Morton Subotnick in DVD-A

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alfbello

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2003
Messages
22
Hello!

I don't know how long most have been around but around the sixties Morton Subotnick was the pioneer of the early stages of the development of Electronic Music...

Check out a label called Mode Records and you will see he has 2 DVDs out called "Electronic Music Vol.1 and Vol.2 in DVD and DVD-A. Bear in mind that this is very primitive "music" and the masters are 4 channel.

Alf
 
Got my copy a year or so back. Definitely a candidate for Laurie Anderson's "Difficult Listening Hour"...

Cool surround stuff, though, if you like blips-'n'-bleeps.

peace,
yrd.
 
radiodaddy said:
Got my copy a year or so back. Definitely a candidate for Laurie Anderson's "Difficult Listening Hour"...

Cool surround stuff, though, if you like blips-'n'-bleeps.

peace,
yrd.

That's what I meant when I said primitive "music". If you bought yours about a year ago as you say, you have Vol. 1. However, back in the seventies I remember that one of my first SQ Quad LPs was a Morton Subotnick album called "Sidewinder", which as far as I can remember was quite interesting and different from the material that appears in Vol. 1. It so happens that Vol. 2 includes "Sidewinder" and that is why I'm going to buy it... An album I'd love to hear in surround is "Sonic Seasonings" by Wendy Carlos, of which I know there is a quad version although it has never been released...

Alf
 
alfbello said:
Hello!



Check out a label called Mode Records and you will see he has 2 DVDs out called "Electronic Music Vol.1 and Vol.2 in DVD and DVD-A. Bear in mind that this is very primitive "music" and the masters are 4 channel.

Alf

Alf, thanks for the heads up! Once I got the first "Electronic Works" DVD-A and saw that it was called "Volume 1", I had a feeling that there would be a "Volume 2". Just when, I wasn't sure.

Interestingly, "Sidewinder" is said to be a new mix, while "Touch" (from "Electronic Works :Volume 1") is a straight transfer from the quad masters. Once I get it, I will have to compare the new mix to my Q8 version (which is brilliant under the right circumstances). :smokin
 
Last edited:
alfbello said:
Hello!

I don't know how long most have been around but around the sixties Morton Subotnick was the pioneer of the early stages of the development of Electronic Music...

Check out a label called Mode Records and you will see he has 2 DVDs out called "Electronic Music Vol.1 and Vol.2 in DVD and DVD-A. Bear in mind that this is very primitive "music" and the masters are 4 channel.

Alf


I have Vol 1, and I love it. Nothing primitive about it -- this is classic 60's/70's 'highbrow' electronica! Very groovy.

Some of it's 4-channel, btw, and some has been mixed for 5.1. All of it makes robust use of surround channels. This disc is also notable for me, in that its 4.0 DVD-A tracks decode correctly in my Pioneer DV-45a -- that is, the bass is sent to the sub when I set the satellites to 'small' -- whereas the EMI 4.0 DVD-As that I have do not. One reason perhaps being taht the Subotnick DVD-A tracks are LPCM, while the EMI are PPCM.
 
Regarding Zabble's Post, CDNOW (Amazon) also has it for $29.98. Only 3 left when I saw it a couple of minutes ago...

Alf
 
Hello again!

I just checked out the link Zabble posted and the CDs and DVDs are much cheaper there than at CDNOW (Amazon). As a matter of fact I ordered Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 on DVD and saved $20.00 when compared to CDNOW! NICE!

Just thought some of you would like to know,,,

Cheers!

Alf
 
I once saw a Morton Subotnick quad 8 track in a used store, should have picked it up.
 
solaris said:
I once saw a Morton Subotnick quad 8 track in a used store, should have picked it up.
May have been Sidewinder. I own that and had a wonderful DTS transfer of it done.

I also have Vol. 1 of this series and it's very nice. Glad to see #2 with Sidewinder is out. I'll have to pick it up.
 
Recently I found out about some official releases of classic quad in the form of electronic composer Morton Subotnick. I was thrilled that these mixes have been preserved and I sought out the titles. I received them yesterday and then found this thread.

