Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2016 reissue of the Mike Oldfield album "Discovery", featuring a 5.1 surround mix of "The 1984 Suite" on DVD-V (NOT DVD-A/V as erroneously labeled on the packaging)
DVD/DTS Poll Oldfield, Mike - DISCOVERY (The 1984 Suite) [DTS DVD+2CD]
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A Bizzare hybrid surround mix so little reference to the original mixes. Apparently so little original master tapes that the best has been made of what was available.
Pasting in my old review from another thread:
There is lots about it to like. I remember Steven Wilson saying in the past that when he mixes an album into 5.1, that it's important to him that the new mix still have the same feel as the original recording that people are familiar with. I have felt that some of Oldfield's previous 5.1 mixes have strayed too far from the feel of the original. This is not the case here. The mixes are very nice with very active use of the rears but still feel like the same music I've been listening to for the last 30 years. The two opening songs ("To France" and "The Lake") are real highlights. Very immersive mixes with very nice sound. Unfortunately, the next track ("The Killing Fields (Main Theme)") has a particularly harsh sound to it. I had to lower the volume as it was causing me fatigue and gave me a bit of a headache. The mix on this track is nice, but the sonics poor. The transition into the next track ("Etude") is abrupt. Sounds like a poor edit or perhaps an authoring issue. The surround mix continues to be excellent on this track as it is through the rest of the disc. I was excited for the next track, "The Royal Mile", as it had been billed as a previously unheard tune from the era. It is however an alternate version of the b-side "Afghan." Nice none the less. After that we have "Zombies (Halloween Special)". As mentioned elsewhere, this is pretty unforgivable. A perfectly good song destroyed with a horrendous new alternate vocal and lyric. Who knows, maybe Mike's a big Walking Dead fan? But if he had to pay tribute, couldn't he have done it with a new tune (or at least destroyed a tune I already didn't care for like "Magic Touch"?) And besides, if anyone is going to pay tribute to The Walking Dead, shouldn't it be Ian Anderson? After all, it's his son-in-law who's the star of the show! But I digress..... The 1984 Suite ends with the title track from Discovery and another fine mix.
Hard to know how to rate this one. Other than the harshness on one track, it is overall an excellent mix, probably the best mix that Mike has done yet. However, Discovery and The Killing Fields comprise approximately 80 minutes of music but we only get about 37 minutes of that mixed into surround. If this was due to missing multi-tracks then it can be forgiven, otherwise there was no reason not to mix both albums in their entirety into 5.1.
I'll go with an 8. Kudos for a nice mix, points docked for the above issues and the lack of hi-res.
There is lots about it to like. I remember Steven Wilson saying in the past that when he mixes an album into 5.1, that it's important to him that the new mix still have the same feel as the original recording that people are familiar with. I have felt that some of Oldfield's previous 5.1 mixes have strayed too far from the feel of the original. This is not the case here. The mixes are very nice with very active use of the rears but still feel like the same music I've been listening to for the last 30 years. The two opening songs ("To France" and "The Lake") are real highlights. Very immersive mixes with very nice sound. Unfortunately, the next track ("The Killing Fields (Main Theme)") has a particularly harsh sound to it. I had to lower the volume as it was causing me fatigue and gave me a bit of a headache. The mix on this track is nice, but the sonics poor. The transition into the next track ("Etude") is abrupt. Sounds like a poor edit or perhaps an authoring issue. The surround mix continues to be excellent on this track as it is through the rest of the disc. I was excited for the next track, "The Royal Mile", as it had been billed as a previously unheard tune from the era. It is however an alternate version of the b-side "Afghan." Nice none the less. After that we have "Zombies (Halloween Special)". As mentioned elsewhere, this is pretty unforgivable. A perfectly good song destroyed with a horrendous new alternate vocal and lyric. Who knows, maybe Mike's a big Walking Dead fan? But if he had to pay tribute, couldn't he have done it with a new tune (or at least destroyed a tune I already didn't care for like "Magic Touch"?) And besides, if anyone is going to pay tribute to The Walking Dead, shouldn't it be Ian Anderson? After all, it's his son-in-law who's the star of the show! But I digress..... The 1984 Suite ends with the title track from Discovery and another fine mix.
Hard to know how to rate this one. Other than the harshness on one track, it is overall an excellent mix, probably the best mix that Mike has done yet. However, Discovery and The Killing Fields comprise approximately 80 minutes of music but we only get about 37 minutes of that mixed into surround. If this was due to missing multi-tracks then it can be forgiven, otherwise there was no reason not to mix both albums in their entirety into 5.1.
I'll go with an 8. Kudos for a nice mix, points docked for the above issues and the lack of hi-res.
Recent Oldfield remixes that had let me uncumfortable made me embark on that ship with an unsteady foot.
As said, this is not Dicovery and the lake but the 1984 Suite. The multichannel mix is far closer to the original than 5 miles out or (argh) Crisis.
Yet the volume around is poorely used. One plan, front left, center front right. One plan rear left, rear right, some sources super mono (center of the room), and that's it. I guess Zombie was born from a track that had lost its original voice track. I would have went for a new vocalist. We have Macintosh Dave (or if you like, the Stephen Hawking voice synthetizer). I would go for 7, for The Lake.
As said, this is not Dicovery and the lake but the 1984 Suite. The multichannel mix is far closer to the original than 5 miles out or (argh) Crisis.
Yet the volume around is poorely used. One plan, front left, center front right. One plan rear left, rear right, some sources super mono (center of the room), and that's it. I guess Zombie was born from a track that had lost its original voice track. I would have went for a new vocalist. We have Macintosh Dave (or if you like, the Stephen Hawking voice synthetizer). I would go for 7, for The Lake.
