Chris Squire "Fish Out Of Water" 5.1 mix (Blu-Ray Edition out in October!)

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Anyone know if this is being sold by Amazon Canada by any chance? I can’t bring myself to risk buying from the overseas market. Thanks
Edit: I just found it by going to Discogs and searching for it there then copied the barcode and put that into the amazon search bar and bingo there it is but it is sold via a German reseller. 🤔
 
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RE: No play with Oppo 83 or Seiki BD-660 (two so far): Got a reply back from Esoteric. They said return it for a refund, nothing they can do. It plays on their Sony and Samsung players so they have no resolution with the Oppo. I bought it from Cherry Red, shipped to me from UK. paid for with PayPal. Isn't that the retail part of Esoteric?
Cherry Red is the main Record Label, Esoteric is one of the sub-labels.

Now Oppo is out of the market, eventually at some point the later models will hit the same sort of Blu-ray software compatibility issues (there will be no software updates available) :( ..............assuming discs last that long!
 
The Blu-ray release arrived yesterday and I did a comparison spin against the Box Set's DVD.
I acknowledge and recognize that I do not posses the mastery of acoustical science that so many members on this forum posses. Still I love surround.

With that said, I have to say that I like the way my system decodes the DVD over the Bluray on the same player.
It might be in my head, but I feel there is a subtle difference in clarity and depth with the edge going to the DVD.

It is not enough of a difference where I wouldn't vote the same score for the Bluray as I did for the DVD ( a 9 by-the-way) but it is enough that I think I will revisit the DVD more often. I know that I am lucky enough to have both formats.

If you like the genre, I really do recommend you picking up a copy of the Bluray before they disappear (the price is right).
The mix is good and the source material is an underrated jem.

Not sure if it means anything but the DVD offers the following audio channels on the menu: DTS 96/24 5.1 Surround & Dolby AC3 5.1 Surround.
The Bluray lists: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 96/24 5.1 LCPM

The DVD's AC3 format decodes out to dolby digital on my receiver and that is the one that seems to sound the best. Again, maybe its me and my system.
 
The Blu-ray release arrived yesterday and I did a comparison spin against the Box Set's DVD.
I acknowledge and recognize that I do not posses the mastery of acoustical science that so many members on this forum posses. Still I love surround.

With that said, I have to say that I like the way my system decodes the DVD over the Bluray on the same player.
It might be in my head, but I feel there is a subtle difference in clarity and depth with the edge going to the DVD.

It is not enough of a difference where I wouldn't vote the same score for the Bluray as I did for the DVD ( a 9 by-the-way) but it is enough that I think I will revisit the DVD more often. I know that I am lucky enough to have both formats.

If you like the genre, I really do recommend you picking up a copy of the Bluray before they disappear (the price is right).
The mix is good and the source material is an underrated jem.

Not sure if it means anything but the DVD offers the following audio channels on the menu: DTS 96/24 5.1 Surround & Dolby AC3 5.1 Surround.
The Bluray lists: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 & 96/24 5.1 LCPM

The DVD's AC3 format decodes out to dolby digital on my receiver and that is the one that seems to sound the best. Again, maybe its me and my system.

What is the system?
 
The Blu-ray release arrived yesterday and I did a comparison spin against the Box Set's DVD.
I acknowledge and recognize that I do not posses the mastery of acoustical science that so many members on this forum posses. Still I love surround.
.

Probably all in your head. The only likely substantial difference would be the .1 channel.
 
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So I really like this release from a surround perspective, but one thing that's becoming a sore point on repeat listens is the loud and harsh cymbal sound. The choruses in "Safe" border on excruciating at high volume on my system, with the cymbals primarily in the center channel verging on drowning out the vocals. Does anyone else feel this way? I also wish the front soundstage wasn't so center-channel heavy, but I guess that's just a matter of taste.

