Browne, Jackson - RUNNING ON EMPTY [DVD-A]

[JonUrban]

....... I will not be posting my vote for this title because a lot of people get upset when a lower than average score is posted. ......
Overall score = 6. Recommended.

tcdriver,

Please vote your 6. You have to vote what you feel, otherwise the polls are worthless. It is only when someone votes a "1" or "2" because they:

1) Don't like the format it was issued on
2) Don't like the artist
3) Don't like that style of music
4) Don't like the fact that a particular disc is rated high

etc, that it is a discredit to the polls. A "six" is a very valid vote, and you explained yourself eloquently!

I too agree, it takes very little effort to make the lyrics "turn the page". I don't know why they don't take the time. It's a waste of a very cool and impressive feature!

[tcdriver]

I voted.

[JonUrban]

I voted.

[Chris Gerhard]

Whoever voted the 1 here is just being silly. If this is a 1, I own a bunch of DVD-A titles that would have to be a minus 3 or worse.

Chris

[JonUrban]

These polls are public. You can see who voted by clicking the vote.

[Chris Gerhard]

These polls are public. You can see who voted by clicking the vote.

Yes, I understand that but speidi1 is the same as unknown to me. I use my actual name but no matter, the polls allow any vote as they should. He could have loved the vinyl and listened to this and for whatever reason hated it but I suspect Jackson Browne may have refused to sign an autograph or insulted his sister.

Chris

[JonUrban]

This is the type of vote that annoys me. Thanks to Cai's formula, it is taken care of when we create the chart.

[Guy Robinson]

Looking at his equipment run down I don't even know if he has the capability of playing DVD-A 5.1.

[Ed Bishop]

If someone rates a disc that low, they should feel obligated to explain why...only fair. A '10' is self-explanatory most times, a '1' is not.

But, it has no real effect on the results...the median is where you look for the concensus, and so far, that's fairly high...

ED

[Metoo]

I see no problem whatsoever in CD+DVD-Audio combo packs. If you want to play the CD in your car you already have it included in them. Even if you have no use for the CD, this presentation surely beats the DualDisc one in versatility, convenience and compatibility. Thums up for Warner and Rhino.

[Felix E. Martinez]

Loved this album in 5.1, and I think the CD+DVD-A is the way to go, packaging-wise (as opposed to DualDisc). As I've stated elsewhere, this was a revelation in surround, and the difference in POVs between stage and acoustic was enhanced by the surround experience: it's thematically consistent - the intimate, personal music-making in a hotel room during the song-creation process gives birth to the stage experience - a more polished, but colder, distant listening experience. Also works this way - you're immersed in the creative process and then you shift from first person to third person, as a spectator. Amazing.

My only gripe with the release is the mastering...I would have kept the "hotel room" acoustic tracks about 2-3db lower than the "stage" cuts than they are now. Gives more "oomph" to the live perspective by having that added dynamic range.

[timbre4]

Got this when it came out; found it to be a mixed bag after such a LONG wait. This is IT?

The main numbers are revved up nice but not much more than ambience going on. Granted it laps the back wall in waves just like the San Diego Sports Arena (authentic) but I really wanted (expected) an INVOLVING mix. It's odd to me because he went for that approach on all the minor acoustic songs.

I find it jarring to go back and forth on mix philosophies as the disc plays. Guess I'll dig it out over the holidays and see if I still feel this way.

[Ed Bishop]

I thought it worked...when you record in hotel rooms, how much back info are you going to get in the final mix?

ED

[Dylan Berichon]

This one really didn't do that much for me.

[timbre4]

I thought it worked...when you record in hotel rooms, how much back info are you going to get in the final mix?

ED

The room is irrelevant; they mic'd individual instruments and placed them around the room. THAT is what I wanted with the live band numbers.

As it is, it feels like quad happening down the hall in another room.

Ironically, more involvement was accomplished here using less.

[dr. simple]

I thought it worked...when you record in hotel rooms, how much back info are you going to get in the final mix?

ED

I have to agree. Actually, I feel kinda stupid for not "getting" this in the first place - ROE is a mix of hotel rooms and stages, therefore the mix of discrete and ambient mix philosophies. It all makes sense now!

(It took me years to realize that the scarecrow was the smartest, the tin man was the kindest, and the lion was the bravest... so if I'm a little slow please forgive me!)

[Dylan Berichon]

I listened to this one again the other night, hoping I would enjoy it more then I did the first few times I played it. I didn't.

The mix really doesn't do anything for me. I wish I could also say I enjoyed the music a bit more too.

I'm going to give it a 6, because I get the feeling this could have been a lot better then it was. There were some good moments, but they were few and far between for me.

