Are any original Quad Reel releases commercially available on DVD-V compatible discs?

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Quadradude

Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
33
Location
GNO Area, LA.
(Please pardon the somewhat erratic trains of thought, it's been a long day and it's not over yet...)

Basically, I've found a few iso files online that contain files in both the AUDIO_TS (DVD-A) and VIDEO_TS (DVD-V) directories.

I downloaded the iso files that were available for a few of the quad titles that I personally own on either Q4/Q8 or CD-4/QS/SQ, burned them to discs, and quickly learned that not all of these were created equal, many of them are DVD-A only as they have empty VIDEO_TS folders and none of my players will read them.

Apparently the files in the AUDIO_TS folder are the full uncompressed "DVD-Audio" disc version which only some players (that know what a DVD-A disc is) will read while the files in the VIDEO_TS folder are in either DTS and/or Dolby Digital surround formats, both of which are compressed formats, both of which any consumer DVD Player will assume is a video disc and automatically knows what to do with.

I also found that any of these which contain files in the VIDEO_TS folder will work in my DVD and Blu-Ray players, although of course they are compressed and require a modern DD/DTS surround decoder.

The available iso files of CD-4/SQ/QS disc conversions that I've been able to find are all over the map, some astonishing, some terrible for a number of reasons other than artistic, and which of those 3 formats occasionally doesn't even seem to matter. I suspect that the dvd disc creator's choice of format decoder (both hardware and software) plays a major role in their outcome.

I heard one SQ release (which included well suppressed but still apparent turntable rumble when listening at very loud levels) with natural sound on all 4 channels (not all hollow/echoey in back and muddy up front) and separation that I would've damn near sworn was from a Q4 tape if it hadn't been for the rumble of the record on certain tracks when I cranked it up loud.

I also heard a Q4 dub that the original artistic concept was vague and downright disappointing...

Most of the Q8 dubs are somewhere between good and okay, usually either good fidelity with mediocre artistic quad concepts or otherwise impressive quad concepts that get muddled up and lost in the muddy/hissy low-fi mix...

Surprisingly, I realize that DTS and DD are compressed formats but a couple of the Q4 dubs and even a few of the Q8 dubs I've found on these dvd iso discs when played through my modern 5.1 receiver and vintage speakers sounds as good or better than my quad originals and makes me very happy that I found them...

So what I'm seeking is any commercially available releases of the original discs these files came from where the source was either an original release of the Q4 or Q8 tape, especially any by artists I like but don't yet own in quad.

Is there such a thing as commercially available legitimate releases of these original Q4/Q8 content discs or are they all home-made and if so, is there a reference list to browse and choose from?

I've seen a few of these titles listed for sale on amazon and I've seen a couple of services online who are offering to create these types of dvd discs for customers "from your original quad record/tape copy" and I've seen a couple of sites that have fairly thorough lists of what artists/titles were available, what label, and which format(s) but what I can't find is anywhere that lists those originals along with information for buying commercial multi-channel dubs of them on playable dvd discs.

Basically, my only SQ and QS(RM) decoders are built into my Akai AS-980 and I've never heard really good quad from either of them and even with the original Akai CD-4 setup record I've never been very satisfied with that receiver's built in CD-4 decoder.
I have a Panasonic CD-4 decoder but it doesn't always hold one side's front/rear channels apart very well and the Marantz CD-4 decoder I found on ebay a long while ago usually makes me really happy with my quadradiscs but tends to do that sandpaper thing to the highs more often than I'd prefer no matter how carefully I try to set up my AT-440 cartridge so I've mostly hunted for Q4 releases but usually get priced out of range and often settele for a Q8 version which is usually okay but even with my Akai CR-80D-SS player/recorder it's still hit and miss on the condition and quality of those old cartridges...
My Akai GX-280D-SS Reel deck still works but it seems to have gotten noticeably hissy on the front 2 channels, almost as loud as my Q8 Akai SS 8-Track deck is.

So basically, at this point if I could find modern dvd disc offerrings of those original quad recordings I really like, especially from a Q4 original, some Q8's and a few SQ/QS/CD-4 versions, I'd be interested in any site that has legitimate releases of these available for sale and having a list of them to choose from (that included listings of the source types each disc was dubbed/created from) would be awesome...

Does such a thing truly exist these days?
 
To answer the direct question of the thread title: probably not. Most any official label reissuing quad/MC titles has gone back to the original quad masters, or gotten the original session multi-tracks and remixed to 5.1 (or, on occasion, 4.0 or 4.1). And although a few titles are known to have been commercially issued when dubbed from vinyl sources (oddly enough, NOT Q8 or Q4), these have been thankfully rare .

That's as good an answer as I can come up with, and as far as things can go without veering off into areas beyond the bounds of the open board.

