Anathema - Weather Systems (limited edition CD/DVDA)

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Hi all,

First off, can I just confirm what I've said to some of you in emails - we have passed on all the comments we have had about Weather Systems to KScope as we run their official webstore.

Ok - moving on (to what we hope is a good solution)...

In response to demand for a higher quality format Burning Shed has created an uncompressed 24bit/48khz FLAC file which is available for download. Those of you who have bought the digibook through us can download it for free. This is the highest quality download we can offer based on the master disc we were sent by KScope.

If you don't already have a download account with us you can set one up in about 3 minutes on the site.

Please just email me with (preferably) your transaction id or the email address you used to order the digibook and the email address you have used for your download account if different and we will arrange to credit you with this file. My email address is [email protected]

We're sorry for the confusion on this but, as we don't have any input into the titles KScope produce, we can only rely on information we're supplied with and try to keep that updated at all times.

If you've still got any concerns please email me and I'll either try to answer or pass it on to KScope if that's more appropriate.

Many thanks,

Lisa (Burning Shed customer support)
 
This is a huge let down. For one, both the Stereo CD and Dolby Digital 5.1 are mastered incredibly poorly. This thing has been brick walled to the nth degree, and the bass is out of control. It's a huge shame because the music really does NOT lend it self to this kind of treatment, at all. It sounds utterly awful.

I wonder if they even listened to this thing before they released it.

For the most part I agree. The music itself is excellent. But, I tried to listen to the DD5.1 track last night, and could barely get through 2 songs. It sounds horrible. You can hear the compression so clearly, it is like listening to a 112kbps mp3. Ugh. It is hard to tell if the 5.1 mix itself is OK because I was distracted so much by the poor DD format.

I switched to the stereo mix played from my squeezebox through an Emotiva DAC. It sounded soooo much better. I quite enjoyed listening to the album this way. I listen to surround through an Oppo BDP83SE, which actually has better DACs than the Emotiva, so the difference is probably the DD format.

I don't find the stereo master to be as bad as you expressed, Dylan. However, it definitely has more dynamic compression than "We're Here Because Were Here". It is somewhat of a let down when compared to WHBWH, I guess, but I think I will still listen to this album repeatedly in the future.

All this to say, if you like Anathema, don't let the 5.1 fiasco prevent you from buying the album. The music is excellent, and the stereo mix/master is acceptable. I am still hoping KScope will do the right thing and release the 5.1 mix in a "proper" format, even if it is just a flac download. But, I won't hold my breath.

Brad
 
I'm glad I held out on this. I borrowed the dvd from a buddy of mine, and like everybody here's been saying, the DD mix was pretty hard to sit through. The CD's stereo mix was much better. However, the music is fantastic, and for only $7.99 at amazon right now, it's a definite bargain for such wonderful music.

This album deserved much better treament. What a shame, KScope.
 
However, the music is fantastic, and for only $7.99 at amazon right now, it's a definite bargain for such wonderful music.

At that price it is definitely worth it!

This album deserved much better treament. What a shame, KScope.

No kidding. An absolute shame. Anathema deserves better.

The DD sound quality of this release is so bad, it makes me wonder why other DD releases, such as Caravan's "In the Land of Grey and Pink" sounds so good. That one is surprisingly listenable. The bit rate is the same (448kbps). Did they use a really bad encoder? Or, does the excessive dynamic range compression used on Weather Systems cause trouble with the AC3 encoder?

Brad
 
No kidding. An absolute shame. Anathema deserves better.

The DD sound quality of this release is so bad, it makes me wonder why other DD releases, such as Caravan's "In the Land of Grey and Pink" sounds so good. That one is surprisingly listenable. The bit rate is the same (448kbps). Did they use a really bad encoder? Or, does the excessive dynamic range compression used on Weather Systems cause trouble with the AC3 encoder?

Brad

At a rough guess (not having seen the record) the idiots who authored it have used -27 dialnorm setting left to Film-Standard.
These are the default settings in Apple's DVDSP application - which I wager is what was used.
This will cause the decoder to attenuate the mix down by -4dB to match a setting set up for film dialogue, and will exacerbate any compression used and the more the mix is compressed the worse it will sound. I don't like DD personally but it can be at least presentable with care - great care. DTS is superior in almost every way though and lossless rules supreme.
Dolby Digital should never be used for music titles - and calling t DVD-A/V is plain wrong, misleading & when you get right down to it is counterfiet product.

Finally, going OT, it's nice to read the good thingsabout WHBWH, as we mastered that one (albeit uncredited) as well as authored it and I took a great deal of care over it.
 
