Listening to Individual Channels on the 2004 SACD Release

Karen4ever

Well-Known Member
Perhaps this has been discussed before and I'm just late to the game......

I must have listened to the multichannel mix on the SACD more than 100 times over the years, but never thought of listening to it one channel at a time until a friend casually suggested it to me recently. This way of listening provides a completely fresh perspective of how the different instrumental and voice tracks are mixed together on each song.

The biggest surprise is, however, Karen's main vocal track on one of the channels. Stripped of most (but not all) of the instruments and backing vocals, I'm hearing things in her vocal delivery I've never heard before. What a revelation!

I know it's not going to happen, but how glorious it would have been if the entire Carpenters catalogue were given the multichannel treatment and Karen's voice tracks could be isolated for enjoyment.
 
Perhaps this has been discussed before and I'm just late to the game......

I must have listened to the multichannel mix on the SACD more than 100 times over the years, but never thought of listening to it one channel at a time until a friend casually suggested it to me recently. This way of listening provides a completely fresh perspective of how the different instrumental and voice tracks are mixed together on each song.

The biggest surprise is, however, Karen's main vocal track on one of the channels. Stripped of most (but not all) of the instruments and backing vocals, I'm hearing things in her vocal delivery I've never heard before. What a revelation!

I know it's not going to happen, but how glorious it would have been if the entire Carpenters catalogue were given the multichannel treatment and Karen's voice tracks could be isolated for enjoyment.

Karen's voice has always been most (if not all for some people) of the attraction. The karaoke CD set we got some years ago was just weird because I certainly never wanted Richard's arrangements without her voice and I know I'm not alone. Her voice is the MAJOR calling card but Richard will never de-emphasize himself. Really, he'd be a fool to do it. Nice idea though.

BTW, I have the SACD and I love separating her voice from the odd remixing on some of the things we got on it. "It's Going to Take Some Time" is just atrocious but her vocal is sublime on it.

Ed
 
Karen's voice has always been most (if not all for some people) of the attraction. The karaoke CD set we got some years ago was just weird because I certainly never wanted Richard's arrangements without her voice and I know I'm not alone. Her voice is the MAJOR calling card but Richard will never de-emphasize himself. Really, he'd be a fool to do it. Nice idea though.

BTW, I have the SACD and I love separating her voice from the odd remixing on some of the things we got on it. "It's Going to Take Some Time" is just atrocious but her vocal is sublime on it.

Ed
Funny, because it's almost the opposite for me. I LOVE the Karaoke CD because I can hear the complexities, and subtleties, in Richard's fantastic arrangements. There are, actually, some songs I like MORE on the Master Karaoke CD WITHOUT Karen's vocals than I do the full version WITH her vocals. For instance, For All We Know was never one of my favorites of their hits (I like it, mind you, but it's not one of my favorites); however, on Master Karaoke, I absolutely love it as just an instrumental. Weird, huh?
 
As I understood it, the karaoke mixes were created to serve a need - in Japan - where karaoke singing is very popular, and lesser musical entities were putting out Carpenters songs with less-than-stellar results. Richard obliged by giving them the real backing tracks to sing to. I never took it to be an effort to eliminate Karen or emphasize his own arrangements.

I find it a fun disc to listen to once in awhile.
 
When I first listened to the Karaoke disc some 25 years ago (wow, how time flies) in the Best Of Best 2-disc package, I thought how cool it would have been if they had replaced the regular disc in that package with a disc that contains only Karen's voice tracks, and title the whole thing Karaoke+Acapella.

I think this is something Richard still could do, and I'm almost sure that such a release would become a best seller.
 
As I understood it, the karaoke mixes were created to serve a need - in Japan - where karaoke singing is very popular, and lesser musical entities were putting out Carpenters songs with less-than-stellar results. Richard obliged by giving them the real backing tracks to sing to. I never took it to be an effort to eliminate Karen or emphasize his own arrangements.

I find it a fun disc to listen to once in awhile.
Richard feels they've also come in handy over the years any time a media/instrumental mix has been requested. For instance, with the Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters documentary, where you have the instrumental backing tracks used occasionally throughout.
 
Richard feels they've also come in handy over the years any time a media/instrumental mix has been requested. For instance, with the Close to You: Remembering the Carpenters documentary, where you have the instrumental backing tracks used occasionally throughout.
Yes, and to great effect, I might add.
 
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