Surround Mixers' First Mixes - The Best Ones

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sjcorne

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... another "first surround mix" that kind of sucked would be Oasis "What's The Story Morning Glory" ... thankfully Eddie Kramer's first surround mix turned out really good ("Electric Ladyland")... someone should start a thread of "first surround mixes" (sjcorne?)

Here's a few to start- I'm not entirely sure about a few of these, free to correct me if I get anything wrong:
  • Elliot Scheiner- The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over
  • Steven Wilson- Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream
  • Bob Clearmountain- Roxy Music's Avalon
  • Kevin Reeves- The Velvet Underground's Loaded
  • Eddie Kramer- Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland
  • Greg Penny- Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Larry Keyes- various titles from the first wave of Columbia quads, such as Santana's Abraxas, The Raiders' Indian Reservation, and Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits
 
You could say that Elliot Scheiner got the 5.1 mix of "Automatic for the People" right the first time (which he did), but I think the new Atmos mix is equally good.

It's a similar situation for me with the 5.1 mixes of "Tommy". I think they are both good, despite the radically different approaches in the mixing style.

:)
 
George/Giles Martin - The Beatles, Love
(Not one of your faves though) ;)

Maybe more due to the material than the mix. It's a very good first attempt at 5.1 and it belongs on the list for sure.

How about Alan Parsons' DSOTM quad mix? I think that was his first ever attempt at any kind of surround. Its's a hell of a first try!
 
Was going to say..
Doesn't DSOTM belong first on the list?

I want to mention Rick Wakeman's solo albums. (The first 3 anyway.) The surround mix is not only good but the stereo mixes for these are decidedly quick asides next to the surrounds. Love the stubborn forward thinking attitude with that!
 
I want to mention Rick Wakeman's solo albums. (The first 3 anyway.) The surround mix is not only good but the stereo mixes for these are decidedly quick asides next to the surrounds. Love the stubborn forward thinking attitude with that!

Those are indeed pretty good, but I'm not sure if any of those were the first quad attempt done by Marv Bornstein & Bart Chiate (A&M's main quad guys).

I think my title for the thread made things confusing- the purpose of this thread is to list the best first-time surround mixes.
 
Not sure about Kramer, at this point. To my ears Electric Ladyland is a bit of an uneven experience. More listens needed, but certainly not sure I'd say he nailed his first effort.

Agreed. It's certainly not up to the caliber of others on the list (I think I covered what I like/dislike about it pretty comprehensively in my review on the poll thread). However It's a very solid effort for someone who's never done a surround mix before, so I think it belongs on the list.
 
According to the SACD notes Mike Oldfield didn't do that quad mix. (Was there an earlier attempt??)

I'm a bit confused myself regarding all the different surround versions of Tubular Bells: to my knowledge there are two distinct quad mixes (one was reissued as an SACD, but there is another reportedly different mix available on SQ vinyl in the "Boxed" set), a new 5.1 by Oldfield, and a rerecorded version on DVD-A.
 
Here's a few to start- I'm not entirely sure about a few of these, free to correct me if I get anything wrong:
  • Elliot Scheiner- The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over
  • Steven Wilson- Porcupine Tree's Stupid Dream
  • Bob Clearmountain- Roxy Music's Avalon
  • Kevin Reeves- The Velvet Underground's Loaded
  • Eddie Kramer- Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland
  • Greg Penny- Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
  • Larry Keyes- various titles from the first wave of Columbia quads, such as Santana's Abraxas, The Raiders' Indian Reservation, and Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits

another great thread sjcorne (y)
Messers Clearmountain, Scheiner & Wilson, i think, nailed it right out of the blocks but i'm not so sure about Greg Penny & Larry Keyes, both bettered their first-released mixes imho., i prefer the 5.1 on the SACDs that Mr. Penny did after GYBR and Mr. Keyes did so many superior Quads after Abraxas its hard to know exactly where he found his mojo but Abraxas for me was not among his best surround mixes and chronologically doesn't feel like he had it licked but he can be forgiven perhaps more than the others as he was i would say a true surround music pioneer doing that stuff pretty much at the forefront.
 
i prefer the 5.1 on the SACDs that Mr. Penny did after GYBR and Mr. Keyes did so many superior Quads after Abraxas its hard to know exactly where he found his mojo but Abraxas for me was not among his best surround mixes...

For me Penny's best work is Captain Fantastic, but who knows, maybe Don't Shoot Me and Caribou are even better! I'd sure love to find out someday...

Abraxas does indeed get a little crazy with the panning- I get the feeling Mr. Keyes may have been told by CBS execs to get a little "gimmicky" and really show off SQ with that early release. I often wonder how some of those early Columbia quads from '71 or '72 would've turned out if they were done later on, maybe around '74 or '75 when Columbia really had this whole quad thing down.
 
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