So the releases I found are the same from Mode Records as referenced 12 years ago in the previous post! Here is the link to the material:

http://www.moderecords.com/profiles/mortonsubotnick.html

His recordings are not musical - they are more like composed electronic sound. That said, I quite like it and the surround is VERY active. Quite an enjoyable listen if you like electronic experimentation as I do. Here are the current offerings:

Morton Subotnick: Gestures (mode 97) aka "Volume 1 Electronic Works"
Morton Subotnick: The Electronic Works 2 (mode 132)
Morton Subotnick: The Electronic Works 3 (mode 237)

You can go to the website to explore the content, but his classic quad work Touch is definitely on Volume 1 and is a perfect transfer! Discrete as can be, and highly active in all corners. One caveat came to me via email after my order inquiry:

"Unfortunately the DVD of mode 97 is a low stock item and priced accordingly at $50 (it is a double DVD set with a dedicated hi-res DVD-A disc, plus the interactive "Gestures" in addition to the normal DVD). The others are in stock at $19.99/each. Because of the serious decline of physical media sales in the past couple of years, many older titles can no longer be practically repressed (with minimum pressings of 300-500 required). Mode 97 & 132 DVDs are both multiple sets with DVD-video disc and bonus DVD-A disc. We still have sufficient stocks of Mode 132, but sadly once this stock of Mode 97 DVD is sold out it may not get repressed (and certainly not with the DVD-A bonus)."

So there is lots of content in the expensive title, although I have not yet explored the "interactive DVD," but I love the content I have checked so far and am glad I got this before it went out of stock.

Finally, Mode Records has TONS of oddball surround stuff. Here is another quote from the email:

"I have always been a strong believer in high resolution audio and surround. Mode has probably the largest catalog of new music available in surround. Mode released the very first new music DVD in 1998. This belief in surround being the future for music led me to do many recordings with video (sales of surround DVDs without video were always difficult), at great expense but I think with very special quality. Unfortunately, the market never went with surround as I had hoped. Now some projects already recorded may not be released in surround and/or in their DVD versions at all. And many planned projects have been cancelled. Sales simply cannot support the expense — it's not a question of not enough profit, but rather that one cannot loose large amounts of money on each release.

This evolution of the market makes me very sad. But we have a large public now that doesn't want to pay for music, and doesn't even care to have a good sound system (never mind a surround system) to listen to their music on.

You might also be interested in our Stockhausen: Complete Early Percussion Works DVD. I think this is among Mode's greatest surround releases, and it also has full video."

Thus far I have not gone for the Stockhausen. Does anyone else at QQ have this already?

So that is the story with Mode Records - stocked with surround! I asked them to maybe create a summary page of all their surround titles. He said it would be a good idea, but does not now exist. Check these out, and feel free to report back here!
 
Thanks for bumping this thread and for the long post Ken! :)

I'll definitely get some of these. It's amazing how much Surround music was released which I'd never heard of.
 
yes i picked these up a little while back (iirc the red Subotnick DVD-A with Touch was tricky to find cheap at the time but nabbed one in the end) the surround mixes and sound quality are exceptional (Touch, Sidewinder & Butterflies are old Columbia Quads, so that will give you an idea they're wide and kinda wacky, especially Touch.. no 2nd guessing your rears are working!) .. musically it's all a bit "out there" for my more meat 'n potatoes default tastes but when I'm in the right zone they're great. Thanks for the memory jog Ken, I'll spin these in the week.
 
Here's what you're looking out for when you're shopping for these Mode surround titles, as you can see they come in DVD amaray cases (this is all I got so far I think; Subotnick Quads 1-3 + Xanakis, equally whacked out and very surround-y :eek: )

 
Here's what you're looking out for when you're shopping for these Mode surround titles, as you can see they come in DVD amaray cases (this is all I got so far I think; Subotnick Quads 1-3 + Xanakis, equally whacked out and very surround-y :eek: )


Full_Size_Render_1.jpg
 
no 2nd guessing your rears are working! .. musically it's all a bit "out there" for my more meat 'n potatoes default tastes but when I'm in the right zone they're great.

Possibly not even fair to say "musically." It is sound - whizzing around. Big fun if you like that sort of thing!
 
Got the first two Subotniks way back when Mode released them. They're wonderful., including the groovy visuals. I've since also bought some of their Xenakis surround releases.
 
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