Al Stewart - Time Passages (Alan Parsons 5.1 mix out in October!)

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Mine is still sitting in Pittsburgh PA.

October 26, 2021, 10:48 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
PITTSBURGH PA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
(OUR CREW IS REALLY ENJOYING LISTENING TO YOUR BOX SET
WE HAVE FINISHED THE THREE CDs AND NOW IT'S ON TO THE BLURAY)

LOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
No mention about if they thought it was bright or not?
 
Mine is still sitting in Pittsburgh PA.

October 26, 2021, 10:48 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
PITTSBURGH PA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER
(OUR CREW IS REALLY ENJOYING LISTENING TO YOUR BOX SET
WE HAVE FINISHED THE THREE CDs AND NOW IT'S ON TO THE BLURAY)

LOL 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Mine was delivered last night...you'd think yours would have been delivered roughly same timing as mine or at least out for delivery today. I suspect we aren't too far from each other. They do have to come past me to get to you :SB
 
I think I'm going to record this onto Q4 to fix "almost lucy". It sounds like if i switch right front to right rear it might sound better. I got my copy from import cds (they never let me down). I have been buying a lot of stuff lately to get those pesky surround discs ( all things must pass, let it be, pt dissolution and amlor-waiting on adventures in hi fi).
 
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I just received my package from Import CDs. Undamaged other than loose discs but they're fine.

Yeah, the surround mix of Almost Lucy is strange. Oops!

There's another lapse with the attention to detail in that there was no WKDX radio in Chicago in 1978. It was WKQX.

That said, the WKQX show is interesting and the 4 Larrabee demo tracks are fascinating and sound great.
 
Also, does anyone else find it strange that the lead vocals in "Almost Lucy" are in front center and rear right?
Per our convo. with @sjcorne above, I decided to do some tinkering with "Almost Lucy"
I first took the Right Rear channel and did a Vocal Isolation in RX 8 Music Rebalance.
Then cleaned it up a bit in Audacity and Inverted it ...
Then Merged back into the Right Rear and replaced the original RR (some minor artifacts remained noticeable, but primarily when listening loud with isolating the Right Rear )- but definitely puts his vocals back to center and leaves mainly conga, cymbals, keyboard & guitar echo in the Right Rear ...
Almost Lucy is important to me because this track is one of those lesser know songs that comes along for the ride while you were playing the hits on LP. It grew on me a lot and it became a favorite. This album and YOTC are loaded with those.

So I spent a bit of time isolating the channels of Almost Lucy in Audacity. This whole mix is weird and interesting.

The Front Left and Front Right are basically the same track but each has a different guitar track panned to it. In several spots, the Left seems more veiled, less bright, maybe wetter at times. I hear vocals, bongos, cymbals, guitar, in both. I believe its the same guitar solo in both fronts, but the EQ is different. Maybe to shade it to one side or make it sound more like double tracked. Maybe it is double tracked?

The Center seems to be a blend of the front R/L but at much reduced level and with a more ambient perspective on everything. Nothing is isolated in the center that I can tell. And except for the guitar parts, the differences i hear between the R/L pair are more level/EQ/reverb related.

There is quite a bit going on in the Rear Left that are not in the fronts. There is a nearly isolated harmony female vocal that I didn't even know was in the song. I went back to the 20 year old stereo CD for reference, and now that I know its there I can recognize it. Till now I just thought it was a Stewart overdub. This channel also has more prominent keys (vibes?). There is low level front hall like ambience as well. Again Bongos and cymbals. I think this channel is too low in level such that the harmony vocal seems more of a distraction than a feature because of it. Though I haven't tried boosting the level of this channel on the main system (yet).

The strangest channel is the Right Rear with dry lead vocals, bongos, cymbals and keys. The harmony vocal is there, at about the same respective level as the stereo track. There are no guitars except ambience.

My overall perspective when played on the main system projects Stewarts vocals to the right side. There are wide soundstages on the sides, with a fair amount of discrete flourishes The Left Rear seems empty.

Like I said. Weird.

I'm not convinced a simple channel swap is going to work with this. I'm not even convinced it wasn't deliberate.
 
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Mine was here when i got home. Already ripped. Listen to it tomorrow.

This is just a curiosity question -- because I have read others saying the same thing as you. Why are you ripping first? I'm assuming you then play the ripped file and not the disc/s? Is this a way of protecting the discs, by not using them?
 
This is just a curiosity question -- because I have read others saying the same thing as you. Why are you ripping first? I'm assuming you then play the ripped file and not the disc/s? Is this a way of protecting the discs, by not using them?
I can answer that. Those of us who LOVE having our discs ripped, likely find the whole process fun. Odd, I know, but we do. Or, it's possible some of us who rip, don't like the process and simply want to get it done asap, so we can then enjoy our music easily, quicker.

Personally, I enjoy the process. Ripping, tagging, then filing it on my NAS drive.
 
This is just a curiosity question -- because I have read others saying the same thing as you. Why are you ripping first? I'm assuming you then play the ripped file and not the disc/s? Is this a way of protecting the discs, by not using them?
I like to "rip and listen" because not only do I love the process, but I LOVE making perfect "surround tracks" for my playlist. I listen to the album after ripping, then pick out my favorite surround tracks, adjust levels (either entire channels or just certain sections), make edits, connect songs... whatever. I know that's probably sacrilege to many, but I always keep the original, unadulterated albums to refer back to.
 
This is just a curiosity question -- because I have read others saying the same thing as you. Why are you ripping first? I'm assuming you then play the ripped file and not the disc/s? Is this a way of protecting the discs, by not using them?
I don't think I've played an audio disk in 2 years. After playing rips for nearly 5 years, I actually find playing a disk tedious now. It also allows for much easier comparisons with other versions. In this case I compared it to my existing stereo version and the Parsons leaked DTS release. Even if you guys tell me it has awesome video slides during playback, ill just rip it to MKV and play that. Like GOS, I also kind of enjoy it.
 
Lots of interesting replies! So I'm guessing, people must have their computers connected to their surround sound system. I can see how it would be tempting and fun to play around with various channel mixing ideas. ... if you've got the know-how to do that.
 
...I'm not even convinced it wasn't deliberate.

I sincerely hope that it was deliberate. Almost Lucy is my favourite track on the album, and my favourite mix on the album by a long way. The mix is different. It works superbly well and fits the song admirably.

It is balanced perfectly and makes a refreshing change. One thing that I noticed was how well it sets up the instrumental break that sounds to be front centre.

Let there be more like Almost Lucy. A lot more.
 
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