Surround Albums with Female Vocals

My wife leans towards female vocals and I want to expand our surround collection in that direction. We have an OPPO so all formats are go!

We already have all of Bjork's DualDiscs, a Diana Krall and a Nora Jones.

What else is out there? (An opinion on their quality and availablitity would be appreciated too.)

I can shoot recommendation for this one from the hip in my sleep: Moloko - Statues (SACD). Thinking and passionate's woman dance music. Great mix, too.

Another solid release coming from a mainstream act (however much harder to get nowadays) is Macy Gray - The Trouble with Being Myself.

Emmylou Harris: Producer's Cut dvda
Britney Spears: In The Zone dvda
Goldfrapp: Supernature sacd
Patricia Barber: Modern Cool bd
Tierney Sutton: Something Cool sacd
Alicia Keys: Songs In A Minor dvda
Missy Elliot: Miss E...So Addictive dvda
Fleetwood Mac: Rumours dvda

Linda Ronstadt
Joni Mitchell

Jane Monheit has done a few albums in Dualdisc format with 5.1 mixes. She's not to my taste but may appeal if your wife likes Diana Krall and Nora Jones.

Rebecca Pidgeon. Not too much going on in terms of Surround (recorded with one mic, no post-processing done), but sounds brilliant and her music is wonderful. 2 SACDs, "The Raven" and "Retrospective".

Tapestry - Carole King (M/C SACD),
Everybody's Got A Story - Amanda Marshall (M/C SACD),
A Love Story - Vivian Green (M/C SACD),
Time, Sex, Love - Mary Chapin Carpenter (M/C SACD),
"Become You" & "All That We Let In" - Indigo Girls (both albums on M/C SACD, latter also avail as DualDisc),
A Woman and A Man - Belinda Carlisle (DTS CD),
Cry - Faith Hill (DVD-A) - underrated Elliot Scheiner 5.1 mix,
Nick of Time - Bonnie Raitt (DVD-A),
No Secrets - Carly Simon (DVD-A and earlier 4.0 Quad mix),
Moment by Moment - Larisa Stow (DVD-A),
Wake - Sheila Nicholls (DVD-A),
Growing Pains - Billie Myers (DTS CD),
Greatest Hits - Lee Ann Womack (SACD and DVD-A DualDisc),
Passengers - Mostly Autumn (SACD and DTS DVD) (lots of lovely female vocals and a great surround mix),
In Your Room - Yazoo (DTS DVD Box set) ..Alison Moyet's unique vocals, nice mixes, well worth checking out.

Don't forget Aretha Franklin's superb Quad-only "Greatest Hits" album, lovingly transferred from reels at 24/96 & authored by Romanotrax. I prefer that version to the Quadio reissue too.
There are either 4 or 5 Diana Krall DVD-A titles out there plus some live stuff but the live stuff is little more than big stereo as usual. Will try to see what else I have....

neil wilkes said:

Don't forget Aretha Franklin's superb Quad-only "Greatest Hits" album, lovingly transferred from reels at 24/96 & authored by Romanotrax. I prefer that version to the Quadio reissue too.
There are either 4 or 5 Diana Krall DVD-A titles out there plus some live stuff but the live stuff is little more than big stereo as usual. Will try to see what else I have....

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The Diana Kralls are..

Love Scenes (DTS CD, SACD & DVD-A),
The Girl In The Other Room (SACD, DVD-A & DualDisc),
The Look Of Love (SACD & DVD-A),
When I Look In Your Eyes (SACD & DVD-A).

There are also numerous SACD MultiCh albums on the Linn label with female vocalists, jazz/standards things, most notably Barb Jungr and Claire Martin.

I have some but have never got round to hearing them, so "caveat emptor" and all that!

The Barb Jungr albums are..

Waterloo Sunset,
Every Grain of Sand (Sings Bob Dylan),
Love Me Tender,
Just Like A Woman (Hymn to Nina),
Walking In The Sun.

and the Claire Martin's..

