Music streaming on Apple Music in 5.1 (Dolby Audio)

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/love-is-the-message/278929903
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/promised-land/471740901
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-best-of-mountain/192481312
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/love-theme-from-romeo-juliet/1234160441
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/loose-salute-expanded-edition/1389654196
tracks 1-10 are the original Quad

due to (i think) the Bonus tracks, it doesn't indicate its in Dolby Audio but it is 🙂

E123A396-6108-4BFF-B5F0-2CC81AD016B4.jpeg
29CD9C86-C629-4BB0-B996-D200B896EF29.jpeg


https://music.apple.com/gb/album/two-lane-highway/299607176
 
I wonder if this a fresh transfer from the quad master or the same as the '90s DTS-CD?

i don't know (there's still a Centre channel this time but its empty/silent no fake stuff going on, though that's probably not an indication of anything) anyway it sounds very good here to me, quite crankable and its been a while since i last heard it so i'd forgotten what an active mix it is, wow very Surround-y!! 🥳😍
 
Last edited:
Try looking in the Dolby Atmos thread. This is the Dolby Audio thread.
To be fair the thread title is slightly confusing... Most of these listings are quad albums, yet it's not referenced?

And the Dolby Audio tag is quite easy to confuse with Dolby Atmos from a quick glance. Quite why Apple decided to use this 'Dolby Audio' tag is pretty barmy to me... Maybe getting people to misread it as Atmos was entirely their motive?! 🤔
 
To be fair the thread title is slightly confusing... Most of these listings are quad albums, yet it's not referenced?

And the Dolby Audio tag is quite easy to confuse with Dolby Atmos from a quick glance. Quite why Apple decided to use this 'Dolby Audio' tag is pretty barmy to me... Maybe getting people to misread it as Atmos was entirely their motive?! 🤔

Dolby Atmos and Dolby Audio are Dolby's names for their products. Apple didn't make it up.

As to Apple using the names to try to deceive people... Must we always assume the worst motives? No, Apple is not trying to get people to misread things, they are labeling them with the names of the products that they are encoded with.

Dolby Audio is conventional surround sound (typically 4.0 or 5.1).
Dolby Atmos is object based surround with height.

Different things, with different names.

I agree it would be a good idea to rename this thread. When it was created it was just when a few 5.1 releases had been discovered but it should definitely mention quad as that is now the vast majority of the Dolby Audio releases.
 
Last edited:
Awesome that this Quad mix is now available! Not the greatest in terms of sound quality, but that's just the way it was recorded and still a fun mix. Thanks for sharing.

There's been a discussion over at the Both Sides Now stereo board as to how (or, on what equipment) Mountain recorded on. I'd read somewhere that the Record Plant in New York had a short-lived 12-track tape machine and a couple other fellas much more knowledgeable than I backed that up. 1-inch 12-track was a short-lived multitrack format with less than favorable signal to noise ratios and higher than acceptable cross-talk since it's basically 12 tracks squeezed onto what used to occupy 8. With 2" 16-track existing at literally the same time and blowing 12-track out of the water with both sound and reliability.... it was abandoned rather quickly.

Back on topic, it's suspected; though unconfirmed - that Mountain may have used that 12-track and their gritty sound may actually come from the fact that they were too loud to accurately capture on the shall we say "crippled" 12-track system. Sort of like how the early CCR tracks sounded a little "dirty" because John Fogerty would record the basic tracks on their own 8-track machine at their "Factory" facility; then dub those onto 16-track when he got some L.A. studio time. That is, until someone suggested to him that just upgrading the tape machine at the factory would eliminate that step and maintain the integrity of the original recording. In his own words: "I was just a kid! How was I supposed to know any of this?" 😁
 

These new finds are astonishing and delightful.
As I was working on my Strictly Headphone 360RA thread, listing titles available from Amazon, I was cross-checking on Apple and not finding several of these which have popped up now in Atmos. :) [err, I mean Dolby Audio, of course. which is the same thing at my house where I have only six speakers firmly anchored to the floor ;)]

:51QQ
 
Last edited:
i don't know (there's still a Centre channel this time but its empty/silent no fake stuff going on, though that's probably not an indication of anything) anyway it sounds very good here to me, quite crankable and its been a while since i last heard it so i'd forgotten what an active mix it is, wow very Surround-y!! 🥳😍
Indeed, the title track in particular is quite a trip. My only knock on the quad mix is that the guitar solo in "Here We Go Again" is MIA.
 
