Universal Music Fire & Audio Fidelity Multichannel SACDs

[bmoura]

Well I'm a little confused. Capitol and Mercury are now part of Universal and no quad masters are available, yet back in the day DTS were able to locate quad masters of 2 McCartney discs, Steve Miller and BTO, all on Capitol and Mercury. So it would seem that some quad masters are available.

The Universal Fire was in 2008, the DTS Music Discs came out in 1997. Things can change over a decade.
Check Richard Carpenter's comments about the Fire and the Carpenters masters going up in flames at 23:00 on the interview.

http://deadline.com/2008/06/update-universal-fire-burns-music-history-5937/
http://thedownloadshow.podbean.com/2014/01/20/richard-carpenter-interview/
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/richard-carpenter-interview.340781/

 

[Larry Geller]

The Universal Fire was in 2008, the DTS Music Discs came out in 1997. Things can change over a decade.
Check Richard Carpenter's comments about the Fire and the Carpenters masters going up in flames at 23:00 on the interview.

http://deadline.com/2008/06/update-universal-fire-burns-music-history-5937/
http://thedownloadshow.podbean.com/2014/01/20/richard-carpenter-interview/
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/richard-carpenter-interview.340781/

I just read the article, & it seems that no Capitol or Angel stuff was affected (I don't think Universal owned Capitol yet), just ABC, Mercury & Decca/UNI stuff. Also, what about the unreleased 5.1 Eltons & Steely Dans?

 

[jefe1]

Hi

Ive just pasted in a story from one of the links which seems to contradict that all was lost....so I don't know what is true about the fire destroying vast amounts of master recordings.

2ND UPDATE: Uni Blaze Burns Music History



by Nikki Finke

June 1, 2008 3:29p


MONDAY AM UPDATE: Universal Music just gave me a “clarification” on my report regarding UMG’s vault and the Universal Studio fire on Sunday: “Thankfully, there was little lost from UMG’s vault. A majority of what was formerly stored there was moved earlier this year to our other facilities. Of the small amount that was still there and waiting to be moved, it had already been digitized so the music will still be around for many years to come. And in addition to being digitized, physical back up copies of what was still left at that location were made and stored elsewhere. So thankfully, smart care, administration and preparation of these gems prevailed.” So let me get this straight: first there’s no report of irreplaceable damage at the Universal Studios vault, then I find out there’s musical history destruction because of a rental agreement with Universal Music, and now execs it’s only “a little” and not a problem. Funny, because my insiders insist it’s a BIG problem. Universal Music claims that over the past year it had been moving master recordings of its “big name” musical artists to the giant Iron Mountain, Pennsylvania vault — the same one used by Bill Gates and Microsoft. What was left, Universal Music contends, was only “more obscure artists from the ’40s and the early ’50s.” My final thought: the public may never know the truth.


SUNDAY: It looks like more was damaged or destroyed in today’s Universal Studios fire than anyone previously thought. I’ve learned that Universal Music, which is a completely separate company and owned by Vivendi (which owns 20% of NBC Universal), rents space in the huge video vault housed on the studio lot. But one source tells me that, as a consequence, inside the video vault that was billowing thick black smoke were 1000’s of original Decca, MCA, ABC recording masters from the last century including a wide range of music from Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters to Judy Garland and The Carpenters. “This is a tremendous loss in music history. A very sad day indeed. It’s too bad they saved the videos that they have backups on instead of the master recordings in which they do not, although they may not have had a choice since the fire had already engulfed much of the music side of the vault,” a source just told me. Universal Studios can’t confirm what has been damaged or destroyed music-wise at this point because it doesn’t yet know what exactly was housed in the storage rented to Universal Music.

