What is your favorite mix on a Quad tape?

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
I've heard that for around 50 years...Hogwash!! It has a taste and WILL give you a hangover.

I still say Kentucky or Tennessee Whiskey.
 
All you need is a DVD player with anaolog outs. Play the DTS CD and connect the quad reel inputs to the DVD players surround outputs. You will not be able to capture any center or LFE channels, but if it's one of the DTS CDs released by DTS Entertainment that was not a newly recorded for 5.1 release (Parsons, Steely Dan, etc) you will be fine.

I like to watch the reels go round & round?

I have not been keeping up with HT/ Surround sound much - so I will have to get another DVD player or a SACD player.
Something with surround sound outputs, ok. Then find the CDs...well if I can connect it into my old Pioneer QA/QC
stuff I probably wont bother recording to tape.
 
I've heard that for around 50 years...Hogwash!! It has a taste and WILL give you a hangover.

I still say Kentucky or Tennessee Whiskey.

Vodka has the taste/burn of alcohol, yes, but none of the flavor a that rum or whiskey and other alcohols have that, when you breathe them up the next morning, can make you retch. And to drink Vodka with NO burn or alcohol taste, mix it in with water that has a teaspoon of baking soda in it - it kills ALL the burn, hiccups, alcohol taste AND protects your stomach lining from the corrosive effects of the Vodka.
 
Vodka martinis with a little blue curacao are the best!

I haven't heard of the baking soda trick but I'll try it. I drink a little soda water everyday with some Vit. C.
 
I am really liking this Nilsson Schmilsson track "Jump Into the Fire" - the drum solo in quad in truly awesome.
 
I've given this one a lot of thought. Favorite Quad mix?? That's like saying which Supermodel would you rather spend the rest of your life with? It's very difficult to define. Mixes I've personally done would be Stevie Wonder's "Superstition". Always loved that song. Dreamed of remixing it for years and then finally got the chance a few years back. Favorite Quad mix of all time.... but it wasn't ever out on Quad tape, so I guess I can't include that..... or any of the Bee Gees.

As I've gotten older, I've come to dislike some of the early Columbia mixes with their "Something over here - Something over there" approach. They are an interesting sign of their times and do show the early years of Quad and how mixing technology evolved. Same with the early RCA's, I'll have to discount them by their strange mixing patterns. The problem I get is a lot of those early titles would have been great had it not been for the sometimes peculiar mixes.

I will say that some (if not most) of the ABC Records mixes are exemplary. They waited before jumping on the Quad-wagon and when they did, they'd figured it out. Rags to Rufus is an amazing Quad mix - just not my favorite.

Sly Stone's "I Get High On You" is a decent Quad mix, but I don't like the way drums (for lack of a better term) get squeezed into Front Right, while the organ gets the stereo treatment in Front Left and Back Left. Great Song, almost great Quad mix.

While not my all-time favorite mixes, I would say one of the definite top 10 is "Put Your Hands Together" by the O'Jays. Lead vocals centered, backups in stereo in the rears. Horns back, strings front. Conga drum in back left (love percussion in the rears) with a very unusual system in the front. Front drums consist of high-hat FL, snare Center, FR kicker with electric bass FL. Normally, I don't like this kind of split, but because this song has both an active bass guitar and a very punch kicker part.... it works. Definitely up there for my faves.
 
Maybe I should have titled the thread: Your favorite Quad MIXES or moments. So it serves as a reference for people
looking to avoid the fakey & boring stuff! As that was what I really had in mind.
 
Well, in that case I'll never forget my personal "Holy Crap!" moment when I got my hands on the multitrack to Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it through the Grapevine". This song has always screamed multichannel to me. So when I got the opportunity, I jumped at it! The funny thing was, when I was doing my final mix and channel layout, I had no thoughts on doing any silly effects (like on the released version that has the conga spinning around incessantly - I hate that!) Anyway, since I only had one track of drums and one track of congas, I figured ok, let's put our rhythm section in the back ala the Sly Stone Q8. Organ, Bass, Electric guitar & Marvin up front, girls in the back. Since the strings and horns are mixed down to a single track (remember, this is only an 8 track multi), I fattened up the single track with a little studio trickery making it sound somewhat stereo. This I panned to all four channels to flesh out the mix. However, the mix still sounds very organic. I believe it was mostly recorded live... ie: you can hear the organ (in FL) rattling the snare drum of the drum kit (in BL) same on the right side, the pounding conga (BR) can be heard getting picked up by the guitar amp mic in FR.....

Anyway, I digress. When I finished all this placement, I hit play on my mixdown preview and well.... watch the intro on my youtube video.

http://youtu.be/QLf0-hmVfJg

The band tracks build up in a counter-clockwise spin! Never planned that, never hoped to achieve that - it just simply happened as that's how I laid the tracks out.

Best moment ever.
 
I've long thought of the congas going round the room as a sort of musical metaphor for the word going round on the grapevine.. the effect is a bit eerie.. but that's late night listening on your own with too many JD & Cokes for ya.. ;)
 
Great mixes, wonderful performances, so many goodies...

Chicago X Q8, although I prefer the DVD Audio test pressing
m4q7jwYWPMWdVLWD_-h4u-g.jpg

Ship Ahoy - O'Jays Q8, although I prefer the SACD these days.
img1571rs4.jpg

Nilsson Schmilsson Q8/QR
mpZH6bhGeTgEHfpz0EDsWbA.jpg

Birds of Fire - Mahavishnu Orchestra Q8
20100201200443-Untitled-9100129.jpg
 
Well, in that case I'll never forget my personal "Holy Crap!" moment when I got my hands on the multitrack to Marvin Gaye's "I Heard it through the Grapevine". This song has always screamed multichannel to me. So when I got the opportunity, I jumped at it! The funny thing was, when I was doing my final mix and channel layout, I had no thoughts on doing any silly effects (like on the released version that has the conga spinning around incessantly - I hate that!) Anyway, since I only had one track of drums and one track of congas, I figured ok, let's put our rhythm section in the back ala the Sly Stone Q8. Organ, Bass, Electric guitar & Marvin up front, girls in the back. Since the strings and horns are mixed down to a single track (remember, this is only an 8 track multi), I fattened up the single track with a little studio trickery making it sound somewhat stereo. This I panned to all four channels to flesh out the mix. However, the mix still sounds very organic. I believe it was mostly recorded live... ie: you can hear the organ (in FL) rattling the snare drum of the drum kit (in BL) same on the right side, the pounding conga (BR) can be heard getting picked up by the guitar amp mic in FR.....

Anyway, I digress. When I finished all this placement, I hit play on my mixdown preview and well.... watch the intro on my youtube video.

http://youtu.be/QLf0-hmVfJg

The band tracks build up in a counter-clockwise spin! Never planned that, never hoped to achieve that - it just simply happened as that's how I laid the tracks out.

Best moment ever.

I guess my next question should be: How do you get ahold of a multi-track mastertape? Lucky on ebay?? ;)
 
I guess my next question should be: How do you get ahold of a multi-track mastertape? Lucky on ebay?? ;)

It was a digital copy. Some float around on the internet, others you need to know certain folks. A few years ago, a bunch of hi-profile multitracks started appearing on the 'net and then disappeared. I managed to get my hands on those but also began a search for others. Strangely enough, songs I'd only DREAMED of hearing in real "Quad" I've actually gotten to mix for myself!! Superstition, Stayin' Alive, American Pie, Bohemian Rhapsody.....
 
Back
Top