DSOTM DVD-A/V - Review in HiFi News!

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neil wilkes

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
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Location
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I saw this the other day whilst browsing in the newsagent - and had to buy it & post here for all to read.
It's seriously unusual for a bootleg of any description to get this kind of coverage, how much rarer for DVD-A/V in multichannel too!

:51banana:
 

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Nice article about a great disc.

Now if PF would pull theire collective fingers out and release the other original QUAD mixes like this !!! very little effort for (a large) some return ?
 
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Just goes to prove what forum members have been saying all along, not to mention the folks who paid big bucks for the UK Q8. When something is created that is good, well, it's just plain GOOD! (The original AP mix)
 
It is great to have, but the excitment level I felt when I did hear it was zero as I'd already heard the DTS version, and am burnt out on that title as a whole. Nice to play for people though. Freaks them out!
 
Good article. Can't say that I agree with him on the LFE and the Center channel though. You can't make a general statement about that.
 
It is simultaneously a positive contribution to classic surround music AND a thumbed nose to the ignorant corporate music establishment of beancounters.
 
So, how does one get this DVD-A disc other than downloading it through Bit Torrent? I have no interest in making my own. I have (and enjoy) the SACD, but would sure like to have the original AP mix as well.
 
So, how does one get this DVD-A disc other than downloading it through Bit Torrent?
We had to shut down two other threads about this disc since they both degenerated into discussions about illegal distribution of copyrighted material. Please use Google to find out how to get this disc, or simply keep discussions in private (hint, hint).

Let us please keep the discussion on the the merits of this title and NOT how to get it.

Thank you!

Very cool article, BTW! Nice to see our little hobby get noticed by the print media.
 
It is certainly surprising to see an article like this but it is great that the publication saw fit for having it in the magazine. I just wish these sort of articles were more common so that a lot more people were aware of the great formats and the benefit they can bring to the music we all admire.

I finally got round to hearing this title and I am glad I did. Thing is everyone seemed to keep saying that the sound quality blew a away the SACD but I disagree on this.

Have listened to this through now on 3 seperate occasions and do agree with people that the Parson's mix is certainly more inventive and uses the surround field to a better extent. With the Parson's mix I was surprised by how much better the surround mix was on 'Us And Them' and 'On The Run'. The former also sounded better than on the SACD with a smoother sound and far better use of the echo of the vocals between each speaker throughout the track. Put Guthrie's 'Us And Them' to shame for sure.

Thing that I found though is that on 'Time', I found the sound quality far better on the SACD. Now this is my favourite track on the album and in the 2 minute intro before the vocals kick in I find the SACD really kicks and the instruments have a lot of impact to them. Found this to be a little lifeless on the Parson's mix and then when the guitar solo kicks in on both versions again I will reach for Guthrie's version over Parson's any day.

Don't want to start an argument on this here but maybe you can look at it in the sense that a lot of the people on QQ have grown up or heard the Parson's mix first. Once getting used to something it can be very hard to side as it were on another version of something you love. I may be at fault here with my liking on the SACD as of course I heard that version first but who knows. I listened to the Parson's mix with an open mind and certainly enjoyed it and am glad to now own two different takes of a great album. Definately a more involving mix with Parson's version but it will in no way leave my SACD from ever being played again.
 
The hiss, the hiss, the analog hiss! Please don't flame me, but I'm still disturbed that the author(s) of this disk did not perform a more effective removal of the analog hiss. Granted, all noise reduction techniques are a tradeoff between loss of signal and effective removal, but I've cleaned (2) channel audio digitized from magnetic tape and feel the results were much, much better than what was achieved for this disk.

I'm also puzzled by the apparent difference in the amount of hiss present in the DTS version and the MLP version. If the same digitized source was used, would not the hiss levels be constant?

I do not have the ability to attempt to digitize analog multi-channel audio so I ask those present here with experience if there is a level of difficulty removing hiss from multi-channel that greatly exceeds the difficulty for a stereo mix?

The disk is definitely a great achievement but it could have been an stellar achievement . . .

Best Regards,

s4
 
The hiss, the hiss, the analog hiss! Please don't flame me, but I'm still disturbed that the author(s) of this disk did not perform a more effective removal of the analog hiss.


s4

Hiss doesn't bug me at all. I'd rather some hiss than a lifeless piece of junk like Let It Be...Naked.
 
I finally got round to hearing this title and I am glad I did. Thing is everyone seemed to keep saying that the sound quality blew a away the SACD but I disagree on this.
.

I don't think it's the sound quality, but the mix itself. The Guthrie mix just seems like a big stereo mix, while the AP mix is very discrete and very busy. There are some tracks where the Guthrie mix wins (Money for one, AP left out some important guitar parts). Overall though, I like the AP quad. But don't ask me to listen again. I'm sick of this album!:D
 
I like both the Parsons 4.0 mix and the Guthrie 5.1 mix. Check out this thread on the subject:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=980

As for the hiss, it's really only noticable at the beginning. Personally, I am thankful for the lack of noise reduction. As they say, it's easier to make a strong cup of coffee weaker than it is to make a weak cup of coffee stronger. Or, if there's not enough noise reduction for you, knock yourself out and add some so you can have your own watered-down version of this classic. If the "authors" had released a version that had been stepped on with noise reduction, there would be no way to undo the damage.
 
And here is yet another review of the disc I found in HiFi Choice!

What a shame they didn't bother earlier on with some of the commercial titles.
 

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Interesting article. It's amazing that the boot is getting more press than recent "legit" relases.

It's also interesting that the article is by Stuart Robinson who is a member here, yet he hasn't logged in here in over 2 years? What's up with that?
 
It is certainly surprising to see an article like this but it is great that the publication saw fit for having it in the magazine. I just wish these sort of articles were more common so that a lot more people were aware of the great formats and the benefit they can bring to the music we all admire.
I was very, very tempted to cover this "event" in my column earlier this year, but I held off to keep it low-key, selfishly hoping that the individual involved would throw us some more bones ;)

As for the hiss, the DSOTM DVD-A is very close to being a flat transfer of the orig 4-track master, which is as good as you're gonna get. No-noising or EQ'ing the hiss out would have been devastating. I've also done quite a bit of audio reconstructive magic, and I can tell you that it's best to leave something like this as is. In this historic mix, I'd rather hear the instruments materialize out of the noise floor in full fidelity.
 
That is correct for the *old* quad mix... the dvda has also a .1, so the stoned group is missing a dwarf! Gotta call Snow(vy) White... :)

BTW, what's next? It's quite intresting that this disc is moving quite into the hi-end world... can i dream of a box set of 3 dvd-a of the three PF quad mixes along with a stereo hirez version, just in time for Christmas 2006? Can i dream about it?
Damn, maybe this is the time that will emerge from the dusty vaults even the mytical "Animals" quad mix!!!! 4 quad dvd-a in a 4 disc box...
 
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