DVD/DTS Poll Fleetwood Mac - MIRAGE [DTS 96-24/DD DVD]

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Rate the Audio-DVD of Fleetwood Mac - MIRAGE

  • 6:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2:

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  • 1: Poor Fidelity, Poor Surround, Poor Content

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    33

JonUrban

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this September 2016 release from Warner Brothers containing (among other things) a DVD with a 5.1 surround mix of the album MIRAGE.

PRE-RELEASE DISCUSSION THREAD: Fleetwood Mac - Mirage 5.1

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Ok First off.............Snood is a Huuuuuuuuuuge Mirage fan, must of listened to this one back in the day hundreds of times.

It was my first Fleetwood Mac concert that lil Snood saw and was mesmerized by Lindsey's guitar work and stage presence.

Will be reviewing this on the surround dvd alone..........will not deduct anything because of no dvd audio or bluray or it's dolby or dts etc.........

Me did put it on thinking ok ummm here we go fingers crossed :mad:@:

Within a few seconds of Love in Store and hearing the intertwining guitar work of that song coming out the back speakers. Snood was soooooooo happy. :cool:

The vocals overall on the album are spread out across the front and done nicely enough to make it center correctly. There is more than enough bass and the drums sound fine all mainly in front. The rears are mainly used for the guitar work and the chorus and other fun vocals or effects.

The mix opened up so much that I had never heard before. The fade outs of the songs seem longer and you can hear more on the fade outs.

Even Gypsy and the other 2 ugh Stevie Nicks songs were enjoyable just for the guitar work. Gypsy even more so, especially when Lindsey helps at the end with the She was just a witch...Awesome.

On Book of Love at the very end you can now here Linsdey choog chooging vocal sounds along with his solo out.........had to replay that like 5 times and went woah never noticed that. Also the backing blingy guitar is more prominent very koo touch.

Empire state opens up alot of the blingy guitar woth that was buried before also

Now on Hold Me and Eyes of the World they sound like new or alternate versions but they are not.........they are mixed to where they kind of sound like it. Some might deduct points on this for messing with the mix too much, but it actually works. Altho Christine might have a different opinion about Hold Me. Lol - it is now a Lindsey lead vocal song seemingly

The Hold me seems to have Christines vocals buried a lil more making Lindsey's more prominent making it seem more of a Lindsey Song which makes it Aweeeeeeeeeeesome. Also right at the beginning of the closing Guitar the background ahhhhhhh ahhhhhs come straight out front and Snood was like huh wow. Koooooooooo and you hear a lil more fade out guitar

On Eyes of the World.........OMG you gotta hear this one. The bah bah bah bom bahs come out the 2 rears like bubbles floating by. Snood was literally laughing with pleasure. Swear me was laughing it was so bubbly. plus the dueling playful guitars coming out in the rears. Unreal!!!!!!

Oh Diane was Nice...........nothing spectacular its a straight forward song with song guitar play in the rears

Can't Go Back - same guitar play in the rears and the backing "cant go backs" in the rears - very nice.

Christine's Only Over you seemed a lil loud compared to the other tracks...........had to turn it down. Wish You Were Here was a nice clean closer with Lindseys guitar working in at the end :banana:

The extra Track Cool Water which was the B side of the Gypsy Single (Me thinks)...........was not so great, seemed like they put all vocals coming out of all 4 speakers. Was a nice bonus but dont think they spent much time mixing it.

Over all even though Tusk is my fave Fleetwood Mac album, followed by Rumours then Mirage, FM self then Tango - think Me gave that a 10, this one Snood enjoyed much better somehow.

So great guitar play and melodies in both rears. Great harmonies, vocals and sound effects in rears, Lead Vocals, drums and bass spread out in fronts all 3 (altho one track did have the drums in the center mainly), The album had me smiling most of the time despite Stevies other 2 lame tracks (Gypsy was good), Not many songs can make Snood laugh with glee like Eyes of The World did............

This is mainly a Lindsey Playful release - 3 bonafide hits 2 with 3 fillers by Stevie and Christine and the rest just Lindsey making goofy catchy tunes with excellent guitar melodies. Might not be everyones cup of tea - It is not Rumuors, not Tusk.........It is more a Lindsey Solo album with some Mac thrown in. :smokin

Gotta give this one an 11!!!!!!

Very Enjoyable - Kudos
 
Snood is really blown away by this and I CAN'T BLAME HIM-

At first, I thought that the MCH mix of "Hold me" was a "deconstructed mix"..I think now that kap'n should reconsider and embrace the new MCH mix.....

