Steve Miller Band "Fly Like An Eagle" 30th Anniversary Edition in 5.1

[zabble]

Well I went to a total of six Best Buys, one Tower Records, and one Circuit City and got skunked at every one of them. It's a drag because a friend of mine who I haven't seen in many years is coming to town from Virginia Beach next week; "Fly Like an Eagle" is one of his favorite albums and it would have been nice to show it to him the new mix (he's already heard the quad dts version).

Super Bummer

 

[Felix E. Martinez]

Ok, folks, a quick follow-up to my other post comparing the DTS-CD and the 30th Anniversary 5.1 mixes:

The "Space Intro" is still truncated on the 30th. My bad. Guess I've been hearing the DTS-CD too many times! The intro runs about 1:13 on the remastered CD, 13 seconds on the DTS-CD, and about 16 seconds on the 30th 5.1 mix. Oh well...

"Take The Money And Run"

There is a phase effect on the crash cymbals on the DTS-CD; no such effect on the 30th.

The DTS-CD keeps the drums in the back, with hi-hat in rear-right; the 30th has the snare and kick up front (a bit strange), toms still in back, hi-hat also in rear-right. Drum rolls on both DTS and 30th go from rear-right to rear-left.

Guitar on both DTS and 30th 5.1 mixes is in the front-left channel; however, the 30th compresses the guitar a bit more and it is less defined.

Claps on both DTS and 30th are placed in the rears.

Lead vox is louder on the 30th.

Compared to the remastered CD, both the DTS and 30th 5.1 mixes are brighter.

The remastered CD starts fading around 2:39 and ends at 2:49. The DTS-CD starts fading around 2:59 and ends around 3:13. The 30th fades and ends like the remastered CD.

"Rock'n Me"

The remastered CD of the original stereo mix and the DTS-CD has the reverb steered to the right - rear-right, in the case of the DTS. The new 30th 5.1 mix is drier and the ambience is not steered.

The slap-back delay on the lead vox is recreated on the 30th and sounds a bit different - I believe the decay is slightly less, not sure...Lead vox is louder on the 30th.

The guitar on the 30th is also on the left - with some spillage into the rear-left.

The low end is rather anemic on both the DTS and 30th 5.1 mixes, compared to other tracks on the album - maybe the DTS has a slight edge (when adjusting for the difference in volume levels).

The DTS is slightly brighter than the 30th.

Back vox are in rear for both the DTS and 30th mixes; however, the 30th back vox are steered a bit more into the rear-left.

The highs are rolled off during the end fade on the DTS.

Both the DTS and 30th end around 3:22. The remastered CD ends around 3:05.

The one big frustrating thing about the 30th is that one cannot FF or RW during a song - only chapter skip. Could this be the cause of the delay of the release - to fix the encoding (if possible)?

 

[JonUrban]

Felix, can you check and see if the song "Mercury Blues" is faded early on the new 5.1 mix as it was on the Q8/DTS CD? If I recall, on the LP, there was a long ending, but for Q8, they shortened it considerably.

If it does indeed fade early, then that, along with the shortened "Space Intro", would indicate that they used the Q8 master as a starting point, instead of doing a complete 5.1 remix from the multi's.

PS - Thanks for the detailed review!!

 

[Felix E. Martinez]

You're welcome, Jon. I think it's pretty clear Ed Cherney referenced both the original stereo and quad mixes before tackling this new 5.1 for the 30th. This is definitely a new mix from the original multis. No way was this done from the quad or any stems.

re "Mercury Blues"

The remastered CD starts fading around 3:27 and ends at 3:42
The DTS-CD starts fading around 3:08 and ends around 3:30
The 30th 5.1 mix starts fading around 3:15 and ends at 3:37

 

[zabble]

What on earth is the purpose of shortening the Space Intro? This was my biggest gripe about the dts /quad version.

Perhaps the multi-tracks for this "song" is damaged? If that was the case, then I think Cherney would have best served the listening public by using the stereo master to manufacture a simulated 5.1 soundfield they way Bob Clearmountain did with the song "India" on the surround version of Roxy Music's "Avalon" .

I am hoping the reason for the recall is that those involved came to their senses and are replacing the shortened version of "Space Intro" with the complete version.

 

[JonUrban]

.......

I am hoping the reason for the recall is that those involved came to their senses and are replacing the shortened version of "Space Intro" with the complete version.

I would be shocked if they did it for that reason, although that would be cool!

With the slow trickle of 5.1 releases this year, I would bet that they would just think that we were lucky to get what we could, and leave it as is.

 

[Dylan Berichon]

The one big frustrating thing about the 30th is that one cannot FF or RW during a song - only chapter skip. Could this be the cause of the delay of the release - to fix the encoding (if possible)?

I have some DVD-A releases that when played on a DVD-V player, they do the same thing. "Chicago V" is one that comes to mind.

