Meat Loaf "Bat Out Of Hell" Multichannel

[Bob Romano]

I got this home hoping for good things. I love this album but it has always sounded thin and tinny and very compressed to me (not unlike many many Todd Rundgren albums). First off... this has 2 tracks that don't use the opriginal multi tracks for the mixes. "Paradise..." has re-played (and possibly resung) parts and "Heaven Can Wait" is a synthesized surround version due to the multis being lost in a fire. The whole sound of the cd has changed in my opinion. It has gone from souding tinny and thin to sounding muddy if that is possible. There just doesn't seem to be any life to the recording anymore. And it also doesn't sound very cohesive. The whole surround mix seems a little disjointed. This was surprising to me because to me because the mix was done by Frank Filipetti who has done beautiful work especially with James Taylor. I would love to hear other impressions.

 

[bmoura]

Agreed - Frank Filipetti is good. He did the James Taylor "Hourglass" and Carly Simon "No Secrets" surround remixes as well.

As for Meatloaf, can't say I've heard that one - on CD or SACD. But the remix results are going to be limited by what's on the master tape.

Perhaps this one wasn't the best sonically to start with.

 

[Galley SimRacer]

Some of the background vocals on "Paradise" do sound different from the CD copies I have been used to listening over the years.

 

[texquad]

For me it doesn't get any better than the title track!
Sure it's imperfect with the re-recorded "Paradise" and a
bogus quad on the ballad, but I'll take this multi-channel version over the stereo mix.

 

[bmoura]

If you want to hear more on the story of the 5.1 SACD remix of "Bat Out of Hell", pick up a copy of the cassette or CD of the 113th AES Convention, Workshop #5.

In it, remix engineer/producer Frank Filipetti describes how he did the 5.1 SACD remix even though some of the original master tapes were distroyed in a fire at Todd Rundgren's place! Very interesting.

The session tapes/CDs are available from the Mobiltape Company web site at www.mobiltape.com/

 

[BARKSTAR]

I'm not going to rate this disc as I haven't heard the MultiChannel release of this one which is a pity. To anyone who owns it does it sound noticeably superior to the SACD Stereo layer??

Just in case anyone is looking for info on this disc it was available on SACD Stereo and then released in MultiChannel later. I've had the SACD Stereo version for a while now and for anybody who's interested and may come across a copy don't bother. It's a disgrace to the format.

Nuff said.

 

[JonUrban]

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3705

 

[BARKSTAR]

Thanks for that.

 

[danzigdan]

The multi-channel is pretty bad. Neither version is great.