Hi,
 
Still have not gotten this ... as soon as Amazon stops being stupid and discriminate against them Brittish/English folks!
 
Global economy ... FU Amazon!

bitflipper

maximumpower
When I was young, my brother played Switched on Bach a lot for me. I loved that album. I purchased it as an adult (digital media) but still sounds good to me.

There were enormous gaps in the history presented in the film. Perhaps the most egregious omission was Tomita's Snowflakes are Dancing. That album actually predates Switched on Bach but could not be released until SoB demonstrated that a market existed. Snowflakes is vastly more sophisticated, both musically and technically. SoB sounded mechanical and dull by comparison, while Snowflakes oozed lushness and expressiveness and showed that the synthesizer could be much more than a novelty.
 
I still like Switched on Bach and its sequel, mainly because I am a fan of J.S.B. But I can't think of another synth-only recording that has held up as well over the years as Snowflakes are Dancing.

Crapola! There's goes my budget. While checking Amazon for SaD, I found this:
 
June 2014 Major Update!

This is my CLASSICAL TOMITA GUIDE with REVIEWS and QUALITY COMPARISONS, but first I have some Exciting News for you! TOMITA has released Six New (Super Audio) SACDs in Discrete 4 Channel Sound - the very definition of QUADRAPHONIC!! (so much better than the Surround Sound you hear while watching DVDs or TV.) The three Classical re-releases are CLAIR DE LUNE (SNOWFLAKES ARE DANCING), PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION, and THE PLANETS!! These are almost like totally new albums. Mr. TOMITA himself did new sounds, music, and multi-track mixes for most of the original tracks on CLAIR DE LUNE and PLANETS. He even created some totally new tracks! All the SACDs are Hybrids (playable on any player) and the DSD (Direct-Stream Digital) tracks are very clean, with pure bright highs and deep powerful bass.
 
MUST have!

bitflipper
I will probably spring for the three remixed albums.
 
But what are you supposed to do with a quadraphonic recording?

I'm going to put it in my Oppo disk player and let my Denon AVR figure it out! 

TheMaartian

bitflipper
I will probably spring for the three remixed albums.
 
But what are you supposed to do with a quadraphonic recording?

I'm going to put it in my Oppo disk player and let my Denon AVR figure it out! 

 
Check out, on my web site, the review of Roger Water's The Wall, that I ended up comparing it to the original "The Wall" ... and guess what ... the original comes off better because of the "quadraphonic sound", which in concert went all around you ... and the perfect image was the girl entering the room and seeing the guitars, and in LA is started in the back and it's like you were right next to her in the middle of the room when she said ... look at all those guitars ... and then she takes a few more steps forward. It puts you "there". 
 
There is no music, anywhere, that has ever come close to that, and Guy Guden's forays into his own experiments, were the only thing that made some of these things come off even more than anyone could possibly expect. He called it "audio alchemy" ... but to one's ears ... there was only one word ... HEAVEN ... and sadly, even the albums did not sound as good!
 
I doubt these new things can come close to what I am talking about, and I sincerely wish that more people had heard it, but Guy's show was not a secret for almost 25 years.

craigb
I think he meant, what do I need to play Quadrophonic recordings on. 

Your HEAD! And some imagination! But the "reality" of it, is quite different and the experience creates a completely different feeling about the music. There is "more to it" than otherwise, and this is the part that radio and advertising makes you believe is there, and all of a sudden, there is something else ... and it adds to the strength of the work.
 
Sadly, most of this will die like radio ... a forgotten nothing ... meaningless to most people that do not recognize the truth in words. I'm not allowed to copy/share that work.
 
My best example for all this goes back to the Beatles and PF's DSOTM ... the English import was not a copy, as the American pressing of the LP was ... and the quality suffered. So when all these re-bs-masters came around, you got something that sounded just like the original pressings in England ... and there was nothing new in them! Steven Wilson, may have cleaned up King Crimson, but the effect was that the saxophone got moved back away from the front, and another instrument is closer to you, like Robert's guitar ... and to me ... that's crap! The simple moving of the instruments does not make the orchestra better ... it will change the accent for a moment or two because of the inter-mechanics, but in the end ... the whole piece is the same ... nothing new under the sun!
 