[buc18]

I just don't understand what's not to like on this one. If you grew up listening to JB (as I did), this disc should be a revelation. As everyone knows by now, this was a live/rehearsal/motel production so there is going to some variance to the way this disc sounds.

I had a friend over the other night and put this on and gave him the preferred sweet spot The smile that never seemed to leave his face for the whole disc (even though he was initially only going to listen to a few tracks) told me that he would rate this as highly as I have (and he is as familiar with the original material as I am).

As a matter of fact, one of my demo tracks for the surround uninitiated is The Road. When the song transitions into the live portion of the song it continues to give me such an amazing feeling of complete satisfaction in the treatment of this classic recording.

I gave it a 9 but now I somewhat feel I cheated it out of a perfect 10.

[jeffrey r]

I just don't understand what's not to like on this one. If you grew up listening to JB (as I did), this disc should be a revelation. As everyone knows by now, this was a live/rehearsal/motel production so there is going to some variance to the way this disc sounds.

I had a friend over the other night and put this on and gave him the preferred sweet spot The smile that never seemed to leave his face for the whole disc (even though he was initially only going to listen to a few tracks) told me that he would rate this as highly as I have (and he is as familiar with the original material as I am).

As a matter of fact, one of my demo tracks for the surround uninitiated is The Road. When the song transitions into the live portion of the song it continues to give me such an amazing feeling of complete satisfaction in the treatment of this classic recording.

I gave it a 9 but now I somewhat feel I cheated it out of a perfect 10.

As with any of this stuff, it's subjective, and people are entitled to their opinion, but I'm with you. Easily an 8 or higher, and I always enjoy it when I pop it in.

[gtgt]

I have listened to this dvd-a maybe 500 times now. I never get sick of it. JB was a bit before my time, and my girlfriend was 1 when this album originally came out. We have both fallen in love with this dvd. I think the mix is perfect. The songs are brilliant. Even the story behind the album is intriguing. I wish whoever mixed this, mixed the Eagles Hell Freezes Over DVD, as that was just brutal.

[neil wilkes]

Only just acquired a copy of this one - and I can see from my Test Mould copythat it went through a lot of incarnations (mine says "v-7" on it)
doubtless because of the terrible trouble that the early discs were to make.
(There was no GUI at all in DAC, just scripts that had to be hand-written, and no way to proof anything either, and then the only burn/write option was to a single layer disc at "Authoring" grade (3.7Gb) with a Pioneer S-2000 writer (SCSI, $2,000 a pop)
So a DVD9 just could not be proofed until a test mould had been pressed.

It's not much better these days (Still no proofing until an image gets burned) - but at least we can write a DVD9.
Review to follow when I have played it a few times.

[mdm08033]

FYI your local Walmart may have this in the budget bin as a $5 cut out. I pick up two copies at my local Oaklyn NJ store.

Cheer's Michael

[JonUrban]

FYI your local Walmart may have this in the budget bin as a $5 cut out. I pick up two copies at my local Oaklyn NJ store.

Cheer's Michael

Just wait, in a month or so they'll be on eBay, being sold as "your last chance to get a sealed copy of this treasure" Minimum bid $250. (Guess the seller)

[neil wilkes]

One minor complaint is that the lyrics do not automatically change pages as the music plays. If other releases can turn the page, why can not they all turn the page? Is it rocket science?

Whilst it might not be rocket science, it is in fact not as simple as you might think to pull this off. The trouble is that to make the lyrics "turn the page" automatically, you have to lose all the browseable stuff because no player can work with both timed & untimed material at the same time.
To make the lyrics "linked" (to use the parlance of Sonic Solutions) you need to create Audio Cells in each track, where the point that the lyrics need to change is noted as a timecode. With 4 pages of lyrics (as an example) you need to create 4 cells within the track. Once this has been done, that would be a big "goodbye" to the gallery, and anything where you browse content without glitching the disc. So, to use an embedded playlist, you would lose the base track stills.
This is because no player can work in a timed area and jump to an untimed one, or it would have to start the disc over as it would not know where it was on the disc.
Adding Linked Lyrics can be done without duplicating the audio though, you simply create a second group.
For examples of how this can work, check out the Diana Krall disc "Love Scenes", where you have both timed & untimed "maps" through the audio.

[mdm08033]

Just wait, in a month or so they'll be on eBay, being sold as "your last chance to get a sealed copy of this treasure" Minimum bid $250. (Guess the seller)

Actually, I already gave both copies away to friends.

One of them has a new Pioneer head unit in his car that plays DVD-Audio. He was impressed with the sound when I loaned him my personal copy.

Cheers,

Michael