Quad LP/Tape Poll Santana: Abraxas [SQ/Q8]

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rate "Santana Abraxas"

  • 10: Great sound, mix, content

    Votes: 8 25.8%
  • 9

    Votes: 17 54.8%
  • 8

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • 7

    Votes: 3 9.7%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5: Mediocrity Central

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Sux

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    31
This mix sucks balls! Terrible compared to stereo mix. Lead guitar literally goes missing at times and there is no bass.
 
Personally I am rooting for a box set of Santana just like the Chicago Quadio release. The first nine albums, Santana, Abraxas, III, Caravanserai, Welcome, Borboletta, Amigos, Festival, and Moonflower. It would cover almost the exact same years, 69-76/77. I have the first seven but I want legal copies.
 
Personally I am rooting for a box set of Santana just like the Chicago Quadio release. The first nine albums, Santana, Abraxas, III, Caravanserai, Welcome, Borboletta, Amigos, Festival, and Moonflower. It would cover almost the exact same years, 69-76/77. I have the first seven but I want legal copies.

That would be great, indeed, even if the last two Quad mixes are supposedly duds. ("Moonflower" was never released in Quad AFAIK.)
Unfortunately, I currently have no confidence that Sony will release anything like this, given their gross underutilization of surround sound over the last 5 years or so, but maybe, just maybe, if the Chicago set does well, it will spur them on to do something like this for Santana or another one of their more popular artists, but I'm certainly not holding my breath for it…
 
Personally I am rooting for a box set of Santana just like the Chicago Quadio release. The first nine albums, Santana, Abraxas, III, Caravanserai, Welcome, Borboletta, Amigos, Festival, and Moonflower. It would cover almost the exact same years, 69-76/77. I have the first seven but I want legal copies.

I would replace Amigos (which is fake Quad, don't ask me why!!) with Lotus...especially if it's Sony JAPAN, and since there was never a REAL stereo mix, they are all SQ encoded...
 
I would replace Amigos (which is fake Quad, don't ask me why!!) with Lotus...especially if it's Sony JAPAN, and since there was never a REAL stereo mix, they are all SQ encoded...

Still, I would be really intrigued to hear the Quad master tapes of "Amigos" and "Festival", regardless, not least to hear exactly how they are supposed to sound without the limitations of SQ, etc..

One thing that struck me was how three Quads that came from Sony's studios outside NY (Columbia in San Francisco iirc?) and engineered by Fred Catero (Herbie Hancock's "Secrets" and Santana's "Amigos" & "Festival") are the most noticeable examples of seemingly faked Quad from Columbia.. (steelydave suggests "Happy Feelin'" from EW&F's "That's The Way Of The World" is a fake Quad.. & I would say in addition to that "Sophie" from Jeff Beck's "Wired" is another faked Quad track, both in isolation to the rest of their parent albums where the other tracks are all genuine Quad)

..and yet Catero's earlier "HeadHunters" & "Thrust" Quads were excellent mixes.. makes me wonder if something didn't go awry with their Quad gear out there, or maybe they just gave up trying as Quad limped on and they were committed to Quad (contractually, I mean.. or because the artists themselves, i.e. Herbie Hancock and Santana wanted their work mixed and released in Quad at that time?) but thought "who really cares about this anymore? lets just fake it, maybe no-one will notice!"
 
.... makes me wonder if something didn't go awry with their Quad gear out there, or maybe they just gave up trying as Quad limped on and they were committed to Quad (contractually, I mean.. or because the artists themselves, i.e. Herbie Hancock and Santana wanted their work mixed and released in Quad at that time?) but thought "who really cares about this anymore? lets just fake it, maybe no-one will notice!"

Ahh Quaaludes...in the UK it was Mandrax....
 
