I was playing around with some sound files on my PC with the intention of creating a "new" Jim Croce DTS CD for my car (since I no longer have DVD-A on the road anymore 
), so I started to look for the best rips I had from 10 or so years ago when I spent a lot of time ripping my Q8's to hard drive for DVD-A conversions.
Because of all the talk in the forum lately about Jim Croce and his M/C mixes, I also recently recorded in the three QS LP's he did (excluding the "Hits" LP) and figured I'd take the best of what I could find to create this disc.
So, what did I find right off the bat?? Holy crap, three different mixes from three different sources. Well, given one source was a QS LP, it's sort of a crap shoot on the encode/decode, but interestingly enough, the QS decode is pretty close to the US Q8. Nowhere near as discrete, but these to pale in comparison to the Canadian Q8 Greatest Hits tape. Some of you may recall (or find) in the forum how I tested all 4 Canadian Q8's a few years ago and found that the three album titles were horrible fake quad, but the GH tape, Photographs and Memories, was real discrete. Yup.
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Here are some looks and listens to a section of "You Don't Mess Around with Jim". I have added MP3's of the back channels so you can listen to the differences. Let's start with the best, the Canadian Q8. Here in the backs you have the drums in the right, and the stomping piano in the left - along with the very discrete background singers. These vocalists are very present on this mix, and buried in the two US mixes. However, there is only the delayed lead vocal echo here, no solid Jim vocals. Have a listen:
View attachment Canadian Backs 45 Sec.mp3
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Moving on to the US Q8, here we have a fairly discrete lead guitar in the left channel and a rhythm guitar in the right. Jim's lead vocal is present, I would assume the mixer was going for the singer-in-the-middle mix with this one. But notice there are no loud background singers. (They're just barely in the fronts, almost to the point of being missing. Really mixed down, they were)
View attachment US Q8 Backs 45 Sec.mp3
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Now the Command QS LP "You Don't Mess Around With Jim". This is a straight decode with a Surround Master, no tweaking or futzing. This is more a product of the matrix mixing I'm sure, but on this mix you can hear the piano clearly, although nowhere near as exposed as the Canadian Q8. When you listen, it's more of a merged mix of the Canadian Q8 with the lead vocal fully in the tracks.
View attachment US QSLP Backs 45 Sec.mp3
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How about that? Anyone else found any other mixes?? I remember AoQ posted about the CD-4 version of "I Got a Name" a few years ago, so that might be another mix out there.
), so I started to look for the best rips I had from 10 or so years ago when I spent a lot of time ripping my Q8's to hard drive for DVD-A conversions.Because of all the talk in the forum lately about Jim Croce and his M/C mixes, I also recently recorded in the three QS LP's he did (excluding the "Hits" LP) and figured I'd take the best of what I could find to create this disc.
So, what did I find right off the bat?? Holy crap, three different mixes from three different sources. Well, given one source was a QS LP, it's sort of a crap shoot on the encode/decode, but interestingly enough, the QS decode is pretty close to the US Q8. Nowhere near as discrete, but these to pale in comparison to the Canadian Q8 Greatest Hits tape. Some of you may recall (or find) in the forum how I tested all 4 Canadian Q8's a few years ago and found that the three album titles were horrible fake quad, but the GH tape, Photographs and Memories, was real discrete. Yup.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are some looks and listens to a section of "You Don't Mess Around with Jim". I have added MP3's of the back channels so you can listen to the differences. Let's start with the best, the Canadian Q8. Here in the backs you have the drums in the right, and the stomping piano in the left - along with the very discrete background singers. These vocalists are very present on this mix, and buried in the two US mixes. However, there is only the delayed lead vocal echo here, no solid Jim vocals. Have a listen:
View attachment Canadian Backs 45 Sec.mp3
--------------------------------------------------------------
Moving on to the US Q8, here we have a fairly discrete lead guitar in the left channel and a rhythm guitar in the right. Jim's lead vocal is present, I would assume the mixer was going for the singer-in-the-middle mix with this one. But notice there are no loud background singers. (They're just barely in the fronts, almost to the point of being missing. Really mixed down, they were)
View attachment US Q8 Backs 45 Sec.mp3
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Now the Command QS LP "You Don't Mess Around With Jim". This is a straight decode with a Surround Master, no tweaking or futzing. This is more a product of the matrix mixing I'm sure, but on this mix you can hear the piano clearly, although nowhere near as exposed as the Canadian Q8. When you listen, it's more of a merged mix of the Canadian Q8 with the lead vocal fully in the tracks.
View attachment US QSLP Backs 45 Sec.mp3
----------------------------------------------------------
How about that? Anyone else found any other mixes?? I remember AoQ posted about the CD-4 version of "I Got a Name" a few years ago, so that might be another mix out there.
