Big Big Train "Stone and Steel" BD 5.1 March '16

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Now I just need to see if I already ordered this.....so much going on in the surround world. :)

...btw there are another two really great releases under production right now that I wish I could tell you about. One in particular will be a real pleasant surprise to those who like Prog in 5.1. :)
 
Here's a 2015 live gig track, probably on the BD?

http://youtu.be/XX5X19aHZ2M

It certainly is. It's actually the only tack to appear twice: the first time is the live-in-studio recording at real world and the second is the recording from King's Place gig.

I have to add that for me the 5.1 mix of the Real World recording of Victorian Brickwork is one of the most staggering pieces of 5.1 I have ever heard. As I have mentioned above I had more than the usual amount of input into the 5.1 mix and had made a whole load of recommendations to Rob based on a previous mix. When I got the next version he had implemented all of my suggestions plus a whole load more of his own and I was left speechless and an emotional wreck by how good it sounded. I must have played it thirty times during play testing and I still get spine tingles when the brass section comes in. In fact I'm getting them now just thinking about it whilst typing this. It's that good.
 
Hi Neil, thank you this and future updates, sounds promising.

You say that Greg is keen on full resolution, but is he also keen on full dynamic range? The English Electric 24 bit is not so dynamic. i know it is not all about dr values, but now that you are on the inside, you might want to mention dynamic range as well :)

I know a lot of people (me included) are interested in the dynamic range of this release so I thought the best thing to do was to get permission from Greg to post a screen shot of the waveform of one of the songs. He was very happy for me to do so, so here it is.

unnamed.jpg

This is "Master James of St. George" which is the second of the "live-in-studio" tracks on the BluRay. As well as showing that it's not been limited it also gives a pretty good idea of how active/discrete the mix is and how the channels are used. I chose this track because it's a relatively short track so you can see more of what's going on in the waveform and it's probably my second favourite mix on the album after Victorian Brickwork.
 
I know a lot of people (me included) are interested in the dynamic range of this release so I thought the best thing to do was to get permission from Greg to post a screen shot of the waveform of one of the songs. He was very happy for me to do so, so here it is.

View attachment 25247

This is "Master James of St. George" which is the second of the "live-in-studio" tracks on the BluRay. As well as showing that it's not been limited it also gives a pretty good idea of how active/discrete the mix is and how the channels are used. I chose this track because it's a relatively short track so you can see more of what's going on in the waveform and it's probably my second favourite mix on the album after Victorian Brickwork.

Thanks. I have already preordered this! I am waiting for the disc to hear the music. I prefer to be surprised and buy blind, instead of listening to clips.
 
Have this on preorder as well and looking forward to this one and from all the things you have reported so far Neil sounds like the right approach was done on this mix, a nice clean discreet mix is what I am anticipating to listen to.
 
I know a lot of people (me included) are interested in the dynamic range of this release so I thought the best thing to do was to get permission from Greg to post a screen shot of the waveform of one of the songs.

Thank you for the song's dynamic range info.. It looks as good as can be expected. This is perfect.

I like how they sing "Master James" over & over, its kinda hypnotic. (y) I have enjoyed The Underfall Yard for quite some time now.

Do we have a track listing yet?

Is "The Underfall Yard" title track on the BluRay?

I ordered it from Burning Shed. The shipping was very expensive($28.00 USD for 4 items) but the overall price was low and I got a headache shopping on Bullmoose & Amazon UK, etc... so I just paid the $$$ to Burning Shed. :music I paid total $108 USD for:


Big Big Train - Stone And Steel (blu-ray preorder)
Jethro Tull - Aqualung - 40th Anniversary Box (Steven Wilson Master) (2cd/2dvd preorder)
Steve Hackett - Please Dont Touch (2cd/1dvd preorder)
Steve Hackett - Spectral Mornings (2cd/1dvd preorder)


@Neil: Thank you for your info about this one and please pass along my sincere gratitude to the band for producing this. As listeners, we are gonna enjoy this a hell of a lot more than the band will make money from this. This boutique release is a rare gem indeed.
 
Here's the entire track listing from Burning Shed:

Live at Real World, Box, Wiltshire, August 2014:

Setting Up
The First Rebreather
Master James Of St George
Organ Failure
Judas Unrepentant
Kingmaker
Brass & Brunel
The Underfall Yard
Lacewings & Ladybirds
Uncle Jack
Wind Distorted Pioneers
Guitar Talk
Victorian Brickwork
Summoned By Bells
Summing Up

Live At King's Place, London, August 2015:

Wassail
Curator Of Butterflies
Victorian Brickwork
East Coast Racer

Extras:

Wassail Drum Session
Master James Drum Cam
Rikard's Real World

Running time approximately three hours.

:)
 
As I mentioned earlier in the thread for £15 you get 136 minutes of music mixed in 5.1 - over 2h of this amazing band’s back catalogue in surround for the first time for £15 has to be bargain of the year!

The rest of the material is blog-style narratives describing the reasoning behind the project, the interaction and feelings of the band members and them just having fun and “extras” such as a drum-cam video. They also have two playback options – “full feature” or “songs only” which cuts out all the talky bits and plays the music back to back. Very neat!
 
I like how they sing "Master James" over & over, its kinda hypnotic. (y)

Just wait until you hear how Rob mixed the multi-part vocal harmonies in 5.1. You'll love it! :)

I have enjoyed The Underfall Yard for quite some time now.

Do we have a track listing yet?

Is "The Underfall Yard" title track on the BluRay?

Me too! It's probably still my favourite album of theirs and it's very well represented on the BluRay :) The title track is indeed on the BluRay - it's one of the "live-in-studio" tracks and it's immense in 5.1 :)

@Neil: Thank you for your info about this one and please pass along my sincere gratitude to the band for producing this. As listeners, we are gonna enjoy this a hell of a lot more than the band will make money from this. This boutique release is a rare gem indeed.

Thanks for that - I certainly will. You're very right about the enjoyment vs money side of things. Although they shift quite a lot of copy for a "niche" band they have very high overheads (big band, brass section, hiring top notch studios etc) and have a strong sense of "fairness" to their fans, hence the amazingly low prices. I know they will struggle to break even on this release, which is a travesty really.

I also know they have very much enjoyed doing the 5.1 and are pleased with the results. There's talk of more in the future from Greg, but it really comes down to how well this and their next studio album "Folklore" sells.
 
Geez! I need to just relax....I keep forgetting I already ordered this from the Shed. I was about to order another...not sure why this one keeps slipping through my memory....I think one thing is that B. Shed doesn't have a way to see your transactions....well, not like Amazon. Have to go back through my emails to find the confirmation order. :)
 
Geez! I need to just relax....I keep forgetting I already ordered this from the Shed. I was about to order another...not sure why this one keeps slipping through my memory....I think one thing is that B. Shed doesn't have a way to see your transactions....well, not like Amazon. Have to go back through my emails to find the confirmation order. :)

Been there, done that! ...too many times. :eek:
 
Neil, does that mean Folklore will come out in 5.1 as well?

Unfortunately not. They really want to do the 5.1 mix but the additional costs make it impractical, at least for now. This may change if they make enough from CD and download sales.

Balancing the books with great value products, high overheads (it's a Big Big Band) and a strong desire not to cut corners is quite a challenge. That said I think we will see more 5.1 from them at some stage. They like it too much and they sound so good in it for it not to happen!
 
Back
Top