What's the Latest DISCRETE Quad LP Added to Your Pile? CD-4, UD-4

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Hi. All
Another load of CD-4`s came today..

( Avco. CD-4 CD4W-7109 -The Stylistics Thank You Baby )-
( Victor. CD-4 CD4W-7032 -Hawaiian Jack De Mello )-
( Victor. CD-4 CD4B-5063 -Also Sprach Zarathustra )-
( RCA. CD-4 R4C-2001 -Eugene Ormandy List Hungarian Rhapsodies )-

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I'd never seen a CD-4 of this. I have a US SQ.

WOW!!

Me neither! I only knew of You've Got It Bad Girl (4D-4). I'm sure you already know this, but King Records in Japan released CD-4 LPs of many A&M/Ode/CTI quads that were SQ in the US, and in some cases only Q8 or Q4 (Carole King, Moody Blues).

In addition to the QJ (4D-10), I've got:
Carpenters- The Singles (4D-22)
Carpenters- Now & Then (4D-1)
Carole King- Tapestry (4D-2)
Deodato- Deodato 2 (4D-6)

I wonder what the yet-to-be-identified 4D-20 is? I'd love it to be something like Deodato's Prelude or the Moodies' Days Of Future Passed, but you'd think someone would've come forward with either of those after 40+ years...
 
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I picked up these two within the last month . No OBI's though. Been looking for a while . So when they came up, I sent them an offer and both were accepted ! I was actually surprised . These are about as hard to get as my two discrete Pink Floyd discrete tapes. My other got to have is the Carole King Tapestry CD-4.

ArmyOfQuad ; If you ever want to sell your Tapestry CD-4 , let me know.
 

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Nice! Been looking for the Tapestry lp for quite a while.

Hi. rawmacias

Tapestry CD-4 is around but not that easy to come across, I was on a Japanese Auction site looking for something going to different sellers and came across by accident, when you use there search program and you put down Quad LP or 4CH and so on it will bring up different Quad items and that's how I came across Tapestry and thats how I have come across a lot of my Quad LP`s in that way its a matter of looking & looking & looking...…………..
 
Hey
bigbillquad,

What auction site were you on? And , did you have to use a proxy buying service?
I have tried Japanese auction sites but they are kind of like Mercado Livre. They are not set up to sell outside of their country for some reason. Since they are quite depended on world trade , I find it strange. I do use a couple of store sites , but they are stores and not auction sites.
 
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Threw a last-minute bid in this morning and actually won! First copy I've ever seen. I now have five King CD-4 LPs.

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congrats! that was quite some last minute bid, i bid on it when it started in the region of 30-40 but it ended up like 80 or 90 quid, which is just way out of my league!
AOQ has a copy of the CD-4 iirc., not sure if he ever did a conversion?
 
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This is my third copy of this LP, and so far it's the most listenable of the lot. Still not great, even after two runs through the spin clean and heavy NR/EQ on the PC, but listenable. Used WEA Quadradiscs are kind of a crapshoot- I've gone through multiple copies of Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies and they're all noisy and distorted as well. It's a shame there was no Japanese pressing.

For those unaware, this is an entirely different quad mix than the version on the British EMI SACD (that mix was originally released on EMI SQ LP and Q8 in the U.K. in 1972). This version appeared in the U.S. in 1974 on Warner CD-4 LP, Q8, and quad reel-to-reel. I guess that would imply the British mix, credited to Peter Mew, was done first. As for why Warner didn't just use that for the CD-4 release, that's anyone's guess.

Some Mix Differences:
  • The British mix is your typical SQ layout- fairly dry, with drums, bass and vocals upfront, and opposing instruments in each rear speaker (in this case keys and guitar). Solos pop up in various quadrants.
  • This mix is much wetter- if you isolate the fronts or rears you can heard reverb from the instruments on the opposing side. Makes sense, as CD-4 is a discrete format and can handle reverb much better than SQ.
  • The drums are spread over all four channels- I think the main kit is upfront and the cymbals/overheads are in the rears (?), but it varies from track to track.
  • Bass guitar is usually isolated in the rears, matching other Warner quads such as the 4 Doobies mixes.
  • Keys and guitar are generally isolated in each front speaker, while solos pop up in various quadrants.
    • Opening guitar in "Smoke On The Water" is located left front, as opposed to right rear on the British mix
  • The lead vocal in "Space Truckin'" is totally isolated in the rears- a bit weird, but interesting. If you flip front/rear it sounds almost like the U.K. mix :unsure:
Personally I like the British mix better overall, but this is also quite discrete and well done. There are actually some aspects of this version I like better, for instance the high harmony backing vocal on the chorus of "Smoke On The Water" is in the rears, while it's buried in the front with the lead on the British mix. "Highway Star" has a neat delay effect on the lead vocal in the rears. The intro drums to "Pictures Of Home" sound much more expansive spread over the entire soundfield vs. confined to stereo in the front speakers on the British version. I could write a paper on all these mix differences...

This is one of my all-time favorite albums, so what a treat to have three different surround versions (U.S. Quad, U.K. Quad, 5.1 DVD-A) each with their own merits and drawbacks. Maybe one day we'll get some mega ultra box set with all the different mixes- the 50th anniversary is in 2022.
 
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Hey
bigbillquad,

What auction site were you on? And , did you have to use a proxy buying service?
I have tried Japanese auction sites but they are kind of like Mercado Livre. They are not set up to sell outside of their country for some reason. Since they are quite depended on world trade , I find it strange. I do use a couple of store sites , but they are stores and not auction sites.

Great Question - but :whistle:
 
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