King Crimson concert CD/Blu-ray, Live In Takamatsu

[rtbluray]

I've been through the entire main portion of this Blu-Ray, and now I'm currently listening to the two bonus tracks.
The first is a somewhat lackluster new song, while the other is the classic "One More Red Nightmare".

I honestly do not have any issues with the surround mix on this disc. Yeah, it's not ultra discrete, but does it really need to be since it is a live performance?
I just want a solid mix that's well balanced and cohesive, and this to me is a good example of a live concert mix that does just that.

Plus the performances are stellar! This is easily the best King Crimson lineup since the THRAK lineup, and it might be just as good or better than the revered 70s lineup (with Bruford, Wetton, and Cross)

If you are a King Crimson fan, I would definitely recommend picking up at least the 3 CD/Blu-Ray version (as the other version contains 2 additional DVD-V discs that repeat the Blu-Ray content)

 

[Frogmort]

Just got mine from Burning Shed. It only took 11 days from the UK to East Tennessee. Crimson is one of my absolute favorite bands, although I kind of lost interest in what they were doing after Thrak. After reading about some of the disappointment in the mix, I was pleasantly surprised at how great it sounds to me.

Gavin and Robert are mostly in the right front with some wrap around into the right surround, Pat, Mel, Tony, and Jakko's guitar are mostly in the left front with some wrap around into the left surround, and Bill and Jakko's vocals are front and center. It's also quite dynamic and natural sounding for a live concert with great fidelity. I'm only about 15 minutes in, and the only minor complaint so far is that Bill's drums could be just a bit louder in the mix. Also I had no idea that the blu-ray concert was almost 3 hours long! :yikes So far, they seem to have taken pretty radical action to unseat the hold of monkey mind! :upthumb

Edit: I just noticed that there seems to be a bit more guitar in the surrounds during track 11.

Re-Edit: Sailor's Tale is AMAZING! :banana:

 

[von kulper]

Good to read some positive things regarding the mix. Yours and RT's comments have set my mind at ease! Still don't have mine yet, unfortunately...

 

[elmer]

Just got my copy via Amazon UK. First run through tonite - here's my Ken Kesey impression. First the mix - not super discrete but an excellent live surround mix with plenty of little treats in the rears. Suggestion - listen to the music and the complexity of the arrangements and less to what is coming out of the rear speakers - otherwise you'll miss the point entirely. Great fidelity although I wish with 3 drummers there would be a bit more kick drum (a minor criticism). Great to hear some "deep" cuts like Pictures in A City and Peace. Also nice to SEE Mr. Fripp out of the shadows - even the occasional smile. If you're a player, the opportunity to see his fingerings, perhaps clearer than ever before are certainly a treat. Also, I might have missed this earlier but Jakko's PRS "Screaming Man" guitar got all of the attention in the music mags while Tony Levin's "3 of a Perfect Pair" P Bass got nary a mention! Last observation - King Crimson minus Adrian Belew. This iteration is perhaps more of a single unit with no one "fronting." Adrian was more dynamic and certainly more of a loose cannon - the leader if in action only with RF lurking in the shadows. 3 drummers is a great concept but I found the interplay between Tony Levin and Bill Bruford during the Thrak tour unmatched. Hard to compare such different lineups. Still a great disc - very happy!

 

[kap'n krunch]

Dear Mods:
could we have a Poll on "Radical Action", please?

 

[rtbluray]

Dear Mods:
could we have a Poll on "Radical Action", please?

Aye aye, Kap'n!
I discussed with some of the others mods where this poll should go (cause it's a Blu-Ray video release that's also acts as a pure audio disc too…) and the overwhelming opinion is that it should go in the Blu-Ray Music Videos Poll section.
However, I don't have the ability to create polls in that section, so just let Jon know you want a poll for this title, and he'll take care of it (or have me take care of it, perhaps)

 

[von kulper]

All right, about halfway through my first viewing. Some initial thoughts...

