Carpenters Quadraphonic

Recently I got a hold of 3 of the Carpenters Quad albums "Now & Then", "The Singles 1969-1973", and "Horizon" and am amazed by them! (I can't believe Richard hates them!)

Does anyone know much about the differences. I have the HORIZION and NOW & THEN where the tracks are in channels 1/2 and 3/4 (2 tracks for each song).

I am looking for them all on ONE TRACK.

Also I know a A SONG FOR YOU Quad 8-track exists, are these versions any different?

I am doing a write-up on my site, and would appreciate any help! There's some insentives too!

Thanks!

Alex, I promised you that I would help you with a writeup but I just got the QUAD CDs and haven't had enough time to listen to them all. Too bad the source on Horizon was pitiful. :/

I own all of Barbra Streisand's quad albums and they feature a lot of completely different recordings, they are great for fans! I wish the C's were a bit more different.

Check here to see what exactly came out:

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/aandm.htm

Not sure what you mean by "all on one track" ?

CarpentersToYou wrote:
Recently I got a hold of 3 of the Carpenters Quad albums "Now & Then", "The Singles 1969-1973", and "Horizon" and am amazed by them! (I can't believe Richard hates them!)

Tall Paul comment: Maybe Richard did not remix them for quad and one of the A&M engineers did it. According to the website referenced, Singles and Now And Then were encoded with SQ matrix. They should play back fine on any stereo equipment without any loss of music, in fact they should play back on a DOLBY matrix surround sound system and sound pretty good. The modern surround system (not a 5.1) is a matrix system based on this old album format. The Horizon is a CD4 mastering and is a descrete system. on a standard two channel system it will play all forur channels through the front two speakers, but you cannot extract all four channels correctly without a cd4 decoder. CD4 decoders are available on ebay, but you may need a special needle (we did back then).
Of the systems CD4 was the most expensive. Back in those days I played them all through my 4 channel amp and thought it was great. But today, nobody cares.

There are a lot of quad album tapes in the vaults of the majors that could be reissued as DOLBY Surround Sound, but few do.

Thanks for all of your input. I'll see what I can do.

I think I can get a Quad 8 track of A SONG FOR YOU, I'll see.

Hi, I am new A&M Corner and a BIG Carpenters fan...I have just posted the Quad Mix of "Happy" from the "Horizon" LP on YouTube with a tribute video. I remastered the sound. The main difference is that the second synthesizer at the end comes in a lot sooner than on the regular stereo version. Please see the link below... I hope you enjoy it. I will at some point put up more of the Carpenters (and other artists) Quad mixes on YouTube.

David

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpmU_TKqEb4&fmt=18

There are people out there who offer DTS cd-r's of the quad albums, and these discs authentically recreate the 4-channel surround sound when played back through DTS equipment. To my ears the discs sound wonderful, especially the Now And Then album which has fantastic separation in all four speakers. However, if you are after the best surround sound experience I would encourage you to invest in a SACD system and buy the Singles 1969-81 SACD that was produced in 5.1 by RC and released in 2005.

Thanks for posting "Happy" in Quad! Enjoyed it and the video pics with it! Great job!

Thanks, Patrick....It was a labor of love!

Love the Quad 4 mix of Happy. Umm, any way you could do a Quad mix post on YouTube for "I'm Caught Between Goodbye and I Love You", "Only Yesterday", "Please Mr. Postman", and "But I Can Dream Can't I"? I assume they might sound a little different? If not then I guess it wouldn't be worth the time or trouble. By the way, you are really good at the video part too, I liked the way you did it.

Quad is one of my favorite subjects!
I have quad copies of "Close to You", "Carpenters", "A Song For You", "Now and Then", "Singles 1969-1973" and "Horizon"....all on 8-track....or "Q-8's, as quad collectors call them.

The first three albums listed above are official quad A&M releases (only released on 8-track....not vinyl). The problem with them is they are not truly discreet. They're just not that different from the regular releases. For some reason, many A&M Q-8's sound like they were mixed for quad in a very half-assed manner (i.e. "Whipped Cream and Other Delights" from Herb & TJB and "Make It Easy on Yourself" from Burt Bacharach). It's almost like they were run through a decoder of some sort, and that was that. There are minor differences here and there, but nothing too exciting.

HOWEVER....
Starting with "Now and Then", things changed dramatically for the better.
I own a Sansui quad receiver that was re-built from the ground up (cost me $800) a few years ago. I also own an AKAI quadraphonic reel deck, as well as a quad 8-track player. The Sansui is known for its excellent discreet decoder built into it. And it really shows off the quad releases to great advantage.

Once I heard "Now and Then" for the first time, I was blown away. I was only 11 when I got the album back in 1973, so I had to wait until 2001 to hear it in quad, but the wait was well worth it.

EVERY song is discreet, and the quality far surpasses the earlier Carpenters quad titles. The difference is like night and day. The oldies medley is incredible. The motorcycles at the beginning rush around each of the four speakers. Also--Karen's background vocals on each tune are way up front. The best part of playback is just listening to one track at a time. You won't believe it.

I am a member of a 'quad' club, so to speak, and I was lucky enough to get dubs on reel of the different Q-8's, followed by the actual 8-tracks once extra copies surfaced in the club.
Here are just a few things of interest you will hear in the quad versions:

"Top of the World" from "Singles" in vinyl and tape versions contains the "Song for You" 1972 lead vocal with the 1973 single remix backing track.

"Goodbye to Love"....contains an error between the segue of "Rainy Days" into "Goodbye to Love"....listen for it. Sounds like somebody banged into the turntable. Also--Karen's lead vocal contains a 'punch-in' on the line "All the years of useless search"....instead, Karen sings, "All the TEARS of useless search"!

On the "Horizon" vinyl and Q-8, "Only Yesterday" and "Desperado" BOTH contain alternate vocal takes during the following lines:
"the pain I was going through, and waiting was all my heart could do".
Second verse of "Desperado"....alternate vocal take on 'why don't you come to your senses....come down from your fences"....take a listen!

Another note of interest:
The inner sleeve from 1976 that was packaged with A&M albums pictured on it also list "A Kind of Hush" as having been available in the CD-4 format. Turns out this was false, as major quad collectors had never heard of it coming out at all. There are other albums that were supposed to be released by other artists on other labels, but for some reason didn't come out. Maybe "A Kind of Hush" is one of them.

Hope this helps!
Bob.

One last thing:
If you play CD-4 albums....notably, "Horizon", the decoding process is apparently worn down if it's played with a regular cartridge. It will still play on a regular turntable, but apparently the sound is diminished if you then play it with a CD-4 cartridge.
I've never owned a CD-4 turntable, but I understand you can hear virtually all pops and clicks way too loudly.

I am going to put up some others from Horizon, especially some of the ones noted in member A&M Retro's post...Thank you both for your insights....

I have just posted the QUAD MIX of "I Can't Make Music" from "Now & Then." See the link below..... The main difference being that the harmonica solo at the end is a different one - done an octave lower - than the one used in the regular stereo LP version or the one in the Japan "Treasures" CD.... I hope you enjoy it and the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHE5fjMFr50&fmt=18

Thanks for posting that with remastered sound, Motownboy! I'd love to hear more!

I've just posted the quad mix of "Only Yesterday" to the original video along with a few pics to take it to the 4:10 length....Here is the link....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhMAKkGMitw&fmt=18