The Best Of The Doors - Quadra Disc

Want to review the latest CD reissue? Or a 30 year old LP you just picked up? Discuss it all here.
britre
Posts: 94
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2003 9:54 am

Postby britre » Tue May 06, 2003 9:42 pm

Ed Bishop wrote:
britre wrote:
Ed Bishop wrote:

THE BEST OF THE DOORS is the 2nd most common of Quadradiscs, behind, obviously, ALOHA FROM HAWAII VIA SATELLITE. Unlike that one, however, it's not Elvis, there are plenty around and not on eBay for obscene sums, and clean pressings are easy to find. ED 8)


Speaking of this, the latter Aloha pressings are quite excellent! I was lucky enough to get a sealed copy for $10 on ebay. What a steal :)

So I was enticed when I found out they put out a 5.1 DVD Video of the concert. I figured, "oh boy, that cool mix of American Trilogy with no issues" Dissapointment! Whoever mixed that DVD obviously never listened to the Quad LP to find out placement of insturments and that Elvis entourage. Flutes and guitars in the wrong place, The Jordinaires in fron istead of that cool over your right shoulder effect, what the hell?? Thats why I am very leary of DVD-A 5.1 and SACD 5.1. They apparently have no reference and do what they want in mixing despite in the Elvis case, A video to reference where things were...

User avatar
lukpac
Top Dog and Sellout
Posts: 4591
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Postby lukpac » Tue May 06, 2003 10:07 pm

Ed Bishop wrote:The fold-down does not; what's more, the grooves on that 3rd (non-Quad)press are wider than they should be, even for a regular stereo disc; obviously, in folding it down, some adjustments had to be made to fit it onto the record without messing up the sound


I'm not sure why a stereo-only cut would need to have any wider grooves than a quad cut. If anything, I think it would be the opposite. As the quad cut is a stereo cut *plus* the additional high frequency information.

CD-4 seemed to be the only format to require a special(or really expensive)stylus and cartridge; QS and SQ, when I had the gear, played back fine with a decent cart/stylus setup, but you didn't need anything ultra-special.


That's of course because SQ and QS were simply matrixed stereo systems, while CD-4 had ultra high frequency information that needed to be played back. Of course, you can get a cartridge today that will play back CD-4 discs for well under $100 (the Audio-Technica AT331LP).

User avatar
Ed Bishop
Posts: 159
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2003 9:14 am
Location: The New Lair

Postby Ed Bishop » Tue May 06, 2003 10:07 pm

Although I can't be sure, what you may be hearing on the DVD(I don't own it)is a Dolby Surround signal modified for 5.1 Dolby Digital. This is all too common; fake 5.1, if you will. Stereo in front with ambiance in the back and some kind of center speaker sound just enough to make you think you're hearing sometihing you're not. Neil Young's LIVE RUST DVD on Sanctuary has the same problem: Dolby Stereo pushed to 5.1. Some interesting effects with the crowd in places, but no discrete 5.1 music. ALOHA VIA SATELLITE as a Quad Lp was a unique experience, mixed specially for album, not the TV special(remember, TV was still mono back then). That's why what you hear on vinyl and DVD doesn't match what you see on the screen. Nothing new there.

ED 8)
When remixing vintage tapes, imagine you are back in the time those recordings were made, and mix accordingly. forget Today's Sound Sensibilities....

User avatar
Rspaight
Posts: 4386
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:48 am
Location: The Reality-Based Community
Contact:

Postby Rspaight » Wed May 07, 2003 9:02 am

lukpac wrote:
Ed Bishop wrote:Which label do you have?


Red/black.

Side 2 is in great shape, side 1 is slightly more noisy but still quite good. It really only matters on the quiet songs like Love Me Two Times.


Yeah, I've got that one, too. I got it from a friend of mine who dumped all his vinyl on me a while ago. It was still in the shrinkwrap (but opened) with a WEA "Super Saver" sticker and $5.99 price tag. :)

Listened to it last night (in stereo) after reading this thread -- really interesting variations.

Ryan

MattK
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 10:59 pm
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Postby MattK » Fri May 07, 2004 11:25 pm

I got interested in the Doors when I was 16 c.1984...Anyhow, a good friend of mine had an old 70's modular system that had a Quad amp. Had the typical BSR turntable, and also the Quad 8-track player! We went to the Mall and found this album, and then I convinced him to spring for a new stylus for the BSR. We couldn't wait to hear this stuff. Had 4 speakers setup in a perfect square, and played the whole album. Very cool. I don't remember many details except for one thing during Riders on the Storm. In one channel there were bongos playing clear and discrete. I've always tried to listen for them in the stereo mix. They are there, but if you weren't listening for them you'd never know they were on the track. I wonder if he still has that old system, be fun to listen to that again.

Matt

User avatar
Rspaight
Posts: 4386
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2003 10:48 am
Location: The Reality-Based Community
Contact:

Postby Rspaight » Sat May 08, 2004 10:53 am

There ought to be some sort of special prize for resurrecting a thread exactly one year after the previous post.

Ryan
RQOTW: "I'll make sure that our future is defined not by the letters ACLU, but by the letters USA." -- Mitt Romney

User avatar
lukpac
Top Dog and Sellout
Posts: 4591
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Postby lukpac » Sat May 08, 2004 11:09 am

Hmm...a lukpac CD-R of the album might do, if Matt was interested...

Still haven't heard this one in quad as of yet, but hearing it in stereo is plenty interesting.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD

MattK
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 06, 2004 10:59 pm
Location: Minneapolis, MN

Postby MattK » Tue May 11, 2004 7:40 pm

That's what I call a coincidence. New to the forum, and I was just looking for stuff I was familiar with. Sure I'll take a CD-R that album. Be cool just to hear that mix in stereo.

Matt

User avatar
lukpac
Top Dog and Sellout
Posts: 4591
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 11:51 pm
Location: Madison, WI
Contact:

Postby lukpac » Tue Sep 20, 2005 1:25 pm

britre wrote:Yes I have tried the V15 with CD-4. It does not have the nessesary frequency response unfortunately.... The Sure V15 *is* definitely a top end cartridge!


Thought I'd dig this up...I stumbled across this, which seems to suggest the newest type V does work with CD-4:

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/ ... php?t=2144
dean de furia wrote:Cai,
Well I went and tried the shure. I dismounted from my VPI aries and set it up using a Geodisc on my JVC QL-66 DD turntable from 1985. I set the weight at Shure's rec. 1 gram. I hooked it up to a Marantz CD-400B and put on the marantz test record.

First thing I noticed was the Carrier light came on right away and stayed on. I set the separation for the rear speakers and then started playing real records.

You know what? I think you can safely add this to the short list of Carts that will work with CD-4. The carrier light stays on and never strays. I'm not getting any "sandpaper" or splatty sounds. I tried
"Captain and Me", "Aqualung", "Aloha", "No Secrets" and right now I'm listening to "Machine Head" Really great sound. The Shure is very smooth and dosen't emphasize surface noise.

I'm actually kinda surprised at what I'm hearing. I always had to "fight" with my equipment to get good CD-4. This sounds just right.
I'm taping some tracks to Reel so I can listen to all the channels closely to see if I'm missing anything.

If after a few days of playing more LP's the sound is still as sweet, I'm going to leave the cart on the JVC and buy another for the VPI.

Worth a try!


Of course, it's no longer available (nor is the AT 8008/331LP), which doesn't really help.
"I know because it is impossible for a tape to hold the compression levels of these treble boosted MFSL's like Something/Anything. The metal particulate on the tape would shatter and all you'd hear is distortion if even that." - VD