Moody Blues Surround SACDs in March

[JonUrban]

Those are the single discs. The more expensive ones are the 2 disc sets.

 

[JohnG]

I thought TOCCC was particularly well done in 5.1.

DOFP also sounds very nice.

I'm still waiting for "Question".

 

[VACamper]

Hey guys, I've now received the Question, Threshold, and Children SACD's, and love them all. However, I've tried ripping the CD layer to my computer so I can put them on my iPod, and it's not working. I'm using MP3Producer software because it has always done a good job ripping hybrid SACDs in the past (unlike MusicMatch Jukebox). But on these Moodies discs, I just get an error saying "No CD in drive". Are these discs copy protected in some way? Have any of you successfully ripped these discs? What software did you use?

 

[channelar]

I have been able to access the CD layer in Itunes. It has been the only way so far I could access the CD layer on THRESHOLD and QUESTION OF BALANCE and hear the extras. My various Pioneer Players refuse to play the bonus tracks on any setting. I have been able to read the discs on most of my computer drives. If you have another computer I suggest you give it a try.

 

[PaulT]

I've been able to rip the CD layer from all 5 Hybrid discs using CDEx. At this point I have not tried the extra 3 discs but I believe they are all plain jane CD anyways so expect no problems.

 

[ss9001]

:51banana:

Just got all 5 in the mail today from cduniverse! Will be doing a lot of listening over next several weekends. Can't wait to fire the gear up tonight :friday:

I'm sure these are making a lot of quadraphiles & surround sound junkies very happy, even if only 4.0.

BTW - between my order and now, cduniverse's prices have gone up.

ss9001

 

[ss9001]

:51banana:

Just got all 5 in the mail today from cduniverse! Will be doing a lot of listening over next several weekends. Can't wait to fire the gear up tonight :friday:

I'm sure these are making a lot of quadraphiles & surround sound junkies very happy, even if only 4.0.

BTW - between my order and now, cduniverse's prices have gone up.

"The fascinating part is the difference between the quad and stereo mixes on the SACD. "Question" is completely different between the two."

I read several years ago when the SACD's were announced, that one of the challenges for Justin Hayward was reviewing all the various mixes they had for each song. His comments were to the effect that different mixes were sometimes used for the various releases of each album, from LP-cassette-CD's-remastered CD's. Each release was slightly different. His goal was to have these SACD's be the definitive recordings from the band.

I'm dating myself, but I saw the MB's in concert back in the late 60's; they were one of the few bands that sounded as good live as on record.

ss9001

 

[radioheadrox]

Has anybody else noticed that Universal has a release date of June 6 for these SACDs in the US (whether or not this is the truth...)?

http://new.umusic.com/Music.aspx?Group=1&Query=moody%20blues

I wonder if it is worth waiting...

James

 

[JonUrban]

Wow! Good eye, James!

 

[jaybird100]

I got AQOB the other day, and despite the sticker on the front of the cover saying it's in 5.1, it's actually 4.0. I was a bit disappointed at first, but then, any Moody Blues in surround is a great thing. I have Seventh Sojourn and Days of Future Passed on DTS CD's, so I know it's possible to get 5.1 from this super group. The DTS CD's were awesome, so I have big hopes for the other SACD's. My understanding is they're all supposed to be multichannel, but apparently some of you haven't found that to be true. Guess I'll have to find out for myself.

 

[VACamper]

I've been able to rip the CD layer from all 5 Hybrid discs using CDEx. At this point I have not tried the extra 3 discs but I believe they are all plain jane CD anyways so expect no problems.

Thanks! I downloaded and tried CDEx (nice program, especially for free!), and it was able to rip all of the Moodies SACDs from another DVD drive on the same computer. But it still didn't work on my Lite-On CD writer drive.

 

[jaybird100]

Two more arrived in today's mail: TOCCC and DOFP. Both 4.0. What bothers me about it is that the DTS CD's of DOFP and 7S are full 5.1, so it must have been possible to make it work. I would have preferred some truth in advertising on the part of Universal, at least telling us these were 4.0 mixes rather than 5.1. Even 4.1 would have been good. Oh,well. Guess I'll just kick back and enjoy the music. I mean, isn't that ultimately what it's all about?

 

[Larry Geller]

What bothers me about it is that the DTS CD's of DOFP and 7S are full 5.1, so it must have been possible to make it work.

No they are not. They are 4.0.

 

[jaybird100]

No they are not. They are 4.0.

Actually, we're both wrong. They're 4.1. My sub kicks in quite nicely on these two.

 

[Quadro-Action]

I wonder about the discussion, if 4.0 or not, if .1 or not. It was from beginning known, that this M.D. SA-CD's would be copies from the quadraphonic mastertapes. So 4.0 is not a surprise. Of course, one can make with technic switches 4.0 to 5.1 - but why? As the quadraphonic section here knows, the surround-soundfield for the listening impression is the same - equal if 4.0 or 5.0. Quadraphonic technic will be a very economic system - by transmission of only 4 channels, but let listen 5 (with the phantom center). For an always homogeneous reproduction of the center, I have switched even for SA-CD and DVD-Audio (and video surround) the center to "phantom". And the .1 should be more interested for video/film surround. May be possible also for Heavy Metal etc. Usual the HiFi norm means in the standard mode of reproduction a frequency response of 20-20.000 -equal if 2.0, 4.0 5.0 Why mutilate to 80-20.000 - only to have a .1 for 20-80 ? Essentiual the .1 as LFE ( + 10 dB about the usual level) is needed for the types of jurrasic park like T-Rex trampling. And all together, many of the "old" 4.0 mixes sound more interesting and satisfying as any of the
"modern" . It is not a matter of channels (today there is a trend to have much (7.1 - 10.2), but such of artistic feeling by the mixer.

 

[jaybird100]

First of all, I would more readily have accepted these SACD's for what they are had UMG not mislabelled them as 5.1, and also hyped them as such. If there had been a 4.0 sticker there, or even something that simply said "quadraphonic" on it, I'd have been happy. I'd be curious to know if the original multitrack masters still exist on any of these recordings. If so, they could have done the remastering and remixing from them. The quad mixes are good, but if someone has a system with only small satellite speakers for the front and back channels, this is not going to sound as good. At least adding a ".1" channel would take this into account. This was a case of shortsightedness on the part of UMG. Back in the quad days, we didn't need subwoofers because the four speakers were generally large enough to be able to handle the bass. Many of today's home theater speaker packages use the sub-sat approach, and the small satellites can't reproduce the frequencies needed for bass. Maybe on the next series of releases (if they are, in fact, forthcoming), they won't repeat the mistakes they made here.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Note: Bass management discussion split to its own thread here.