Mike Oldfield's "Bells" apparently not Quad!

[neil wilkes]

There is an interview with Mike Oldfield in the latest issue of "Resolution" magazine (www.resolutionmag.com) where he is asked about 5.1:
Q - You did Tubular Bells in Quadraphonic, what do you think of 5.1 and current marketing of surround"?
A - Actually, it wasn't quadraphonic, It was this strange fake out-of-phase system. We tried to remix it but the actual mix of tubular bells was so difficult without automation that we gave up after just one day. We were doing it at Abbey Road, and I just left it to the engineer to put some bits & pieces of delays at the back.

Interesting statement, what!
I haven't got decent copies of the Quad mixes personally, and hadn't noticed this at all. Wonder if it is just "bells", or if the statement also applies to Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn & Collaborations.

 

[jdmack]

There is an interview with Mike Oldfield in the latest issue of "Resolution" magazine (www.resolutionmag.com) where he is asked about 5.1:
Q - You did Tubular Bells in Quadraphonic, what do you think of 5.1 and current marketing of surround"?
A - Actually, it wasn't quadraphonic, It was this strange fake out-of-phase system. We tried to remix it but the actual mix of tubular bells was so difficult without automation that we gave up after just one day. We were doing it at Abbey Road, and I just left it to the engineer to put some bits & pieces of delays at the back.

Interesting statement, what!
I haven't got decent copies of the Quad mixes personally, and hadn't noticed this at all. Wonder if it is just "bells", or if the statement also applies to Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn & Collaborations.

I think Mike is misremembering things. Regardless of whether or not they're quad, the quad issues of the first three albums are certainly complete remixes. In the case of "Tubular Bells," the SACD liner notes say that the remix was done by Phil Newell and Alan Perkins without any involvement from Mike Oldfield. However, I just read this for the first time today in the Wikipedia entry on Tubular Bells:

"There are three known variations of the vinyl edition of Tubular Bells.

<snip>

2. A quadrophonic version, black vinyl catalogue number QV2001. The first 40,000 copies of this are not true quadrophonic but doctored versions of the stereo issue, thereafter the subsequent copies are true quadrophonic. Unfortunately there is no indication on the record label that this substitution was made. [Reference: Nick Hamlyn, Musicmaster Price Guide for Record Collectors 3rd Edition, Retail Entertainment Data Publishing Ltd., 1994, p.599)"

So apparently there is both true quad version of TB and the fake quad version that Mike is remembering.

J. D.

 

[JonUrban]

Actually, the QV2001 disc is the SQ European release. The USA release was a CD-4 LP. And, of course, there was the UD-4 disc as well!!!

Who knows what master was used for any of these.

 

[stoty50134]

Doesn't the SACD of TB on the Virgin label contain a 1975 Quad mix?

 

[ingresman]

it does indeed. The "booklet" does talk about the mix. I can scan and publish if I'm allowed to. (I'll haae to find the power supply for my scanner though).
Mike does vary his story a lot. If you read the notes on boxed he does say he will think in terms of quad for his future releases.
If you go to tubular.net you'll find all kinds of quad stuff about TB,HR and Ommadawn
What did he say about 5.1 in the end ??

 

[ingresman]

Found this article on tubular.net http://tubular.net/forums/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=19;t=7318;st=0;r=1;&#entry83983 which points to
http://www.supercable.es/~alkazaba/mikequad.html
It's in Spanish so you might want to run it through altavista bable fish at
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

 

[jdmack]

For all the talk about how the original recording of the tubular bells was not available for the quad remix, I find it more interesting that the acoustic guitar solo at the end of side 1 is a completely different performance on the quad mix than the stereo mix.

J. D.

 

[ingresman]

Nice little thread on http://tubular.net/forums/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=13;t=7317 about the Quad Ommadawns. I've added a little plug for this site at the end.

 

[jdmack]

Nice little thread on http://tubular.net/forums/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=13;t=7317 about the Quad Ommadawns. I've added a little plug for this site at the end.

I was going to add some info to that thread, and even though I'm registered at tubular.net, I get a message saying I am not allowed to reply to the thread .

Tell them that the CDs of the Mike Oldfield Box Set have the same SQ encoded audio as the original vinyl albums, so they can decode the CDs as well.

J. D.

 

[ingresman]

Now,that's an interesting thing. If you have a search on tubular.net (or it might be here !!!) there are at least 2 editions of the Boxed CD. You can tell which one you have by the inner circle being transparent or not. One of them is untouched SQ, the other not.
Have a look at http://tubular.net/forums/ikonboard.cgi?;act=ST;f=21;t=1901 and scroll down.
There have been suggestions here that some remasterd CD's may have lost the SQ, for example exposed.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

My discs are the solid silver type so I take it mine have the SQ encoding intact. Before I decode all three CDs, which tracks on these 3 CDs are SQ encoded and which are not?
Thanks.

 

[timbre4]

I swapped emails (back in 1998-99 seems like he appeared in Stereo Review) with an engineer of some fame (now deceased) who had first hand knowledge of TB quad mixing. I believe he said there were no tracks left for the tubular bells itself with all the other instruments, so these were mixed onto the quad mix separately after the fact. Wish I could recall more...

 

[jdmack]

My discs are the solid silver type so I take it mine have the SQ encoding intact. Before I decode all three CDs, which tracks on these 3 CDs are SQ encoded and which are not?
Thanks.

As far as I know, all of them.

J. D.

 

[Old Quad Guy]

As far as I know, all of them.

J. D.

OK, cool.
Thanks J. D.