They were all too off their faces in SF by '76, so they just faked the Quad mixes? Wow.. that's one theory I hadn't considered.. :confused:

YOU BET YOUR SWEET BIPPIE!!!! ...'ludes were everywhere...we used to call them "Tape erasers" cause they made your memory VERY Fuzzy the next day...not that I EVER did any... ;)
 
Still, I would be really intrigued to hear the Quad master tapes of "Amigos" and "Festival", regardless, not least to hear exactly how they are supposed to sound without the limitations of SQ, etc..

Regarding Amigos, there hasn't been a Q8 ever, so it's all speculation; about Festival, the Q8 is IMHO the most disappointing Q8 ever done by Columbia. Double stereo with different EQ front/rear.
If they had to do a box, there's plenty of stuff:
I
Abraxas
III
Caravanserai
& Buddy Miles Live (fake live, but ok)
Welcome
& J.McLaughin Love Devotion and Surrender
& T.A. Coltrane, Illuminations
Lotus (triple lp)
Borboletta

That's 12 slabs of SQ LP ready to go in a digital discrete form. Enough for a boxset.
 
YOU BET YOUR SWEET BIPPIE!!!! ...'ludes were everywhere...we used to call them "Tape erasers" cause they made your memory VERY Fuzzy the next day...not that I EVER did any... ;)

oh kap! you're outrageous! :yikes ;)
I wonder if that's what happened to "The Second Arrangement" from Steely Dan's "Gaucho" sessions..!? The engineer dropped some quaaludes and erased the tape! :(
(that reminds me there's a gig from the Century Plaza Hotel in '78 where EJ did 1st performances from his then new album, A Single Man, for MCA execs.. and during it he "jokes" about doing quaaludes etc backstage.. eek :eek: )

anyway.. brax to Abrackus.. I mean brexit to Abacus.. I mean back to Abraxas.. its funny Abraxas gets maligned in Quad, I wonder what those same people who knock Abraxas think of Amigos & Festival in Quad..?

The engineers were on QUADLUDES, maaaaaaan...!!! :smokin
 
Regarding Amigos, there hasn't been a Q8 ever, so it's all speculation; about Festival, the Q8 is IMHO the most disappointing Q8 ever done by Columbia. Double stereo with different EQ front/rear.
If they had to do a box, there's plenty of stuff:
I
Abraxas
III
Caravanserai
& Buddy Miles Live (fake live, but ok)
Welcome
& J.McLaughin Love Devotion and Surrender
& T.A. Coltrane, Illuminations
Lotus (triple lp)
Borboletta

That's 12 slabs of SQ LP ready to go in a digital discrete form. Enough for a boxset.

Thanks for the recap.. so, are you saying you would rather the Amigos & Festival Quads were not included in a potential Santana Quad Box set?

Aren't you curious to hear what the actual Quad masters of Amigos & Festival sound like?

Maybe the Q8 of Festival got screwed up? Maybe the SQ of Amigos got screwed up also?

Hope springs eternal, as RT would say! :D
 
Thanks for the recap.. so, are you saying you would rather the Amigos & Festival Quads were not included in a potential Santana Quad Box set?

Aren't you curious to hear what the actual Quad masters of Amigos & Festival sound like?

Maybe the Q8 of Festival got screwed up? Maybe the SQ of Amigos got screwed up also?

Hope springs eternal, as RT would say! :D

Yeah , what the hell...we might as well have them all in 96 (NOT 192...PLEASE!!) Hi Res...even if they are not REAL quad mixes!!!
 
Yeah , what the hell...we might as well have them all in 96 (NOT 192...PLEASE!!) Hi Res...even if they are not REAL quad mixes!!!

What if they are/were real Quad mixes but something went disastrously wrong back in the day..?

I admit its a stretch.. and I doubt they're anything but faux.. but it just seems slightly strange to me that Fred Catero should do such great Quad mixes on HeadHunters & Thrust (I mean, like, excellent ones!) and then Secrets, Amigos & Festival would all be shitty fakes.. it doesn't add up.

Saying that I double-checked my LPs earlier and Catero only gets a specific Quad Remix Engineer credit on Secrets, he's credited as Engineer on Amigos & Festival but no specific Quad credit, so maybe that's indicative of something..