Universal Studios Backlot Fire: NYC Streetscape & King Kong Destroyed; Video Vault Damaged But Film Vault Safe

 

[fredblue]

The Universal Fire was in 2008, the DTS Music Discs came out in 1997. Things can change over a decade.
Check Richard Carpenter's comments about the Fire and the Carpenters masters going up in flames at 23:00 on the interview.

http://deadline.com/2008/06/update-universal-fire-burns-music-history-5937/
http://thedownloadshow.podbean.com/2014/01/20/richard-carpenter-interview/
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/richard-carpenter-interview.340781/

The "Monday Update" in that Deadline article seems to almost downplay the losses.. I guess since its been confirmed the fears of the Sunday report (that masters including ABC etc were destroyed) came to pass.. thanks for the links but so super sad

 

[jaybird100]

Something sounds very fishy to me about the circumstances of that Universal fire. All of ABC's, and some of A&M's masters, including quad masters, conveniently done away with in a warehouse fire? Does anyone else feel that there's something they're not telling us?

 

[fredblue]

Something sounds very fishy to me about the circumstances of that Universal fire. All of ABC's, and some of A&M's masters, including quad masters, conveniently done away with in a warehouse fire? Does anyone else feel that there's something they're not telling us?

Well I'd heard from a couple of different sources over the years of numerous ABC master tapes 'mysteriously' ending up in the hands of wealthy collectors in Japan.. basically they were stolen and sold off (iirc there was one person in the know that shrugged it off as "nobody wanted them, they were just laying around" kind of thing) and this was in the late 70's, decades before that fire.. so how these masters could have been in that warehouse at the time of the fire is as much of a mystery.. who knows what the truth is.. perhaps the masters were long gone already by 2008 and the fire was a very convenient (and actual) smokescreen...

 

[Philip Spinner]

The Universal Fire was in 2008, the DTS Music Discs came out in 1997. Things can change over a decade.
Check Richard Carpenter's comments about the Fire and the Carpenters masters going up in flames at 23:00 on the interview.

http://deadline.com/2008/06/update-universal-fire-burns-music-history-5937/
http://thedownloadshow.podbean.com/2014/01/20/richard-carpenter-interview/
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/richard-carpenter-interview.340781/

Well that explains it then. I forgot about that fire.

 

[bmoura]

Discussion of the Universal Music Master Tapes lost in the Fire of 2008.

 

[fredblue]

RIP Mastertapes

This should give more incentive to labels now to preserve all these old Quads by getting them out on modern formats we can all buy (thank you AF!) more copies out there up's the chances of these things never becoming totally extinct..!!

 

[neil wilkes]

Something sounds very fishy to me about the circumstances of that Universal fire. All of ABC's, and some of A&M's masters, including quad masters, conveniently done away with in a warehouse fire? Does anyone else feel that there's something they're not telling us?

In all honesty, "convenient" is not a word I suspect anybody at Universal is using as this is a disaster, nothing less. The loss is enormous & utterly irreplaceable

 

[bmoura]

In all honesty, "convenient" is not a word I suspect anybody at Universal is using as this is a disaster, nothing less. The loss is enormous & utterly irreplaceable

Agreed. I'd use the word "tragic".

 

[GOS]

I hate this thread! Makes me sick......seriously....

 

[Philip Spinner]

Any possibility that DTS has some quad copies still lying around that they never got around to doing back in the day.

 

[fredblue]

Any possibility that DTS has some quad copies still lying around that they never got around to doing back in the day.

Quite possible I would say..

 

[Bonzodog]

Well I'd heard from a couple of different sources over the years of numerous ABC master tapes 'mysteriously' ending up in the hands of wealthy collectors in Japan.. basically they were stolen and sold off ..

Interesting.

Universal was owned by Panasonic from 1990 to 1995.

 

[JonUrban]

Well..................

Let's think back a few years:

1) We've seen ABC Command Quadraphonic "Safety Masters" being sold on eBay over the years. I remember a lot of debate as to if they were legit or not. I seem to recall a Three Dog Night reel, a couple of Steely Dan reels, and possible a few I forgot about. They all went for big bucks. This would lead to a conclusion that these tapes were stolen from MCA, and if these popped up on eBay, the rest of them are probably in a collection somewhere and not destroyed.

2) When Quadio was announced, I was in contact with Bob Vosgien, and he gave me bits of a l list of the 20-30 titles that he was researching for release as Quadio discs. Included in that list were many Capitol Q8 titles, so those masters have to be around somewhere. I remember asking him to see if he could find the "Ringo" quad that never came out. He was actually hired and paid to master far more than the two that came out.

