Laura Nyro - Eli And The Thirteenth Confession - Audio Fidelity 4.0 SACD (June 2016)

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For a 1968-vintage album with only 8 tracks to work from, it wasn't going to be a stellar mix no matter what. I was more shocked that it was yet another mix. The sonics are good, the hiss has been dealt with and the mix would fit right in with that first batch of 1972 Quad mixes. Disappointed? Nah, not really.
 
For a 1968-vintage album with only 8 tracks to work from, it wasn't going to be a stellar mix no matter what. I was more shocked that it was yet another mix. The sonics are good, the hiss has been dealt with and the mix would fit right in with that first batch of 1972 Quad mixes. Disappointed? Nah, not really.

I would consider the mix pretty steller on any level. I had no idea it was origionally recorded using only 8 tracks...

edit...We may be listening to different mixes.
 
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As I pointed out in another thread, I just got my copy today. But I noticed this is neither version of the Quad mixes that have appeared on the Robin Reels. This is a third, previously unknown Quad mix. This mix has Don Young written all over it. It's painfully similar to the Sly Stone/Greatest Hits mix. Drums in Back Right, Bass in Back Left. Other instruments in the front corners with the only thing taking up the front-center stage is vocals. Nothing appears in back-center unlike other Laura Nyro mixes which, obviously, makes sense if this was considered for an SQ-disc release. So, like I say, this is either a third, previously unknown mix, or this was prepared for an SQ-disc and dropped at the 11th hour. Why else would they mix it three times? Seems like a huge waste of time and tape if you ask me.


Another idea popped into my head. I really wish somebody who was there at the time could answer this as this is complete speculation on my part. Do you suppose, when they did a Quad mix, the shirts gave the assignment to a couple remix engineers then they picked the best mix? Seems like a huge waste of time but at the dawn of the Quad era, maybe that's how they did it? That would explain why we've seen multiple mixes of the same album.

Just thinkin' out loud.....

Oh I didn't think Don Young did the Sly Stone Quad..?

There were said to be (at least) two different versions of the Quad, one by Larry Keyes and another by Jim Reeves, iirc..?

Yes it would be good to have an insider's info, on why there were multiple Quad mix attempts of the same album..
personally I think its compatibility/deficiencies of the SQ system that resulted in necessary revisions rather than aesthetic choices but who knows..

fwiw, Don Young and Larry Keyes are no longer with us (Young went a long time ago, in the 80's and Keyes around 9 or 10 years ago, I think) so that's two literal dead ends, sadly.

Ps. Please don't stop thinking out loud on this subject, I love all this..! :upthumb
 
As I pointed out in another thread, I just got my copy today. But I noticed this is neither version of the Quad mixes that have appeared on the Robin Reels. This is a third, previously unknown Quad mix. This mix has Don Young written all over it. It's painfully similar to the Sly Stone/Greatest Hits mix. Drums in Back Right, Bass in Back Left. Other instruments in the front corners with the only thing taking up the front-center stage is vocals. Nothing appears in back-center unlike other Laura Nyro mixes which, obviously, makes sense if this was considered for an SQ-disc release. So, like I say, this is either a third, previously unknown mix, or this was prepared for an SQ-disc and dropped at the 11th hour. Why else would they mix it three times? Seems like a huge waste of time and tape if you ask me.


Another idea popped into my head. I really wish somebody who was there at the time could answer this as this is complete speculation on my part. Do you suppose, when they did a Quad mix, the shirts gave the assignment to a couple remix engineers then they picked the best mix? Seems like a huge waste of time but at the dawn of the Quad era, maybe that's how they did it? That would explain why we've seen multiple mixes of the same album.

Just thinkin' out loud.....

It's entirely possible that they let a bunch of different guys have a crack at remixing it. In the heyday of Motown (before they moved to LA) they would let any of their engineers who wanted to try to mix something have a go, and Berry Gordy would pick the one he thought had the most 'hit' potential.