Sound quality: On my system, this thing sounds PHENOMENAL. Sure, not the most discrete surround mix, but very appropriate, and there's definitely some discrete activity in the rear channels. The fidelity itself is THROUGH THE ROOF. Dynamic and full, and HIGHLY crankable. Play it LOUD. I'm blasting the crap out of this thing right now, much to the wife's chagrin, but I don't care, I'll suffer the consequences This sounds way too good to turn down right now

Video quality: Certainly not the focal point here, but worth a mention. When the Easy Money video was released some weeks back, I had expressed some disapproval of the video footage/editing style. Well... I guess I'll eat my words... After spending some time with this, I GET it. In a lot of ways, it's superior to most live videos I own. No quick-cut, jerky editing going on here. It's not edited like a music video. The camera lingers on the musicians for extended periods, and you really get a chance to watch them play, and see what they're doing. Fascinating, really. My eyes have been glued to the screen since I started watching it (except to type this...) And with the different footage and angles laid over top of each other, you get to watch what pretty much everybody in the band is doing at once. It's quite effective, really.


I'm not even quite finished with this, and it's a flat out ten for me. I'm just completely giddy right now watching this.:music SOOOOO much good music on this - almost three hours long! This has VROOMED right near the top for me for release of the year

 

[rugene]

Could someone explain to me why people listening to a surround mix want a discrete sound? Usually when it's discrete it's almost not audible and is mostly crowd noise or duplication in a lower volume of what we can hear in the front speakers. I think the surround on KC's BR is perfect.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Could someone explain to me why people listening to a surround mix want a discrete sound? Usually when it's discrete it's almost not audible and is mostly crowd noise or duplication in a lower volume of what we can hear in the front speakers. I think the surround on KC's BR is perfect.

Different strokes for different folks!!!!

 

[keenly]

Could someone explain to me why people listening to a surround mix want a discrete sound? Usually when it's discrete it's almost not audible and is mostly crowd noise or duplication in a lower volume of what we can hear in the front speakers. I think the surround on KC's BR is perfect.

Discrete is opposite of that description.

 

[onthewall2983]

[video=youtube;FhKJgqxNDD8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhKJgqxNDD8[/video]

 

[rugene]

Discrete is opposite of that description.

I think I get it. To be discrete each speaker has to have its own specific info, so this is not the case with KC.

 

[stormchaser]

My copy arrived yesterday from Amazon. I'm really enjoying this set. Lots of content with three CDs plus the BD. As noted, the video is adequate, but it is the audio that's sells this set.

 

[Scott M4]

Well over two hours into the Blu Ray and I'm so happy with the full-on immersive surround mix and the well-thought-out video mix that I had to drop into QuadQuad and rejoice! Lark's Tongue part 2 is kicking in. Must go now... :sun

 

[Frogmort]

Video quality: Certainly not the focal point here, but worth a mention. When the Easy Money video was released some weeks back, I had expressed some disapproval of the video footage/editing style. Well... I guess I'll eat my words... After spending some time with this, I GET it. In a lot of ways, it's superior to most live videos I own. No quick-cut, jerky editing going on here. It's not edited like a music video. The camera lingers on the musicians for extended periods, and you really get a chance to watch them play, and see what they're doing. Fascinating, really. My eyes have been glued to the screen since I started watching it (except to type this...) And with the different footage and angles laid over top of each other, you get to watch what pretty much everybody in the band is doing at once. It's quite effective, really.

Just wanted to say I completely agree with this. :upthumb

When I first saw the youtube video, I wasn't sure I was going to like that weird style of video editing, but after watching the concert a few times, I absolutely love it! I really hate how most live concert videos seem so frantic and ADHD with a different camera cut every one or two seconds for the whole show. It gives me a headache and feels almost seizure-inducing.

