Obscure Q8: "Bhen Lanzaroni Quadraphonic"

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sjcorne

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I picked this up a few weeks back, though I didn't get a chance to work on it until today. I'm willing to bet not a lot of people have this one. I've had the LP version for ages and was shocked to see this even got a Q8 release. Oddly enough, the Q8 has no catalog #.

Q8 Front.jpgQ8 Back.jpg

As you can see, it's a very discrete quad mix, though I'm pretty sure there is a channel error. In the picture below I swapped the lefts, which put drums/piano in the fronts, guitar/strings in the rears. The music is hard to classify, but it's instrumental and I'd say it falls towards the easy-listening side.

Screen Shot 2019-04-11 at 5.01.50 PM.png

One thing that sort of disturbs me, and that I've never seen on a Q8 before, is that this tape seems to exhibit some form of print-through. If you listen carefully to the gaps between songs, you can hear a quiet remnant of another track.

I did a little digging online and found that the album is actually called In Classic Form. It seems that for the quad release, they dropped that title and used an alternate cover. What's also interesting is that the LP is encoded in an obscure matrix called "compati-quad", which supposedly can be played back properly using any matrix decoder (SQ, QS, EV-4, DY, etc).

So, has anyone ever seen or heard of this one? It never ceases to amaze me the kind of weird/under-the-radar stuff that got mixed for quad back in the day...
 
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I am curious, does the sound that you think is print through sound like an echo? If it is a different song altogether, I think the tape is not aligned with the heads. I can not say that I have ever heard print through on an 8 track as they usually used thicker tape stock to be able to make it last aas an endless loop. In a perfect world someone would invent a Q8 deck with manual tracking adjustments and Dolby, just because. It seems that every good q8 deck has a feature that the others don't have. Also, what kind of music is it?
 
If it is a different song altogether, I think the tape is not aligned with the heads.

That's probably it, as I was under the impression that print-through isn't possible on 8-tracks. I'm kind of reluctant to make adjustments to the tape head- I've transferred over 50 tapes at this point and haven't experienced any issues.

Also, what kind of music is it?

I found one track from it on YouTube. It's orchestral: the melodies are played on piano with strings backing. Definitely some easy-listening vibes in places.
 
I scored an unplayed/still sealed tape on eBay.... a couple years ago I guess. I would also agree that it has a channel error.
It's all right musically.... I'd say along the lines of some Enoch Light stuff. Nothing I'd play repeatedly. I just snapped it up because the price was right, it was sealed and I was curious to see if it was really Quad or not.

One of those pleasant little surprises.
 
Revisited this title tonight. It's an interesting mix.

When the channels are aligned correctly to place the piano in the front channels, you get:

Piano in a lovely, wide, stereo pair across the front channels
Bass in the center.
Rock Drum kit off to your right.
Tympani & Other Percussion to your left.
Electric Guitar in Back Left
String section Back Center
Woodwinds Back Right

This mix lasts for essentially the entire album which leaves a somewhat unbalanced soundscape when a song comes along that features no percussion or tympani and no woodwinds. There is one song (title, unknown. They all sort of blend together. It's on track 2) where the engineer thought he'd be a smart ass. You'll hear a tambourine strike in Front Left followed by a tremendous thunder on a kettle drum. Then, a tambourine strike in Front Right, followed by the kettle drum. It goes around the room a couple times and then the song begins. It's cute.

But this leads me to another mystery.... from what year does this album come? There is NO Phonographic Copyright mark on the tape, nor a copyright date. So, I'm going to assume it predates 1972. Why everything OTHER than the piano in mono? Well, if this comes from an 8 track multitrack, that might make sense. Just seems like the repurposing of an older album that somebody had stumble into the rights to.

Tracks 1&2 Piano
Track 3 Bass
Track 4 Drums
Track 5 Percussion
Track 6 Strings
Track 7 Woodwinds
Track 8 Guitar
 
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