Welcome Bruce Soord from The Pineapple Thief - Q&A Thread

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By the way, if any of you know a simple, freeware way to burn 5.1 FLAC files to consumer DVDs that will play in standard home systems, let me know! It's the number one query we get from fans about the format.
there aren't "one click" apps to convert flac to PCM/MLP and automatically perform DVD Audio authoring.
as mentioned above Robert van Diggele, to please everybody, for DL version need to be offered variety of formats.
or at least two - lossless surround flac/wavpack and ready to be burn to blank disc image file.
sadly home networking for entertainment purpose still wish to be more standardized and developed toward easiness
and convenience of use by end user. so perhaps release as an image file would be more necessary.
for that DVD-A or BD-A first need to be authored, checked for possible faults and flows and then used as source for image file.

for what it worth, i would suggest to forget about DVD-A and move to BD-A format of downloadable disc, previously tweaking it
to be burned on regular blank DVD instead of blank BD. blu ray disc architecture, being burn to regular DVD, plays same way
as standard Blu Ray disc on all modern BD players. only amount of recorded data shouldn't exit capacity of the DVD disc, which
with audio only release wouldn't be hard task.
 
excellent news Bruce. Kscope is becoming THE record label for modern music mixed in surround, with artists who are themselves surround mixers too (Steven Wilson, Giancarlo Erra and yourself).
i have same thought. seems like very progressive folks heads the label.
 
TBH I was expecting a more immersive mix from this one, I.E every moment in surround. Do not get me wrong I like it, but you example could of put a guitar in each rear speaker for entire duration, as well as the little bits here and there you did. More Katatonia would be great in 5.1. Their back catalog would be ideal for remixes. I look forward to ore releases. Cheers.

That's an interesting point - for Sanctitude, the second guitar and backing vocals were placed towards the rear of the 3d, with some backing vocals placed in the rear (but not 100% panned to the rear). The challenge for any mixing engineer (stereo or surround) is tailoring the mix for all (or most) consumers. OK, so this can go too far - Muse records tend to get ruined catering for low end systems (and even smart phones). In India, a friend of mine was telling me mastering engineers deliberately distort and push mixes to be optimised for tiny radios in markets, where loudness is king. Play them in your high end hi-fis and they will sound like they are coming out of a 2 inch speaker!

For Sanctitude I did a few 3d panning effects, but again there is a debate about taking this too far - I don't want to distract from the music. Should the shakers fly around in circles, delays fly around, lead vocals sit away from their natural place? I confess I did this for a few sections but that was when it didn't distract from the main event (Jonas). I am looking forward to mixing a full album where I have more sources to place in the surround - Sanctitude only had 2 guitars, vocals, bass and a stereo 'backing track' source so options were slightly limited. The TPT live recording, I confess, should have been more immersive.

To summarise, if I had put guitars completely in the rear, it would have sounded great for you guys, but what about the average consumer, with smaller, lower end rear speakers compared to the fronts? For many, the second guitar (me!) would have been lost (or lost a lot of it's definition), together with the backing vocals.

This is an interesting debate though, it's something that I am wrestling with as I set up the latest blu-ray surround mix for Kscope in my studio. Any other thoughts from this forum would be interesting to hear.

Cheers

Bruce
 
there aren't "one click" apps to convert flac to PCM/MLP and automatically perform DVD Audio authoring.
as mentioned above Robert van Diggele, to please everybody, for DL version need to be offered variety of formats.
or at least two - lossless surround flac/wavpack and ready to be burn to blank disc image file.
sadly home networking for entertainment purpose still wish to be more standardized and developed toward easiness
and convenience of use by end user. so perhaps release as an image file would be more necessary.
for that DVD-A or BD-A first need to be authored, checked for possible faults and flows and then used as source for image file.

for what it worth, i would suggest to forget about DVD-A and move to BD-A format of downloadable disc, previously tweaking it
to be burned on regular blank DVD instead of blank BD. blu ray disc architecture, being burn to regular DVD, plays same way
as standard Blu Ray disc on all modern BD players. only amount of recorded data shouldn't exit capacity of the DVD disc, which
with audio only release wouldn't be hard task.

Thanks - that makes sense. In future we will throw in a burnable ISO with the FLAC files. Great idea!
 
This is an interesting debate though, it's something that I am wrestling with as I set up the latest blu-ray surround mix for Kscope in my studio. Any other thoughts from this forum would be interesting to hear.
i don't know did you saw one of "The Simpsons" episode, where Homer did design "american dream car"
for his long lost and then found brother.
i'm afraid if you will mix, taking to consideration all our suggestions, that mix will turn out like homer's car :p
so best bet - do it your way in accordance with provided material. just don't go too conservative.
 
Bruce, enjoying reading your comments in this thread.
Anthony Phillips-Geese and the Ghost, yes, you need to hear the 5.1, it is very well produced and remixed and Simon Heyworth is one one of the better musical engineers in the past 30+ years.

Have you listened to any Of Steven Wilson's work yet, either solo,band or the mixes he has done of other bands in surround?
Steve Wilson's work is awesome as its very well produced and mixed, very clean flat recordings so that you get to hear everything the way its meant to be heard.

Hi

Yes, I have heard a lot of the SW catelog. Ever since I started in music with my first band Vulgar Unicorn (in 1994), we were being written about in the same sphere as PT (that was back in the 'sky moves sideways' days). Steven's style is super hi-fi and fairly dry (or flat as you described), which is great - I love the sound of his records.
 