With this show, you see the main stage with all of the musicians clearly visible and comfortably filling the entire screen most of the time with occasional gentle fade-ins of different angles focusing on one or more members overlaid on the main stage shot, and also a few shots here and there that don't show the full stage, but show some nice split-screen and other angles just often enough to keep it interesting, then gradually fading back to the main stage shot again. I feel almost like I'm sitting in the crowd with the full stage shot and I really love that effect, and the gentle fades keep it interesting, but it never feels jerky or intrusive to the actual performance.

For a big blockbuster movie, sure, let the camera help to convey the action or excitement with quick pans and cuts, but with a live concert performance, just stay out of the way and let the music and the musicians convey that energy, and don't distract me from it, or take me out of the moment by drawing attention to 'Look another camera angle!!!, and another!!!, and another!!!' :yikes

 

[gd0]

I admit it took me a while to notice this, but...

Has anyone else found that there is no audible center channel on this release?

My system is simple: Oppo 103 > Marantz SR8000 via multichannel analog connections. I (obviously) let the Oppo do the processing for multi-ch music, but I also have a digital connection (coax). Everything is working fine, and always has.

Oddly, I'm getting no center channel signal no matter what disc-menu setting is chosen. I also tried the digital connection, same deal. This holds true for the Bluray disc and the DVD-As as well. I tried several of my other surround discs afterward, and they all work fine. I can't imagine it's anything other than the Radical discs, though I've never heard of such an issue before.

I tried a search online, but found nothing, other than a brief mention on DGM's forum area. I've got an email in to Burning Shed, but haven't heard back.

Anybody else? Thanks in advance.

 

[Frogmort]

I admit it took me a while to notice this, but...

Has anyone else found that there is no audible center channel on this release?

My system is simple: Oppo 103 > Marantz SR8000 via multichannel analog connections. I (obviously) let the Oppo do the processing for multi-ch music, but I also have a digital connection (coax). Everything is working fine, and always has.

Oddly, I'm getting no center channel signal no matter what disc-menu setting is chosen. I also tried the digital connection, same deal. This holds true for the Bluray disc and the DVD-As as well. I tried several of my other surround discs afterward, and they all work fine. I can't imagine it's anything other than the Radical discs, though I've never heard of such an issue before.

I tried a search online, but found nothing, other than a brief mention on DGM's forum area. I've got an email in to Burning Shed, but haven't heard back.

Anybody else? Thanks in advance.

I just checked the blu-ray and you're absolutely right! I've listened to this several times and could've sworn there was sound coming out of the center channel. I guess this is basically a quad mix, but the fronts have such a widely dispersed soundfield that there definitely is a pretty great phantom center. Some sounds appear to be hard left, hard right, dead center, or anywhere in between. I don't necessarily think the disc is faulty in any way as it sounds great, I just think it was an artistic decision to mix it this way.

As great as this sounds, I can only imagine how much better it could've been if they would've utilized the center channel (at all) and the surrounds (a bit more), especially considering that there are seven members in the band, three of which are drummers. Oh well, it is what it is, and what it is is pretty great.

Nice catch! :upthumb

 

[Scott M4]

A great sounding phantom center is a great center and this surround mix is great.

 

[gd0]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Yah, I don't mind a phantom channel presentation, if that's actually the intent.

But the booklet and discs clearly state 5.1, and it would seem most unusual to produce a center-less disc in 2016 from new recordings. And if so, it might be nice to read some disclosure on that somewhere. I'd still buy it.

The discs do sound fine, but I can't help but wonder if there is an error, and if so maybe this should sound even better. I don't relish the idea of sticking someone with replacement costs, or waiting for a fix, but this was a $45-50 nut.

Still waiting to hear from Burning Shed (Fripp isn't answering my e-mails for some reason @. Any input is welcome.

 

[rugene]

I have listened to the DTS-surround sound and didn't notice that they didn't use the center channel. Anyone notice the special effect mostly on the drums part in the rear channels that sound like a disturbing noise that looks like you speakers are breaking out. This effect don't appear when you listen to the PCM surround.