Quad LP/Tape Poll Simon, Paul: Paul Simon[SQ/Q8]

[EMB]

His 1972 solo debut Lp:

Side 1:

1. Mother And Child Reunion
2. Duncan
3. Everything Put Together Falls Apart
4. Run That Body Down
5. Armistice Day

Side 2:

1. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
2. Peace Like A River
3. Papa Hobo
4. Hobo's Blues
5. Paranoia Blues
6. Congratulations

 

[dauQula]

I really enjoy all of Simon's quad Q8's for separation and mix. The songs are engaging and enjoyable with the exception of his occasional political-ranting songs which was one of the reasons he parted company with Garfunkle. It was interesting to experience the first solo albums from both artists to really highlight their respective strenghts: the classical compositions of Garfunkle, and the songwriting prowess of Simon. Simon's talents were only getting warmed up, as subsequent albums would demonstrate. A solid 8.

 

[Q-Eight]

Just recently picked this one up.... LOVE IT. Ok, being biased as I am a fan of Paul Simon, but my two fave songs from this album shine! Very nice mix.... and the low vocal in the rear really gives a nice open sound. Very good mix, Good content, I gave it a 9!

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

Great album (I have the SQ LP).
Mother And Child Reunion is still one of my favorite tracks of his.

-Bob

 

[Quad Linda]

 

[ChristopherLees]

and it's one of those lp's where the quad version sounds better than the stereo one on a normal stereo system.

 

[Quad Linda]

Quad software sounds twice as good!

and it's one of those lp's where the quad version sounds better than the stereo one on a normal stereo system.

 

[Urban Spaceman]

I'm more of a casual Paul Simon fan really, but this is an enjoyable album and the quad mix seems to open the material up. I just decoded the SQ LP last night so I'm hearing the mix fresh. Just enough separation to be enjoyable and not gimmicky. Ultimately I voted 8 - a serious fan might go higher perhaps. The only thing about the quad mix I wasn't crazy about was the delay effect applied to the lead vocal on a lot of the songs. A bit distracting, but not to a ruinous degree thankfully.
------------- Chris

 

[EMB]

Two of the album's three singles are hot stuff, but for me, "Duncan" suffered a tad too much from a) being a sonic clone of "El Condor Pasa" (for obvious reasons) and the length and storyline sound like a knockoff of sorts of "The Boxer." Nice to hear in quad, true of the album as a whole. But there is a certain inconsistency in Simon's solo work that isn't evident on the S&G albums, probably because those Lp's got his very best, and solo, sometimes, he seemed to coast a bit (shades of Macca).

ED

 

[JohnA]

An 8 from me.
Decent material, good recording, surround not too bad.

 

[Marcsten]

Another of my very early SQ purchases, I played the hell out of this on a basic no logic decoder. Even there it decodes pretty well. Once I got my Tate, well, all bets are off. Its a very discrete mix considering the material. And although its not much for quad, how about that instrumental with Stefan Grapelli? How often do you hear that on a mainstream album? Me and Julio is a great song and a solid mix in quad. 7

 

[humprof]

As far as I know, David Yaffe (Syracuse U prof, Joni Mitchell biographer, smart music writer generally) hasn't heard the quad mix. But as I see it, this piece he wrote on the occasion of the album's 50th anniversary still counts loosely as a "review," so I'm postin' it!
https://davidyaffe.substack.com/p/gonna-be-up-for-a-while

 

[wrat]

I like this album I have 2 conversions supposedly one from vinyl and one from Q8 both very different sounding unsure as to why the huge discrepancy, the vinyl has a bit of sibilance and no bass the Q8 sounds a bit rolled off up top but the bass is quite nice, hard to give an over all rating, content is a solid 8 mix is nice pretty discrete so an 8 but overall ?

 

[Marcsten]

I suspect what you are hearing is not a difference in mixing but in formats. By this point, CBS had decided that the decoders worked better with midrange and some treble but not much bass, so that's what you often got with an SQ record from CBS. SO that is somewhat a mix issue, but related to the perceptions about the format. As for your Q8, they generally got the same mix as the SQ, but the tape format tended to give a boomier bass while less treble due to the high speed duplication process used. CBS Q8s were mostly dolby B encoded which is strange since almost no one had dolby in their Q8 players, but it did give a little more high end, albeit with more hiss in my opinion.

 

[himey]

Has anyone compared this to the streaming version?

 

[fredblue]

Has anyone compared this to the streaming version?

i found the 360RA better balanced tonally than the SQ & Q8; less bass-y than the Q8, less bright than the SQ. a great album and mix. upped to a "10" from the "9" i gave based on the legacy formats i used to enjoy it via.