ED :)
 
There are now quite a few quad mixes from the 1970s which now have been officially released. Here is a quick and very incomplete list:

Black Sabbath - Paranoid (a crappy transfer though...)
Deep Purple - Machine Head
Gentle Giant - Free Hand
Gentle Giant - Interview
Jethro Tull - War Child
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Rick Wakeman - Six Wives of Henry VIII
Rick Wakeman - Myths & Legends of King Arthur

I think most of the above are DVD-A or Blu-Ray. Then there is the fantastic Audio Fidelity SACD series:

AFZ5-196: LABELLE - NIGHTBIRDS
AFZ5-197: BREAD - BEST OF
AFZ5-198: BS&T - BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS (Second Album)
AFZ5-199: GUESS WHO - BEST OF THE GUESS WHO
AFZ5-202: EARTH WIND & FIRE - OPEN OUR EYES
AFZ5-206: THE DOORS - BEST OF THE DOORS
AFZ5-207: BILLY JOEL - STREETLIFE SERENADE
AFZ5-212: THE MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA - BIRDS OF FIRE
AFZ5-215: SLY & THE FAMILY STONE - GREATEST HITS
AFZ5-216: LOGGINS & MESSINA - LOGGINA & MESSINA
AFZ5-219: JEFF BECK GROUP - JEFF BECK GROUP
AFZ5-220: JUDY COLLINS - COLORS OF THE DAY
AFZ5-229: ALICE COOPER - MUSCLE OF LOVE

And coming soon:

AFZ5-223: HERBIE HANCOCK - THRUST (Feb 16)
AFZ5-231: AMERICA - HEARTS (Jan 16)
AFZ5-234: BILLY COBHAM - SPECTRUM (Feb 16)

Polls for these can be found here:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ll-Links-for-Audio-Fidelity-4-0-and-5-1-SACDs

But to answer your question, the vast majority of official 1970s quads have not been released in modern discrete disc formats, and there is no source where you can buy official versions of most of them, other than the ones listed above and a few others I have undoubtedly missed. But there are plenty of folks around here who are advocating for releases, and the best thing you can do is to buy them when they are made available so as to demonstrate a viable market for the product.
 
Thanks for the reference info guys!

And especially thanks to Fourplay for that "rules" link! I was not aware...
I wouldn't want to violate any rules, hence my reason for asking about legitimate modern commercial re-releases of any of the original 1970's 4-channel discrete recordings via modern format discs.
Plus after reading through that whole thread I'm so glad I have no interest in upmixes. To me, unless there's something I'm not familiar with about it, that's basically like turning on the DPLII setting or pressing the "4 channel stereo" button on my modern receiver to turn on the rear speakers and make them play the 2-channel source with an almost unnatural blended ambient spacial effect that ends up sounding like a poorly thought out and badly engineered quad recording with nothing but echo/reverb of the front channel source being fed to the rear channels and then having it released on an SQ Matrix LP to make matters that much worse...

It's so interesting to me how some musicians grabbed the reigns of 4-channel technology, applied amazing creativity, and truly engulf the listener in their conceptual surround listening experience while others just didn't seem to have a clue what to do with "those other two speaker", usually either filling them with hollow echo effected front sources or shoving the backing vocalists and maybe one or two random solo instruments into the rear channels of the mix and leaving those two channels mostly empty the rest of the time.

I wish more of our modern day mainstream pop/rock/country artists would consider starting off with creating 4-channel versions of their material that could also just be mixed down to 2-channel for the clueless and technologically disinterested general public (as opposed to up-mixing the final 2-channel master) while also offering a truly 4-track discrete, far more incredible, and vastly more creative surround listening experience for the rest of us who totally "get it" about the awe of music beyond 2-channel stereo... Even if all they did was stage the drum kit's actual layout mostly statically across the front or rear channels and let the guitarists, keyboardists, (etc) and main and backing vocalists choose their preferred zones "around the room" to stand in for the full sound stage effect with the occasional guitarist running around the space or duelling guitars up front and duelling keyboards towards the rear that would still blow away a 2-channel stereo mix of the same song by far.

I mean even ZZ Top, a 3 member group, did amazing things with their quad release of Tres Hombres... Granted they had support musicians involved in the process but still...

With the ease of encoding, 2 solidly established 15+ year old discrete digital surround encoding formats to choose from, and the readily available built-in decoders for them in most consumer home theater receivers these days the potential for successful modern day quadraphonic systems is already here, basically standardized, and already in many consumers' homes going mostly unused beyond the occasional movie viewing and soundtrack surround experience. Just set it up for either or both 5.1 formats, put it on a standard modern video disc that'll work in any home DVD or Blu-Ray player, put it out there beside all the CD's at Wal-Mart for just a few bucks more, and give it a fighting chance to be the next big thing in the music world as unlike back in the 70's the technology today is both easily affordable and fully up to the task this time around. It's not like the cost of the extra recording/mastering tape is even a factor anymore and we've got terrabytes of storage to play with these days so why the heck not???

I wish I knew how to transition from radio station engineer to a recording studio staff member.
I'd much rather be playing with multi-track recording and effects processors and helping musicians create amazing music than building and maintaining basic 2-channel broadcast studios and transmitters but alas that dream seems to always stay beyond my reach...
 
If I understand your question, quad reals transferred to basically a DVD, the only company I know that has a few HDTT, http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/collections/multichannel-surround/4-0-surround. Pick a title, then go to the drop-down menu and pick 24/96 DVD Audio Disc (video format) which they describe is just a regular DVD: 24bit 96khz DVD Disc - "This is basically our 24/96 download burned onto a DVD disc for customers who prefer to play back our releases on a DVD player. We use the DVD VIDEO standard, NOT the DVD AUDIO standard because our customers can play back these discs in any DVD player, even players that do not play back at 24/96. We do, however, recommend playing back these discs on a player compatible with the 24/96 format to hear them at their best".
 
Although that link is certainly interesting and I do recognize a few of their listed artisis I'm primarily interested in locating vintage quad releases of mainstream pop/rock/soul/funk/R&B types of titles.
 
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