Blood, Sweat & Tears - Greatest Hits: Audio Fidelity Stereo SACD (July 2016)

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Mastering Engineer Steve Hoffman talks about the upcoming Stereo SACD of Blood, Sweat & Tears Greatest Hits on Audio Fidelity:

"Mastered by me & my buddy Stephen Marsh at Marsh Mastering. This is one like no other I've ever worked on. We are using the actual correct 45 versions, including never released original stereo "hit" mixes that have been lost until now!

Sony put a "vault call" out for every version of these songs to see if we could find all stereo "hit" radio versions of these songs. The original LP has some mono on it but I felt there MUST be actual stereo in the same mix style and length as the monos and there were, mismarked, now found after 46 years! Thank you so much, Sony!!

So, this version will be all stereo, all correct single versions and all from original tapes. It was a struggle but it turned out quite well.

By the way it was not possible to just cut down stereo album masters to match the hit mixes, there were mix moves that were unique to the "hit versions" that were not on the LP versions. We found those versions but in true stereo. Fun!"
 
Mastering Engineer Steve Hoffman talks about the upcoming Stereo SACD of Blood, Sweat & Tears Greatest Hits on Audio Fidelity:

So what did Steve-O have to say about the quad mix? Was it no good or did they just not want to include it?
 
So what did Steve-O have to say about the quad mix? Was it no good or did they just not want to include it?

From what Brian and Jon have hinted at on here, it sounds like AF just did not want to include it to cut down on licensing, tape transfer, and mastering costs.
 
Could be they spent all the money on the stereo tracks since it was a struggle probably cost extra.
 
Mastering engineer Steve Hoffman was finally asked this over at his Forum:

Steve,
That album came out in quadraphonic. Will this be a stereo-only SACD or will it be a hybrid with the surround versions as well? Thanks!


His reply was:

For legal reasons unknown, this will be stereophonic.
 
Mastering engineer Steve Hoffman was finally asked this over at his Forum:
His reply was:

I take that to mean it was left off to save Audio Fidelity the extra hassle and expense. I highly doubt Sony would not have licensed the Quad mix on their end, unless of course the tapes aren't there or in usable condition, after all, it seems like they would never turn down an opportunity to make more money, right?
 
I take that to mean it was left off to save Audio Fidelity the extra hassle and expense. I highly doubt Sony would not have licensed the Quad mix on their end, unless of course the tapes aren't there or in usable condition, after all, it seems like they would never turn down an opportunity to make more money, right?

Something I had forgotten, and maybe Jonathan (AoQ) can chime in here, but wasn't the Michael Robin BS&T GH reel only side one? Could it be that side two is missing? Interesting. When I corresponded with Marshall about not having the surround he did not say that the tapes were not available or lost, so who knows.

Still something to think about. Maybe they ARE missing and they are just not at liberty to say. Hard to believe they would pass up the surround on this one, sure to be a good seller, and a GH disc as well.
 
Something I had forgotten, and maybe Jonathan (AoQ) can chime in here, but wasn't the Michael Robin BS&T GH reel only side one? Could it be that side two is missing? Interesting. When I corresponded with Marshall about not having the surround he did not say that the tapes were not available or lost, so who knows.

Still something to think about. Maybe they ARE missing and they are just not at liberty to say. Hard to believe they would pass up the surround on this one, sure to be a good seller, and a GH disc as well.

No, the Quad tapes for BS&T Greatest Hits are available.
Audio Fidelity is simply going in a different direction - emphasizing the Stereo 45 mixes - on this one.
 
No, the Quad tapes for BS&T Greatest Hits are available.
Audio Fidelity is simply going in a different direction - emphasizing the Stereo 45 mixes - on this one.

Shame. Damn shame. I would have gladly sacrificed the Judy Collins and the Breezin' for this one in quad. Gladly
 
No, the Quad tapes for BS&T Greatest Hits are available.
Audio Fidelity is simply going in a different direction - emphasizing the Stereo 45 mixes - on this one.

