Speaking of Channel Swapping: ABC/GRT Q8's....

[Q-Eight]

As my collection grows in leaps and bounds, I now have 2 Q8's from ABC (Jim Croce - Don't Mess around w/ Jim and Grass Roots "16") that are oddly mixed. They seem to have the LEFT channels Swapped!

For Example: Front Left: Background Vocals
Front Right: Lead Vocals
Rear Left: Lead Vocals
Rear Right: Background Vocals

To me, that just sounds odd, like a "Stereo-Wide" kind of mix. It doesn't offer any sort of discrete-ness. What strikes me as odd, is that I have a GRT Quad Sampler tape with a Grass Roots song "Sooner or Later" on it, and the mix is more appropriate with Lead vocals in the front and backgrounds in the back.
I've found that if I play the tapes run thru my 4 channel tape monitor with the left channels swapped front to back, the sound is much more enjoyable!

SO, are these tapes just mis-prints or were they deliberately mixed this way?
My other Q8's from GRT (2 More Jim Croce's, and Rags to Rufus) are much better mixes. Was the recording engineer smoking an extra large dubie that day?

 

[JonUrban]

I always considered these things as "tape manufacturing errors". When I convert a tape like this, I always "fix" it so that it sounds right to me.

 

[winopener]

I always considered these things as "tape manufacturing errors". When I convert a tape like this, I always "fix" it so that it sounds right to me.

Same here. Make no sense to do a conversion that will become unlistenable at best...
This is the second swap i found - other was on the UK Q8 of Joan Baez Comes from the shadows.
Returning on the original EP issue, i think the Canadian factory operator was at least high on pot or something similar when preparing the master for the duplication: other than channel swap there are different EQ on the tracks that varies from Program 1 to Program 2, signal levels and other oddities. It is becoming a tough one to make it well. If i hadn't ran other tapes before and after this recording i would had been sure my player was at fault.

 

[Q-Eight]

I always considered these things as "tape manufacturing errors". When I convert a tape like this, I always "fix" it so that it sounds right to me.

I had an interesting thought of using my Quad reel machine to make a "Fixed" copy of my Grass Roots Q8, then, record a dubbed Q8 copy of the "fixed" reel and put the fixed Q8 tape in my spare Grass Roots case. I love the Grass Roots The Jim Croce tape actually doesn't sound that bad, problem with making a "Fixed" copy of that tape is that Jim's lead vocals only come from Front Right, very little comes out of the Left Rear channel. It wouldn't be worth it to fix.

 

[dauQula]

As my collection grows in leaps and bounds, I now have 2 Q8's from ABC (Jim Croce - Don't Mess around w/ Jim and Grass Roots "16") that are oddly mixed. They seem to have the LEFT channels Swapped!

For Example: Front Left: Background Vocals
Front Right: Lead Vocals
Rear Left: Lead Vocals
Rear Right: Background Vocals

To me, that just sounds odd, like a "Stereo-Wide" kind of mix. It doesn't offer any sort of discrete-ness. What strikes me as odd, is that I have a GRT Quad Sampler tape with a Grass Roots song "Sooner or Later" on it, and the mix is more appropriate with Lead vocals in the front and backgrounds in the back.
I've found that if I play the tapes run thru my 4 channel tape monitor with the left channels swapped front to back, the sound is much more enjoyable!

SO, are these tapes just mis-prints or were they deliberately mixed this way?
My other Q8's from GRT (2 More Jim Croce's, and Rags to Rufus) are much better mixes. Was the recording engineer smoking an extra large dubie that day?

This is not really a reply, but a possible explanation for "bad mixes", "bad eq's" on Q8's especially when it is on one or both of the rear channels. I remember a repair of a Q8 play/record deck with "bad audio" and found several shorted components that floated about 10 volts DC across the Right Rear playback head. This had the effect of doing a partial erase of the channel starting with the high frequency end. To the next owner of the tape it might seem like a bad eq, when it was really a partially erased channel. Don't know why this would happen more on the rear channels, but that's been my experience.

 

[Q-Eight]

De-Magnetizers are your friend