DSOTM - SACD vs. Quad

Well, I finally got a copy (they were late showing up here in Canada, supposedly cuz of some war thing holding up stuff at the border... dunno).

Anyway, very preliminary response: it's really, really lovely. The piano sound alone is worth the purchase price.

I've been spending the last half hour or so A/Bing the mix with the Parsons Quad mix (I have it as a DTS CD thanks to some blessed soul) and there are a whole slew of differences. First of all, as has been mentioned by others, the SACD mix is quite quad-ish. The center stage is very wide, with some Bass and voclaization coming from above my TV, but not much else. Switching back and forth hardly collapses the sound into dead center - a plus, I'd say. I find it a bit distracting in 5.1 SACD mixes like Billy Joel's Stranger how the center flip flops song to song as the bastion of the vocal track.

Great Gig in the Sky is probably the best showcase of what frankly amounts to different mix philosopies. The treatment of the vocals is very different, with the Parsons quad mix using FL/RS to create a strange, sonic angle for the singing, while the Guthrie mix uses a much more conservative front soundstage for her soaring vocals. Flipping back and forth, I liked, frankly, both!

The SACD is certainly better in terms of fidelity, but I generally love that I have both versions, two very different takes on a classic album. It's a really cool way of showing off the role of the mastering/mixing engineer, demonstration just how they shape the final sound based on their own proclivities (well, of course, the band has some input...

Further analysis to come, but thought I'd quickly note that the twin discs are definitely fun to have!

I agree with your assessment of "Great Gig in the Sky". I like both, and would be hard pressed to pick one over the other. Actually, I would pick the 5.1 mix in a heartbeat if it were not for the fact that Claire Torry's vocals sound a tad smeared. On the 4.0 mix, her vocals are super-clean and crystaline. That song has always sent shivers down my spine because of those astounding vocals, and the 4.0 mix offers, above everything else I've heard, the ultimate presentation of those vocals. However, I do like the fact that the 5.1 mix brings the instruments forward. It really adds a whole new dimension to the song, and you're right, Rick's piano sounds absolutely fantastic on the SACD. If we could just take the vocal track from the 4.0 mix and layer it on top of the instrumentation of the 5.1 mix, we'd have the ultimate Great Gig mix!

It's funny, but I found it's not a matter of Claire's voice being "smeared", but more ephemeral, with a greater sense of space. It's always been a pretty moody vocal track even in stereo, so that certainly goes along with Guthrie's stated aim. I found that her voice cuts through the Quad mix quite sharply, strong in the cross-angled FL/RS channels, certainly making itself known.

Fascinating differences, too, with the harshness or brittle timbre of the analogue synths (VC3s et. al.) - they are far less piercing (in a good way!) than in the SACD, no doubt evidence of the higher bandwith of the DSD format. The synth patches sound downright nasty and grumbly in the SACD, far more realistic as to what these beasties tend to sound like.

The 5.1/4.0 cash registers and clock chimes will no doubt get people happy (I used to cue Time to count down perfectly every New Years...), but I think it's in the details with both these mixes that we can see the art of surround mixing, and how, like all art, the artists mark lies stamped firmly upon the creation.

Fun, fun stuff...

Well, you could characterize Claire's vocals any number of ways, and I feel there is a clarity and resolution lacking in the 5.1 mix compared to the 4.0 mix. Yes, her voice does cut through the 5.1 mix quite nicely, and if one were oblivious to the 4.0 mix, they could live quite happily ever after. However, after hearing her voice soar in the 4.0 mix, there just isn't any going back. I feel her vocals in the 4.0 mix are better by a wide margin in any other release, including the new SACD.

Is there a way to get a hold of the quad mix in DTS??

I would LOVE to do a comparison!

Ick, shoot me an e-mail: vex (at) greatgig.com