I'm a big dancin' banana fan...not enough space for the ones I feel should be expressed--

SOOO Lucky we all got these MCH mixes...

We should ALL be grateful for these mixes!
 
Oh my! This release is a hoot. After only a quick run through on the PC I am sold, it's worth the baggage of the high priced box. Such an excellent mix.

First off, I went to use DVD Audio Extractor and was thrown a bit as it showed the DTS to be 5CH and the AC3 to be 6CH!!?? :confused: :confused:

Extractor Mirage.jpg

I extracted them both to see what the difference was and they were both 5.1. Not quite sure how to put this but the DTS extract sounded a bit better than the AC3, but my bias factor may contribute to my findings...............anyway.

Listened to the two "hits", Gypsy and Hold Me. Snood is not kidding, wow, Hold Me is a revelation. Some "purists" are going to say it's a mess. Others, like me, are going to love it for what it is. A 5.1 mix of a song we all know.

First off, Christie McVie is alone in the front left channel for the vocals, while Lindsey Buckingham's harmony is in both the front right AND the center, which makes his vocal almost overpower hers. Neither is heard in the rears. And when you listen to the fronts, each one at a time, it appears that Christie's vocals are a bit more potted down than Lindsey's, so the song now becomes a Lindsey song with McVie harmonies!!! Stranger Things!

The mix on this one is spread out well and, again, as Snood has pointed out, you hear a LOT of stuff you never heard before, or a lot clearer than you ever heard it. Oooo's and Ahhh's are scattered about the rears and center. The overall effect makes this a terrific surround mix and a full-on 5.1 listening experience.

Here's a peek at the wav's but they don't do it justice. Listen to it, and yes, there will be complaint's I'm sure from the purists, but honestly, they always have the stereo mix to fall back on.

I am now on to listening to the entire disc. More later................

Hold Me Waves.jpg
 
The mix is beautiful, well balanced, a bit bright-but I prefer bright to dull sounding (and as mentioned, "Hold Me" is a sort of a "deconstructed mix" but only to make it shine even more with the extra elements that were not too up front before), and it's a real treat for all of us FMac fans...

I know there's an ongoing debate about this, but my only minus point is the lack of a lossless version.
Mind you, DTS 96/24 sounds great , but it's the voices that really suffer from the compression- even the cymbals sound great, but there is a certain "grittiness" on the voices that would (almost surely) not be there in lossless.

A SOLID niner from me.
 
Looks like it's not brickwalled like Tusk was. Nice to know. Maybe someone was paying attention to the comments here?

My copy still seems to be in some sort of shipping limbo. I wait impatiently.... :howl

Damn, I forgot to mention that. A lot less brickwalled, although the front left channel on "Hold Me" did light the red [0.0] indicator on the VU Meters in Sound Forge once or twice.
 
The mix is beautiful.....I know there's an ongoing debate about this, but my only minus point is the lack of a lossless version.......

These DTS DVD 5.1 mixes from WB would be a perfect way for a place like HD Tracks to finally start selling HiRez 5.1 .flac files. Imagine if we could purchase this mix from HD Tracks, even at say $30 (the price of an AF SACD), at 24/96 uncompressed! It's such a logical thing to do since they are affiliated with WB in some way.

Then the paradox - If they won't allow that because they need the 5.1 mix to increase sales of "the Box", then they are admitting there is a big enough surround market to use to get box sales up. And if there is, and they do, then why don't they address that market directly and MAKE MORE MONEY by selling the mix on BluRay or Download!!!??
 
Tusk in 5.1 was a personal dream come true - it had been sat in the vaults at Warners for like a decade+ ..Rhino did the unthinkable and liberated it.. and I lapped it up.. and I gave it an unreserved "QQ 10".

I'm finding Mirage in 5.1 even more enjoyable - and as only Spinal Tap goes upto "11" I had to also give this wonderful new surround music release a "10" too.
Ok, it gets 10.1 :smokin

I actually think this has a more interesting set of surround mixes than Tusk for the most part.. with some songs there's not a great deal going on and so you've got quite a sparse mix but its not diminished by that for me one iota as there's so much lovely separation.. (and you thought Rumours was their separation album.. :D )

(even though to me this is a kinda less interesting/engaging album than Tusk, its more enjoyable in a way, easier to just "chillax" - as they say - to.. :chill ..with Tusk you have to make more of an effort maybe.. if that makes any sense? bah they are so different maybe there really should be "no comparison"..!? Rumours, Tusk, Mirage all in glorious 5.1.. is it too bold to dare to dream about the 1975 Self titled album and Tango In The Night also getting such stunning 5.1 treatment..? :eek:)

ps. Jon, its nice to see some discrete waveforms (after approx 13 months of looking at pretty much nothing but decoded matrix and more recently demodulated CD-4 vinyl transfers its quite a sight for four eyes! I mean, for sore eyes.. :phones )
 
