Official QQ "What's your Go-To Surround Demo Quality Q8"?

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The best test cartridge I've ever used was the Popular Science Q4 tape on the Project 3 label. It's got a couple of test tracks that have a high frequency tone in all four channels at the same time. Using that track and my 4-channel oscilloscope nets me the best results. Tweak until that band shows four uniform channels on the 'scope.
 
I would most likely pick The Winds of Alamar by Iguana. The hypes at the time was that this was the first album mixed specifically with quad in mind. It was done by some studio cats in Nashville if memory serves. The tape itself came with 100, 1k and 10k tones along with an announcer going through the channels (front left, front left, front left, etc). I also thought the Doobie Bros.' Capt. & Me album was nice in quad. Any of Tomita's albums are cool in quad too.

Biggest disappointment was the Allman Bros. Live at the Fillmore album - not much space on this one. I would add Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman too due to the fact it seems as though all they did was run the L/R channels through a delay line to get the rear L/R

A note on Iguana, Columbia eventually picked these guys up. Their first album contained the tunes on from the tape along with a couple others. It was never released in quad as far as I know.
 
Hi I'm new to Q8's and have 10 so far. What I've noticed is that some knock your socks off with the mix (Billy Paul-War of the Gods), (Poco-Seven) while others sound like stereo duplications of the front 2 channels (Ozark Mountain Daredevils), (Seals & Crofts-Diamond Girls). Please anyone list some great mixes and some poor ones. Thanks, upsbucky
 
You're in the right place upsbucky. The ones mentioned in this thread are good. I would add some personal favorites like Eagles - On the Border, Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow, Guess Who - Road Food, Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Art Garfunkel - Breakaway and Pink Floyd - DSOTM. Aside from the ones I mentioned in an earlier post Deliverin - Poco and Unborn Child - Seals & Croft were not as spectacular as I'd hoped. Personally though, if the music is good I don't mind less "wow" as much as I might otherwise. Hope that gives you some ideas.
 
I am partial to my Ovation demo tape with the 'Electronic Whirlpool' piece. But overall my favorite track of all of my Q8's is a Columbia Quad sampler with Santana's Black Magic Woman. I am not really a big fan of that song but man oh man, that song is killer in Quad with the guitars and percussion swirling all around you and sounds sneaking up on you. It really is amazing.......at least that version on that tape is. I can't speak for other quad versions of it.
 
As luck would have it, it seems to me that when I "win " one on ebay some of the less expensive ones can be overlooked and have a great quad mix. Poco-Crazy Eyes is my current favorite and Arlo Guthrie-Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys is very impressive also.
 
If we're talking about a q8 that is discrete in the most wildly overblown sense, I would have to nominate Mandingo III. There is so much going on on this tape that it sounds like they recorded to two 24 track decks and synched them together. Multiple percussion, horns, moogs, and guitars oozing from every speaker. I played it for a friend of mine who is very much into percussion (being a player herself), and she said it was too much for her. Admittedly, sensory overload does kick in fairly quickly and some of it can be a bit cheesy, but this tape is undoubtedly one of the best workouts of all four of your speakers.

That is an excellent description of how it sounds. I recorded in my copy today and it is a hell of a mix! The SQ is no slouch either, but the Q8 is really insane. It does have a channel swap compared to the SQ though- switch RL with FR and you're set.

As for demo quality Q8's, some favorites of mine for both mix and fidelity are:
Paul Simon- There Goes Rhymin' Simon
Steely Dan- Countdown To Ecstasy
Raiders- Indian Reservation
Jackson Browne- Late For The Sky
 
For me, the Q8s that float to the top of mind are: Edgar Winter - They Only Come Out At Night, Paul Simon - There Goes Rhymin' Simon, The Best of The Doors, Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow, Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies, Joe Walsh - The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get, Santana III (CAQ30595), Focus - Moving Waves, Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill, Doobie Brothers - Stampede
 
I am very fortunate in having to say this . My go to has to be Pink Floyds DSOTM U.K. tape. I have only played it a couple of times , but it impresses quite well!
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