3) It is a lot easier to tell someone "They are all lost or destroyed" than to actually go and look for them, so who knows?

 

[ArmyOfQuad]

I really don't trust a word that comes from Universal as far as things being lost. I doubt anyone there has looked very far, they've consistently demonstrated an absolute lack of care for anything surround once the industry deemed sacd and dvd-a a failure, and blamed it all on us rather than their blatant inability to agree on a standard, release enough product, and market it properly. They've got their collective heads so far up their fucking ass, they couldn't find a quad master if it bit them. Besides, we know about prepared unreleased material from the SACD/DVD-A era that Universal has ready to go, the unreleased Elton John titles, and Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic. If Universal had any interest in cooperating with any entity on releasing surround material, we'd probably be holding one of these in our hands by now. I think it's clear that Universal has no interest in cooperating with anyone when it comes to surround. They seem more interested in issuing deluxe editions sourced from vinyl and then claiming it came from the master tape, as if we're fucking morons without ears. I suppose next they'll blame us yet again, claiming that we complained too much about the shit they shoveled to us. Come on, it's not rocket science....they have ready to go 5.1 mixes....it would be a grand slam to just FUCKING RELEASE THEM!!!

 

[JonUrban]

I really don't trust a word that comes from Universal as far as things being lost. I doubt anyone there has looked very far, they've consistently demonstrated an absolute lack of care for anything surround once the industry deemed sacd and dvd-a a failure, and blamed it all on us rather than their blatant inability to agree on a standard, release enough product, and market it properly. They've got their collective heads so far up their fucking ass, they couldn't find a quad master if it bit them. Besides, we know about prepared unreleased material from the SACD/DVD-A era that Universal has ready to go, the unreleased Elton John titles, and Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic. If Universal had any interest in cooperating with any entity on releasing surround material, we'd probably be holding one of these in our hands by now. I think it's clear that Universal has no interest in cooperating with anyone when it comes to surround. They seem more interested in issuing deluxe editions sourced from vinyl and then claiming it came from the master tape, as if we're fucking morons without ears. I suppose next they'll blame us yet again, claiming that we complained too much about the shit they shoveled to us. Come on, it's not rocket science....they have ready to go 5.1 mixes....it would be a grand slam to just FUCKING RELEASE THEM!!!

Hear, Hear!!

 

[rtbluray]

Hear, Hear!!

Damn right! Universal (this year anyway) have been a bunch of lazy bastards when it comes to surround.
Let's take a look at what they have "generously" given us this year for their HFPA program:

RUSH "Fly By Night" (already released on DVD-A)
Bon Jovi "Slippery When Wet" (already released on DVD-A)
RUSH "A Farewell to Kings" (already released on DVD-A)
Marvin Gaye "Let's Get It On" (already released on DVD-A & SACD)
Lynyrd Skynyrd "Southern Surroundings" (already released on DVD-A)
RUSH "Signals" (already released on DVD-A)

Besides all of these, we did get "Sparkle in the Rain", but that release was screwed up so badly it took them months to get it right and send us what we should have had all long. And what do we have to potentially look forward to besides these? "Pet Sounds", complete with unfiltered harmony vocals in the LFE channel!
The mind truly boggles…
Finally, they have apparently decided to pour more salt in the wound by not releasing what could have been the holy grail of all surround mixes released this year: "Roxy Music"

It's just so sad since they showed so much promise last year with releases like "Quadrophenia" (in full), "Reckless", "Legend", and "Songs from the Big Chair", but I guess they decided to return to their "Who gives a crap?" attitude.
Hope may not spring eternal with them any longer…

 

[JonUrban]

Why the hell haven't they made a big splash (at least to us) and just put out the damn Elton's they already have ready to go?? Promo them, get notices in newspapers (especially with all of this HiRez audio talk running around), and release the whole damn Elton 5.1 catalog on BluRay to go with GBYBR.

HOW HARD IS IT TO DO UNIVERSAL?? SO SIMPLE. PUT THEM OUT, MAKE MONEY. THAT'S WHY YOU'RE THERE