THANK YOU....hopefully this will stop the ENDLESS speculation about why this and why that...you can only beat a dead horse so long...and I think that time has come...once it was determined that the title was not going to have a surround element... what difference does it make why it was done.....it was over at that point...then we were given news of the change of direction by AF...that should have finished it...but some people just couldn't let it go..geeze...enough is enough...I long for the days when they just obsessed over the "it's not a DVD-A"...I couldn't imagine any business satisfying some of these people...if you gave them something that was perfect they would find something to complain about...it's bad enough that we are a niche market but with the demands presented by some of us it's a miracle that any releases are purchased...

Thanks Brian for being the messenger...I know it's not always a pleasant task:)
 
Gathering all the 45 mixes in stereo was certainly a worthy endeavor. As has been noted, the original '72 Lp had the three BS&T 2 hits in mono, the single edits. When the title was remastered for compact disc, these were dropped in favor of the stereo Lp mixes so as to make the album all stereo. The '69 single versions were released only in mono, although stereo mixes were made. "Hi-De-Ho" and the remainder of BS&T's Columbia 45's were in stereo, and some had mono DJ versions that can only be found on those 45's.

Still, as interesting as this title is--and I will buy it--it's depressing not to get the quad mixes, since as of 3, the albums were not mixed to quad and this was the only place to get them in four-channel. Pity.

ED:)
 
Something I had forgotten, and maybe Jonathan (AoQ) can chime in here, but wasn't the Michael Robin BS&T GH reel only side one? Could it be that side two is missing? Interesting. When I corresponded with Marshall about not having the surround he did not say that the tapes were not available or lost, so who knows.

Still something to think about. Maybe they ARE missing and they are just not at liberty to say. Hard to believe they would pass up the surround on this one, sure to be a good seller, and a GH disc as well.


The Michael Robin reel was only side one, and the BS&T S/T tracks on it were from one of the alternate quad mixes from one of the other Robin reels.


It's quite a shame, and to me quite a waste, that this SACD will be stereo only. This could have been such a bigger deal than many of the previous releases. Not that I don't appreciate the previous ones. But I have to say, I'm still scratching my head at this one.....a Greatest Hits collection, with many classic songs on it. I'm hard pressed to think of a bigger slam dunk selection that was available to AF.
 
I believe it's just a fair to be disappointed an AF release is not multichannel as it is to be disappointed an MFSL or AP release is not multichannel. However in the case of AF since they have put their money where their mouth is, they deserve the largest amount of slack.
 
The desire for 45 mixes on the stereo is a red herring, anyway. There's no reason the stereo couldn't have been the 45s, while retaining the quad mix, as released, on the MC layer (they don't have to be the same times). And I love the Judy, weak as the quad mix may be, so lay off of it!
 
It's being marketed as a Stereo SACD Box Set - not a Multichannel SACD Set.
And early interest has been quite high.

All signs point to it doing quite well.
It's already # 8 on the Top 50 Selling SACDs In The Last Month chart at Acoustic Sounds, even though it's only been available for a week. :)

http://store.acousticsounds.com/index.cfm?get=topsellers&Field_cat=4

Brian,

Is there an issue with the quad masters to the Greatest Hits album. I ask because you are in the pipeline for a lot of this stuff, and AF not issuing that SACD without the 4.0 is still a bit stunning to me, especially when you look at the titles they considered after this SACD came out (GFR, etc). If this box contained an SACD of the GH with a 4.0 mix I would go for it for sure, just to get the BS&T 3 & 4 Tracks in clean quad.

There must be something amiss with the masters, and when you think about it, the Mike Robin Q4 of that album only contained one side, not both.

Spill it Brian, spill it!! :)
 
It's fair to say that there were a number of reasons why this album was released as a Hybrid Stereo SACD rather than a Hybrid Surround Sound SACD.
The significantly higher cost to make a Surround SACD release (rather than a Stereo SACD) vs. the lack of an increase in sales from Surround SACD releases was one of them.
 
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