Too Much In Love To Care,
Witchcraft (The Songs of Cy Coleman),
When Lights Are Low,
A Modern Art,
Perfect Alibi,
He Never Mentioned Love,
Too Darn Hot!

Thanks for all the leads and for helping empty my bank account!

I'll post soon with all the albums I was able to get for Lynn that weren't at crazy rich person prices.

Neil - I've done some googling but can't find a trace of that Romanotrax Aretha which you prefer.
Can you give me any hints how to find it - and is it likely to be one of those $250 discs now?

One more list of titles not mentioned above.

All these DVD-As (except where stated otherwise), boasting more than solid mixes should be still available (eBay or elsewhere) for $20 or less:

Ali Isabella - Say You'll Be Mine BDA+CD
Anjulie DVD[dts]+CD
Britney Spears - In The Zone DualDisc[DD]
Destiny's Child - Destiny Fulfilled DualDisc[DD]
Dorothee Munyaneza
K.D. Lang - Invincible Summer
Jonatha Brooke - Steady Pull
P!nk - I'm Not Dead DualDisc[DD]
SheDaisy - The Whole SheBang
Sheryl Crow - The Globe Sessions (NB: superior to the very similar looking dtsCD version)
The Corrs - In Blue
V.A. - Inside The Music: Women On Top

Scott M4 said:

Thanks for all the leads and for helping empty my bank account!

I'll post soon with all the albums I was able to get for Lynn that weren't at crazy rich person prices.

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haha! you're welcome

all the Diana Krall, Claire Martin and Barb Jungr SACDs are still cheap and easy to get.

of the others, even though they're all OOP, the Belinda Carlisle, Larisa Stow, Sheila Nicholls, Billie Myers and Mostly Autumn DTS and Faith Hill & Lee Ann Womack DVDAs are all still cheap and easy to get.

the Carly Simon DVDA, the Bonnie Raitt DVDA and the single layer OOP Sony/Columbia SACDs I listed (Carole King, Vivian Green, Amanda Marshall, Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter) do still come up for sensible money you just have to keep scouring everywhere.. and be patient.. but they are all well worth it. some gorgeous gals making gorgeous music, with great mixes and sumptuous fidelity on that little lot!

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The fact that we own a Diana Krall and a Nora Jones may have been a red herring.

After seeing Diana on Elvis' TV show we dug her vibe as she played "Night Train" and "A Case of You" and bought "The Girl in the Other Room" SACD but it didn't push our buttons in the same way - although "Temptation" and "Black Crow" pull me in. Nora's "Come Away With Me" is an old fave of Lynn's (and the SACD was ordered a while ago but still hasn't arrived). Lynn's favourite jazz vocalists are Billy H, Ella F and Cassandra W. In my research I did track down an almost reasonably priced copy of "Traveling Miles" (a fave of Lynn's) and went for it.

So, in the jazz department we have orders in for: Patricia Barber "Modern Cool", Rebecca Pidgeon "Retrospective" (supposedly folk/jazz) as well as Cassandra's "Traveling Miles".

There's some promising instrumental jazz on its way too - based on tips from other threads.

She got most excited about the Yaz "In Your Room" set and I found the best price I could on Amazon.com and ordered - but they added an extra $14 for "Import Fees Deposit" (to Canada) on top of the shipping charges, so this one definitely added up. I love Yaz too (and have all the Depeche Mode 5.1s) so I know this will get a lot of play between us.

Pop/dance/whatever: Missy Elliot "Miss E... So Addictive", Goldfrapp "Supernature" and I found a reasonably priced Bjork "Volta" which was our missing DualDisc for her.

Aretha, Alicia Keys, Fleetwood Mac are all on-target but OOP and so unaffordable for us. Moloko seems very cool but also very pricey now.

Thanks for all the great suggestions! I'll keep a lookout for more affordable prices and I may have to break-down for Aretha - but I'll see if Neil answers my previous enquiry first.

Happy New Year and Cheers!

