Katatonia - The Fall of Hearts DTS 96/24 Mixed by Bruce Soord

[von kulper]

It's arrived

Cool! Let us know what you think after you give it a spin!

 

[DuncanS]

Will do, it'll have to be tomorrow as I'm working from home and as its heading past 10:30pm here now, and I always turn surround discs up in volume!

Cool! Let us know what you think after you give it a spin!

 

[DuncanS]

Well I like it! :upthumb I think the surround mix fits the music, it is immersive. If you like later Opeth you'll like this. The acoustic guitars sound great, and the album certainly rocks from time to time. The last track is sung in Swedish and works well, and I don't understand a word! I actually feel more bands should be brave and do more tracks in their own language, the melody and the rhythm of the words comes over differently when people sing in their own language. Maybe its why a lot of opera sounds better in Italian.

Cool! Let us know what you think after you give it a spin!

 

[vegas]

DuncanS, did you have any authoring issue with DVD like keenly has?

 

[0tto]

Plays but no sound. You have to fast forward to get track to start. Very weird. I will have to buy another now.

i have sort of similar problem with one SW BD-A, just don't remember which one.
plays surround but won't play stereo. albeit time on counter shows that stream being read, whatever no sound comes at all.
since there are 5.1 audio is fine, i wasn't concerned.

 

[von kulper]

Well I like it! :upthumb I think the surround mix fits the music, it is immersive. If you like later Opeth you'll like this. The acoustic guitars sound great, and the album certainly rocks from time to time. The last track is sung in Swedish and works well, and I don't understand a word! I actually feel more bands should be brave and do more tracks in their own language, the melody and the rhythm of the words comes over differently when people sing in their own language. Maybe its why a lot of opera sounds better in Italian.

The acoustic, more laid-back sections do sound really good, and I think really highlight Soord's mixing talents over the heavier, more intense sections. Probably the major stand-out track for me, so far, has been Pale Flag, which is pretty much entirely acoustic, and sounds absolutely stunning in surround.

And, speaking of the bonus track, serious bummer it's only stereo! But, that's pretty much what I expected. All of their previous releases lacked 5.1 mixes for the bonus tracks, which is extremely unfortunate because some of my favorites are bonus tracks (Unfurl, Dissolving Bonds - I would love to hear those in proper surround).

 

[DuncanS]

None at all - I played it on my Denon Universal Blu-Ray/DVDA/CD/SACD player. I have seen this happen with newly authored discs on old DVDA players, my old Panasonic 565A which I gave to my brother has issues with quite a few of the newer DVDAs.

DuncanS, did you have any authoring issue with DVD like keenly has?

 

[keenly]

Well I like it! :upthumb I think the surround mix fits the music, it is immersive. If you like later Opeth you'll like this. The acoustic guitars sound great, and the album certainly rocks from time to time. The last track is sung in Swedish and works well, and I don't understand a word! I actually feel more bands should be brave and do more tracks in their own language, the melody and the rhythm of the words comes over differently when people sing in their own language. Maybe its why a lot of opera sounds better in Italian.

Listen to the stereo mix for a bit.

The surround mix suffers from same problems as Opeth's Deliverance did. The guitars are recessed. Like listening to music in the background of a movie, that you wish was turned up. The 5.1 mix overall is much more dynamic, but the guitars do not sound good.

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

Listen to the stereo mix for a bit.

The surround mix suffers from same problems as Opeth's Deliverance did. The guitars are recessed. Like listening to music in the background of a movie, that you wish was turned up. The 5.1 mix overall is much more dynamic, but the guitars do not sound good.

...nothing at all wrong with the way the guitars sound on any of my systems. In fact I think the playing and overall sound as well as the compositions are, largely, superb.

 

[keenly]

...nothing at all wrong with the way the guitars sound on any of my systems. In fact I think the playing and overall sound as well as the compositions are, largely, superb.

Listen to stereo version of Fall of hearts for comparison.

Listen to vinyl of Deliverance for comparison.

The rhythm guitars sound feeble and in background.

 

[skherbeck]

Listening to the album on YouTube... sounds great! Just ordered CD/DVD on Amazon.

 

[von kulper]

Listen to stereo version of Fall of hearts for comparison.

Listen to vinyl of Deliverance for comparison.

The rhythm guitars sound feeble and in background.

I don't agree with this at all, keenly. I've listened to Fall of Hearts in surround numerous times now, and I listened to it on vinyl last night. Vinyl sounds good, but the surround version was the overall, more enjoyable experience. Heavy guitars sound exactly as they should, IMO, on the surround version; plenty of crunch and aggression. Don't seem "recessed" at all, and sound comparable to the stereo vinyl version (and I have a pretty decent turntable setup...)

 

[edisonbaggins]

Well, I can quite agree that something is lacking from the metal guitars on Deliverance. And, IIRC, I wasn't super-thrilled with Katatonia's Great Cold Distance surround mix either.
Hopefully everybody got their shit together for this one. It's shipped, so hopefully I can listen by weekend's end.

 

[von kulper]

Great Cold Distance is a very weak surround mix. Early Bogren - says it all...

 

[keenly]

Great Cold Distance is a very weak surround mix. Early Bogren - says it all...

The fronts are brick walled on that one, and the lead vocal is too low. The guitars sound nice though IMO.

Bruce did a better job with drums and bass than Bogren did, but Jens knows what he is doing with guitars.

A mix of the two would be perfect

 

[von kulper]

The fronts are brick walled on that one, and the lead vocal is too low. The guitars sound nice though IMO.

Bruce did a better job with drums and bass than Bogren did, but Jens knows what he is doing with guitars.

A mix of the two would be perfect

I do have to admit, I am sometimes a bit critical of Bogren - mainly because of some early botched surround jobs - but as an engineer/producer/mixer, he does have some serious talents for the metal genre, and is responsible for some fantastic sounding records, including Haken, Leprous, The Ocean, Katatonia (of course) - some of my favorites! I am curious to hear his take on the remix for Pain of Salvation's Remedy Lane.

 

[edisonbaggins]

I do have to admit, I am sometimes a bit critical of Bogren - mainly because of some early botched surround jobs - but as an engineer/producer/mixer, he does have some serious talents for the metal genre, and is responsible for some fantastic sounding records, including Haken, Leprous, The Ocean, Katatonia (of course) - some of my favorites! I am curious to hear his take on the remix for Pain of Salvation's Remedy Lane.

Can you recommend any Bogren surround mixes, in particular?

 

[keenly]

Can you recommend any Bogren surround mixes, in particular?

Opeth Watershed
The Oean Pelagial

 

[edisonbaggins]

Opeth Watershed
The Oean Pelagial

Baggy got both doz and give the thumbs up!

 

[edisonbaggins]

Hey, if anybody has a rip of Great Cold Distance, and if there is any worthwhile discrete info in the rears and/or center, I'd be happy to try some dynamic repair on the fronts and save as FLAC.
I can also try ripping myself, but thought I'd ask as it would be a shortcut for me.