"Tanquery" Quad 8-track Tapes

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Q-Eight

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Sep 30, 2003
Messages
3,699
Location
Castlegar, BC, Canada
I've been collecting Quad tapes for a long time now and seen many of these "Tanquery" Quads but never managed to scoop any until now. I bought a lot of tapes off eBay that had 9 Quad tapes in it, one of which was one of these elusive Tanquery tapes. I've noticed them come and go before on eBay and I've kept a listing of the ones I've seen. There seem to be quite a few, but here's what I've found so far:

Tanquery TQ 5003 Solid Gold Rock Volume 2
Tanquery TQ 5007 Solid Soul Volume 1
Tanquery TQ 5010 Soundtrack Godspell
Tanquery TQ 5012 Michel Legrand The Music of Michel Legrand
Tanquery TQ 5021 Unknown Artist Golden Hits of the 40's
Tanquery TQ 5026 Unknown Artist Swing Gently with Strauss
Tanquery TQ 5028 Million Seller Hits Volume 2
Tanquery TQ 5034 Quad Sampler Volume 2
Tanquery TQ 5035 Quad Sampler Volume 3
Tanquery TQ 5043 Rhapsody for Young Lovers Volume 2

When my first one comes in, I'll report back as to whether or not it's true, discrete Quad or if it's nothing more than electronic trickery.
 
Thanks Q-Eight. What a impressive list. Thanks for the post as it will certainly fill in some holes as I was only aware of half of those listed.
I look forward to your review when you get the chance.
 
Well, they came in! I got both a "Holiday" Quad-8, and a "Tanquery" 8-Quad. The labels are eerily similar to each other and I would wager they are one in the same company. Interestingly enough, both cartridges bear a registered trademark under their respective names AND a copyright date of 1973. For what appear to be bootlegs, these may actually be reasonably legit releases of unknown/bottom-feeder type records in the same vain as the Sound-Alike Q8's that make the rounds on occasion.

Anyway, I'm pleased to report that these two tape are surprisingly discrete and most definitely come from a multitrack source. However, the mixing on them is substandard. I would say that the mixes on the Romulus tapes are better!

The Holiday Q8 "Gypsy Violin" seems to come from a four-track source. Those four tracks are generally: (1) Violin, (2) drums, (3) piano/guitar and (4) bass.
The channel layout on this tape gives you the Violin at 100% strength in FL and 50% strength in FR and BL and 25% strength in BR. Drums are situated mostly in BL, the piano & guitar are mostly in FR and the bass is in FR and BL. Other than the violin being 25% strength in BR, the back-right channel is nothing more than an echo chamber for the other instruments. I would also bet this stuff was recorded live as there is instrument bleed all over. You can hear the drums at low levels in FL and FR, you can hear the guitar/piano bleed through in FL and BL.

It's a weird one. Not something that is enjoyable to listen to.

The Tanquery Q8 is a little better. I'd put money on it being sourced from an eight-track multitrack. It might've come from a sixteen, but I doubt it. The channel layouts are a little more involved. For instance:

Lead vocals are heavy front center, with lead vocal slightly quieter in BL and an echo'd lead vocal in BR.
Backing Vocals are in the front channels only.
Drums are situated in BL with them 50% in BR and track bleed in FR.
Bass is in BL and FR heavy, lightly in BR, nothing at all in FL.

Those track layouts never seem to change. The rest do slightly through-out the rest of the tape, but for the most part you'll get:
Acoustic Guitar in BR
Horns in FL
Strings in FR
Piano in BL

I've managed to score another Tanquery tape and it's on the way. Million-Seller Hits!
 
Q-Eight thanks for the update. I had always wondered about the performances on the Tanquery tapes and who the band or performers were and why they did not list them. I guess we will never know. I hope your future listening is more enjoyable than the Holiday tape, makes you wonder if it was originally produced for a diamond shape speaker layout instead of a square.
 
I hope your future listening is more enjoyable than the Holiday tape, makes you wonder if it was originally produced for a diamond shape speaker layout instead of a square.

You know, I never thought of that! That would make much more sense, wouldn't it?

I got the Million Sellers tape last night. It is much less discrete, and compressed more than should be allowed by law - yet, only on some songs! The tape opens with a rendition of "Hey Jude" that really isn't all that bad - you'd swear it was the Beatles until the lead singer comes in. It's very mono-ish, yet produces a healthy cross-hatch on the Quad 'scope. However watching the VU's on my Dolby box, all levels are hovering at about -5db and waver very little on this song. The compression is that bad. Vocals everywhere, tambourine everywhere, drums mostly to the front and piano mostly to the rear but very little definition beyond that.

This tape may also suffer from a channel location error as on many songs, lead vocals are in both right channels. Swapping BL & FR puts lead vocals 95% to the front. Playing the "I got You babe" track on here, and I'd swear the backing track is an alternate take by the Wrecking Crew. It sounds so eerily similar to the backing from Sonny and Cher it's scary! However, the vocals are abhorrent! The male sounds effeminate, and the female has one of those nasal voices like Annie Potts from Ghostbusters!

In fact, a lot of the instrumental beds on this tape are pretty competent and generally sound very similar to the song they're trying to emulate. The vocals are just terrible! I wonder if this "Tanquery" company somehow got their claws into multitracks, wiped vocals and just dragged the janitor into the vocal booth or people off the street? That's sort of what this "Million Sellers" tape sounds like! Competent playing, abysmal vocals.
 
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