Here's a minute of each channel of "Hold Me", first verse. I skipped the LFE. You can play them from here with Media Player (or whatever) to hear what all of the fuss is about if you don't have a copy yet. (These are low-res .MP3 files if you decided to download them)

Front Left: View attachment FL Christie.mp3

Front Right: View attachment FR Lindsey.mp3

Center: View attachment Center.mp3

Surround Left: View attachment SL.mp3

Surround Right: View attachment SR.mp3

Interestingly I tried swapping the center and front left, putting Christie in the center with Lindsey in the left and right and it sounded pretty good, but it also sounded less quad, since Christie was center, as was Lindsey as the phantom center.

Anyway, other than the strange Christie vocal on this one, you can tell from these samples that the mix itself is pretty sweet!
 
After listening to this disc again, I decide to give it an '8', breaking my vote down this way:

Content: 2/3
Surround Mix: 3/3
Fidelity: 3/3
High-Res Disc: 0/1

Throughout this second listen, I started to have better thoughts about the surround mix and fidelity. The only mix that was truly disappointing to me was the one for "Book of Love", one of my favorite tracks on the album. I expected more from that mix, and I did not get it, but overall, the rest of the songs have very good mixes.
This album just isn't as good as "Rumours" and "Tusk" are. "Can't Go Back", "That's Alright", "Empire State", and "Oh Diane" are pretty weak tracks IMHO.
Plus, I'm still frustrated by the fact that the surround mix isn't in high-resolution, and there was so much available space left on the DVD for added visual extras that are not on there.
So this release could have been so much better, but it's still pretty good for what it is.
I recommend getting this only for the right price.

:)
 
I'll go 9. Really somewhere above 8.5, so we're rounding up. Some great songs on this album & some OK ones, so content-wise it isn't Rumours. Was worried about all the discussion on Hold Me, since that is my favorite song on the album, but I really didn't think it was as extreme as some others did. Yes Lindsey is higher in the mix (as Jon showed - 2 channels to 1) & even dominant in a few spots, but overall, I thought it mostly maintained the harmony aspect of the original. Only Over You is so much louder than everything else that it is jarring. I dropped it 5 db to get it to match!! Definitely some partial points lost for that. However, overall a very nice 5.1 mix, with lots of discrete elements & lots of things I'd never heard before in the original mix.
 
I gave it a ten but I don't know why. I love the album but good lord, they sure changed enough things. Many songs don't even sound like the original. They added stuff, subtracted stuff and changed the mix radically on almost every song. What were they thinking?
 
I gave it a ten but I don't know why. I love the album but good lord, they sure changed enough things. Many songs don't even sound like the original. They added stuff, subtracted stuff and changed the mix radically on almost every song. What were they thinking?

Yeah, I totally understand your POV.

That is the beauty and the danger of a MCH mix; you can throw in a lot of stuff that was not in the original mix..
Whenever I get a mix like this and was not expecting a totally revisionist mix (cause , let's be honest; a MCH mix IS a revisionist mix if only because of the expanded sonic scope!), I just enjoy the new "crazy" mix and play the original Hi Rez Stereo mix thru fake Quad... ;)

:smokin
 
I gave it a ten but I don't know why. I love the album but good lord, they sure changed enough things. Many songs don't even sound like the original. They added stuff, subtracted stuff and changed the mix radically on almost every song. What were they thinking?

I just checked, and I can't see that you voted. If you want to give it a 10, please do vote. :)
 
I gave it a ten but I don't know why. I love the album but good lord, they sure changed enough things. Many songs don't even sound like the original. They added stuff, subtracted stuff and changed the mix radically on almost every song. What were they thinking?

The same type of thing was done on the Rumors DVDA, but to a lesser degree.
 
Yeah, I totally understand your POV.

That is the beauty and the danger of a MCH mix; you can throw in a lot of stuff that was not in the original mix..
Whenever I get a mix like this and was not expecting a totally revisionist mix (cause , let's be honest; a MCH mix IS a revisionist mix if only because of the expanded sonic scope!), I just enjoy the new "crazy" mix and play the original Hi Rez Stereo mix thru fake Quad... ;)

:smokin
What is an MCH mix? Never heard of it and Google tells me nothing.
 
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