current "underground" conversion scene.

Well done Mark!!

Click to expand...

A good one !

Great article, I hope a lot of music industry people read it.

Well, so the usic industry people can come here and see that back in the quad days they did even "The Archies" in quad?
...
Well... why not?

I want the music industry people to see that there is a dedicated fanbase that will buy this stuff.

I get the Times and it was good in the print version as well. Nice job, Mark! First article in a ten-part series?

I must say, it is a bit weird to see this little corner of the blogosphere get this kind of mainstream attention...Sound & Vision is one thing, but the Los Angeles Times?

It is a fine article, indeed...and maybe the time has finally come for all those folks who listen to movies in 5.1 surround to try some old music they love but only remember in stereo. From small beginnings....

ED

Great article, a very nice approach.

A nice little article. Kudos as well to QQ for the mainstream press. Sure, I thought it was fluff overall, but this is the LA Times, and any sort of write-up is going to be impressive indeed. I would love to hear more about the desire to hear current titles, and titles that were never part of the "quad era" in surround. I very much enjoyed hearing some of the producers' comments.

Let's hope this article stimulate someone at Rhino for the next Qaudio release...

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, much left on the cutting room floor, but they did let me run much longer than originally planned because they really liked the concept. Nothing there that all of you people didn't already know, but a decent introduction for people who didn't even know the format existed anymore.

Now that it has published I can add some stuff that didn't make the final cut, and take questions if you've got any. To me the most fascinating part was Cheryl Pawelski's comments. She went through all of Rhino's vault and says that for every quad mix that was released there was at least one or more mixes that didn't get released -- that is, the vault is full of quad mixes that never saw the light of day even back then. She was unable to offer up titles, and had a few suggestions of what she'd like to see next (Aretha's greatest hits? I don't have my notes in front of me).

Alan Parsons still sorely disappointed he wasn't consulted on the DSOTM 5.1. He's still working on some experimental 5.1 mixes, trying to get some record labels interested, including a 5.1 of "Year of the Cat."

Scheiner's dislike for quad was a surprise after his deep immersion in 5.1 since the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" disc.

The reception of CTA and the sales seem to have Rhino very pleased. Here's hoping it opens the flood gates. JW Guercio is very eager to see later Chicago quad mixes come out as he had many more tracks to work with (many of you have heard these, I'm sure).

markbrow said:

....To me the most fascinating part was Cheryl Pawelski's comments. She went through all of Rhino's vault and says that for every quad mix that was released there was at least one or more mixes that didn't get released -- that is, the vault is full of quad mixes that never saw the light of day even back then. She was unable to offer up titles, and had a few suggestions of what she'd like to see next .....

Click to expand...

You know exactly how to rub us the RIGHT way , like kitties... thanks for your insight and trust....

kn'k

markbrow said:

Alan Parsons still sorely disappointed he wasn't consulted on the DSOTM 5.1. He's still working on some experimental 5.1 mixes, trying to get some record labels interested, including a 5.1 of "Year of the Cat."

Click to expand...

Which would have made a good quad release back in the day, but by later in '76 the labels had lost interest, and Janus (The US label YOTC was first released on) didn't do any quad, anyway.

Scheiner's dislike for quad was a surprise after his deep immersion in 5.1 since the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" disc.

Click to expand...

Could be that Scheiner's issue wasn't with the mixes so much as the playback? As has been noted many times, it took a lot of good equipment and cash to hear quad properly, made all the harder because of the three big formats. There were many cheapo and inferior pieces of equipment, of course, and too many listeners probably never enjoyed quad the way it was meant to be heard. And also there WERE considerable variations in mixing styles and approaches, while some material probably wasn't really suited for any multichannel format.

The reception of CTA and the sales seem to have Rhino very pleased. Here's hoping it opens the flood gates. JW Guercio is very eager to see later Chicago quad mixes come out as he had many more tracks to work with (many of you have heard these, I'm sure).

Click to expand...

Yes, that would be nice!

ED

I was trying to find this article today but it appears it's now hidden behind a password protected wall. After finding this thread, I was surprised that we didn't ask Mark more questions, as I recall this article, while very interesting and great, was a bit controversial with regard to the conversion of quad material by "fans", and Mr. ELS not liking that one bit.

Here 'tis: https://web.archive.org/web/20101227145348/http://www.latimesmagazine.com/2010/06/hear-and-now.html