Slatkin / St Louis Symphony - Prokofiev: Nesky & Kijé

A late (1977) entry in the quadraphonic releases from Vox, this time featuring conductor Leonard Slatkin leading the St Louis Symphony, America's second oldest orchestra, playing two works of modern composer Sergei Prokofiev: Alexander Nesky (a cantata) and Lieutenant Kijé (a symphonic suite), both of which were originally film scores.

The SACD release featured the original quadraphonic mix with a silent centre channel as required by the SACD format and a silent (as far as I could tell) LFE channel that I deleted from my conversion.

With a running time of around 58 minutes, the SACD appears to contain an LP and a half with Alexander Nesky being released as a stand alone album. However, I couldn't easily find Lieutenant Kijé being released with any other piece and so my conversion includes both works.
Source: SACD

Converted to: DVD-A MLP 24/88.2, DVD-V DTS 24/48 & Dolby Digital 24/48

Nektar - Remember The Future

The fourth album from Germany-based English band Nektar.

A conversion was originally created by Romanotrax with menus. I have re-created that conversion without the menus.

The SACD was based on the original quadraphonic release "tweaked" for 5.1 surround. Romanotrax re-tweaked his conversion back to quadraphonic. In addition, the bonus tracks from the SACD that were originally edits from the stereo release were recreated by Romanotrax as edits of the quadraphonic version and have been retained here.
Source: SACD

Converted to: DVD-A MLP 24/96, DVD-V DTS 24/96 & Dolby Digital 24/48

Deep Purple - Machine Head[SACD rear channel configuration corrected]

When Deep Purple's Machine Head was released on SACD it included a quadraphonic mix of the album. Unlike other quadraphonic mixes on SACD such as The Moody Blues' albums and The O'Jays' Ship Ahoy that had derived center and LFE channels added to them to create artificial 5.1 mixes, Machine Head featured an non-enhanced quadraphonic mix. But exactly which mix is it?

Comparison with the UK SQ mix originally released on LP and later on CD shows the SACD quad mix is similar, but not quite the same. Comparison with the US mix released on reel-to-reel and CD-4 LP reveals that the SACD is not that mix. Could the SACD contain the UK SQ mix with the rear channels reversed?

As well as the full album in a quadraphonic mix the SACD included three bonus tracks - possibly to make the SACD similar to the 25th anniversary CD release. The first time I created a conversion of the SACD I included the bonus tracks. These bonus tracks turned out to contain the 5.1 surround mix that was commercially released on DVD-Audio and included digital watermarking copy protection. When the bonus tracks were converted from SACD to DVD-Audio the audio watermarking was still intact causing issues for players that detected these watermarks.

This conversion contains only the original album with no bonus tracks and with the rear channels as presented on the SACD swapped over to restore the original UK SQ mix configuration.
Source: SACD

Converted to: DVD-A MLP 24/96, DVD-V DTS 24/48 & Dolby Digital 24/48

Deep Purple - Machine Head[Original SACD channel configuration]

When Deep Purple's Machine Head was released on SACD it included a quadraphonic mix of the album. Unlike other quadraphonic mixes on SACD such as The Moody Blues' albums and The O'Jays' Ship Ahoy that had derived center and LFE channels added to them to create artificial 5.1 mixes, Machine Head featured an non-enhanced quadraphonic mix. But exactly which mix is it?

Comparison with the UK SQ mix originally released on LP and later on CD shows the SACD quad mix is similar, but not quite the same. Comparison with the US mix released on reel-to-reel and CD-4 LP reveals that the SACD is not that mix. Could the SACD contain the UK SQ mix with the rear channels reversed?

As well as the full album in a quadraphonic mix the SACD included three bonus tracks - possibly to make the SACD similar to the 25th anniversary CD release. The first time I created a conversion of the SACD I included the bonus tracks. These bonus tracks turned out to contain the 5.1 surround mix that was commercially released on DVD-Audio and included digital watermarking copy protection. When the bonus tracks were converted from SACD to DVD-Audio the audio watermarking was still intact causing issues for players that detected these watermarks.

This conversion contains only the original album with no bonus tracks and with the quadraphonic channel configuration as released on the SACD.
Source: SACD

Converted to: DVD-A MLP 24/96, DVD-V DTS 24/48 & Dolby Digital 24/48

Susskind / St Louis Symphony - Holst: The Planets

The St Louis Symphony again, this time under the baton of Walter Susskind. Holst's seven-movement orchestral suite The Planets - particularly the Mars and Jupiter movements - have been the inspiration for a number of rock tracks and synthesiser-based interpretations.

The SACD release featured the original quadraphonic mix with a silent centre channel as required by the SACD format that I deleted from my conversion.
Source: SACD

Converted to: DVD-A MLP 24/88.2, DVD-V DTS 24/48 & Dolby Digital 24/48