Yessongs Blu-ray

[Frogmort]

From Blu-ray.com:

"Screenbound International Pictures and MVD Entertainment have officially announced that they will release on Blu-ray Yes: Yessongs. The release will be available for purchase on October 19...Filmed in 1972 at London's Rainbow theatre, this feature film was released theatrically in the UK the following year with a quadrOphonic sound track."

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=23988

 

[proufo]

 

[ssully]

I guess it's still 2012 (when this BluRay was first released) somewhere....


https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8392

 

[Frogmort]

I guess it's still 2012 (when this BluRay was first released) somewhere....


https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=8392

I just thought this might contain the original theatrical quad mix since they actually do mention it, although they don't specifically say that it's included. It would be rather odd to go out of their way to mention that little tid-bit if they weren't including it, but who knows.

Edit: Well, crap. That link from 2012 used almost exactly the same verbage, including the quadrophonic mention.

 

[rugene]

darren lock did a review of that and the surround mix is from his perspective bad....

video review

 

[boojidad]

Don't hold your breath waiting for the quad mix. If it ever was real (which I've heard varying opinions on), I think it's lost to the ages. Would be great if it was available, but I've given up hope at this point.

 

[ssully]

If it was 'quad', it was not the 'quad' we are used to. It was 1970s cinema quad -- three channels in front, one channel for the 'surrounds'

 

[Mark Anderson]

If it was 'quad', it was not the 'quad' we are used to. It was 1970s cinema quad -- three channels in front, one channel for the 'surrounds'

Speakers were added at selected venues for a quad layout and using the four optical audio channels even with a rear frequency limited channel for one of the rears.

 

[marpow]

My first Yes CD that I ever bought, a double CD, and I loved it, Starship Trooper hooked me and then I went backwards and forward with Yes. I saw the entire group, Rabin and Howe at The Warfield in SF in the 90's.
I have two SACD's from Japan in stereo of Yessongs, the first release sounds like shit but the second not too bad.
Reminds me of another double CD, Supertramp, Live In Paris, awesome CD, and if you get the Blu Ray of the same show in 5.1 you will love it.

 

[jimfisheye]

Don't hold your breath waiting for the quad mix. If it ever was real (which I've heard varying opinions on), I think it's lost to the ages. Would be great if it was available, but I've given up hope at this point.

These surround mixes were real. That doesn't mean they were any good mind you, but they were real. They would have all been done quickly and without the usual back and forth finessing some final tweaks since they were kind of one-offs for just a couple theaters equipped to present them at the time and with no consumer release formats available either.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Floyd film was above and beyond the others since they were the live surround sound band. Speculation of course... Other evidence being the ratty mono mix (for Yes). Looks for all the world that they didn't have sync between the film and the multitrack. Floyd used one track of their live 8 track multitrack for sync. As 'advanced' as the Floyd's production was, even their production master for the quad program was heavily flawed with sync/offset hiccups that they never did the back and forth to correct and that quad mix master has also been lost. Not a lot of hope for the quad Yes soundtrack I think. I'd love for someone to uncover it and be wrong! Find out it puts every other release to shame or something. Like quad Pompeii does! Hmmm...

I remember being mad before 2012 that I'd ever even heard of the quad mix of Pompeii because I knew I'd never get to hear it! And then it comes right to my front door as it were and in genuinely very restorable condition! Maybe someone will find a cinema print of Yessongs with the quad mix in a library somewhere one day. (Wouldn't this be mag stock too? Not the cruder optical?)

 

[atrocity]

(Wouldn't this be mag stock too? Not the cruder optical?)

Absolutely.

Pretty sure I've told this story here before, but circa 1976 I saw a theatrical showing of a 4-track magnetic print of "Yessongs". The surround track sounded horrible and the projectionist speculated that it may have been a quad mix that the theater in question could only play back incorrectly.

Saw another multichannel screening a few years earlier in a different theater and thought it sounded great, though I would not have known at the time what possible problems to listen for.

 

[ssully]

Speakers were added at selected venues for a quad layout and using the four optical audio channels even with a rear frequency limited channel for one of the rears.
View attachment 36094

Again, I have never seen any evidence that it was ever presented as discrete Lf Rf Ls Rs -- what we would call 'quadraphonic'. More likely was three front channels (which is normal for cinema) and one rear, and if there were in ever in fact *two* 'surround' loudspeakers, they were receiving the same (mono) 'rear' channel information. I would be happy to be proved wrong.

 

[ssully]

These surround mixes were real. That doesn't mean they were any good mind you, but they were real. They would have all been done quickly and without the usual back and forth finessing some final tweaks since they were kind of one-offs for just a couple theaters equipped to present them at the time and with no consumer release formats available either.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Floyd film was above and beyond the others since they were the live surround sound band.

as were Yes ...for their Tales (and possibly Relayer) tour.

 

[ssully]

It might be best just to fold all the Yessongs movie threads into one thread. That would mean combining the current thread, with this older thread, which has lots of info. Inclding the list of all the four available formats for the movie at the time of its release:

'U' Certificate 75 minutes, colour.
Available in 35mm 4-track magnetic stereophonic sound with a standby optical track, 35 mm optical monaural soundtrack, 16mm magnetic soundtrack or 16mm optical soundtrack.

and then add this thread and this one too

 

[ssully]

WTH is a 'standby optical track' anyway?

 

[atrocity]

WTH is a 'standby optical track' anyway?

There used to be "magoptical" prints that had four magnetic tracks as well as a mono optical track.
Example: http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/special/gwtw2.htm

 

[Philip Spinner]

There used to be "magoptical" prints that had four magnetic tracks as well as a mono optical track.
Example: http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/special/gwtw2.htm

I think the standby optical track was there for theatres who could not utilize the four magoptical tracks or when the magoptical tracks would fail the projector would default to the analog track for continuous playback.

 

[atrocity]

I think the standby optical track was there for theatres who could not utilize the four magoptical tracks or when the magoptical tracks would fail the projector would default to the analog track for continuous playback.

Yep. Magnetic tracks were delicate, expensive and allegedly involved some nasty chemicals. Generally you wouldn't want to produce dual magnetic-optical prints as a matter of routine because the trouble and expense would outweigh the benefits.

The weirdest thing to me about analog magnetic tracks (both 35mm and 70mm) is that the sound is read in a "penthouse" on top of the projector well ahead of the picture instead of below and behind like optical. Those of us old and nerdy enough to notice always saw a splice then, with an optical track, heard it. In the magnetic world, you first hear the splice, then see it.

 

[Frogmort]

Review is up on blu-ray.com

 

[proufo]

Review is up on blu-ray.com

"Yessongs has been offered in a number of shoddy bootleg versions through the years... "

I believe my Brazil release is legit, but I could be wrong.

BTW, it seems the 1080p transfer does little to improve the PQ.