At a rough guess (not having seen the record) the idiots who authored it have used -27 dialnorm setting left to Film-Standard.
These are the default settings in Apple's DVDSP application - which I wager is what was used.
This will cause the decoder to attenuate the mix down by -4dB to match a setting set up for film dialogue, and will exacerbate any compression used and the more the mix is compressed the worse it will sound. I don't like DD personally but it can be at least presentable with care - great care. DTS is superior in almost every way though and lossless rules supreme.
Dolby Digital should never be used for music titles - and calling t DVD-A/V is plain wrong, misleading & when you get right down to it is counterfiet product.

Finally, going OT, it's nice to read the good thingsabout WHBWH, as we mastered that one (albeit uncredited) as well as authored it and I took a great deal of care over it.
As a warm up to their concert last Saterday, I played both WHBWH and Weather systems back to back. The difference in sound quality was enourmous, with WHBWH as the winner obviously.

Still hoping Kscope can do something with Weather Systems, as a hi res mix would sound great, if mastered/authored well.
 
Agree with the posts here. The DVD-V abomination is virtually unlistenable. Boomy bass, bad mix, Lo-res, etc. Playing Insurgentes right now to recover...
 
[..] used -27 dialnorm setting left to Film-Standard.
This will cause the decoder to attenuate the mix down by -4dB to match a setting set up for film dialogue
I can more or less confirm that (and this happens often on DVDs, that Dolby is dialnorm -27 whereas DTS on the same is -31). The only thing is, my receiver responds to that with "Dolby D +4" and makes the whole thing 4 dB louder, not attenuate. This part of the loudness is not the problem though, just turn it down some. It is the brick wall limiting of louder parts that makes it tough.

Finally, going OT, it's nice to read the good things about WHBWH, as we mastered that one (albeit uncredited) as well as authored it and I took a great deal of care over it.
I guess we feel just as left out as you probably do.

The DVD-Audio/Video logo on this disc is just a reminder of what could have been.
 
With Dolby DRC, the easiest way is to turn it off in the player.
This *should* simply tell the player to ignore the words in the metadata.......but the disc *should* have been done to Music Light at -31.
Setting DRC to None can cause a serious problem, asif the player still has DRC enabled, a setting of none in the bitstream can cause the player to select default, which will be Film Normal......and a disaster.
 
With Dolby DRC, the easiest way is to turn it off in the player.
Of course the Dynamic Range Compression must be turned off when playing music. It is usually called "Dolby late nite listening" on the consumer side.
I cannot turn off the Dialog Normalisation we're talking about here. My player seems to ignore it but the receiver does compensate the volume for it. As I said, that can be compensated again with the volume control.
Whatever the case, we all agree the potential that was available was missed by a long shot. (man, only less than 5% of the DVD capacity is actually used, I would have even preferred a DTS-CD).
 
Naturally you're right about dialnorm, of course.
I missed that - oops.
Once dialnorm has been encoded you're stuck with the attenuation & there is nothing to be done about it at all.
Even writing back to PCM will still take this into account.
 
Hi all,

First off, can I just confirm what I've said to some of you in emails - we have passed on all the comments we have had about Weather Systems to KScope as we run their official webstore.

Ok - moving on (to what we hope is a good solution)...

In response to demand for a higher quality format Burning Shed has created an uncompressed 24bit/48khz FLAC file which is available for download. Those of you who have bought the digibook through us can download it for free. This is the highest quality download we can offer based on the master disc we were sent by KScope.

If you don't already have a download account with us you can set one up in about 3 minutes on the site.

Please just email me with (preferably) your transaction id or the email address you used to order the digibook and the email address you have used for your download account if different and we will arrange to credit you with this file. My email address is [email protected]

We're sorry for the confusion on this but, as we don't have any input into the titles KScope produce, we can only rely on information we're supplied with and try to keep that updated at all times.

If you've still got any concerns please email me and I'll either try to answer or pass it on to KScope if that's more appropriate.

Many thanks,

Lisa (Burning Shed customer support)

Hi Lisa, that is good news, great customer service. Just two questions, is this 2.0 or 5.1, and where on the Burning Shed site can this be found? As I understand it is also available with a charge to people who bought via other channels.

Thanks.
 
Sorry guys, I've only just found out that my previous post had passed moderation and was up.

It's 5.1 - we've done all we can do here with limited resources and with the master we were given.

The download isn't up on the site yet but you'll be told when it is and we're waiting to hear if it can be sold to people who haven't bought Weather Systems from us (that's the cause of the delay in uploading it).

Apologies for any angst this has caused. We're doing our best and, for what it's worth, I know KScope have listened to the voices of the fans.

