HiRez Poll Derek & the Dominos - LAYLA [SACD]

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Rate the SACD of Derek & the Dominos - LAYLA


  • Total voters
    84

JonUrban

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Please post your comments, thoughts and observations.......(y) (n)
 
I've just listened to this disc. Good album, good sonics, but a bit heavy front channel action vs. rears. No, not just ambiance in rears--but mostly percussion along with other instruments. These other instruments---namely the guitars---are already audible in the front speakers.

Also, one might want to raise the rears a tad on this one when listening as the rears seem to have been mastered at a lower level for whatever reason.

I noticed a couple guitar bits that were originally attenuated or masked on the original stereo mix that probably should have been removed on the surround version as well (only a few it seems, but still noticeable to me).

I'm still happy to own this (you know what they say about beggars and choosers). My only wish is that the many, many guitars on this L.P. were spread around a bit more discretely to the rears. Actually another wish of mine is that one day---most likely 20-30 years from now---the original Elliot Scheiner 5.1 mix will surface. I hope by then I can still hear! :D
 
Haven't picked this one up yet. Hoping to this evening. But just curious - has anyone bothered to check the stereo layer? Did they use the original stereo mix, or the remix done a few years ago for the 20th anniversary box set?
 
A '7'....fine album, the mix is very good, but a bit too busy, not enough isolation, and some instrumentation seems mixed up, or other elements mixed down, or not loud enough relative to the stereo mix.

Even so, damned glad they did this one!

ED
 
I had never heard this album before, and i can see why i never bought it before. I didn't care for it too much. The surround mix was only fair {a couple of songs were good}, but mostly i just didn't care for the music {of course there were a couple of good ones} Anyway, just my opinion. I gave it a 5.
 
A truly seminal rock album, full of joy and heartbreak, from two of history’s greatest electric guitarists. Eric Clapton and Duane Allman’s interplay still make my jaw drop nearly thirty-five years after initial release. Unfortunately, Layla has only a good, but not great mix; ultimately too stingy on affording the space each powerhouse guitar track richly deserves. Still, a very worthwhile addition to the sacd surround universe.
 
This is such a killer album that had so much surround potential that I almost cried when I heard the SACD. An incredibly dull and lifeless surround mix, if you ask me. A very frustrated 5 here. :(
 
Cai Campbell said:
This is such a killer album that had so much surround potential that I almost cried when I heard the SACD. An incredibly dull and lifeless surround mix, if you ask me. A very frustrated 5 here. :(
So I keep hearing. Gonna skip it. If only Scheiner had done it! :mad:
 
So who the heck is giving this thing 9 and 10 points? I don't think anyone has been blown away by the surround mix on this one. We are not measuring these releases solely on the merits of the music, otherwise, I'd give it a 10 as well. Remember, we need to consider the whole package as a SURROUND release! There is no way this release deserves 9 points, let alone 10!
 
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This has always been high on my classic album list and I still think there's a lot of great music on it, but the MC mix is disappointing. When I listen I can't help but thinking how much better it would have been had Elliot Scheiner been allowed to work his magic with the tapes. Still makes for a great listen and I'm enjoying it, but it could have been much better. Give the music a 9 and the mix a 5 for 7 rating.

KW
 
Cai Campbell said:
So who the heck is giving this thing 9 and 10 points? I don't think anyone has been blown away by the surround mix on this one. We are not measuring these releases solely on the merits of the music, otherwise, I'd give it a 10 as well. Remember, we need to consider the whole package as a SURROUND release! There is no way this release deserves 9 points, let alone 10!
Dunno. Good point.

Simon Climie, who I think oversaw this mix, is like EC's version of Brian Wilson's Dr Landy! He's friggin taken over his musical career and not for the better in my books! He's the Protools king!
 
I'm not sure what the huge deal is about this. I like it a lot, to be honest. I'll agree with what others have said, in terms of it being dense and rather front-heavy, but I think in this instance it works. My general opinion is that for more straightfoward rock albums like this one, a more "condensed" mix works a bit better. (A parallel that pops in my head is the stereo mix of the Beatles' "Revolution" versus the mono single mix - same recording, but the mono mix has a lot more punch to it, mostly because the wideness of the stereo mix reveals TOO much.)