There are also some other factors to consider. One is that CBS owned all their own studios and their engineers were staff guys on salary rather than freelancers, they were getting paid regardless of whether they worked 2 hours a day or 8 hours a day, or did 1 mix or 5 mixes of something. Another is that CBS was apparently doing quad tests as early as 1969 (and maybe even earlier, who knows) but they didn't get hot on SQ as their encoding method until 1971 - if you read Wendy Carlos' webpages about her surround sound and quad experiences, she talks about this. So it's entirely possible that CBS did loads of quad mixes, or test quad mixes, and then later on realised they needed to re-do them to make the most of the early SQ decoders, ie. stuff pushed primarily to the 4 corners with nothing in the center-rear position.

I think there's probably lots more in the vaults from that 1969-1971 period that people don't even know about. Velvet Underground's John Cale was hired by CBS to help develop quad (see the 'quad squad' paragraph in the article here) but he only ended up with one quad sound supervision credit, for Poco's 'Deliverin'. Do we really think that's all he did in his time there? I think with the pace the industry was moving at in the late 60's and early 70's, labels were always focused on current product and older stuff often fell by the wayside - to me that would explain why things like Johnny Mathis 'Love Story' and the Byrds 'Byrdmaniax' (both 1971 albums) only saw quad release in Japan, because CBS US wanted to promote current (ie 72, 73, 74 etc. ) albums. So by the time Columbia/Epic etc. started releasing quad in January '72, I think they had mixed a bunch of stuff, but only the 'crown jewels' (Janis, Sly, Santana, BS&T, etc.) got released. I'm not saying that there are dozens of pre '72 quad mixes languishing in the vault, but it really wouldn't surprise me if there are a few.
 
Sony provided the Quad mix approved by the artist and record label for Audio Fidelity's Multichannel SACD reissue of the Laura Nyro album.

AF was aware of the comments on QQ about the different Mike Robin mixes and debated on whether to avoid that controversy (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) by dropping the Multichannel SACD tracks altogether.

I was able to convince them to keep the official Quad mix on the SACD - and that is how it was issued.
 
Sony provided the Quad mix approved by the artist and record label for Audio Fidelity's Multichannel SACD reissue of the Laura Nyro album.

AF was aware of the comments on QQ about the different Mike Robin mixes and debated on whether to avoid that controversy (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) by dropping the Multichannel SACD tracks altogether.
I was able to convince them to keep the official Quad mix on the SACD - and that is how it was issued.

Thanks for convincing them Brian! It's one of their best Quad SACDs.
 
Sony provided the Quad mix approved by the artist and record label for Audio Fidelity's Multichannel SACD reissue of the Laura Nyro album.

AF was aware of the comments on QQ about the different Mike Robin mixes and debated on whether to avoid that controversy (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) by dropping the Multichannel SACD tracks altogether.
I was able to convince them to keep the official Quad mix on the SACD - and that is how it was issued.

Thank you so much for convincing them to release this in MultiChannel.. WOW...!!!

Why are there all these different Quad mixes of the same album?
 
Sony provided the Quad mix approved by the artist and record label for Audio Fidelity's Multichannel SACD reissue of the Laura Nyro album.

AF was aware of the comments on QQ about the different Mike Robin mixes and debated on whether to avoid that controversy (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) by dropping the Multichannel SACD tracks altogether.
I was able to convince them to keep the official Quad mix on the SACD - and that is how it was issued.

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Brian for being the catalyst in convincing AF to release this extraordinary QUAD mix.

My next question, will AF release any future NYRO albums on Stereo SACD, like New York Tendaberry, Christmas and the Beads of Sweat or It's Gonna Take a Miracle with the great Patti Labelle?
 
Sony provided the Quad mix approved by the artist and record label for Audio Fidelity's Multichannel SACD reissue of the Laura Nyro album.

AF was aware of the comments on QQ about the different Mike Robin mixes and debated on whether to avoid that controversy (Tape 1, Tape 2, etc.) by dropping the Multichannel SACD tracks altogether.
I was able to convince them to keep the official Quad mix on the SACD - and that is how it was issued.

Interesting that you keep referring to it as "the official" Quad mix as (to us peasants) there never really was an official Quad release of this album. So you're saying Columbia OK'd this album 40+ years ago, mixed it multiple times, had the artist and management OK the mix and then decide NOT to issue it? That's so bizarre!

Thanks for sticking to your guns and getting this one out.
 
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