Emma Shapplin - Etterna (DVD-A)
if you and your wife had heard and enjoyed Paul Schwartz "Aria" cycle, you definately would enjoy this one as well.

Celine Dion:
All The Way...A Decade Of Song - SACD
New Day Has Come - SACD
both are quite expensive now, but as a canadians, i guess you may keep your eyes open for good bargain.

Shania Twain - UP
either, DVD-A or SACD version

Nightwish - Once (DVD-A)
Nightwish - Dark Passion Play (DVD-A)
Scandinavian symphonic rock, first one with pretty interesting operatic style vocal of their first lead singer Tarja Turunen
on the second, after Tarja left the band, they have another lead singer, female as well, Anette Olzon

LISBETH SCOTT - CHARMED(DVD-A)
adult contemporary, collaboration with Paul Schwartz and recorded/mastered as true 96KHz/24bit audio
by our member mr. M.Waldrep at his label AIX Records

Lee Ann Womack - Grearest Hits (DVD-A DualDisc)

Alison Krauss & Union Station - New Favorite (SACD)
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live (SACD)
Alison Krauss - Now That I've Found You: A Collection (SACD)

Various female artist albums I've mixed in 5.1:
Beyonce - "Dangerously In Love"
Destiny's Child - "Destiny Fulfilled"
Destiny's Child - "Survivor"
Pink - "I'm Not Dead Yet"
Vivian Green - "A Love Story"
Mary Mary - "Incredible"
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Kelly Rowland - "Simply Deep"
Nelly McKay - "Get Away From Me"
Alicia Keys - "Songs In A Minor"

There are also these video DVD's with true 5.1 mixes I've done:
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Play - "Playing Around The World"
Shawn Colvin - "Polaroids..."

ThomC said:

Various female artist albums I've mixed in 5.1:
Beyonce - "Dangerously In Love"
Destiny's Child - "Destiny Fulfilled"
Destiny's Child - "Survivor"
Pink - "I'm Not Dead Yet"
Vivian Green - "A Love Story"
Mary Mary - "Incredible"
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Kelly Rowland - "Simply Deep"
Nelly McKay - "Get Away From Me"
Alicia Keys - "Songs In A Minor"

There are also these video DVD's with true 5.1 mixes I've done:
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Play - "Playing Around The World"
Shawn Colvin - "Polaroids..."

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some superb stuff you've done there maestro!

I've got all of those girlies' SACDs and DDs (and in the case of the Alicia Keys, the DVD-A!) you worked on and rate all the 5.1 mixes very highly.. but I never heard (or heard of!) the Nellie McKay surround mix you did, so I just ordered the DualDisc before the QQ stampede gobbles them all up, as so often happens once some OOP hidden gem is mentioned around here!

ThomC said:

Various female artist albums I've mixed in 5.1:
Beyonce - "Dangerously In Love"
Destiny's Child - "Destiny Fulfilled"
Destiny's Child - "Survivor"
Pink - "I'm Not Dead Yet"
Vivian Green - "A Love Story"
Mary Mary - "Incredible"
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Kelly Rowland - "Simply Deep"
Nelly McKay - "Get Away From Me"
Alicia Keys - "Songs In A Minor"

There are also these video DVD's with true 5.1 mixes I've done:
Jessica Simpson - "In This Skin"
Play - "Playing Around The World"
Shawn Colvin - "Polaroids..."

Click to expand...

i apologize in advance if my question is not appropriate for public discussion but still wondering, during the work on the mix
do you have opportunities for input on artist/production team in regards of which audio format should be utilized for final
commercial version of this product or this "power to decide" is beyond you and your personal preferences?

0tto said:

i apologize in advance if my question is not appropriate for public discussion but still wondering, during the work on the mix
do you have opportunities for input on artist/production team in regards of which audio format should be utilized for final
commercial version of this product or this "power to decide" is beyond you and your personal preferences?

Click to expand...

No.
I just get the multitracks and try to make something sound interesting. How it gets released is beyond my control.