What a letdown. I was hoping to enjoy a definitive issue of the quad mixes on par with the Tubular Bells sacd or the Tomita sacds. I got so disappointed with the news about the needledrops that I cancelled my orders. The price of the sets are too high (over £35 shipped) to live with the feeling of having bought an imperfect product.
Rick Wakeman - Six Wives and Arthur
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The search for perfection, your own predilection, goes on and on and on...... Sorry, hoping for "Stranded" to come out in 5.1. John
Owen Smith
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Tubular Bells SACD had the benefit of the quad master tape not only being found but also in excellent condition.
Like I said, they are not worth £35 for me. I already have these titles so I will continue to enjoy them
While I never did have on order, I had debated it. I would have been purchasing simply based on desire to have more surround music. Not because I necessarily love the artist. So, for me - many of the comments have halted my purchase. No biggie for me. There are too many other discs that I know I will like to bother with this one.
That being said....I hope that those of you who are big Wakeman fans find this to be satisfactory and a quality surround experience.
That being said....I hope that those of you who are big Wakeman fans find this to be satisfactory and a quality surround experience.
That a major like Universal actually went to the trouble to make a quad mix available is something. They could have gone back to the multitracks and do a proper surround mix, but the cost of that I suppose was not within the budget for this project. However, the stereo in MLP 24/96 is something to be congratulated. So all round I think this is a very worthwhile release. The packaging is done quite nicely too, including the full lyric book for Arthur. Though it is very hard to read the credits for Six Wives as they were printed within the gatefold of the original LP and don't reproduce well here.
Oh boy....OK. Well, somehow, I just missed the Wakeman "boat". I guess I just need to listen to the clips.....before I totally shrug it off.
Just a thought..
We're focussing here on the Quads on these new releases (and rightly so, this ain't QQ for nuthin'!) but what's the general feeling on the new Abbey Rd Stereo remasters, which are at 24/96 on the DVDs?
How do they compare to previous releases on CD etc.? (I ask as I've never bought either of these albums before so I've nothing to compare the new Stereo to..) thx in advance.
We're focussing here on the Quads on these new releases (and rightly so, this ain't QQ for nuthin'!) but what's the general feeling on the new Abbey Rd Stereo remasters, which are at 24/96 on the DVDs?
How do they compare to previous releases on CD etc.? (I ask as I've never bought either of these albums before so I've nothing to compare the new Stereo to..) thx in advance.
Like I said, they are not worth £35 for me. I already have these titles so I will continue to enjoy them
Postage to Hungary, I see. OK fair enough. I feel the same way about importing from U.S.
Neil Palfreyman
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
I gave both Quad mixes a listen this afternoon. They're both needledrops. Having said that I quite enjoyed them, especially "Arthur." Not what we're used to with SW's remixes, but worth having providing your expectations aren't too high.
Ugh....now to sort out how to do a return. What a waste of my time. They could have at least been up front with this when selling them, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a digital release of something to be sourced from a master of some sort unless otherwise specified.
I've heard OD's most recent decode of Six Wives, it's quite nice. It'll be interesting to compare it to the official one, which apparently used OD's older software...?
Owen Smith
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
On OD's blog the most recent transfer of Six Wives used SQ/II and was done from a CD. This Six Wixes used SQ/II-and-a-bit which is a slightly newer process. Also it was done from vinyl, it was found that the vinyl versions of Six Wives SQ sound better than the SQ CD (I've found a number of other web sites stating this, and not just the usuall "all CDs sound inferior to vinyl" argument).
Just because OD has more recent processes, in this case SQ/III and then SQ/Phoenix, does not mean everything on his blog is overnight re-released in the new processes. There are literally hundreds of SQ releases on OD's blog, re-releasing them all each time he improved processes would virtually gaurantee nothing new ever got decoded. He'd be on a permanent cycle of re-releases.
From what I understand, the Arthur is from a CD-4 LP, and the Six Wives is from a Q8!! They did NOT use OD's conversion.
We need to hear from Neil to clarify. Until he chimes in, I will not put up poll threads for these two, as the votes should be made once it's confirmed exactly what we are listening to, and not because we are pissed off about how they were sourced.
Neil???
We need to hear from Neil to clarify. Until he chimes in, I will not put up poll threads for these two, as the votes should be made once it's confirmed exactly what we are listening to, and not because we are pissed off about how they were sourced.
Neil???
LizardKing
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Jon - I assume your comment "They did NOT use OD's conversion." applies only to The Six Wives?
I really can't speak with authority 100%, I am just saying what I heard in conversation. We need Neil to verify. What I know is that Six Wives is from Q8, not the SQ, so obviously it's not OD's script. As for the CD-4, I do not know whose conversion it was, but since it was not available as an SQ LP, only CD-4, again we can assume that a script was not used for decoding.
We really need Neil to comment here. I am not implying that OD's scripts are not good, just that the Wives is from Q8. Richard has done wonders with his scripts and there's no way I would speak ill of them. As to why they went with a Q8 conversion over an SQ conversion, I have absolutely no idea - honestly.
My main reason for commenting is that I wanted to announce that no polls will be created here until this is all hashed out. I don't want people voting '1's because they're pissed about how the quad were sourced.
I hope you guys can understand that. There are people who will vote '1's because OD's script was not used, there are people who will vote '1's because a Q8 was used, there are people who will vote '1's because the master tapes were not found, etc, etc.
Frankly, I was never a fan of the Rick Wakeman Quad (or stereo for that matter) LPs/Tapes, so I am far from an expert on these titles. I just want the polls to reflect the actual product, not the rage of the voter with regards to the source.
Owen Smith
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
It is indeed a great shame that the record company did not do the decent thing and state the source on the packaging of these releases.
EDIT: Surely for Six Wives it should be possible to listen to it and tell whether it's from a Q8 or from vinyl? The noises you get from the two are quite different.
EDIT: Surely for Six Wives it should be possible to listen to it and tell whether it's from a Q8 or from vinyl? The noises you get from the two are quite different.
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