I've listened to this on both of my surround systems now, and surprisingly the cymbals bother me less on the better of the two (which actually has a brighter sound overall). Bruford uses a lot of different cymbals in his kit, including some that are meant to sound noisy, almost like banging sheet metal. But I agree: by the time we get to those final choruses of "Safe"--and boy, does it take a long time to get to those final choruses--those high cymbals are deafening. I blame Jakko!

Otherwise I'm really liking this album, which I didn't know well before. (One surprise: Tom Dowd is mentioned in the liner notes as sound editor, but he doesn't appear in the credits.)
 
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But I agree: by the time we get to those final choruses of "Safe"--and boy, does it take a long time to get to those final choruses--those high cymbals are deafening. I blame Jakko!

I've A/B'd with the original stereo a few times now and I find myself questioning a lot of Jakko's decisions on the 5.1 mix. It almost feels like he got so caught up in pulling out secondary parts hidden in the arrangements that he forgot about the leads! During that chaotic instrumental build-up in "Silently Falling", Moraz and Squire are nearly overpowered by those 'new' sax parts blasting from the rear channels. That being said, I might actually prefer the remix of "Lucky Seven" with the extra strings to the original.
 
Again: the final choruses of "Safe" are supposed to be a backdrop to a Chris Squire's bass 'lead'. That lead is 100% missing in Jakko's mix. So of course the section just sounds now like a repetitive slog, and anything trebly in the mix (eg BB's cymbals) will be more noticeable -- if the missing bass part was there, there would be more balance. Either Jakko wasn't given the stem for Squire's part there, or it was added in real time during final mixing back in 1975 (therefore no separate track exists). I think a good upmix of the original mix of the final section would be preferable to what we got.


No way will I ever prefer the busier mix of 'Lucky Seven'. It's interesting to have an alternate, but the sparse bass/drum/sax/Fender Rhodes original is sublime.
 
You guys have reminded me that I need to take the time to get familiar with the original stereo mix.

I wasn’t familiar with this release until the box set was announced and the forum started talking about it.

Other than casually listening to it streamed through Amazon music (to make sure I liked it enough to invest in the box set), I never listened to this album before.
 
Again: the final choruses of "Safe" are supposed to be a backdrop to a Chris Squire's bass 'lead'. That lead is 100% missing in Jakko's mix. So of course the section just sounds now like a repetitive slog, and anything trebly in the mix (eg BB's cymbals) will be more noticeable -- if the missing bass part was there, there would be more balance. Either Jakko wasn't given the stem for Squire's part there, or it was added in real time during final mixing back in 1975 (therefore no separate track exists). I think a good upmix of the original mix of the final section would be preferable to what we got.

Maybe the bass part could be successfully isolated from the original mix and flown in to the surround mix.
 
I reported to Cherry Red that this was not playing in my Oppo 83 and after waiting 10 days for a response I received this:

"Hello,
Thank you for your email. I am very sorry to hear this, this information has been passed on to our production team to look into this further.
We are currently investigating this and are in contact with OPPO, we will update you as soon as we have any further information.

In the mean time if you would like to return this item for a refund please do let us know.''

I might wait and see what becomes of their discussions with Oppo but it seems that so far they are simply not planning a repress to solve these issues. Unfortunately it means I will have to think twice about ordering any future Bluray releases from them or wait until I know they will actually play in my machine.

R
 
RE: No play in my Oppo 83SE... Cherry Red processed my refund overnight, ended up costing me $1 in the transactions, so they stepped up and did the right thing. I got to keep the disc too since I am in the US and shipping back would probably cost more than the disc. Will be my test blu-ray disc.
 
I am not in the music industry or a sound engineer.

How do mistakes detailed above occur in these remixing projects? Does no one listen to the final product before release and notice something major is missing like a lead instrument solo or whatever? Or have the decency to be transparent and reveal some multitrack was missing?

I also cant help noticing many of these major mistakes in 5.1 mixes involve the same remixer jakko. Why is that?
 
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