"Music" was released in December, 1971. It definitely was an early quad issue, but I can't confirm either way whether it was the first quad rock LP to be released.
Carole King 'Music' on QS LP
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"Music" was released in December, 1971. It definitely was an early quad issue, but I can't confirm either way whether it was the first quad rock LP to be released.
All of this talk about "Music" led me to check it out this weekend. I dragged the Japan QS LP and the US QS LP up to the "big computer" and played the song "Song of Long Ago" into the PC through the Surround Master, once from each LP.
Looking at the audio which I recorded from the Surround Master quad outputs into my MOTU and into Vegas 12 at 24/96, you can visually see that the Japanese LP was mastered louder, not brickwall loud, just volume loud. The wave forms from the Japanese LP were of a higher amplitude and I adjusted nothing from one LP to another.
As for the mix, well, it's not that "discrete". Listening to both versions they pretty much sound the same. If I isolate the two rights, I clearly hear the James Taylor harmony vocals, and in the lefts is Carole's vocals without James. But she is in all of the channels as well. James is not.
As for using the included "layout map" it's not quite as pinpoint as that layout shows. It's an early quad mix and compared to a Columbia Q8 it's what I would call "Bigger Stereo" than four-point quad.
I would almost be tempted to turn the mix 90 degrees clockwise, putting James in the rears and Carole in the fronts. Maybe I'll give that a shot some day.
Still, this album has some great tunes and is worthy of your quad collection. But realistically, I really don't hear what Karen and Richard Carpenter heard when they formed their comments that they put in one of their quad LPs where they noted that they "heard the Carole King album in quad and were blown away".
This album will not blow anyone away with respect to surround sound. IMHO
Looking at the audio which I recorded from the Surround Master quad outputs into my MOTU and into Vegas 12 at 24/96, you can visually see that the Japanese LP was mastered louder, not brickwall loud, just volume loud. The wave forms from the Japanese LP were of a higher amplitude and I adjusted nothing from one LP to another.
As for the mix, well, it's not that "discrete". Listening to both versions they pretty much sound the same. If I isolate the two rights, I clearly hear the James Taylor harmony vocals, and in the lefts is Carole's vocals without James. But she is in all of the channels as well. James is not.
As for using the included "layout map" it's not quite as pinpoint as that layout shows. It's an early quad mix and compared to a Columbia Q8 it's what I would call "Bigger Stereo" than four-point quad.
I would almost be tempted to turn the mix 90 degrees clockwise, putting James in the rears and Carole in the fronts. Maybe I'll give that a shot some day.
Still, this album has some great tunes and is worthy of your quad collection. But realistically, I really don't hear what Karen and Richard Carpenter heard when they formed their comments that they put in one of their quad LPs where they noted that they "heard the Carole King album in quad and were blown away".
This album will not blow anyone away with respect to surround sound. IMHO
According to the diagram on the inner sleeve for the album, Carole was placed dead center, not center front. While I agree with you that this is not a four-point, "discrete" mix, it's quite effective.
I love this record, I used to play it through my Audionics 106A SQ decoder. The vocals would come out of the front and only one rear speaker, not proper but still sounded good to me. The Tate didn't really do any better as it's enhancement was made for SQ not QS. I now have a QSD-1 but haven't listened to this record through it yet, (as I can recall). My turntable is connected to a different system right now. I will get around to making a dub to the computer in the near future. As I recall, and as mentioned in the liner notes the effect is surround sound, enhanced through the use of the Sansui decoder. I'm sure that the Carpenters were impressed by this record (as I was), and as stated in their liner notes. I didn't find Tapestry (Q8) to be nearly as good as this surround wise. My favourite track from Music is Brother, Brother! I also think that this was the best sounding QS record when played back in stereo. Full centre vocals were common in discrete mix's and were workable in QS, I like the effect but it requires four corner speaker placement for the best results.
I like this record too. Never thought much of the mix until I got a Surround Master. There is activity in the rears-especially on Brother Brother & Going Back to California. The sax on Music moves from front to rear & back again if you listen hard enough. (It tends to get buried under the other instruments when it moves- a matrix limitation I guess). True, it is not the most dynamic mix. But definitely not double stereo. It's a good mellow mix.
My point exactly!
I didn't say she was center front, I said her vocals in the lefts do not have James' vocals with her, so you hear her vocal by itself. I am not trashing this LP, I am just saying it's not a spectacular Quad LP as some of the Columbia quad mixes.
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