Thanks - that makes sense. In future we will throw in a burnable ISO with the FLAC files. Great idea!
you're welcome. if any questions or necessity for help arise, just let us know.
here we have plenty of folks, who will be glad to volunteer, just to get out one more HiRez surround release :)
 
By the way, if any of you know a simple, freeware way to burn 5.1 FLAC files to consumer DVDs that will play in standard home systems, let me know! It's the number one query we get from fans about the format.

Cheers

Bruce

I've been using Cirlinca HD Audio Solo Ultra http://www.cirlinca.com/ not freeware but I've had good results changing 5.1 FLAC to PCM and then producing an .iso file for DVD-A as my amp won't do 5.1 FLAC. I haven't tried the BD-A route yet but I've a huge stack of burnable Blu-ray discs so I ought to try. Then following Giancarlo's (nosound) recommendation I've been using imgBurn to put the .iso onto disc after I had real trouble with Nero (from www.imgburn.com - though I just looked and Norton flagged up a threat warning for the site, there are other mirror sites it can be downloaded from). Using these two programs like this seems to work well - for me anyway. Cheers, Duncan.
 
To summarise, if I had put guitars completely in the rear, it would have sounded great for you guys, but what about the average consumer, with smaller, lower end rear speakers compared to the fronts? For many, the second guitar (me!) would have been lost (or lost a lot of it's definition), together with the backing vocals.

This is an interesting debate though, it's something that I am wrestling with as I set up the latest blu-ray surround mix for Kscope in my studio. Any other thoughts from this forum would be interesting to hear.

Cheers

Bruce

Back in the mid 70s I'd been in a few studios where small 6" cube speakers were used to listen to the final mix downs to see what they would sound like on 'domestic' kit, I believe some engineers then tweaked the EQ to 'improve' the sound :(, an earlier version of the compression/loudness wars of the present! My first 5.1 surround system used my Acoustic Research AR3s for the front and small Pioneers for the centre & rear, then when I went to 4x full size Monitor Audio RS8s with a matching centre the clarity improved, along with the 'projection' of the instruments from all round. My view is don't worry about small speakers in the rear, go with what works for the music, but spread the instruments all around, you really hear the nuances in the music/production then.
 
I second that, just let us know when you need some testing to be done.
actually i meant much wider range. it could be anything, related to our hobby, from ideas, suggestions, hints... up to practical
involvement in production. i'm sure we have here folks, who is good in computer arts/graphic, can help with wide variety of audio
encoding, help to author and compile physical medium, etc. if it's came to such needs and budget is tough.
 
started my acquaintance with TPT music. seems it will take some time as there are 10 albums.
so far - nice music, interesting and unique musical arrangement to the lyrical themes, very much suited for bold, even aggressive surround approach.
gave attentive listening to first album "Abducting The Unicorn'" yesterday evening.
like Bruce said himself, there obviously can be heard Smashing Pumpkins influence but unlike SP, which i was able to listen back in 90s but mostly
in "skip mode", this TPT album did kept my interest to continuous listening. definitely the band to become one more my new fave.

Bruce, i won't promise you to start to buy all CD prints, i abandoned this many moons ago for very rare exceptions, but for everything, offered in
some forms of HiRez surround, you have two more avid followers. two, 'cause i'm sharing this "surroundomania" hobby with my relative and usually
if one of us spots something related to our hobby, keeps in mind other as well. knowing of his musical interests, i'm sure he will like TPT too.
 
Hi Bruce, a question about digital releases of TPT albums.

Digital shops are popping up offering TPT, and other Kscope, releases. Do you have any say in what will be released, where and when?

Some of the recent albums are availabe as hi res and some of the remixes are available as cd quality. Also not all shops are offering the same content.

HDTracks is offering Magnolia as special edition and All The Wars as the album, http://www.hdtracks.com/music/artist/view/id/4893/
Hiresaudio is offering All The Wars as the album, https://www.highresaudio.com/artist.php?abid=66131 (bought this one a few years ago)
Qobuz is offering various albums, http://www.qobuz.com/nl-nl/search?q=pineapple+thief&i=boutique with All The Wars as hi res including the acoustic tracks. As far as I know this album has only been available since not so long on Qobuz.

So what is the release policy regarding TPT digital albums, both standard and hi res?

Thank you for your reply.
 
Hi there Bruce,

sure, you remember, that we have talked about tpt in 5.1 years ago. now you go to realise it. that would be great. any thoughts about sa-cd versions? keep up the good work and lots of love from germany. -Pete-
 
listening to some TPT albums, Little Man, Tightly Unwound and 10 Stories Down, I am really looking forward to any surround mix of TPT.

It will be awesome people :) Just think of Too Much To Lose and We Love You in surround for example will be great :).

Also more delicate songs like Start Your Descent and The Answers will benefit from a surround treatment.
 
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listening to some TPT albums, Little Man, Tightly Unwound and 10 Stories Down, I am really looking forward to any surround mix of TPT.

It will be awesome people :) jJust think of Too Much To Lose and We Love You in surround. For example Will be great :).

Also more delicate songs like Start Your Descent and The Answers will benefit from a surround treatment.

Killing me....yes, would be amazing...
 
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