For this reason ALONE, a lot of these "new" processes, were best used for NEW music, and things like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze were ready made for those things. They go around and around and create completely different feelings and ideas that "lyrics" can't give you ... but it's hard to discuss this when all we talk about is rock'n'roll, and not the rest.

drewfx1

craigb
I think he meant, what do I need to play Quadrophonic recordings on. 

You need surround speakers and an AVR and an SACD player or a Blu-Ray audio player or, if you have any DVD-Audio discs, something known as a "universal disc player".
 
If you connect the output of the disc player to your AVR digitally (as almost everyone would), you can have some fun by playing some SACD recordings and go online and post on and on about how the "smoother" DSD sounded just incredibly, unimaginably better than the standard CD and have all the true believers nod their heads and say, "See, I told you so!".
 
Then after awhile you come back and say, "Oops, I read the manual and it turns out it wasn't really DSD as the player was automatically converting it down to a digital format my AVR could understand". Not that they'll understand what you're talking about or the implications of it, but still fun....

This.  Not whatever Pedro just posted! 

Moshkito

craigb
This.  Not whatever Pedro just posted! 

With one exception ... you're not big enough to ever ask and listen to it. Again, I can't copy (legalese and otherwise) but I can play them at home! So you have no idea what I am talking about, or even imagine it. As usual, it's always about anything but what you might want to learn and know, that you don't.   You've been invited more than once, and you do not have to touch/look at the music setup ... just enjoy a beer, or becan listening to music ...

No, I know exactly what you're talking about, however, that wasn't the information the OP was asking for.

Hi,
 
"I Dream of Wires" is one of those specials about a part of the history of electronic music, that is rarely discussed and looked at. Essentially, there are two parts to that history, and a part of this thread has mentioned it. In most cases, the synthesizer became nothing but a replacement instrument within the rock, jazz, or some other style of band.
 
But, since the early days of the synthesizer growth, not many folks stuck to the essence of the instrument itself, and its sounds, and what could be done with them. Essentially, "I Dream of Wires" is about those people and some of their thoughts and design, and how some folks got this far into what today is looked at as "modular synthesizers", which is a bunch of modules connected individually so someone can create their own ideas in regards to the sound.
 
To this effect, the special interviews many folks that were involved, and the ones that anyone might be interested in hearing, would be the ones in SF and NY, the two completely different ideas that helped generate the ideas that these sounds could be used for more than just ... sounds.
 
However, here is where the whole thing splits ... Mr. Subotnick explains it as well as anyone else, that Mr. Moog went in that direction, to see what musicians could do with the whole thing, while the other "purists" were looking to play with the sounds themselves, and see where and how far they could take this.
 
This "experimental" school did nto lose its traction. Through out Europe there were many other folks that took this design and went with them, and creating a "song" or "music' was not what they were looking for, and the early electronic music folks in Germany, and then the likes of Richard Pinhas with Heldon in France, showed that they had ideas (specially Pinhas with massive articles and discussions published on Eurock issues, that showed there was an interest in taking this electronic design into another area.
 
Later, there some popular musicians that discussed their work and use of the synthesizer and how they wrapped their work around the "noise" and its design. It made for different things, and help usher a lot of music, and we get to hear some of the names that were known to play with these things, but the real fun in this special, is not some of these better known folks like Gary Numan, Vince Clarke and a few others, but the folks that stuck to the original parts of the "analog" synthesizer (which is the name of the conglomeration of these modules!!!), and all of a sudden you get to see a bunch of crazy looking things, and people being totally nutz with their creations and sounds ... and this part is fun to watch.
 
The special throws out an idea that today's social gatherings with a live DJ, are helping define and create many of these sounds, to help entertain their audience, and in some ways, their work is fine, and I would not criticize, although many "musicians" think this is bad for music in general, as it makes them un-necessary.
All in all, this is a nice special, although for my tastes, i would have liked to hear/see a bit of Tomita, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ryuichi Sakamoto, folks that were massive as well in the growth of these things, but in the end, with the exception of Klaus Schulze, all of them went into melody and the more accessible sounding music with these instruments, and in many ways, this is a special about the parts that keep this not accessible to most ears, so to speak.
 
Interesting to watch and listen to if you love historical moments, and this one is full and will help you see major differences between the East and West Coast in America ... which also happened in rock and other music's.