Granted, that may seem to go against the whole "surround" mentality, but it's all a question of balance - literally and figuratively. I think the rears here are used rather tastefully. I like how Jim Gordon's drums are brought out from the front a bit, almost to the middle of the room, giving the listener almost the feel of sitting in the middle of the kit. (Having the drums recorded in such beautiful natural stereo in the first place doesn't hurt.) Maybe that's the problem people are having. As with the notorious "Harvest" mix, a lot of people don't seem to like surround mixes that throw things in the "center" of the room. My guess is that some of that might have to do with how individuals have their speakers laid out, but who knows.

I've heard better mixes, to be sure (check out my rave review of the Polyphonic Spree disc), but this one sounds a LOT like I had envisioned it would sound in my head, and I'm not at all disappointed.

It also helps tremendously to play this particular disc REALLY loud.

Oh, and to answer my own question from a few days ago, they've used the original 1970 stereo mix for the stereo layers, as opposed to the more recent remix done for the box set. Good deal. (y)
 
This is such a killer album that had so much surround potential that I almost cried when I heard the SACD. An incredibly dull and lifeless surround mix, if you ask me. A very frustrated 5 here. :(

I could not really add anything to this at all, except for the thought that it sounds almost brutally overcompressed to me.
The hi-Hats are the giveaway - far too up-front & jangly.
Awful mix, lousy mastering - what a - literally - crying shame.:howl
 
Pulled this one off the shelf today for the first time in ages. An iconic album with some classic tracks, I find it enhanced by the surround treatment but it's certainly not a mix that sets you on your ear. As stated above, probably more percussion in the rears than anything else, but I noticed more guitars in the rears during "Layla". An 8 seems too generous, so I gave it a 7.

Mark Z
 
I gave it 7 at the time, but would probably knock that down to '5' today. Some tracks come off Ok, others that I described at the time as being 'busy' (my word for compressed, I guess) were not at all in the original spirit of the recording or mix. What the sound lacks is the 'organic' nature of the original stereo we hard on Atco (US) or Polydor (UK). Aside from compression issues, this one sounds more 'modern' and 'polished'--and much less discrete than it should have been. For all that, the title track doesn't come off badly; nor does the last one. But it is now a hard one to listen to.

ED :)
 
I gave it 7 at the time, but would probably knock that down to '5' today. Some tracks come off Ok, others that I described at the time as being 'busy' (my word for compressed, I guess) were not at all in the original spirit of the recording or mix. What the sound lacks is the 'organic' nature of the original stereo we hard on Atco (US) or Polydor (UK). Aside from compression issues, this one sounds more 'modern' and 'polished'--and much less discrete than it should have been. For all that, the title track doesn't come off badly; nor does the last one. But it is now a hard one to listen to.

ED :)

What really, really irks & even vexes me about this one is that the stereo double vinyl is one of my all-time favourite records.
This could - and should have been - so good, yet it completely underwhelms & disappoints me.
Right from the opener the overcompression/limiting artefacts can be heard with the way the hi-hats stick out as if they are hammered thumbs on a cold day.
"Key To The Highway" should have been a surround highlight - and it is no use anyone blaming the original recordings when you hear what a superb job was made of 461 Ocean Boulevard.
That one sounded godawful on every version I heard until the 5.1 remix on SACD (one of the great sounding SACD too) where it is as good as it will ever get - but instead the whole mix is just bland.

I've never been able to make it all the way through.
 
I am sure i remeber that this is the decision of someone in the record company as this was mixed twice, the first mix was rejected as not sounding modern enough. Why the hell would you want a classic album with a classic sound to sound modern.
 
I am sure i remeber that this is the decision of someone in the record company as this was mixed twice, the first mix was rejected as not sounding modern enough. Why the hell would you want a classic album with a classic sound to sound modern.

See post 11. It was Clapton and Climie. Climie needs to get as far away from Clapton as possible.
 
Don't know how I missed reviewing this one. I have had this for years and now that you folks dug up the bones, I gave it another spin. Oh well, nothing more than a five here. I then unarchived the LP and processed the signal through Neo 6 and fudged around a bit and enjoyed the result much more. What a shame to have wasted that opportunity.:smokin
 
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