Rush - MOVING PICTURES [DVD-A]

[LJ]

Excellent disc.

However, the blu-ray has better bass response and is a little warmer in tone. Mr Chycki really nailed this mix - he probably wore out a lot of copies over the years, just like the rest of us. It is subtle and not really overbearing in any aspect. However, the sound quality (5.1 and stereo) is a definite 10.

[wavelength]

I'm finding that if I let the rear speakers dominant the playback it sounds a lot better.

[fredblue]

An "8".

A DVDA from Universal in 2011..! Who'd a thunk it!?

And then there was PT's Quadrophenia directors cut, also a Universal DVDA in 2011..

mmmm...

I rather enjoyed this! The music and the surround mix were engaging and entertaining. The lead singers' voice was a little grating at times but did not detract from my enjoyment of this, all-round excellent set.

[wavelength]

I keep going back and forth on this one. The mix teases but doesn't truly deliver. Something is just not right. It should have been better.

[DKA]

I keep going back and forth on this one. The mix teases but doesn't truly deliver. Something is just not right. It should have been better.

No kidding. I think it's the lack of actual good product that makes it so that people overrate this disc. This is better than the other Rush mixes, but there are plenty of elements here which I could have done better myself. It gets better as the disc goes on, and there's some placement stuff here and there that clearly indicates "multitracks," but there's zero excuse for the widened stereo that tends to dominate a lot of this mix.

[fredblue]

No kidding. I think it's the lack of actual good product that makes it so that people overrate this disc. This is better than the other Rush mixes, but there are plenty of elements here which I could have done better myself. It gets better as the disc goes on, and there's some placement stuff here and there that clearly indicates "multitracks," but there's zero excuse for the widened stereo that tends to dominate a lot of this mix.

very well said DKA, I agree the paucity of releases makes anything in surround now seem like "the second coming"..
however I'd rather have the widened stereo type mix on this than the awful, pointless double stereo of a fair few discs!

I'm thinking of the Natalie Merchant Tigerlily DVDA, and that Stone Temple Pilots abomination I just got the other day - which I can't bring myself to play again right now to rate it on QQ.. I've got the O'Jays Ship Ahoy SACD on at the moment instead, now that is a good'un of a surround mix!

I'll add that I rated "Moving Pictures" higher than the 5.1 mix probably deserves (a "6" for me out of "10" for the surround element) because it's a DVDA, about half a decade after most people had proclaimed the format dead and buried! More of the "second coming" syndrome? Probably.. mea culpa!

[DKA]

I'll add that I rated "Moving Pictures" higher than the 5.1 mix probably deserves (a "6" for me out of "10" for the surround element) because it's a DVDA, about half a decade after most people had proclaimed the format dead and buried! More of the "second coming" syndrome? Probably.. mea culpa!

Like I said on another recent poll, I'm not rating on the quality of the music, the package it came in, and I only really rate on the format if it truly affects the listening experience. I'm rating on the quality of the mix, and I expect a professional product from these professional mixers.

[wavelength]

I expect a professional product from these professional mixers.

I still have trouble believing that Richard Chycki (the mixer in this case) was to blame for all the problems with Moving Pictures. His production of Trapeze (2003) shows to me that he understands surround mixing. How he came up with what he did on MP is a mystery - too many cooks? Maybe.

[DKA]

I still have trouble believing that Richard Chycki (the mixer in this case) was to blame for all the problems with Moving Pictures. His production of Trapeze (2003) shows to me that he understands surround mixing. How he came up with what he did on MP is a mystery - too many cooks? Maybe.

The other Rush mixes were way worse, and I believe were both his. No clue what happened there, but I'm not exactly excited at the thought of more Rush mixes at this point unless someone can give me a solid "2112."

[fredblue]

The other Rush mixes were way worse, and I believe were both his. No clue what happened there, but I'm not exactly excited at the thought of more Rush mixes at this point unless someone can give me a solid "2112."

I thought someone had posted on these forums that some of the masters for "2112" had gone walkabout..?!?

[fredblue]

from the Rush forum..

http://www.therushforum.com/index.php?showtopic=74156

"Q: You've recently released the Sector box sets featuring remastered editions of all your albums including surround sound recordings of Signals. Fly By Night and A Farewell To Kings. Did you come across any difficulties in creating a surround sound album from records that were made in the '70s and '80s?

There was quite a lot missing. We have full albums missing. The master tapes for Permanent Waves, I just don't think we have the masters for that record. That is typical of those days. Your recordings would stay at the studio where you last worked. You'd get home and the master tapes would go to be mastered and then the record was released and they would keep your masters as it was safer that way. When we did Permanent Waves, Trident kept the masters but they went bankrupt and everything disappeared so we don't have the multi-track masters for that one. The same thing with the first record. There are takes missing. The original “Working Man” that's on the album is missing but we have a second version that we did that's slightly different and had a different solo with a wah-wah pedal and that's the version that exists now but that's not been a released version. There's lots of stuff missing, there's parts of 2112 missing. That's the problem we have, some tapes have gone missing, some had degraded. Baking the tapes doesn't necessarily fix them. What it does is it allows you to play the tapes through one time, if you're lucky, so you have to make sure you get it and if you get something that sticks then you`re out of luck."

[DKA]

I thought someone had posted on these forums that some of the masters for "2112" had gone walkabout..?!?

I read that as well. It's a shame. The stereo mix of "2112" is too unorthodox in places for me to get something good out of it. That's one you'd need to call in the pros for to truly get right.

[wolfyboy359]

I gave this a ten. I love this album and the sound is phenomenal. I love the start of Tom Sawyer. I will never tire of listening to this DVD-A. Although I bet my neighbors will!!

[mch007]

My favorite Rush...Sound & mix could have been better...but the album could not have
A 9

[Neil Palfreyman]

I'm not complaining about the mix, I'm complaining about the way some dvd-a discs don't play properly when trying to do a phantom center. I never have a problem with SACD, and many DVD-A discs work fine with my samsung player. Many don't. It's a frustrating format. And it would be very difficult for me to get a center channel that matches my speakers, and also to get a 5th channel of amplification that matches my marantz quad amp. I'd need to buy all new equipment and have something custom built at this point.

My point is, this disc could have been authored to be more compatible. It's the first disc I've had that just plain stopped 2:30 in on my samsung. I've had other discs do weird things in the samsung, but this is by far the worst.

Sorry to dig up such an old post but did you ever resolve this problem? I have a very similar problem on my Panasonic DV-600AV. It just refuses to play the DVD-Audio - it hangs if I try to play it! I can play the DD fine but would dearly like to hear the higher resolution version.

[DuncanS]

I had an earlier Pioneer SACD/DVD (DV-575A), it needed a firmware update before it would play any of the DVD-Audio streams on the discs that REM did, I either got no audio, or it would just stick. After the firmware update it played them. I believe there are compatibility issues with some players and the JAVA on the discs, it is annoying which is why I prefer SACD. When I switched to a Denon DVD-2930 I had a similar problem with the multi-channel layer on some hybrid-SACDs which needed a firmware update to get round. The difficulty is in tracking down the firmware updates once the manufacturer stops supporting the player. Hope that helps.