It's a function of how they set up the disk.

 

[aquadad]

What on earth is the purpose of shortening the Space Intro? This was my biggest gripe about the dts /quad version.

Perhaps the multi-tracks for this "song" is damaged? If that was the case, then I think Cherney would have best served the listening public by using the stereo master to manufacture a simulated 5.1 soundfield they way Bob Clearmountain did with the song "India" on the surround version of Roxy Music's "Avalon" .

I am hoping the reason for the recall is that those involved came to their senses and are replacing the shortened version of "Space Intro" with the complete version.

Hello,

You may be interested to know this. The documentary on the DVD, which is a 1/2 hour interview with Steve, begins with a new intermediate length "Space Intro". So now there are 3 different mixes of this intro in the package. The original stereo CD version. The documentary stereo DVD version. And, the DVD, DD 5.1 version. Maybe when they re-release it "Space Intro" will be a full blown 4 minute "Space Song".

Remember, you heard it here first.

P.S. Since an earlier post I have now listened to and watched the entire package and I don't find anything wrong with it. It's true that you can't skip around within a song, but this isn't something that I ever do anyway. There are some digital anomallies in the concert video that are to be expected as this taping was done on the fly and included in this package as an afterthought according to the liner notes. The audio portion of the concert is also in DD 5.1.

Also, As I am not familiar with the DTS or the Q8, I think it's worth mentioning that the album 5.1 mix on the DVD does indeed make full use of the center and sub channels. In fact all I have to compare it to is a vinyl copy of the album and this mix absolutely blows that away. It's hard for me to say that too, because I absolutely love what my sytem (Variomatrix and all) is capable of doing with all my old vinyl.

 

[daved64]

Fix what intro? This is a brand new mix. Nothing like the DTS.

So I stand corrected. I didn't think they'd shorten it here as well. Sorry.

 

[Guy Robinson]

What's up with this release? There doesn't seem to be any information anywhere about a recall. amazon.ca does have a copy but it is being sold through a private seller for around $32.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Hey, maybe they recalled it to do a DVD-A instead.:banana:

 

[daved64]

Hey, maybe they recalled it to do a DVD-A instead.:banana:

Sure. It'll be coming out the same day as the Wish You Were Here SACD!

 

[Guy Robinson]

I just hope it's not "Runnin' On Empty!"

 

[Felix E. Martinez]

Capitol confimed to me that there was a "technical problem that has now been corrected" for the July 18 street date. Can't get much more info than that, so we'll have to compare sets when July 18 rolls around...

 

[deepsky4565]

The concert is 2 hours 10 minutes, with both DD and 2.0 mixes. There is a lot of data on that DVD. So much that the mpeg compression artifacts are painful, especially in the 30 minute doc, on a big screen. On a 100" screen, it was really bad. The remix is pretty good overall, even more playful than the quad mix, imho. You won't be dissapointed by the mix or amount of info, just wish they spread it over 3 discs with an MLP DVD-A.

 

[aquadad]

Hello,

Did anyone else notice that Norton Buffalo, who is a key player in the concert video, doesn't get mentioned in the credits anywhere. Could this have been recalled just to do a repackaging and give proper kudos to fellow musician. Or, if NB is still under contract with another label, maybe they want a slice of the pie? None the less, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

 

[daved64]

Hello,

Did anyone else notice that Norton Buffalo, who is a key player in the concert video, doesn't get mentioned in the credits anywhere. Could this have been recalled just to do a repackaging and give proper kudos to fellow musician. Or, if NB is still under contract with another label, maybe they want a slice of the pie? None the less, it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Recalling a disc to put a barely known guy's name on it? Highly doubt it.

Go watch Page/Plant DVD.....not only are the horns uncredited, they're mixed out totally!

 

[dr. simple]

Recalling a disc to put a barely known guy's name on it? Highly doubt it.

Go watch Page/Plant DVD.....not only are the horns uncredited, they're mixed out totally!

Well, I have to respectfully disagree. Norton Buffalo is an integral part of the Steve Miller Band. It would be like leaving out a credit for Cornelius Bumpus on a Doobie Brothers disc.

Tough luck for the Page/Plant horn players, though.

 

[Ge Someone]

..It would be like leaving out a credit for Cornelius Bumpus on a Doobie Brothers disc.

Yeah, that's just what Dave64 said :zzzzz

 

[dr. simple]

How 'bout this: at CD Universe, they have a listing for "Fly Like An Eagle" as a Digipak, with a picture of the 30th anniversary cover, and three bonus tracks listed. So far, so good, until you read the description:

"This is a DTS CD, which features DTS 5.1 Surround Sound technology and is playable on a DTS-capable 5.1 Surround Sound system."

Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? Maybe they're all "flying like an eagle" in the 30 years ago sense, if you know what I mean.