Neb-Maat-Re
400 Club - QQ All-Star
Still hoping ... still dreaming ...
Still hoping ... still dreaming ...
Just dredging this up in the vain hope that either of these discs will appear somehow.
I think everyone's misinterpreting the information about Lindisfarne recording at The Mill - the blurb that Adam posted was saying that they recorded an album there, not that a quad mix of it was done.
I spoke to Stuart Epps (who was Elton's mid-70s engineer and the guy that oversaw the construction of The Mill studio) last year and asked him about The Mill's quad capability and history - both for my own interest in the history of quad, and also in the hopes of digging up unreleased or previously unknown quad mixes so I can pass the info on to Grand Moff Dutton.
Mr. Epps told me that the studio was indeed constructed for quad, with the intention of remixing Elton's '70-'75 albums, but "when Quad really didnt take off the idea was scrapped." He told me that no quad mixing was ever done at The Mill, but that they did use the studio to do digital stereo remixes of some of Elton's '70-'75 material, for the 1983 CD compilation called The Superior Sound of Elton John.
He was also effusive about how much he loved quad, and said that Elton had bought him a Motorola Q8 deck for his car, and that Abraxas, Bridge over Troubled Water and Imagine were his favourite quad mixes.
UK origin (PYE pressed EJ's DJM LPs in the UK) they'd be QS system too as that was Pye's matrix system of choice
Stand by ... Alternate Madman sourced ... tests pending.
However, in 1976 DJM changed UK distributors from PYE to CBS .... and The Mill wasn't built until around 1976 ...
I agree, this may not turn out to be an actual quad mix at all. Or it may be a fold-down rather than a matrix mix.
Whatever it is, it is very different to the standard stereo mix. Listening to the tracks in stereo, on every song Elton's voice is solely in the right channel and the piano is over on the left. Other instruments are spread across the mix, so it's like the intention is that Elton is performing in front of you.
I haven't heard a decoded track yet but I have been told they do sound better processed as SQ than as QS.
lordy momma..!!
have you identified any alternate vocals or takes or other elements/instrumentation differing from the Stereo?
Well, the jury is out on this one.
It's hard to tell if it's a strange quad mix, or just a strange stereo mix that gives a surround effect when put through a quad decode.
Great suggestion on the channel assignment.
I tried two things: rotating everything one place to the left, and swapping the front left with the rear right. I didn't have a chance to test the 'swap' version thoroughly, but the 'rotate' version sounded much better.
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