Al Stewart's "Year of the Cat" (Remixed in 5.1 surround by Alan Parsons!!)

[skherbeck]

I'm trying to recall... there was some other album for which some listeners also felt the DD tamed the harshness heard in the DTS.

I think it was the recent John Lennon collection

 

[steelydave]

What kind of tool checks that?!

Spek — Acoustic spectrum analyser | Alexander Kojevnikov | Substack

Free / open source spectrogram viewer available for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. Click to read Spek — Acoustic spectrum analyser, by Alexander Kojevnikov, a Substack publication with thousands of readers.

spek.cc

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I'm trying to recall... there was some other album for which some listeners also felt the DD tamed the harshness heard in the DTS.

Yeah, was thinking about that myself this morning, right, it was Jon Urban with the John Lennon box set.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Yeah, was thinking about that myself this morning, right, it was Jon Urban with the John Lennon box set.

I'm trying to recall one longer ago. Wasn't the new Lennon set lossless?

 

[sjcorne]

I think it was the recent John Lennon collection

My understanding of the scenario there was that the DTS-HD 5.1 mix and Dolby True-HD 7.1 mix (Atmos) both had 'loudness war' mastering, whereas the AC-3 'core' stream embedded within the Dolby True-HD track was a completely different mastering with far more headroom.

There were also reports of the AC-3 and DTS 96/24 sounding different on The Moody Blues' In Search Of The Lost Chord.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I'm trying to recall one longer ago. Wasn't the new Lennon set lossless?

Don't recall, but maybe Goat's Head Soup also?

 

[Perpendicular]

I'm trying to recall one longer ago.

Perhaps, In Search Of The Lost Chord?

 

[edisonbaggins]

Don't recall, but maybe Goat's Head Soup also?

Perhaps, if the core streams are ripped, instead of the lossless ones?

 

[edisonbaggins]

Perhaps, In Search Of The Lost Chord?

d00d that might be it!

 

[sjcorne]

Goat's Head Soup didn't have the piercing high-end that this does

 

[edisonbaggins]

Goat's Head Soup didn't have the piercing high-end that this does

The Atmos has neutered low-end on my system though.

 

[edisonbaggins]

 

[Infomas]

I ordered mine from amazon.uk on the 30th and it showed up yesterday.
The surround mix starts out lazy (not uncommon for some reason) and seems to get better throughout with YOTC sounding terrific! I wish Lord Grenville and On the Border could have been done a bit better.
I do find that I have to boost the surround speakers about 3dB, especially on the earlier songs. Definitely an AP mix as he doesn't like to use the center speaker.
This is one of my favorite albums of all time (I had just graduated HS when this came out) and the whole package is a treat.
And thanks for that link to the video earlier in the thread with AS talking about YOTC. He seems like a really down to earth, nice guy.
Can't wait for Time Passages!

If you want to see something cool... somewhere on YouTube you'll find Al playing YOTC live with a young keyboard player who had to use a fake name (immigration issues). Even with the fake name you may recognize a very young Tori Amos, who was drafted for the night because he lost his keyboardist and she knew the song.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here's another view of the Spec. Freqy's in Audacity right around the time ( ~ 1:20-1:30) Jonathan says he hears harsh Hi Hat activity in "On The Border"-

The DD version-

and the DTS version-

I believe what to take note of (if I'm reading all this correctly) is where those mid to higher Freqs are relative to their amplitude???
Look at this combined Freq. Analysis charts for DD at the top and DTS at the bottom. The DD has more amplitude at the 50-1000hz range than the DTS and then it shifts to a higher range for the DTS around 2K on up.

 

[sperezmore]

Is it just me, or is DD the clear winner over DTS here?

Agree 100%

Regards,

 

[Plan9]

Spek — Acoustic spectrum analyser | Alexander Kojevnikov | Substack

Free / open source spectrogram viewer available for GNU/Linux, Windows and macOS. Click to read Spek — Acoustic spectrum analyser, by Alexander Kojevnikov, a Substack publication with thousands of readers.

spek.cc

Beware, Spek isn't precise enough and has been known to often give upsampled false positives.

But it'll generally do in a pinch.

 

[Charly Mann]

I just read an interview with Al Stewart and heard another interview with him on the radio. He has not ever heard the boxset of YEAR OF THE CAT. He thinks he may have heard the surround mix years ago when Parsons did it - but it was only on a stereo system - so he has not heard that properly either. He says he is not a technical person - he also has said many times he does not like the sax on YEAR OF THE CAT - which I think is what most people enjoy the most about the song - and the 5.1 mix. The print interview is in GOLDMINE - the radio was KUT (I think).

 

[marcb]

DTS and DD are not lossless algorithims. Even with the exact source, they won’t be the same after encoding. Then add in that every system processes DTS & DD a little bit differently. There are going to be differences. And depending on the system and one’s individual preferences, they might be neligible or they might favor one over the other.

My advice? Play the one that sounds better...and stop trying to create order out of disorder.

 

[Imbobman]

Geez..I better open mine up to see if this is also happening with the discs.
It arrived a few days ago also from Deep discount.
The 'new' mailman just left it sitting out on a chair next to the house. ...too big for .
Since they didn't bother to ring the doorbell, it wind up being out there over night.
Found it the next day just as it started raining🌧.
Thankfully, I live in a safe neighborhood & there was no water damage but it's a bit irritating ....

An update: upon opening my box set up, like others, 2 of the discs were out of their cut-out spots & loose.
Thankfully, no real damage to the discs.
I wish not to sound overly critical here but the way that the discs are held in place is a rather poor design.
I'll put all 4 discs each in protective sleeves & be done with it...as it should have been all along .

 

[JediJoker]

"On The Border" (DTS 96/24 5.1):
View attachment 65916

"On The Border" (DD 5.1):
View attachment 65915

Like @fredblue, I'm not seeing or hearing any real difference--though I wish I it were so.

Try a null test to hear where the differences actually lie.