Magenta - Area 27, Announced!

[Neil Palfreyman]

Rob his mixes are stellar and in this case at least DTS, with possible 96/24, looking forward to it, and to the supporting gig in Zoetermeer.

Agree entirely and the 48k DTS really does sound stunning. Cant wait to hear the DTS 24/96.

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

btw Rob does frequent QQ from time-to-time even though he's not a regular poster.

 

[DuncanS]

Just listened to "The Lizard King" on the Area 27 site. Its excellent, it is back to a much proggier sound. So the music sounds great, lets hope we get a 5.1 24/96 stream if its at all possible

 

[peterzach]

Rob's just given me the go ahead to disclose that I was involved in the play testing for the surround mix of "The 27 Club" - i.e. the "good authority" I mentioned was in fact myself!

I've been a Magenta fan for many years and imho it's the best thing they have done by quite a margin. The surround is also up there with the best Rob has done - superb use of all channels. The version I tested was DTS 48k, which sounded incredible, though I'm pretty sure that the disc will have at least DTS HD 24/96k. Not 100% sure about other formats though.

The material is closer to Metamorphosis than Kompendium. Very much '70s Prog with loads of keyboards, layers of textures, some amazing guitar work from Chris Fry and lots of Magenta's "trademark" layered vocals, which are tastefully and very effectively panned in the surround field. I'll do a full review in a few days time, but for now rest assured that it's a real gem.

Neil, thanks for that update, that sounds awesome.
Here's to hoping that this gets the full Dvda treatment.

peter

 

[neil wilkes]

I tried to get this one as a DVD-A/V but there simply is not room on the disc.
As it stands it is crammed to the gills - stereo is 24/96 and the 5.1 is also DTS 24/96 but with the run time & the docco that accompanies this I simply ran out of room.
You'll love it though

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

I tried to get this one as a DVD-A/V but there simply is not room on the disc.
As it stands it is crammed to the gills - stereo is 24/96 and the 5.1 is also DTS 24/96 but with the run time & the docco that accompanies this I simply ran out of room.
You'll love it though

The 48k DTS Rob sent me to play test sounded stunning so I'm really looking forward to hearing the 24/96.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

I tried to get this one as a DVD-A/V but there simply is not room on the disc.
As it stands it is crammed to the gills - stereo is 24/96 and the 5.1 is also DTS 24/96 but with the run time & the docco that accompanies this I simply ran out of room.
You'll love it though

Thanks Neil, looking forward to the set.

 

[SMS]

The 48k DTS Rob sent me to play test sounded stunning so I'm really looking forward to hearing the 24/96.

Sorry, this is a bit off topic, but it is something I have often wondered about. Does a 96k/24bit 1.5Mbps DTS stream actually sound better than a 48k/24bit 1.5Mbps DTS stream?? Both use the same bandwidth, so the 96k stream must use a lot more compression. So, I am not convinced that the 96k stream would actually sound better. Has anyone done a comparison?

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

Sorry, this is a bit off topic, but it is something I have often wondered about. Does a 96k/24bit 1.5Mbps DTS stream actually sound better than a 48k/24bit 1.5Mbps DTS stream?? Both use the same bandwidth, so the 96k stream must use a lot more compression. So, I am not convinced that the 96k stream would actually sound better. Has anyone done a comparison?

I'll let someone more qualified provide a definitive answer but I thought DTS 96/24 contains two streams - the "core" 48k DTS stream and a "delta" stream the holds the difference. Its done this way for backward compatibility. So DTS 96/24 does include more information.

 

[fredblue]

http://hometheater.about.com/od/hometheaterglossary/g/Dts-96-24.htm

 

[peterzach]

I tried to get this one as a DVD-A/V but there simply is not room on the disc.
As it stands it is crammed to the gills - stereo is 24/96 and the 5.1 is also DTS 24/96 but with the run time & the docco that accompanies this I simply ran out of room.
You'll love it though

Well thats a shame that it couldn't be a Dvda. I know you have to leave as many options as possible for people buying these disk's but I can count how many times I have listened to stereo on these different disk's(Zero), well I am not counting when artists add some lossless stereo only songs as on King Crimson disk's but I guess I have been so spoiled by 5.1 music that I am not interested at all to check out the stereo option on surround disk's, guess that would make many people at Steve Hoffman forum upset making a comment like that but thats the beauty of 5.1, get more music spread out on a bigger sound field, why would anyone want to go back to stereo after being immersed in sound in such an amazing way.

The making of doc's are a nice to have but again after watching once then rarely do I rewatch any of these doc's, wonder how many others have a similar experience.
For that matter maybe it would be good to have a link to these kind of doc's that only a person buying the disk could get at, that one could watch them on the Net and then they wouldn't have to take extra space on a disk.

 

[Ge Someone]

I am not in the "if it's not Hi-res, I don't need it" camp. I'm all for good surround mixes of good music. True, I am disappointed too if a music disc is DD only (Anethema anyone?) but in this case I am glad Rob listened to our input and there will be a DTS track (I too mailed him when I got Methamorphosis. He didn't seem to have access to a DTS encoder, but now Neil does! BTW. need an extra QA tester, Neil?).
The Kompendium story wasn't very compelling to me, although the production was very good. Magenta will be more up my alley again.

 

[Ge Someone]

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[Robert van Diggele]

The cd/dvd sets start shipping tomorrow. I am looking forward to this a lot. The stuff in the members area sounds very promising. Looks like this is going to be another great release in 2013!

 

[LizardKing]

The cd/dvd sets start shipping tomorrow. I am looking forward to this a lot. The stuff in the members area sounds very promising. Looks like this is going to be another great release in 2013!

Thanks for the reminder... I hadn't ordered it yet....

How can you go wrong with a track called "The Lizaard King"

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

The cd/dvd sets start shipping tomorrow. I am looking forward to this a lot. The stuff in the members area sounds very promising. Looks like this is going to be another great release in 2013!

Picked up my proper copy at the launch event in Bilston yesterday. Haven't had chance to play it yet but the tracks from it that they played live were absolutely stunning.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

The set arrived yesterday and I played it a few times already, always a good sign. Great songs, very good performance , and a very good mix, as expected.

When you are into modern prog, this one comes highly recommended! Bring on 2nd of November for a live gig of Magenta in NL

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Btw, Magenta also released The Lizard King EP, including a single edit and an acoustic version of The Lizard King. Through Bandcamp, http://magenta.bandcamp.com/

 

[Cheezmo]

Just got the CD+DVD of The Twenty Seven Club. This was my first exposure to Magenta (sold by the mentions here and The Lizard King video).

Beautiful album. I am usually somewhat of a distracted listener, but was eyes closed in my prime seating position within seconds. Fantastic music and a wonderful surround mix.

So, should I work my way back in time or just buy their whole catalog ;-)

 

[inkubuzz]

yes you should!