Just added yesterday to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
https://www.loc.gov/programs/nation...ng-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2022/

https://music.apple.com/us/album/reach-out-ill-be-there/1475816828?i=1475818105

Another winner vintage Motown full 6-channel 5.1 mix.
Dry and powerful fronts, ambience center, sub-octave bass guitar LFE.
LR backing vocals & flutes + ambience, RR dry tambourine triplets & a delightful discrete rhythm guitar.



“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” (single). The Four Tops. (1966)
four-tops.jpg

The Four Tops
Courtesy: Universal

According to the Motown Museum, “Reach Out, I'll Be There” was the Four Tops’ biggest hit and is considered the vocal group’s theme song.
Recorded in Studio A at Hitsville USA and written and produced by the powerhouse team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the lyrics grew out of their feeling that women “wanted someone to be there for them, through thick or thin.”
Lamont Dozier said that he wanted to write “a journey of emotions with sustained tension, like a bolero.”
To achieve that, he “alternated the keys, from a minor, Russian feel in the verse to a major, gospel feel in the chorus.”
Levi Stubbs’ impassioned vocal was inspired by an unlikely source: Bob Dylan.
According to Dozier, they were inspired by Dylan’s shout singing style on “Like a Rolling Stone” and wanted lead vocalist Stubbs to sing like that.
To give his vocal added intensity, HDH put Stubbs at the top of his vocal range so he would have to strain a little.
The “galloping” sound, heard prominently at the beginning of the song, is a series of triplet beats struck on the plastic head of a tambourine with no jingles, played by Motown producer Norman Whitfield.
Levi Stubbs improvised the lyric, “Just look over your shoulder.”
It sounded good, so they kept it in.
 
its great but its Dolby Atmos rather than Dolby Audio 🙂
Hells bells, I'm hopeless at this. 🔔:devilish: 🔔
Mea Maxima Culpa, but it sounds freaking great in 5.1 for us folks who are solidly grounded while surrounded.

:51QQ

Besides, why would someone who can't hear the fairy dust🧚‍♀️ ✨rain down 🌧from the ceiling☔ post in an Atmos thread? 🤣
 
Just added yesterday to the Library of Congress National Recording Registry.
https://www.loc.gov/programs/nation...ng-registry/registry-by-induction-years/2022/

https://music.apple.com/us/album/reach-out-ill-be-there/1475816828?i=1475818105

Another winner vintage Motown full 6-channel 5.1 mix.
Dry and powerful fronts, ambience center, sub-octave bass guitar LFE.
LR backing vocals & flutes + ambience, RR dry tambourine triplets & a delightful discrete rhythm guitar.



“Reach Out, I’ll Be There” (single). The Four Tops. (1966)
four-tops.jpg

The Four Tops
Courtesy: Universal

According to the Motown Museum, “Reach Out, I'll Be There” was the Four Tops’ biggest hit and is considered the vocal group’s theme song.
Recorded in Studio A at Hitsville USA and written and produced by the powerhouse team of Holland-Dozier-Holland, the lyrics grew out of their feeling that women “wanted someone to be there for them, through thick or thin.”
Lamont Dozier said that he wanted to write “a journey of emotions with sustained tension, like a bolero.”
To achieve that, he “alternated the keys, from a minor, Russian feel in the verse to a major, gospel feel in the chorus.”
Levi Stubbs’ impassioned vocal was inspired by an unlikely source: Bob Dylan.
According to Dozier, they were inspired by Dylan’s shout singing style on “Like a Rolling Stone” and wanted lead vocalist Stubbs to sing like that.
To give his vocal added intensity, HDH put Stubbs at the top of his vocal range so he would have to strain a little.
The “galloping” sound, heard prominently at the beginning of the song, is a series of triplet beats struck on the plastic head of a tambourine with no jingles, played by Motown producer Norman Whitfield.
Levi Stubbs improvised the lyric, “Just look over your shoulder.”
It sounded good, so they kept it in.


According to my Sonos Arc, the music is 2.0/PCM
Where's the 5.1 or Atmos?
 
Back
Top