I was playing a CD-R of a Moody Blues comp I made, hell, about a decade ago, probably, with some early stuff from the Denny Laine period like "Go Now!," "From the Bottom Of My Heart," "Stop" and the like (all mono, no stereo exists) to the Hayward/Lodge years, including single versions (mostly stereo) of "Nights In White Satin" (no orchestra overdubs like the Lp mix), "Ride My See-Saw" (with 45 countoff intro), "Question" (single mix with no Mellotron during the intro), etc.
What surprised me--and because I'm here, and not in New Hampshire, where most of my vinyl/CD stash is stored, courtesy of my sister--was a mix of "Legend Of a Mind" from IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD. The sound coming out of my cans was discrete to the point of distraction, and this was in regular stereo! Much was missing, but when played back in DPL2, the sound was very discrete and--almost--complete. Thing is, all these were assembled from various CD's, and I'm not sure which one had this mix, or how common it might be today (likely, isolated to one or two reissues, I would think).
But there's more. Years ago, on Mike Pinder's message board, I would post questions to the band's producer, Tony Clarke. He would take days, weeks, even month to respond, but he usually did. I asked the obvious questions, like how the quad albums were mixed, if there were dedicated mono mixes of singles or albums (FYI: only a few, like "Nights in White Satin"/"Cities," the single versions of "Lovely To See You" and "Never Comes the Day"; all albums issued in mono, like the US DOFP and international editions of ISOTLC, OTTOAD, TOCCC, QOB, were folded and balanced for mono, but not remixed).
What I remember about LOST CHORD was that I asked Mr. Clarke about why it didn't get a quad issue. Don't remember if he responded via the board or Messenger (possibly) but he did say this, more or less: a handful of tracks were 'busy' enough (his words) to work in quad, and he mentioned specifically "Legend," "The Actor" and (I think) "See-Saw." But he explained that the decision not to release ISOTLC in quad came down to too many 'parts missing' for 'too many tracks' and that the album would have sounded 'incomplete' without them. He also felt this way about certain lost parts of DOFP, which (with his personal misgivings aside) as we know and love, did find its way to 4-channel. He also told me that other 'little things from a few others' (albums) were lost, too, but nothing to preclude the quad remixes (which Decca UK wanted done, since at the time, the band was one of their best selling and highly regarded acts, and the recordings intricate enough to justify quad editions).
Just thought I'd share this, and throw out there that *maybe* an SQ CD mix of "Legend" might be out there digitally. Of course an attempt at a quad remix was made, but only certain tracks 'worked' in quad. Until now I thought those mixes remained lost, since they didn't turn up on the deluxe edition of the album. But maybe snuck out on vinyl or CD as SQ encoded? We know that Decca UK experimented with SQ as an option (they went discrete with Q8 and reels instead, ignoring vinyl).
Hmmm.....
ED
What surprised me--and because I'm here, and not in New Hampshire, where most of my vinyl/CD stash is stored, courtesy of my sister--was a mix of "Legend Of a Mind" from IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CHORD. The sound coming out of my cans was discrete to the point of distraction, and this was in regular stereo! Much was missing, but when played back in DPL2, the sound was very discrete and--almost--complete. Thing is, all these were assembled from various CD's, and I'm not sure which one had this mix, or how common it might be today (likely, isolated to one or two reissues, I would think).
But there's more. Years ago, on Mike Pinder's message board, I would post questions to the band's producer, Tony Clarke. He would take days, weeks, even month to respond, but he usually did. I asked the obvious questions, like how the quad albums were mixed, if there were dedicated mono mixes of singles or albums (FYI: only a few, like "Nights in White Satin"/"Cities," the single versions of "Lovely To See You" and "Never Comes the Day"; all albums issued in mono, like the US DOFP and international editions of ISOTLC, OTTOAD, TOCCC, QOB, were folded and balanced for mono, but not remixed).
What I remember about LOST CHORD was that I asked Mr. Clarke about why it didn't get a quad issue. Don't remember if he responded via the board or Messenger (possibly) but he did say this, more or less: a handful of tracks were 'busy' enough (his words) to work in quad, and he mentioned specifically "Legend," "The Actor" and (I think) "See-Saw." But he explained that the decision not to release ISOTLC in quad came down to too many 'parts missing' for 'too many tracks' and that the album would have sounded 'incomplete' without them. He also felt this way about certain lost parts of DOFP, which (with his personal misgivings aside) as we know and love, did find its way to 4-channel. He also told me that other 'little things from a few others' (albums) were lost, too, but nothing to preclude the quad remixes (which Decca UK wanted done, since at the time, the band was one of their best selling and highly regarded acts, and the recordings intricate enough to justify quad editions).
Just thought I'd share this, and throw out there that *maybe* an SQ CD mix of "Legend" might be out there digitally. Of course an attempt at a quad remix was made, but only certain tracks 'worked' in quad. Until now I thought those mixes remained lost, since they didn't turn up on the deluxe edition of the album. But maybe snuck out on vinyl or CD as SQ encoded? We know that Decca UK experimented with SQ as an option (they went discrete with Q8 and reels instead, ignoring vinyl).
Hmmm.....
ED
