Future Ian Cooke 5.1 Releases

[popshop]

Thanks all for your comments and interest with Ian Cooke's Antiquasauria. fredblue, you asked about future Ian Cooke surround releases.
This is what I've been thinking about and working on:
- Live with Symphony - in May we played with the Colorado Symphony string section, and I hired a crew to record and film it all. It's essentially a 8-song live 'best of' album with additional string parts. I also have multicam and multitrack footage from several studio/radio performances, some with a string quartet. Unfortunately, union issues prevent release on this until June or later.
- The Fall I Fell - I now have all multitracks and have been having fun mixing in surround, though maybe there's no good reason to remix. I could repress as is, but will likely do a more legitimate interview with Cooke to include with the album. I change my mind constantly on this one. The current intv/doc is embarrassing but represents that place in time.
- Fortitude - Unfortunately, drum multitracks are missing. Fortunately Sean the drummer is always interested in re-tracking. So we'll likely re-track drums on 4 songs and mix this in surround.
- Cassowary & Fruit Bat book - This one is the easiest to update to 5.1, and features a kids choir performance which will be fun in surround. Not everything is multitrack source, but 75% is.

These are just thoughts. This year I set up my studio so that I can mix in surround so I've been having a lot of fun with it. In a perfect world Neil will be involved in all of this as well. He is a joy.

Ian Cooke Band's current focus is a live dance collaboration playing Queen and Bowie songs (so fun!), and then the stage production of Antiquasauria next summer. I've been chipping away at all of the editing on the aforementioned footage, but I don't have any strong feelings about order of release. I imagine I'll just do it myself via bandcamp rather than dealing with the label/amazon and all that. I'm also working on albums for other bands so there is no immediate plan on any of this.
I'd love to hear any opinions. I appreciate you all, and would not be doing any of these surround releases without your interest and support. Let me know what you think!
Ian O

If you want to hear stereo versions of this stuff, it's up on bandcamp,
and this is a sample of the symphony performance.

:51banana:

 

[rtbluray]

Hi Ian.
Whatever you and Ian (Cooke) decide to release in surround in the future, just make sure it continues to be on DVD-A/V like "Antiquasauria" was, unless of course it's mainly a video release, in which case DVD-V is fine.
Having the surround mix in high-resolution is very important to me, and since Blu-Ray can be very expensive to author and replicate, DVD-A/V is still your best bet, so if you continue to work with Neil Wilkes, it should be great for all of us.

Thanks again for showing such incredible interest in our little audio niche!

 

[edisonbaggins]

^^^yes

Also, I vote for drums higher and vocals lower in the mix, please!

 

[popshop]

^^^yes

Also, I vote for drums higher and vocals lower in the mix, please!

That's interesting, I like that. I listened back after reading those comments a bit ago. I'd agree that drums could be louder on Tyrannosaurus, not sure that I remember thinking that elsewhere. Neil and I went back and forth with mixes and notes for months, and it was a really enjoyable experience. Also it should be noted that the stereo mix is quite different. The drums are more metal/in your face etc (I play in a metal band with Chris Fogal, stereo mixer). The surround mix was finished maybe nine months later(?) and is actually a little different, content-wise. We added extra cellos that were recorded for the instrumental version, and then sprinkled them throughout in the surround mix. To my ears, the stereo mix seems to favor drums and guitars (too loud in spots I think), while the surround might slightly favor cello and vocal - but it's hard to generalize - and I haven't listened to the stereo mix recently. Of course I would change all sorts of things on everything I've ever done. C'est la vie!

Duly noted! You can bet that if/when Fortitude happens in surround, the drums on the drum songs will be mixed heartily!
(I made this video featuring Sean a few years ago as a gift/joke for him. I really enjoy his drumming)

 

[edisonbaggins]

Yeah, the way I'd put the drums/vocals situation for Antiquasaria surround is:

Everything is within an acceptable range and some songs sound better balanced than others, IMO. But on some the vocal is waaay on top of everything and the drums "buried." You can tell they're there, but in a textural way, not in a prominent way or on equal footing with other parts.

It is an enjoyable listen. I just find myself wishing parts were balanced differently on most tracks.

 

[peterzach]

Ian, I would be interested in all the future projects you have listed and like Ryan(Rtbluray) has said DVdA's are so nice to have as they are lossless, can be played in the car and in the home, its such a good format.
Really glad you and Neil W. are working together, a great team.
I absolutely love flat recordings so the closer you can get to that the better as the recording with symphony would be fantastic if it was a nice flat mix.
The Live Symphony and Fortitude would be first choices but if anything learned from hearing the Steven Wilson remix of Fragile(even though it was done by someone else in 2003) a remix of Fall I Fell could be very interesting as well if a similar approach was done.

Good to hear about new things you are working on for 2016.

 

[peterzach]

That's interesting, I like that. I listened back after reading those comments a bit ago. I'd agree that drums could be louder on Tyrannosaurus, not sure that I remember thinking that elsewhere. Neil and I went back and forth with mixes and notes for months, and it was a really enjoyable experience. Also it should be noted that the stereo mix is quite different. The drums are more metal/in your face etc (I play in a metal band with Chris Fogal, stereo mixer). The surround mix was finished maybe nine months later(?) and is actually a little different, content-wise. We added extra cellos that were recorded for the instrumental version, and then sprinkled them throughout in the surround mix. To my ears, the stereo mix seems to favor drums and guitars (too loud in spots I think), while the surround might slightly favor cello and vocal - but it's hard to generalize - and I haven't listened to the stereo mix recently. Of course I would change all sorts of things on everything I've ever done. C'est la vie!

Duly noted! You can bet that if/when Fortitude happens in surround, the drums on the drum songs will be mixed heartily!
(I made this video featuring Sean a few years ago as a gift/joke for him. I really enjoy his drumming)

Thanks for sharing that video of 'The Kingdom', enjoyable listen even on some cheap ear buds, the drumming is very cool in this.
I thought your choices to feature the cello and voice were well done in Antiquasauria , would it have sounded better to feature more drums, maybe, as just got Thrak box and there are parts of amazing drums all around you in the mix which does sound very good depending on the music style that you are listening to.

peter