Riverside in 5.1

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Like Snood, I'd never heard of Riverside before. I listened to a few snippets of the album on YouTube. Pretty good stuff that sounds very Porcupine Tree-ish. I may have to go for this one as the price is right. :sun
 
My quick first reaction is that I love the album overall. The surround mix is pretty tame, and the sonics sound a touch muddy to me (although that might be a function of me playing it at fairly low volume).
 
So, on a second, more dedicated listen, I'll recant my initial comment regarding the compression. This is quite crankeable, and sounds very good at higher volumes. While I'll admit ignorance on the technical aspects of mixing, whatever limitations might have been imposed by the use of stems, they don't seem apparent here, at least to me. The mix is immersive, and the instruments all seem to be placed appropriately throughout the soundfield. I can't imagine full access to the multi-tracks would have resulted in a drastically different mix.

So great to finally have a Riverside in 5.1. I'm thinking Bruce did a mighty fine job crafting the mix. I'm also thinking I'll rarely be returning to the vinyl, and that this will be my go-to version of the album. :51banana:
 
My quick first reaction is that I love the album overall. The surround mix is pretty tame, and the sonics sound a touch muddy to me (although that might be a function of me playing it at fairly low volume).

Agreed. There's not as much snap to the snare drum that I was hoping for, and gets a little buried during some of the louder moments. It sounds very much like the vinyl version in that aspect.
 
Still waiting on mine but this doesn't sound as good as I'd hoped. Mixing from stems? That's very strange. 44.1khz?
 
Still waiting on mine but this doesn't sound as good as I'd hoped. Mixing from stems? That's very strange. 44.1khz?

I can't imagine anybody completely unaware of the technical details, would listen to this and say "wait a minute! There's something funny going on here... This sounds like 44.1 kHz mixed from stems!"

Odd choices , certainly, but I don't think you'll be disappointed with the results. :)
 
Yep, don't let my initial thoughts bring you down or think this is a bad effort; it isn't that at all. I tend to love more aggressive surround mixes, so that's my bias. The muddiness mostly vanished a bit once I cranked it up earlier today.
 
Still waiting on mine but this doesn't sound as good as I'd hoped. Mixing from stems? That's very strange. 44.1khz?
i guess your order is with amazon ca.
did you received message about unavailability, following by next one which notes expected delivery in august?
 
Listened to the surround mix twice through the Smyth Realiser. The mix definitely opens up the soundscape and I am glad to have it. Won't be a demo disc, but it's a very good listen.
 
On my 3rd listen of this, and I'm enjoying it. Its a bit one paced much of the time, an observation I also make of Katatonia's songs, but its a really nice listen all the same. I'll admit I'd never heard Riverside's music before buying this (y) . On the more adventurous songs (to my ears) such as Saturate Me and Towards the Blue Horizon the music is sublime, and the surround mix is wonderful. I'm not finding the guitars muddy, as others have noted, and I have to say that the sound of the bass guitar is excellent throughout.
 
On my 3rd listen of this, and I'm enjoying it. Its a bit one paced much of the time, an observation I also make of Katatonia's songs, but its a really nice listen all the same. I'll admit I'd never heard Riverside's music before buying this (y) . On the more adventurous songs (to my ears) such as Saturate Me and Towards the Blue Horizon the music is sublime, and the surround mix is wonderful. I'm not finding the guitars muddy, as others have noted, and I have to say that the sound of the bass guitar is excellent throughout.

I should clarify: When I agreed to comment regarding the "muddy" sound (and muddy might not really be the appropriate word here), I was mainly referring to the overall top end, which just sounds a bit soft, to me. It doesn't have the crisp, detailed SNAP to the snare drum that I was hoping for (like say, HCE, for example). In all honesty though, their albums have always had a soft edge to them, so I'm really not too surprised. Maybe it's the sort of sound they're going for. Certain moments just sound incredible, like at the beginning of "Discard your Fear", for example, with just the bass and drums, sounds SOOOO good, and very detailed. Other times, however, during noisier parts, the snare just seems to get a little lost in the mix, and doesn't really seem to stand out - again, very much like the CD/Vinyl mixes. So, after listening to Riverside for about 10 years now and being very familiar with their production and sound, I was just hoping that the jump to High-res and 5.1 would bring the sonics out just that little bit more...

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. This is such a great sounding disc overall, and it's such a minor thing, I almost feel petty going on about it.
 
So, mines been wrapped for days now. Just unwrapped and listened to the first 5 songs. I had the opportunity to turn it up quite a bit. I found it very nice. Maybe even excellent. I love the music, love the mix and I think it rocks. First time I've heard the band.
 
Listend to mine yesterday. It's actually discrete so not sure what kind of 'stems' were used but obviously Soord had enough to separate quite a bit (especiallly the guitars and keys). Overall, it's a solid mix and very enjoyable. I do have some minor issues with it - The drums are way too quiet and buried the majority of the time. The bass is not as full/upfront as in the stereo mix. Dynamics could have been more, it definitely sounds very similar to the stereo mix compression wise (which isn't bad at all but could have done with a little less). The compression is most likely in the mixed stems though if I were to take a good guess.

Still, I'm happy with the result and hope for more 5.1 Riverside.
 
Stems are basically like multitracks, but instead of having 100+ tracks, they have been combined/mixed down to fewer tracks (still probably more than the 16/24 tracks of classic 70s recordings), so discreteness shouldn't be an issue. :)
 
The mix is very good, hearing stuff not very audible in the stereo mix. On the other hand, the surround has some harmony vocals buried, in #Addicted for example. Oh well, you can't have it all ;)
alright, this is what happened. During the weekend I deconnected the amp and did not reconnect properly the left rear channel's RCA. On a familiar mix I got the impression that the left was a bit silenced. After properly connecting the RCA it sounds excellent again.

Now on said song #Addicted one of the harmony vocals is in....left rear channel. No wonder it sounded a bit low in the mix. Anyway, I will relisten to the album later this week with better results I guess ;)
 
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