Nektar Question....

[Bob Squires Jr]

I have the German Bellaphon-Bacilus LPs of Nektar's Remember The Future and Down To Earth in SQ.

I understand the USA pressings were "unmarked" quad.

Some say it's SQ and others say it's QS.

Seeing as how the Passport label was through ABC, wouldn't it have been QS since all other ABC Quad releases were QS?

Has anyone played with this and can tell me which one it is?
Thanks!

-Bob

 

[Lucanu]

I have both and it's SQ

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

I have both and it's SQ

Thanks for clearing that up for me!
It was a bit confusing!
I know that the German pressings were SQ but it seemed, as I said,
that an ABC pressing was SQ and not QS like everything else they did.

Gotta love those un-marked quad gems!

-Bob

 

[Lucanu]

 

[Lucanu]

It's an import from a quad only release, so they pressed it as "stereo" and therefore SQ encoding is intact.

 

[bloop]

The re-release of Down To Earth on Eclectic Discs is still in SQ. I did a conversion with the usual Script in Adobe Audition and it works out great.

Maybe the Passport release of Tab in the Ocean is in QS as it was done in the USA, a special mix.

 

[ress4278]

The re-release of Down To Earth on Eclectic Discs is still in SQ. I did a conversion with the usual Script in Adobe Audition and it works out great.

Maybe the Passport release of Tab in the Ocean is in QS as it was done in the USA, a special mix.

If the Eclectic release of Remember The Future is in SQ, why is it listed as a 5.1 remix?

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

If the Eclectic release of Remember The Future is in SQ, why is it listed as a 5.1 remix?

The SACD was a 5.1 remix, If I remember my futures correctly!

 

[MyCuff]

The SACD is 5.1 and was released I think in 2004. It sounds good but is a bit bass shy.

 

[ress4278]

The SACD is 5.1 and was released I think in 2004. It sounds good but is a bit bass shy.

Actually, I find the 5.1 mix here to be weak compared to the 2 channel option through a tate. Stronger sound, more bass, and clearer separation. I think another post confirmed that the original quad mix is embedded in the 2 channel option.

A five for the 5.1 mix, and an eight for SQ, making it a seven

 

[MyCuff]

It did say it sounded good, not great! A 5 though, that is a little low for me. I have heard a lot of "5s" and I personally would not rank it there. I would go with a 7 considering vintage of the recording. Just my opinion, of course. I would like to listen to the SQ some day. JTTCOTE, maybe that one is a 5 for me...

 

[ress4278]

It did say it sounded good, not great! A 5 though, that is a little low for me. I have heard a lot of "5s" and I personally would not rank it there. I would go with a 7 considering vintage of the recording. Just my opinion, of course. I would like to listen to the SQ some day. JTTCOTE, maybe that one is a 5 for me...

Hi Mike,
Appreciate your response, and yes, I agree a 5 is low. I don't usually rate things that low. I tried it a couple of times on different nights, adjusting playback volume, balance f/b-l/r, as well as center, but it just never came together for me

I do like the 5.1 of JTTCOTE.

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

I don't think the Remember The Future SACD was a 5.1 remix, I believe it was the quad mix (with a center added derived from the fronts). A search for Nektar brings up some previous threads that discusses some of these things.

 

[wanners]

I don't think the Remember The Future SACD was a 5.1 remix, I believe it was the quad mix (with a center added derived from the fronts). A search for Nektar brings up some previous threads that discusses some of these things.

Yeah, I've heard the reel to reel and they are the same mix--the 5.1 is definitely the quad mix.

 

[MyCuff]

Don't forget the .1 as it is there - just weak. So are you all saying it should be as good as the reel-reel? I would think that better than SQ.

 

[wanners]

Don't forget the .1 as it is there - just weak. So are you all saying it should be as good as the reel-reel? I would think that better than SQ.

I think the R>R is slightly better than the 5.1 on SACD, maybe a little more discrete and lively sounding but not so much that you can't live without it. The SACD is an adequate substitute. Maybe after another listen I could give you something more concrete.

 

[MidiMagic]

Often when a recording is transferred from one company to another, they do not bother remastering it. So a foreign SQ recording could be released on a label using QS.

This happened with the Polydor release of the soundtrack of the Who's movie "Tommy". The movie was recorded in QS (the only pre-Dolby Stereo matrixed quad movie). The record company took the soundtrack right from the film master tape. So Polydor (which adopted CD-4) released a QS record without knowing it.

All of the later Vangelis recordings seem to be in hidden SQ or UMX (I am still trying to figure out which).

Here's one that had me stumped for a while. All of my earlier Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass albums seemed to be recorded in UMX! Since they were recorded before matrixed quad, I had a puzzle to solve. It tuned out to be the Moss center soloist removal system. The right channel of these records was phase shifted 90 degrees later than the left channel. So the center soloists appear up front in UMX (or in the left back of SQ).

 

[DogCow]

Bellaphon has put out some poor sounding stereo pressings of "Remember The Future" over the years. I've purchased several copies over the years in order to find a good one. I fell in love with the band after purchasing a used copy in a used vinyl store in Boston in the 80's.

How many 5.1 pressings are out there? More than one try at remix/remastering?

 

[bloop]

Journey to the Center of the Eye (Eclectic Disc, new 5.1. from 2003, SACD)
Tab In The Ocean (Eclectic Disc, Remaster on Eclectic Discs contains US-Quad Mix as Bonus, can be encoded)
Remember the Future (Eclectic Disc, old Quadmix, SACD)
Down To Earth (Eclectic Disc, German SQ-Mix, can be encoded)
Live In New York (Eclectic Disc, SACD, new 5.1. Mix)

 

[Led9]

Was the US Passport version a hidden QS miX?

Rick