I hope Ed won't mind me stepping in here for a moment, but I've been "living" with this title on my PC for the past 3 days, and I'm really psyched up about it.
This is one of those CD-4 LPs that I bought back in the '70's and played a few times, but it never seemed to grab me. Then a few years later I found the Q8 in the cutouts and played it in my car and got to "know" it. It's one of those albums that grows on you.
There is no "hit" single on here, but there are some excellent tunes, and the finale "Before the Deluge" was a JB concert staple for years and he performs it for the "No Nukes" concert movie and CD.
There is nothing like having a quad mix on your PC to appreciate the work of the "Quadraphonic Remix Engineer", and this title was compiled for quad with great care. This is demo quality stuff if you are in the "discrete - put the stuff all around me" camp. There are no swirling gimmicks, but the rears are active and contribute to the presentation immensely.
The rear right is generally the lead guitar and some backing vocals. The rear left is Jackson's harmony vocal track, along with the Eagles when they're there! Other claps, percussion, piano and accent instruments fill the back and come out from the shadows of the stereo mix to create a full spacial sound, especially on the louder pieces.
To verify that I had the correct speed for the conversion, I ripped the DCC disc of this album to my hard drive and played it along with the Q8 rip that I did, and while the Steve Hoffman disc is considered the ultimate, the quad mix opens the thing up so much more, it's truely amazing.
There is a sound effect, almost like "buzzing lips" at the beginning of the tune "Walking Slow". On the DCC, it's buried in the phantom stereo center with the lead vocal. On the surround mix, it's panned hard right front, and very prominent. When I listened to the test disc in my car, it startled me for a second, as it's very loud and discrete.
There are many things to like about this album. Even if you are a casual JB fan and only know the "hits", this might be a title that you would want to seek out on CD-4 or Q8. It's a shame that BSM does not release a DVD-A of this. It would be well worth it, I would say.
While it may be easy to give everything we like a 10, this one, IMHO, really merits one.
Of course, you may think it sucks!
What can I say?
This is one of those CD-4 LPs that I bought back in the '70's and played a few times, but it never seemed to grab me. Then a few years later I found the Q8 in the cutouts and played it in my car and got to "know" it. It's one of those albums that grows on you.
There is no "hit" single on here, but there are some excellent tunes, and the finale "Before the Deluge" was a JB concert staple for years and he performs it for the "No Nukes" concert movie and CD.
There is nothing like having a quad mix on your PC to appreciate the work of the "Quadraphonic Remix Engineer", and this title was compiled for quad with great care. This is demo quality stuff if you are in the "discrete - put the stuff all around me" camp. There are no swirling gimmicks, but the rears are active and contribute to the presentation immensely.
The rear right is generally the lead guitar and some backing vocals. The rear left is Jackson's harmony vocal track, along with the Eagles when they're there! Other claps, percussion, piano and accent instruments fill the back and come out from the shadows of the stereo mix to create a full spacial sound, especially on the louder pieces.
To verify that I had the correct speed for the conversion, I ripped the DCC disc of this album to my hard drive and played it along with the Q8 rip that I did, and while the Steve Hoffman disc is considered the ultimate, the quad mix opens the thing up so much more, it's truely amazing.
There is a sound effect, almost like "buzzing lips" at the beginning of the tune "Walking Slow". On the DCC, it's buried in the phantom stereo center with the lead vocal. On the surround mix, it's panned hard right front, and very prominent. When I listened to the test disc in my car, it startled me for a second, as it's very loud and discrete.
There are many things to like about this album. Even if you are a casual JB fan and only know the "hits", this might be a title that you would want to seek out on CD-4 or Q8. It's a shame that BSM does not release a DVD-A of this. It would be well worth it, I would say.
While it may be easy to give everything we like a 10, this one, IMHO, really merits one.
Of course, you may think it sucks!
What can I say?
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