Anyone remember the interview with the guy who mixed the A&M quads?

[Q-Eight]

The Joan Beaz titles are both great as well as the Billy Preston. 2 of the 3 Rick Wakeman titles are discrete, but again, not the most adventurous mixes. Organ/Piano Front, Drums BL, Bass BR type deal. "You've Got it Bad, Girl" is probably the best Quincy Jones title. "Walking in Space" to my ears sounds like sonic fakery. Like the Stereo album run through a QS decoder or something.

Captain & Tenille and Ozark Mountain Daredevils are ok, but not mind blowing. There is detectable F/R and L/R separation, but they're not uber-discrete.
The Humble Pie Q8 is also about the same. Detectable separation, but hardly 4-corner discrete. They remind me of the early Guess Who titles where drums are mostly to the rear and other instruments are mostly to the front. Very vague placement.

The Joe Cocker titles are forgettable. If they did indeed come from a multitrack source (which I doubt) they are among the worst. Stereo in front, delayed stereo in the rear.

Herb Alpert's Greatest is complete fakery while Whipped Cream comes from the three track sources.... take that as you will. I've done better with the 3-track of "A Taste of Honey".

 

[EMB]

I have always enjoyed Cat Stevens "Foreigner" in quad. Especially the Q8

It is a reasonably good mix, suggesting that--this time, anyway--there was access to the multis. But TEA and TEASER sound more like enhanced stereo than discrete. Since Cat's home label was Island UK, either that label would have assembled a quad mix and sent it along, or someone from A&M would have had to travel to make the mix themselves (not likely). Certainly multis wouldn't have been sent to the USA for remixing (tape preservation inherently means keeping them in one safe place, not sending them about here there and everywhere).

As we've discussed before, the Alpert Q8's aren't much, but that's mainly due to the limitations of two and three-track sources; had something more elaborate--say, later albums like BEAT OF THE BRASS or WARM--been remixed, we might have gotten quad mixes worth hearing.

As for Billboard's charts, editing was always a problem. For instance, although the Hot 100 back in 1959-61 listed singles that had stereo counterparts, they sometimes listed 45's that in fact did NOT have a release, and occasionally missed a few that did. Similarly, when mono editions were being phased out in 1968, BB often didn't list an album as having a mono edition (like S&G's BOOKENDS, possibly because a) it was a limited edition, b) Columbia didn't want it listed and requested it not be, or c) someone at BB wasn't paying attention. Since some labels kept certain mono Lp's in print going into 1969--you could still buy a mono pressing of SGT. PEPPER or MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, though no further pressings were being made, the inventory was being allowed to run out--some are indeed listed with both editions, but most, like Elektra's Lp's and other label's, were not noted even though mono was still available. So the quad errors and omissions in those '70s charts are hardly surprising, the mag had a habit of errors going back a long while.

ED

 

[Quadwreck]

To my knowledge, all mono editions of "Bookends" are promos, which is probably why they didn't get listed by Billboard.

 

[ssully]

All the Quincy Jones ones are, especially Body Heat and You've Got It Bad, Girl, as are the Rick Wakeman ones, Captain & Tennille 'Love Will Keep Us Together, both Chuck Mangione titles, most of the Carpenters titles, and even a couple of the Carole King titles I've heard (Fantasy and Rhymes and Reasons) while not incredibly discrete, suit the minimal nature of drums/bass/piano/voice and still have discrete elements.

From the article: "Several musicians have mixed their own quad LP, including Quincy Jones, Rick Wakeman, and Chuck Mangione."

 

[Philip Spinner]

Been a while since I listened to the Cat Stevens quads but I agree Foreigner was the real deal although the channels may have been assigned wrong.. I also think Buddah & the Chocolate Box is real quad.
Phil.

 

[Larry Geller]

To my knowledge, all mono editions of "Bookends" are promos, which is probably why they didn't get listed by Billboard.

There were store copies.

 

[EMB]

There were store copies.

Store and record club copies, with a dedicated mono cover to go with the dedicated mono mix (I've had a copy for about twenty years--tough bugger to find!). Hard to be sure what the mono/stereo ratio was, but I doubt very high. But there were later Columbia mono's in '68, including Big Brother's CHEAP THRILLS, two Gary Puckett/Union Gap titles (YOUNG GIRL and INCREDIBLE, which came around October); all had legit store/club copies. Some albums, like Robert John's, AFAIK had a mono-only promo, but there were a few dozen Columbia/Epic monos in '68, maybe more.

But again, Billboard had issues with its issues, as it were; and its '70s quad designations were generally accurate, but with a few omissions and an erroneous one on occasion. Oh well...

ED

 

[Quad Linda]

Most US Columbia mono LP versions of 2ch titles from 1968 are promo only. Although I don't own a mono Bookends, I have a couple others which are in the stereo sleeve, with a white promo timing strip, a "special mono radio station copy" sticker, and a white label on the disc itself. To my knowledge, all these are "foldover" mixes, which you could achieve yourself if you have a mono button on your receiver or preamp.

To my knowledge, all mono editions of "Bookends" are promos, which is probably why they didn't get listed by Billboard.

 

[Larry Geller]

Most US Columbia mono LP versions of 2ch titles from 1968 are promo only. Although I don't own a mono Bookends, I have a couple others which are in the stereo sleeve, with a white promo timing strip, a "special mono radio station copy" sticker, and a white label on the disc itself. To my knowledge, all these are "foldover" mixes, which you could achieve yourself if you have a mono button on your receiver or preamp.

View attachment 17619

None of them were fold-downs. Columbia did not do fold-downs. They are all dedicated mono mixes.

 

[quadtrade]

He says right near where it cuts to the second page, "we used a lot of criss cross echoes."

Talk about a way to screw up a soundfield, that sounds like the winner.

 

[EMB]

Well, we've managed to hijack this thread nicely, huh?

Not to belabor the point too much--and we did start out with quad, and somehow wound up here--these red label Columbia mono's from '68 are in my collection, although I'm going from memory, so I may be missing a few:

Songs of Leonard Cohen
John Wesley Harding
Ray Conniff: It Must Be Him and Turn Around, Look At Me
Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
Percy Faith: For Those in Love and Angel of the Morning
Andre Kostelanetz: Scarborough Fair and For the Young At Heart
Johnny Mathis: Love Is Blue and Those Were the Days
S&G: Bookends (also WLP)
Union Gap: Woman, Woman, Young Girl & Incredible (I have a WLP of YOUNG GIRL as well)
Big Brother: Cheap Thrills (also WLP)

That's all I remember, there might be a few oddball country titles as well buried somewhere..and there were more. There were probably at least as many WLP's, with some (and only some) exclusive to radio, like the Nyro, Robert John, and BS&T's CHILD IS FATHER. But many did indeed have store/record club counterparts. Hell, even Motown was pressing a handful of titles in 1968, and some of those are as hard to find as BOOKENDS, which is well worth owning, believe me.





ED