Wallflowers - Rebel, Sweetheart (DualDisc DVD-A)

[Bob Romano]

If you liked the minimalist style of the surround mix on Springsteen's Devils and Dust... you will LOVE this disc. As far as I can tell the only thing in the rears is the Hammond B-3 organ mostly playing light chords and an occasional bit (and I do mean bit) of reverb on a tambourine or other percussion. No vocals no guitar no nothin'! The organ is so low in the back the only way I could tell it even existed was to go in the car and send the fade all the way to the back speakers to tell what was there. There is no mix credit given anywhere on the disc, however, one of the video tracks (live in the studio) was mixed by Nick Didia.

The songs are typical Wallflower tunes... nothing eath shattering IMO. Nice songs but not a disc that I will probably listen to more than once or twice.

Extras include a live in the studio segment with the band playing a nice "One Headlight" and five other songs. All with interviews between the songs done by Jon Lovitz. The surround and stereo DVD-A mixes are both 48/24.

Incidentally, both Bruce and the Wallflowers are produced by Brendan O'Brien so that may be why the mixes sound similar.

If I was rating it I would give it about a 5 or 6. Mix alone gets a 2.

 

[Kazaam]

When I double-checked the recording rates on my Denon DVD-2200, it indicates that the stereo tracks are actually 96kHz/24bit---not 48kHz/24bit. So it seems the back cover is a misprint. (The 48/24 for the surround is right on, though.)

I haven't really listened to it yet, though. I'm hoping it's a little more to my liking than it was for you. In fact, I actually liked the surround mix on the SACD of "Red Letter Days" and I remember Sound & Vision magazine panned it. I must confess, though, that I've never been floored by a Nick Diada surround mix---if it turns out he did "Rebel, Sweetheart". I'll see, I guess, once I give it a listen.

 

[daved64]

Nick strikes again!
When will Brendan O Brian wake up and smell the coffee!!!!!

 

[tcdriver]

I agree with Bob Romano. Bob only left out the fact that there is no center channel either. To call this disc surround sound is all but fraud. I bought this because I thought it had a surround mix. I feel like I was ripped off.

 

[Kazaam]

You guys are right... This surround mix is HORRIBLE!

Seriously, there isn't anything redeeming about it (in a surround sense). Completely empty surrounds. It is one of the most anemic things I've bought. It makes the Rob Thomas DVD-A look like a surround sound masterpiece! (The Rob Thomas surround mix is very subtle, in my opinion, yet still enjoyable and increases the overall sense of space over what stereo does. The mix on the new Wallflowers disc doesn't even do that. *Sigh*.)

If anyone wants to hear the Wallflowers in hi-rez surround sound, skip "Rebel, Sweetheart" and go directly to the SACD of "Red Letter Days". That's not too bad, IMO.

 

[Savageone79]

At least it is hi res instead of just DD. I agree though HORRIBLE surround mix. Had it been a good surround mix I probably would listen to it once in awhile. As it is I probably will just rip a few tracks to mp3 I like and add it to my mp3 collection and store the disc away and never listen to it again.

 

[daved64]

There has to be a way to contact O'Brian or Didia to voice our opinions.

 

[jeffty]

I cannot get the DVD-A part of this Walflowers disc to make a sound with my system although 19 other DVD-A and SACD discs confirm a proper setup. I am using a Pioneer DV 563A for these discs and I have heard rumblings about some incompatibilities with this unit but this is the first time I can't get a supposed DVD-A to play. The DVD-V works and if this mix is anything like the DVD-A then I also am unimpressed with the surround usage. Can anyone confirm where my issue might lie?

 

[tcdriver]

I cannot get the DVD-A part of this Walflowers disc to make a sound with my system although 19 other DVD-A and SACD discs confirm a proper setup. I am using a Pioneer DV 563A for these discs and I have heard rumblings about some incompatibilities with this unit but this is the first time I can't get a supposed DVD-A to play. The DVD-V works and if this mix is anything like the DVD-A then I also am unimpressed with the surround usage. Can anyone confirm where my issue might lie?

I have a Pioneer DV 563A (with upgraded software) and the Wallflowers disc plays as intended. Search this website for information on the free software upgrade. Good luck.

 

[daved64]

I cannot get the DVD-A part of this Walflowers disc to make a sound with my system although 19 other DVD-A and SACD discs confirm a proper setup. I am using a Pioneer DV 563A for these discs and I have heard rumblings about some incompatibilities with this unit but this is the first time I can't get a supposed DVD-A to play. The DVD-V works and if this mix is anything like the DVD-A then I also am unimpressed with the surround usage. Can anyone confirm where my issue might lie?

Hey, I thought the Wallflowers were Sony. I guess it is a DVD-A. It;s Universal. Anyway......Nick Didia did the surround mix and he blows goats. You won't hear a thing coming from the rears.

 

[BOSSMAN]

Although it plays fine on my my firmware-upgraded 563A, and I love the album, the surround mix flat out sucks; it's virtually stereo. I actually thought his mixes on The Thorns and Devils & Dust were "OK" but this is just a really lazy attempt for a 5.1 mix. Disappointing; any record produced by Brendan O'Brien deserves better.

 

[bugdaddy]

pretty much echoing the other posts here....the good news is that i picked it up for the same price as the regular cd and the cd side plays fine in my car. so i guess one could argue no harm done. and it's a solid Wallflowers effort, but geez, it's gotta be among the worst multichannel mixes i now own. it varies from non-existent to non-sensical - -- most annoying to me are the few places where a phantom acoustic guitar strums a couple times from otherwise silent rears for no apparent reason whatsoever. it's almost as if somebody worked overtime to make this a bad mix. file this one under Mch format-killer.

 

[jdmack]

I found this in the used CD store yesterday for $2.50! I haven't listened to it yet, but apparently, I've been ripped off : )

J. D.

 

[The Bright Side]

Yup the "mix" sucks. But the music is awesome, my fave Wallflowers album after "Bringing down the Horse", and the surround isn't worse than the stereo, so keep it and enjoy.

 

[Fourplay]

Hey All,

Picked this one up for five bucks and am giving it a spin. Funny to read the above reviews. Blows goats, eh?

About all I can say that is good about the mix is "it is discrete," meaning that there is more than just reverb. But not much. The rears were so dead when I started the disc that I thought there was some setting wrong. I shut off the fronts entirely. As mentioned above, the center channel is empty. Not as big a disaster for me as for some people. But the rears vary from dead silent to minor discrete insertions that arrive and vanish as mysteriously as they appeared. Even this might be OK if done artfully. But to hear these elements in the mix with the fronts I boosted the rears by +5db. Even THEN they are subtle.

So these are just uneducated attempts to mix in surround. Put some Steven Wilson in this guys' ears to give him an idea of what a good mix might sound like.

For the most part the rears don't harm the music if you can get past the indignation of a missed opportunity. I would say this would not be a loss for a Wallflowers fan. For others it seems little more than a curiosity. Sort of a benchmark for poor discrete mixing. I guess I still respect it more than a pure reverb/ambient mix. But I can't give it more than a 2 for the mix. The good news for fans is it is cheap!

Ken

 

[fredblue]

I do wonder about some of these Nick DiDia mixes if they didn't get screwed up in the authoring stage (especially the DualDiscs) because one or two of his mixes are much more active and discrete in the rears.. the Train - My Private Nation SACD that he mixed has a surprising amount of good stuff going on in the rears, for example, whereas this Wallflowers one is just non-existent back there!!