the night siren-steve hackett

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Right, I'm almost through my first listen of the bluray in LPCM 5.1. I must confess that I have a stinking cold and my hearing is a bit muffled. But I would say that the mix is definitely better than Wolflight, its proper discrete 5.1 this time. The centre front is used oddly and inconsistently, not much for lead vocals or lead instruments, but its definitely used. The rears definitely see some action, including some nice guitar panning on a favourite of yours Ryan, El Nino, a great instrumental. Not an immersive 10 on first listen, but I'm enjoying it.

I have now heard The Night Siren, and its excellent! The surround is Good. Thankyou to somebody it isn't like the surround for Wolflight. To bad Wolflight can't be re-done with a at least a good surround mix!!
 
The Night Siren is an easy 10 for me. A mini masterpiece. Hackett has outdone himself and the recording and sophisticated discrete use of the surrounds is a far cry from the underwhelming surround mix of Wolflight.

Highest Recommendation.
 
The Night Siren is definitely an improvement over Wolflight musically, but it's disappointing that after hearing what Steven Wilson was able to do with his earlier releases in surround, Mr. Hackett still doesn't seem interested in or able to apply the same quality 5.1 mixing to his newer material. On my system which works really well for surround music, the bass in the The Night Siren mix is not only too loud - it also sounds muffled and congested. Unfortunately, it just doesn't sound right and is not truly deep; once you notice it, it really detracts from the listening experience. Also, I don't think anyone should have to tweak their system just to get a decent listening experience out of a surround release. Fortunately, the regular and hi-rez stereo tracks don't have this bass problem and I actually prefer listening to them in pseudo surround mode. Although better than Wolflight, I'm not sure I would recommend the surround version of The Night Siren and will have to think hard about purchasing another one from Mr. Hackett in the future. You have to ask yourself which is worse: a surround mix that brings NOTHING interesting to the listening experience (Wolflight) OR a surround mix that actively detracts from the experience? In my opinion, neither is worth paying a premium price for.
 
No problem with bass/sub on my system - rather think it's great.

But the recording is not as crisp and detailed as it could be - but I like it a lot.

Edit: But his Genesis Revisited: Live at Royal Albert Hall - that one is a little bass heavy :smokin
 
The Night Siren is definitely an improvement over Wolflight musically, but it's disappointing that after hearing what Steven Wilson was able to do with his earlier releases in surround, Mr. Hackett still doesn't seem interested in or able to apply the same quality 5.1 mixing to his newer material. On my system which works really well for surround music, the bass in the The Night Siren mix is not only too loud - it also sounds muffled and congested. Unfortunately, it just doesn't sound right and is not truly deep; once you notice it, it really detracts from the listening experience. Also, I don't think anyone should have to tweak their system just to get a decent listening experience out of a surround release. Fortunately, the regular and hi-rez stereo tracks don't have this bass problem and I actually prefer listening to them in pseudo surround mode. Although better than Wolflight, I'm not sure I would recommend the surround version of The Night Siren and will have to think hard about purchasing another one from Mr. Hackett in the future. You have to ask yourself which is worse: a surround mix that brings NOTHING interesting to the listening experience (Wolflight) OR a surround mix that actively detracts from the experience? In my opinion, neither is worth paying a premium price for.

Sorry, I totally disagree with you on the surround quality of The Night Siren. I have full range speakers front and rear and a 2000 Watt dual sub. While I absolutely agree that Wolflight was a travesty in terms of [lack of] surround, I think the surround involvement on Night Siren is perfect. It's not ping pongy at all but rather understated and applied at just the right moments. I thought, musically, it was Hackett's best album in years.

While my system is capable of producing prodigious amounts of bass [sans EQ], especially from my Meridian 800 DVD~A player, I did apply a +5 bass boost to Night Siren resulting in a much fuller sound all around.

And naturally, when you do play Siren in hi res stereo, all the bass and surround elements are ported 'exclusively' to the front speakers resulting in that fuller, rounder sound.
 
The Night Siren is definitely an improvement over Wolflight musically, but it's disappointing that after hearing what Steven Wilson was able to do with his earlier releases in surround, Mr. Hackett still doesn't seem interested in or able to apply the same quality 5.1 mixing to his newer material. On my system which works really well for surround music, the bass in the The Night Siren mix is not only too loud - it also sounds muffled and congested. Unfortunately, it just doesn't sound right and is not truly deep; once you notice it, it really detracts from the listening experience. Also, I don't think anyone should have to tweak their system just to get a decent listening experience out of a surround release. Fortunately, the regular and hi-rez stereo tracks don't have this bass problem and I actually prefer listening to them in pseudo surround mode. Although better than Wolflight, I'm not sure I would recommend the surround version of The Night Siren and will have to think hard about purchasing another one from Mr. Hackett in the future. You have to ask yourself which is worse: a surround mix that brings NOTHING interesting to the listening experience (Wolflight) OR a surround mix that actively detracts from the experience? In my opinion, neither is worth paying a premium price for.

I also don't agree with you on the general surround quality of this disc, I think its pretty good, interesting in places, and definitely adds to the mix. But I do kind of agree about the sound of the bass not being ultra clear. Looking through the credits, I see that no-one is credited with playing bass guitar (I was disappointed with the absence of Nick Beggs on the album), so I wonder if the bass is all programmed, which might explain the odd bass sound.
 
Listening now to the 5.1 for the first time. Music is great, really great, but in my view the mix is very muddy. Way too much reverb. I've got everything flat and my speakers are zeroed out. The low end is atrocious. Very little separation of individual elements. Such a shame really. Having said that much of Hackett's material is like this. So there you go, seems to be his style.

all the best,

~dm
 
Back
Top