Deadman's Curve

[Jeff]

Hey gang,

Something that has puzzled me since the '73 release of NOW & THEN is this: There's is a portion of Deadman's Curve where Richard sings "He passed me at Doheney and I started to swerve, but I pulled out and there we were at Deadman's Curve". Okay, question? What are the backing vocals singing when Richard sings " At Doheney and I stared to swerve"? Best I can tell it's something like The overdubs are singing, possibly echoing, " Doheney " and "curve", but try as I might I can't tell, even after 1,000 listens or more. Anyone else notice this curiosity?

Extracting voices,

Jeff

 

[Jeff]

Correction: The overdubs appear to be echoing "Doheney" and "swerve"...not curve.

Jeff

 

[Harry]

A quick check of the song on several different mixes reveals very little. On the original album, Now And Then, there's less reverb to deal with, but the backing vocals are mixes really low in the mix at that point.

What I did was run the song through the Pro-Logic setting on my amp, reducing the lead vocals as much as I could by eliminating the center channel. All I think I hear is two words, "...started...swerve...", but that's purely subjective. It's really unclear.

I also checked the Essential Collection version as well as the Readers' Digest release. They've both got more reverb in the mix which just muddies up the surround channels.

Harry
...started...swerve...online...

 

[JonUrban]

I listened to the isolated rears of the 4 channel 8 track on this one. Although the background is isolated with only the echo of Richards lead vocal in the rears, you can hear Karens backing vocals very well. However, it is REALLY hard to make out what she is singing.

I have converted that section to MP3, just the rear channels, so you without quad capability can hear this section. I am only going to leave it in my web space for a few days. It is about 508 Kb. I zipped it so that any anti-MP3 swapping police won't think I am sharing music files. This is only a 30 seconds, not the whole song, and it is only to be used for vocal verification.

I also added an MP3 of the front channels for comparison to the zip file.
When you unzip it, the file DMCF.mp3 is the front channels in a stereo file (which is Richards vocal and some finger snapping!) and the file DMC.mp3 is the rear channels in a stereo mp3 file.

Let me know what you guys think she is singing, I will listen some more myself. By the way, this album is a TREAT in 4 channels!

http://home.earthlink.net/~jonrurban/DMCQ.zip

:-jon

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Jon, interesting sound clips. thanks for sharing. So these were from a Quad LP? I don't have any Quad C Lp's but I did get to hear the Quad Singles Lp in a record dealer's shop. I begged him to sell it to me but he wouldn't, it was the cleanest Singles Lp I have ever heard.

Let me ask a question, do you have to have the correct equipment to correctly listen to a Carpenters Quad Lp? Or could I use my 5.1 dolby digital stereo receiver & still hear differences that I wouldn't hear with just a regular Carpenters Lp.

 

[JonUrban]

These CDs are in the DTS format, not Dolby Digital. If you have DTS capability, you can hear the Carpenters albums properly decoded and in true 4 channel.

 

[engineer]

These CDs are in the DTS format, not Dolby Digital. If you have DTS capability, you can hear the Carpenters albums properly decoded and in true 4 channel.

I'm confused -- you were talking about quad 8 tracks in one post, and then you jumped to CDs in the DTS format. Did I miss something?

Dan

 

[JonUrban]

I am one of the many hobbiests who converts Q8 tapes to DTS encoded CDs. This process involves recording the 4 channels simultaneously onto a PC's hard drive. The resulting 4 wav files are then cleaned up if needed then encoded using a program called SurCode DTS from Minnetonka into a single DTS encoded wav file. This file is then "divided" into tracks using a program like Sonic Foundry's CD Architect keeping the DTS file intact, but allowing for track selection. The resulting CD can sound even better than the source 8 track if it is done properly. (It can also sound worse).

A system with at least 4 channels of amplification , 4 speakers, and a DTS decoder (like most home theater systems) is required to play these CDs.

This whole process is done with preserving the legacy surround mix for future listeners, as many of the newer SACDs and DVD-As are being remixed from scratch.

One thing about the Carpenters, they were really fans of Quad. They first heard Quad when listening to the Quad version of Carole King's Music album. When they heard that, they both decided that they wanted to do that as well. "Now and Then" was conceived with Quad in mind from the start!

 

[Rudy]

That's neat, Jon! Not only that, I didn't realize that CD Architect was able to work with more than the two stereo channels and/or create multichannel discs. Quad sounds neat...but I don't even have time for the hobbies I have now!

 

[JonUrban]

CD Architect is dumb. It sees the DTS encoded file as a stereo wav file, which it basically is. However, if you play it witout a decoder, you just get speaker blowing white noise!

 

[Chris May]

I had the opportunity to listen to the quad mix of this song as mentioned in the earlier post. I have often times tried phase cancellation on 2-channel/stereo to figure out what on earth the Carpenters are singing there...but what it sounds like, as STUPID as is is: "Who's Slidin'...Slippin' and Slidin..." and then the last rotation sounds like "Who's slidin'....trip to the slide" Very strange...but I took the rear of the quad, went to the right channel and could hear one voice of Karen only (doubled of course) and it sounded more pronounced....then you shift to the left, and you hear several of Karen and one of Richard, and it still sounds consistent with what I am hearing. Oh well -Chris