I have been attempting to create a nice, HiRez DVD-A of this Q8. The first Q8 I bought on eBay (over $100) had a large chunk excised from it at the end of the tape, along with a few feet of "accordian" crinkle. Those are the eBay risks of buying 30 year old 8-tracks.
The second tape I bought on eBay (again, $100+) turned out to be wound too tight, but it was intact. I was able to rescue it and get a decent 24/96 rip to my PC.
Now here's the weird part. In the song "Waters of March", which is the last song on side one, there seemed to be distortion in the rear left channel during this passage:
A snake a stick, it if John it is Joe
a fish a flash, a silvery glow
and the riverbank talks of the Waters of March
it's the promise of life in your heart in your heart
At about the point where he sings "John it is Joe", the audio levels decrease, and there is distortion that can be heard, almost like the tape is wrinkled or somehow damaged. If I look at the wav file, I can see the levels lower, then as soon as the last word of the above passage clears, the levels of the music return to normal and again are clear.
So, being the wacko that I am, I went and got the damaged tape, repaired what I could, queued it up and recorded it, hoping to excise that section from the original tape to patch into the good tape.
However, low and behold, THE SAME THING applied to the second tape! Exactly the same. This could not be a coincindence.
At that point, I went to my archives. I had done a DTS CD of this title 4 years ago, and on an archive hard drive, I had the original wav files of a tape that I borrowed from a fellow quad fan to make the DTS CD, and although it was only a 16/44.1 rip, I wanted to see if the flaw existed there - and it DID!!
This has to be on all Breakaway Q8's! How could the exact same flaw exist on 3 different tapes? Very odd.
I know this would take some time, buy I would be interested if anyone else has this Q8 if they could check theirs and see if I am crazy.
I do have the SQ LP, but this tape is a discrete spectacular and I would really like to use the Q8 as the source. I may have to do some "magic" on this one.
Why oh Why didn't Columbia make Q4s???
The second tape I bought on eBay (again, $100+) turned out to be wound too tight, but it was intact. I was able to rescue it and get a decent 24/96 rip to my PC.
Now here's the weird part. In the song "Waters of March", which is the last song on side one, there seemed to be distortion in the rear left channel during this passage:
A snake a stick, it if John it is Joe
a fish a flash, a silvery glow
and the riverbank talks of the Waters of March
it's the promise of life in your heart in your heart
At about the point where he sings "John it is Joe", the audio levels decrease, and there is distortion that can be heard, almost like the tape is wrinkled or somehow damaged. If I look at the wav file, I can see the levels lower, then as soon as the last word of the above passage clears, the levels of the music return to normal and again are clear.
So, being the wacko that I am, I went and got the damaged tape, repaired what I could, queued it up and recorded it, hoping to excise that section from the original tape to patch into the good tape.
However, low and behold, THE SAME THING applied to the second tape! Exactly the same. This could not be a coincindence.
At that point, I went to my archives. I had done a DTS CD of this title 4 years ago, and on an archive hard drive, I had the original wav files of a tape that I borrowed from a fellow quad fan to make the DTS CD, and although it was only a 16/44.1 rip, I wanted to see if the flaw existed there - and it DID!!
This has to be on all Breakaway Q8's! How could the exact same flaw exist on 3 different tapes? Very odd.
I know this would take some time, buy I would be interested if anyone else has this Q8 if they could check theirs and see if I am crazy.
I do have the SQ LP, but this tape is a discrete spectacular and I would really like to use the Q8 as the source. I may have to do some "magic" on this one.
Why oh Why didn't Columbia make Q4s???
