DTS-CD Queen Twin Disc set at Sam's Club

Just came from Sam's and saw the Hollywood Records set of "A Night At The Opera" for $18.88. This is the newly-release set with the redbook CD plus DVD in DTS 5.1 (I assume it's the DTS Entertainment mix?)

Thought I'd mention...

Clark

Hey Clark,

Actually this is NEWS because the mix "has been improved" and a couple key audio elements thought to be lost were found for inclusion with this release.

It was reported in a recent issue of ICE newsletter...

Have to confess that AFAIK, the only difference between this and the original DVD-A release is that the final track, God Save The Queen, has been redone from the multitracks which were apparently "missing" for the original.
This is NOT a new mix.

What would be cool is for the Quad mix to turn up - I have BoRhap and YMBF in 4.0 quad, but sadly not the whole album.
It was definitely mixed in Quad, as I know someone who dubbed the 2 singles from a test reel (It's where I got them from) but not the whole album as he didn't know the songs.
What a shame.

neil wilkes said:

Have to confess that AFAIK, the only difference between this and the original DVD-A release is that the final track, God Save The Queen, has been redone from the multitracks which were apparently "missing" for the original.
This is NOT a new mix.

What would be cool is for the Quad mix to turn up - I have BoRhap and YMBF in 4.0 quad, but sadly not the whole album.
It was definitely mixed in Quad, as I know someone who dubbed the 2 singles from a test reel (It's where I got them from) but not the whole album as he didn't know the songs.
What a shame.

Click to expand...

Right.....not a new mix. Remastered by Bob Ludwig, but other than God Save....same ES mix.

I'll let you decide what is accurate; ICE # 224 Nov 2005 (Springsteen cover)

Nov 22: 30th Anniv pkg; remastered CD and a DVD with revamped DTS 5.1 surround sound featuring the first 5.1 mix of the album's instrumental coda, "God Save The Queen."

...nor is it the first surround-sound treatment; a 5.1 mix in DVD-Audio and DVD-Video was released in 2002 by DTS entertainment. In the set's booklet, Queen guitarist Brian May boasts, "this is quite simply the best Night At The Opera ever produced. Never has the recording been so carefully balanced, so carefully cleansed of clicks and pops."

The 5.1 mixes created for the 2002 DTS release by May, original album co-producer Roy Thomas Baker and engineers Elliot Scheiner and Justin Shirly-Smith were updated by soundsmith Kris Fredriksson and remastered by the legendary Bob Ludwig. "They readdressed every track that was done for DTS."

Charlie D'Atri, director of marketing and special projects for Hollywood Records tells ICE "and, given given the time, space and the evolution of the technology, they tweaked throughout."

Besides the God Save The Queen 5.1 mix the other items that surfaced include newly restored vintage clips for Bohemian Rhapsody and You're My Best Friend. A new video for Good Company, live performance footage, photos, commentaries, interviews, etc.

I'm not sure what 'updated', 'readdressed' or 'tweaked throughout' mean besides marketing hyperbole, but all this is mentioned besides the remastering by Ludwig.

timbre4 said:

I'm not sure what 'updated', 'readdressed' or 'tweaked throughout' mean besides marketing hyperbole, but all this is mentioned besides the remastering by Ludwig.

Click to expand...

I think that means 'please buy this again as we need the cash'

Interesting, I'm sure someone will buy it and let us know what they hear.

Sounds more like "Remastered" , which will probably mean that the levels have been cranked up & dynamics squashed out - it now seems to be the trend in DVD-A too.
Tell you what, I'll go & buy this beast and we will see with a track by track A/B comparison - I know this album inside out, and really don't think anyone will top what Elliot did. Who is Kris Fredriksson?
If they are going on about "Tweaked", they usually mean stuffed into the dreaded ProTools and given the signature shrill sound it seems to impart. With extra compression & brickwall limiting.
My guess is that this "new" version will be much, much louder.

and just to mention again, this is not a DVD-A like the 2002 one. It's a DVD-V (with a DTS 96/24 track).
So those "new" elements were God saves the Queen multi-tracks, better video's and more footage. A fan-only release IMO.

We went thru this ad nauseum on Hoffman. The 5.1 mixes are all the same ones done by Scheiner except God Save The Queen. It was done by the other dude.

ICE is on glue...."first 5.1 mix of God Save The Queen"???? I guess the 5.1 of this song I have is a collectors item!!

I gave this a spin last night. The liner notes mention that the surround mix on the DVD-A was enjoyed by a "limited audience". Yeah, I'm sure that's true, but how is this release any different in that respect? Both the DVD-A and this DVD release can be played on a DVD player with a DTS decoder. Since this release is a double-disc (CD and DVD) I suppose more people will buy it, but that doesn't mean that more people will actually listen to it in surround! Probably fewer people will, since most purchasers will be after the CD, whereas with the DVD-A, the assumption is that most people bought it BECAUSE it is surround. But I digress...

I didn't do a track-by-track comparison between the DVD-A and the DVD, but there is one major difference between the two. The new DVD has motion video for almost all the songs, whereas the DVD-A is limited to slide-show video elements. Not a big deal for me, but there you go. The video for most tracks is a composite of various live performances over the years. Kind of odd, but it works to a certain extent. They obviously picked video bits and pieces that synched most closely with the audio and then stitched them together. Still, it is a bit disconcerting to watch a "performance" that is from multiple shows spanning multiple decades. It does have its own quirky charm, though.