Bruce Springsteen-The Promise-Darkness on the Edge of Town Boxset(5.1 live album)

There must be someone from this site that has this boxset and I am wondering is the 5.1 live of entire album performed live in 2009 and mixed by Bob Clearmountain as good as this person at bluray.com reported:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-P...-the-Edge-of-Town-Story-Blu-ray/15436/#Review

This is info on the Bluray's included:

"There are no complaints whatsoever in terms of the audio quality of any of these three BDs. All but the Houston performance offer two lossless options, LPCM 5.1 and LPCM 2.0, with a lossy Dolby Digital surround 5.1 mix thrown in for good measure. The Houston concert offers an LPCM 2.0 stereo mix. While the documentary doesn't really exploit the surround channels, other than passing immersion in some of the archival footage, the Asbury Park concert is absolutely incredible, with crystal clear audio and brilliantly discrete channelization of the instruments. In fact this recording is so superb if you're like me you will hear all sorts of interior lines in this revisiting of Darkness at the Edge of Town that you probably never before realized existed. Fidelity is incredible, with a bombastic low end and bright, but never brittle, highs. The LPCM 2.0 mix of the Houston concert is excellent, if obviously narrow. While this narrowness may indeed create a "wall of sound" sonic feel that Springsteen didn't intend, it actually serves this relatively early collection of Springsteen material very well. There's little in the way of distortion here, and while the range of this recording certainly is no match for the 2009 Paramount outing, it's a suitably punchy mix for this more than 30 year old live performance."

I do have the Darkness box (although I bought the DVD version, not the Blu-ray.) I don't recall anything one way or the other. I will check when I get home from work tonight.

More recently though, I did get the Blu-ray version of The River box set. It boasted that the Phoenix 1980 concert was mixed from multi-track sources into 5.1 by Bob Clearmountain and I was hopeful that it would be something special. Although it was great to see this show from the E Street Band at the peak of their powers, the 5.1 mix was the typical audience and ambience in the rears approach that most live videos have. Maybe Clearmountain did something different with the Darkness concert since it was performed without an audience. Will check later tonight......

peterzach said:

There must be someone from this site that has this boxset and I am wondering is the 5.1 live of entire album performed live in 2009 and mixed by Bob Clearmountain as good as this person at bluray.com reported:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-P...-the-Edge-of-Town-Story-Blu-ray/15436/#Review

This is info on the Bluray's included:

"There are no complaints whatsoever in terms of the audio quality of any of these three BDs. All but the Houston performance offer two lossless options, LPCM 5.1 and LPCM 2.0, with a lossy Dolby Digital surround 5.1 mix thrown in for good measure. The Houston concert offers an LPCM 2.0 stereo mix. While the documentary doesn't really exploit the surround channels, other than passing immersion in some of the archival footage, the Asbury Park concert is absolutely incredible, with crystal clear audio and brilliantly discrete channelization of the instruments. In fact this recording is so superb if you're like me you will hear all sorts of interior lines in this revisiting of Darkness at the Edge of Town that you probably never before realized existed. Fidelity is incredible, with a bombastic low end and bright, but never brittle, highs. The LPCM 2.0 mix of the Houston concert is excellent, if obviously narrow. While this narrowness may indeed create a "wall of sound" sonic feel that Springsteen didn't intend, it actually serves this relatively early collection of Springsteen material very well. There's little in the way of distortion here, and while the range of this recording certainly is no match for the 2009 Paramount outing, it's a suitably punchy mix for this more than 30 year old live performance."

Click to expand...

Well, I'm more than halfway through the DVD of the 2009 performance of Darkness on the Edge of Town that's contained in this box. I can sum up the 5.1 mix in five words: rear speakers? What rear speakers? Halfway through the first song I double checked to make sure that I had chosen the right audio option on the menu. During the second song I got up from my sweet spot and put my ear against each of the rear speakers just to make sure they were on. All I heard was hall ambiance. I think there's more discrete activity going on in the rear speakers on the Live in New York SACD which is a pretty sad statement considering what a lame duck surround mix that has. I can only assume that this state of affairs is a directive from Springsteen himself as we all know what Clearmountain is capable of (unless, of course, Clearmountain is one of those folks who subscribes to the theory that you shouldn't put much in the rears if it's an audio/video presentation. Even Andy Jackson said that his 5.1 mix of Pink Floyd at Pompeii wasn't as aggressive because the music was married to visuals.)

Either way, it's an unfortunate state of affairs. I know I've gone off on this rant before, but Springsteen/E Street Band music is such an excellent candidate for surround. Double guitars, double keys plus a sax player.....there's plenty to be spread around the surround field. (And that's just this lineup of the band. Currently they're up to four guitarists!)

As for the performance itself, it's pretty good. The lack of an audience feels appropriate for what is a pretty stark collection of songs. It's the whole album performed by the lineup that had originally recorded it (minus, unfortunately, Danny Federici who had sadly passed away a year before this was performed.) It may not quite have the same energy level as these songs did when they were performed live in 1978, but it's pretty solid and still has the full power you'd expect from the E Street Band.

Stop the presses!!!! Holy crap! I just discovered a nice little goodie on this one!

After the concert there's a few pieces of archival footage from 1976-1978. There's footage of a handful of songs from a 1978 recording session. One of them, "The Promise" (one of my all time fave Bruce songs!) has a full, discrete 5.1 mix! Roy Bittan's piano is firmly planted in the right-rear, while Danny Federici's Hammond organ is in the rear-left. Finally, some discrete 5.1 Bruce! How did I miss this one??? I've had this box since it was released! Oddly enough, it's the only song on the disc to get this treatment. Maybe they didn't have multi-tracks for the other stuff? Who knows? Who knew??? Anyway, I'm psyched to find this little treasure buried in my collection. Peterzach, thanks for inspiring me to pull this one out of my collection!

privateuniverse said:

Stop the presses!!!! Holy crap! I just discovered a nice little goodie on this one!

After the concert there's a few pieces of archival footage from 1976-1978. There's footage of a handful of songs from a 1978 recording session. One of them, "The Promise" (one of my all time fave Bruce songs!) has a full, discrete 5.1 mix! Roy Bittan's piano is firmly planted in the right-rear, while Danny Federici's Hammond organ is in the rear-left. Finally, some discrete 5.1 Bruce! How did I miss this one??? I've had this box since it was released! Oddly enough, it's the only song on the disc to get this treatment. Maybe they didn't have multi-tracks for the other stuff? Who knows? Who knew??? Anyway, I'm psyched to find this little treasure buried in my collection. Peterzach, thanks for inspiring me to pull this one out of my collection!

Click to expand...

No thankyou for your wonderful updates, I really appreciate what your observations are on this, this is what makes it so fun and informative on this hobby, whether good or bad always curious peoples take on these releases and these things aren't cheap(big boxsets)

What about the last song on the Tempe 1980 while credits are rolling, is that more discreet?
I think I read that in a review some where, might have been Mike Mettler's review for Sound & Vision.

One thing I have found with Bob Clearmountain's live mix's even if they are not using the rears, the front information has been mixed so dynamic it still makes for a enjoyable concert listening experience.

peter

peterzach said:

What about the last song on the Tempe 1980 while credits are rolling, is that more discreet?


peter

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I remember when I listened to it, I was hoping that would be the case. One of the outtakes from The River played over the closing credits (I think it was "Where the Bands Are"???) Unfortunately, it didn't have much going on either.

I'm about to buy this set and I can't believe from the initial mixing by "the man" Jimmy Iovine to a Bob Clearmountain 5.1 mix that this set hasn't received more praise, or at least just more posts or discussion??