Cheerio,

Lisa
 
Sorry guys, I've only just found out that my previous post had passed moderation and was up.

It's 5.1 - we've done all we can do here with limited resources and with the master we were given.

The download isn't up on the site yet but you'll be told when it is and we're waiting to hear if it can be sold to people who haven't bought Weather Systems from us (that's the cause of the delay in uploading it).

Apologies for any angst this has caused. We're doing our best and, for what it's worth, I know KScope have listened to the voices of the fans.

Cheerio,

Lisa

Thanks Lisa - this is a great solution - I'd still prefer a DVD-A or blu-ray, but a hi-rez FLAC download will work for me!

Thanks for your prompt response to e-mails sent to Burning shed as well...
 
Sorry guys, I've only just found out that my previous post had passed moderation and was up.

It's 5.1 - we've done all we can do here with limited resources and with the master we were given.

The download isn't up on the site yet but you'll be told when it is and we're waiting to hear if it can be sold to people who haven't bought Weather Systems from us (that's the cause of the delay in uploading it).

Apologies for any angst this has caused. We're doing our best and, for what it's worth, I know KScope have listened to the voices of the fans.

Cheerio,

Lisa

Thanks Lisa for the great customer service! This is a great solution to the situation.

It is rare for the surround audiophile community to be listened too! The big record companies have been ignoring us for years :)

I am looking forward to hearing this in high resolution.
 
Sorry guys, I've only just found out that my previous post had passed moderation and was up.

It's 5.1 - we've done all we can do here with limited resources and with the master we were given.

The download isn't up on the site yet but you'll be told when it is and we're waiting to hear if it can be sold to people who haven't bought Weather Systems from us (that's the cause of the delay in uploading it).

Apologies for any angst this has caused. We're doing our best and, for what it's worth, I know KScope have listened to the voices of the fans.

Cheerio,

Lisa

Hi Lisa

Slightly off topic - but are there any plans by burning shed to release any other titles as 5.1 flac downloads?

People here would be interested if the Hi-rez surround mixes of any albums that could be released - especially ones now out of print!!! I can't cost you guys much to do this right?
 
Hi Lisa

Slightly off topic - but are there any plans by burning shed to release any other titles as 5.1 flac downloads?

People here would be interested if the Hi-rez surround mixes of any albums could be released - especially ones now out of print!!! I can't cost you guys much to do this right?

Also .....Just thought of this one - I know it's not KScope but a FLAC 5.1 download of Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink...that would get the people here interested!

and the latest Gavin Harrison & 05RIC - that wasn't released as a DVD-A would be great too!!
 
Also .....Just thought of this one - I know it's not KScope but a FLAC 5.1 download of Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink...that would get the people here interested!

and the latest Gavin Harrison & 05RIC - that wasn't released as a DVD-A would be great too!!
good question about the Caravan album. Would love to hear that in hi res.
 
Thanks Lisa for the great customer service! This is a great solution to the situation.

It is rare for the surround audiophile community to be listened too! The big record companies have been ignoring us for years :)

I am looking forward to hearing this in high resolution.

Hi, I'm curious...how are you going to listen to this, on a 5.1 system, from a FLAC file? For someone with an HTPC setup or something, some way to decode a FLAC file and play it back through your AVR, that's fine. Or to someone with a 5.1 setup at their PC, same deal. But to those of us who just have a BD or DVD Player hooked up to their AVR...it doesn't really help. Am I missing something?

Additionally...I live in the USA and as far as I can tell there's only a PAL DVD released (which is weird, because my DVD of We're Here... is NTSC). So I can't even listen to the thing in Dolby Digital at this point...anyone have any ideas? I keep feeling like I'm missing something obvious.
 
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Hi, I'm curious...how are you going to listen to this, on a 5.1 system, from a FLAC file? For someone with an HTPC setup or something, some way to decode a FLAC file and play it back through your AVR, that's fine. Or to someone with a 5.1 setup at their PC, same deal. But to those of us who just have a BD or DVD Player hooked up to their AVR...it doesn't really help. Am I missing something?

Additionally...I live in the USA and as far as I can tell there's only a PAL DVD released (which is weird, because my DVD of We're Here... is NTSC). So I can't even listen to the thing in Dolby Digital at this point...anyone have any ideas? I keep feeling like I'm missing something obvious.

From the flac files I will author a Blu-ray disc using Audiomuxer https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...7-Audiomuxer-new-software-on-surroundbyus-com to play on my blu-ray player. I'll convert the flac to WAV and then use the WAV files to author a blu-ray disc.

I'm not in the states and my player (Oppo) & TV support PAL & NTSC, so no issues. Your player may be able to convert to NTSC from PAL????
 
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