..but then there are plenty of great Quads that are unmarked/uncredited wrt Quad remix engineer.. hmm..

..and the most likely complete fake would be Festival, if the Q8 is accepted to be an accurate rendition of the master tape Quad mix, described as having double stereo with EQ jiggery pokery to differentiate front from back (like some of the RCA Q8s iirc?).. then how comes Secrets & Amigos SQ LPs are not double stereo when decoded by the Surround Master? Its just odd...

Secrets is almost bearable (its such a great album I just enjoy the Quad anyway) but with the Amigos Quad as I've ever heard it decoded from SQ vinyl it is hard to know exactly what they were trying to do with the Quad.. even if it is a total fake, its a pretty messed up one!

..curious me would just like to know either way whats going on with Amigos & Festival, really.. and at least hear them in the best quality even if they are fake, as you rightfully say El Kappo if (and its a big IF) there ever is a Santana Quadio box, we might as well have them all - the good, the bad and the upmixed..! :upthumb
 
...

..and the most likely complete fake would be Festival, if the Q8 is accepted to be an accurate rendition of the master tape Quad mix, described as having double stereo with EQ jiggery pokery to differentiate front from back (like some of the RCA Q8s iirc?).. then how comes Secrets & Amigos SQ LPs are not double stereo when decoded by the Surround Master? Its just odd...

Secrets is almost bearable (its such a great album I just enjoy the Quad anyway) but with the Amigos Quad as I've ever heard it decoded from SQ vinyl it is hard to know exactly what they were trying to do with the Quad.. even if it is a total fake, its a pretty messed up one!

...

Very interesting about the Surround master results...

The Amigos mix..there was something VERY WEIRD going on cause I swear I've heard a few things in a SPECIFIC channel...

I totally agree with you regarding your theory that something DEFINITELY went awry with these mixes.

ANYWAY, sorry for the derail..back to our scheduled programming..back to you, Howard!!
 
Thanks for the recap.. so, are you saying you would rather the Amigos & Festival Quads were not included in a potential Santana Quad Box set?
Aren't you curious to hear what the actual Quad masters of Amigos & Festival sound like?

Honestly, not. Any surround processor can do a more discrete version of Festival than the master duplicated in the Q8 version. Any.
For Amigos... i had already been bummed big time with Festival, so no way to risk such a bumming again. One has been enough, especially because i love Festival!
 
Are you referring to a DTS rip of the Quad LP or Q8?

The actual DTS CD of this was 100% crap!!

I have the actual DTS CD, sounds great to me. I would of course rather have it in hi rez, but i am quite happy with this. Love the mix, one of my top 10 quads.
 
:banana:I give this a 9 and I see i'm not alone in that! Great album, great mix. This really was the album that signaled that Santana was here to stay. Really there's not anything bad to say about it. One of the quad records every quad fan should own. Any classic rock fan will also agree that it is one of the best albums of all time! :music :banana:
 
Just gave the SQ disc a spin on a new turntable so figured I'll comment. It's definitely one of the those legendary quad mixes everyone needs to hear...sure it's a little gimmicky but lot of fun. I've heard both the DTS and the robin reel conversion. The reel does have more bass the but DTS really isn't that awful IMO.

Personally I gravitate more to I and III lately but this is just as brilliant. 10
 
Just gave the SQ disc a spin on a new turntable so figured I'll comment. It's definitely one of the those legendary quad mixes everyone needs to hear...sure it's a little gimmicky but lot of fun. I've heard both the DTS and the robin reel conversion. The reel does have more bass the but DTS really isn't that awful IMO.

Personally I gravitate more to I and III lately but this is just as brilliant. 10

If you give the DTS RBCD of Abraxas a 5 db bass boost.......really helps and boosts the midrange a little.

SONY Japan NEEDS to remaster this and release it in QUAD on SACD.

With properly restored EQ, I think the hyperactive surround on this album will shine a lot brighter!:sun
 
Back
Top