Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

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John Lennon - Lennon Legend (DVD-V)

Those mixes are sublime! We're really happy to have gotten a solid Lennon 5.1 offering.


John%20Lennon%20Legend_zps23m5udus.jpg
 
John Lennon - Lennon Legend (DVD-V)

Those mixes are sublime! We're really happy to have gotten a solid Lennon 5.1 offering.


John%20Lennon%20Legend_zps23m5udus.jpg

Can't argue with you there, but there's one thing I never quite understood.
5.1 surround mixes were created for these 20 videos (released on this DVD), plus all of Lennon's solo albums from "Plastic Ono Band" to "Rock 'n' Roll" were remixed in stereo and released on CD from 2000 to 2005. (Those CDs are now OOP)
So my question is, why weren't those albums also mixed in surround and released as SACD and/or DVD-A/V discs?
The logic makes no sense whatsoever… (n) :( :violin :mad:
 
Can't argue with you there, but there's one thing I never quite understood.
5.1 surround mixes were created for these 20 videos (released on this DVD), plus all of Lennon's solo albums from "Plastic Ono Band" to "Rock 'n' Roll" were remixed in stereo and released on CD from 2000 to 2005. (Those CDs are now OOP)
So my question is, why weren't those albums also mixed in surround and released as SACD and/or DVD-A/V discs?
The logic makes no sense whatsoever… (n) :( :violin :mad:

I know. It would have been absolutely ace but at least we have this one, The McCartney Years and Love. The Rolling Stones have 1 song in 5.1, that's it.
 
Can't argue with you there, but there's one thing I never quite understood.
5.1 surround mixes were created for these 20 videos (released on this DVD), plus all of Lennon's solo albums from "Plastic Ono Band" to "Rock 'n' Roll" were remixed in stereo and released on CD from 2000 to 2005. (Those CDs are now OOP)
So my question is, why weren't those albums also mixed in surround and released as SACD and/or DVD-A/V discs?
The logic makes no sense whatsoever… (n) :( :violin :mad:

Quite possibly since John Lennon's OWN QUAD remix of Imagine was much ballyhooed as not ready for primetime. When Universal released the recent BD~A of imagine there was certainly enough real estate on the disc to include Lennon's own QUAD remix but unfortunately the powers that be didn't see fit to include it.

Now that Universal and Yoko & sons control Lennon's catalogue doubtful we'll ever see those surround releases....especially with Universal Japan's recent slew of STEREO only Lennon SHM~SACDs. http://hraudio.net/search.php?format=1&keywords=John+Lennon

I find it even more ironic that the Lennon DVD with those 20 5.1 videos has not been upgraded to BD~V with LOSSLESS encoding.
 
In preparation for the impending arrival of "Tales from Topographic Oceans", I'm revisiting all of the current Yes 5.1 releases, starting with "Close to the Edge"!
This is one of those SW remixes that I switch the center to "off" on my receiver, which sends the center signal to Front L&R, boosting the vocal to the appropriate level.

:)
 
Bob Dylan - The Reissue Series Sampler

Organizing shelves last week, I came across a few surround SACD gems I forgot I owned.
This Bob Dylan sampler was a bonus with the Masked & Anonymous soundtrack.

It includes one tune from each of his six surround CDs in historical order.
It's an amazing 33:34 journey through four decades of Dylan's recordings.
Album by album, the vocals migrate outward from the center channel, so that by track 5 there's only ambience.

The icing on the cake is the seventh track, a 5.1 mix of a new version of Cold Irons Bound recorded for the M&A film.
It features his then-current touring band, with red-hot Larry Campbell & Charlie Sexton.
I was delighted to discover a "buried" discrete guitar track barely audible in the center channel.
Giving it a 6 dB boost adds another dimension.

I found a thread from 2008 mentioning this buried treasure of a disc, which was originally a teaser for the 2003 Dylan SACD box set.
Post #4
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...-SACD-Demo-Promo-Sampler-Gallery-(with-scans)






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In preparation for the impending arrival of "Tales from Topographic Oceans", I'm revisiting all of the current Yes 5.1 releases, starting with "Close to the Edge"!
This is one of those SW remixes that I switch the center to "off" on my receiver, which sends the center signal to Front L&R, boosting the vocal to the appropriate level.

:)

Interesting, I've never felt there was an issue with the vocal levels on the Yes releases...

Anyway, listening to Opeth, Blackwater Park 5.1.

Ah, the days when Opeth could be counted on for a competent surround mix...
 
Interesting, I've never felt there was an issue with the vocal levels on the Yes releases...

Anyway, listening to Opeth, Blackwater Park 5.1.

Ah, the days when Opeth could be counted on for a competent surround mix...

The only Yes release where the vocal level is definitely fine is "Fragile". "Close to the Edge" is debatable, but "Relayer" is definitely one where the vocal level is too low as is. (Haven't listened to "The Yes Album" in a while so I can't really comment on that one.)
The key to all of this is to first make sure that all speakers are outputting at the same level. (an SPL meter and white noise will do the trick when figuring that out). Then, using the colored buttons, go back and forth between the stereo mix and the 5.1 mix, and if there's no glaring differences in the vocal level (which is primarily coming out of the center channel in the 5.1 mix) then it's fine, but there's definitely some SW 5.1 mixes released between 2013-14 where the vocal is too low.
 
The only Yes release where the vocal level is definitely fine is "Fragile". "Close to the Edge" is debatable, but "Relayer" is definitely one where the vocal level is too low as is. (Haven't listened to "The Yes Album" in a while so I can't really comment on that one.)
The key to all of this is to first make sure that all speakers are outputting at the same level. (an SPL meter and white noise will do the trick when figuring that out). Then, using the colored buttons, go back and forth between the stereo mix and the 5.1 mix, and if there's no glaring differences in the vocal level (which is primarily coming out of the center channel in the 5.1 mix) then it's fine, but there's definitely some SW 5.1 mixes released between 2013-14 where the vocal is too low.

Gentle Giant - The Power & the Glory seems to have this problem worse than any of his mixes to me. I usually turn the center up +3db on that one. Other than that, I think it's one of his better mixes. As a matter of fact, I think I'll listen to it right now! :D

Edit: I wonder if perhaps Steven Wilson or maybe someone else was listening to some surround music on his mixing setup and thought that what they were listening to would sound better with a slight center boost, so they turned up the center channel volume a bit and then it just got forgotten and left this way for a while on accident. I couldn't imagine that really being the case, as I always double check my settings even if I'm just sitting around drinking beer and listening to music, but it would almost make sense as to why several mixes from the same time period have the exact same problem. :eek:
 
Birdsong At Morning - A Slight departure....I simply cannot believe how amazing this is. Anyone who doesn't have this.....you simply need to get it. Killer songs, and killer surround...WOW!
 
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