Chad Kassem on the Future of SACD Releases

Chad Kassem, owner of Acoustic Sounds and Analogue Productions, offers some interesting comments on the future of the SACD format during the recent DSD Panel at The Show Newport 2015:

"An audience member asked if Super Audio CDs (SACDs) have a future. Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds said “If they weren’t selling, we wouldn’t be doing them.” Kassem noted that the 5.1 Multichannel SACD of Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd has sold over 40,000 copies to date. He said that the success of that SACD reissue led to interest in additional SACDs from Pink Floyd band members including the upcoming 5.1 Multichannel SACD of Amused to Death by Roger Waters which is scheduled for release on July 24."

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http://positive-feedback.com/Issue79/dsd_panel.htm

Atom Heart Mother quad, pliiiiiiiiiiiiiz

I'd prefer Meddle or Animals in 5.1

Atom Heart Mother or Meddle please after the Wall. I would pass on Animals

I'll take any PF 5.1 they want to put out...but given a choice, it would be MEDDLE and then ANIMALS. Some of us are still waiting for some of the early Syd sides to be remixed to stereo (finally); some have, a few are still MIA, I believe.

MEDDLE seems so ridiculously logical I'm surprised it wasn't done back in the day...always a consistent seller and fan fave.

ED

In QUAD or 5.1 any PINK FLOYD including the MILES OF LIVE QUAD TAPE SHOWS for my choice.

Animals, Meddle, Obscured By Clouds, Electric Moo, More, Atom Heart Mother, Relics, Saucerful Of Secrets, and Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, also Pompeii.All would be my primary requests. Anything 70's and prior for my palate.




El fizz

Ed Bishop said:

I'll take any PF 5.1 they want to put out...but given a choice, it would be MEDDLE and then ANIMALS. Some of us are still waiting for some of the early Syd sides to be remixed to stereo (finally); some have, a few are still MIA, I believe.

MEDDLE seems so ridiculously logical I'm surprised it wasn't done back in the day...always a consistent seller and fan fave.

ED

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As long as the Pink Floyd Multichannel SACDs keep selling, I'm sure Chad and the team at Acoustic Sounds will look for more titles to release in that format.
Definitely an area to keep an eye on.

You'd think now that Parlaphone owns the rights to Pink Floyd releases, they'd be all over trying to get unreleased material out. So far we've gotten The Division Bell 5.1, The Endless River, and The Wall singles RSD box.

I'm getting a little faint...thinking about older Floyd in Quad......oh boy.

I'd love Meddle and Animals in Quad/5.1, Atom Heart Mother would be great too, how about Live in Pompeii as a 4.0 SACD?

I set aside money to buy the blu-ray remaster for every single album (Piper -> Wall) when they started the HD remaster project. Still really bummed that they just pulled the plug after only 2! (DSOTM & WYWH)

I'm pretty happy to have the quad mix of WYWH in 24/96 HD since that was the quad release that was in the worst shape sonically (that Q8 had SO much hiss!). The fidelity is at least more or less excellent in the copies of AHM & Pompeii that some of us have copies of - so at least I have all the official surround releases in good shape.

I know they have these remasters in the can. They released CD reductions from them! I hope they decide to release the HD masters while I still have my hearing!
I suppose now after unearthing Pompeii, the unreleased quad mix of Meddle is my current holy grail Floyd artifact.

Someone mentioned "miles of tape of live quad mixes"...
I doubt it.
They used a split system (big stereo system + a quad system with all the inputs available to both). I don't think they have any recordings of the live quad mix. They were only making stereo fold down mixes to cassette on the Animals tour even.

I think we may have interpreted the quote above as "Pink Floyd" (the band and their albums) where as it says "additional SACDs from Pink Floyd band members including .. Roger Waters ATD..." etc.

From 'band members' probably means their solo albums. I'll keep my fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath.

HomerJAU said:

I think we may have interpreted the quote above as "Pink Floyd" (the band and their albums) where as it says "additional SACDs from Pink Floyd band members including .. Roger Waters ATD..." etc.

From 'band members' probably means their solo albums. I'll keep my fingers crossed but I'm not holding my breath.

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If the Amused to Death SACD sells well, I think both (Pink Floyd and band member albums) are possible. The Wall is the only specific title I have heard mentioned as a potential 5.1 SACD - but it apparently needs a lot of work. Or so I heard at a past presentation on the topic.

bmoura said:

... The Wall is the only specific title I have heard mentioned as a potential 5.1 SACD - but it apparently needs a lot of work. Or so I heard at a past presentation on the topic.

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Two thoughts:
Waters In the Flesh live SACD may be the precedent for a Waters The Wall live SACD.

I would think The Wall album has the best sales potential as a surround release. Personally I would buy any Pink Floyd album in surround (but would prefer to buy them all!)

Atom Heart Mother need only a proper packaging, no need to remix again what's already present in a discrete quad master located somewhere in the vault. That's why i was suggesting AHM...

HomerJAU said:

Two thoughts:
Waters In the Flesh live SACD may be the precedent for a Waters The Wall live SACD.

I would think The Wall album has the best sales potential as a surround release. Personally I would buy any Pink Floyd album in surround (but would prefer to buy them all!)

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A live SACD of "The Wall" already exists (from the 1990 Berlin performance)
I've been going on for years about how "The Wall" needs to have a proper 5.1 surround mix, but Pink Floyd time is kind of like Led Zeppelin time. When asked at the press conference for the "Celebration Day" film why it took five years for the film to get released, John Paul Jones replied: "5 years is like 5 minutes to Zeppelin. I'm surprised we got it out so quickly."

Question: Why haven't extraterrestrial intelligence got a contact with humans yet?

Answer: A living form that hasn't produced digital surround sound off all albums of a band like Pink Floyd doesn't yet deserve being contacted .

I've been told of that a quad mix of Meddle does exist. However the quad mix of Animals is a complicated matter. A quad release was announced, then never released back in 1977. I cannot find any confirmation if a quad mix was actually completed.

As for AHM, I'd love to finally have a high res digital copy from the quad master tapes. All I have is the UK discrete Q8. The title track I feel is essential quad and really needs a remaster/re-release.

arnold_layne said:

I've been told of that a quad mix of Meddle does exist. However the quad mix of Animals is a complicated matter. A quad release was announced, then never released back in 1977. I cannot find any confirmation if a quad mix was actually completed.

As for AHM, I'd love to finally have a high res digital copy from the quad master tapes. All I have is the UK discrete Q8. The title track I feel is essential quad and really needs a remaster/re-release.

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The question on Atom Heart Mother is does the band like the current Quad mix? As you know, they didn't like the Alan Parsons Quad mix of Dark Side of the Moon so the album had to be remixed and remastered before they would approve a 5.1 Multichannel SACD release. It could be the same story for the other albums.

bmoura said:

The question on Atom Heart Mother is does the band like the current Quad mix?

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The other question is, do they still like Atom Heart Mother at all? I don't think so.