DVD/DTS Poll Magenta - Metamorphosis Collection [DD DVD+CD]

[Bob Romano]

Please post your thoughts on Magenta's Metamorphosis.

This was brought to my attention by new member "Baker"

http://www.magenta-web.co.uk/news.html

Magenta METAMORPHOSIS release updates

5.1 MIXES - Live Tickets

 

[Baker]

Did anyone received it ? I'm still waiting for my copy, and no news from the Magenta Shop yet...

 

[Philip Spinner]

I received mine two days ago but it will probably be weeks before I even open it. I thought life gets easier and slower when you get older. What am I doing wrong.

 

[Baker]

So Philip, what did you thinkabout it, as it seems you're the only one who got a copy and could actually listen to it ?

I still don't have it and Magenta hasn't answered my mail in two weeks. I think I should get a bit worried now... Does anyone know how to contact them apart from the magenta shop ?

 

[Philip Spinner]

Finally gave this a listen yesterday. When I saw the cover I thought that this album would be all grunts and groans but it is instead more mellow with a female vocalist who remains front center throughout. Four long songs here totaling 53:35. The Dolby Digital sounds very good to me with instruments clearly coming from the rear. On first listen I was pleasantly surprised. The DD is recorded a little low so you must turn the volume up a bit. Will definitely listen to it again in the future.

 

[SoonerCaniac]

Darn it all, I thought I could cool my wallet down a little bit and then QQ.com comes along and well, you know the rest of the story.

The cover of this album turned me away almost forever. I thought oh, forget it, this will just be metal (a.k.a.: noise and screaming ). But something compelled me to click on the links and then I found the 12 minute sample for The Ballad of Samuel Layne. WOW, I haven't been this excited about progressive rock in a while, even more so than when I noticed PTree last year for the first time. The female vocalist, the strings, guitar riffs, harmonies, drums all just completely knocked me over. I am not normally an impulse buyer; I usually revel in carefully planning my purchases, but when I saw that the DVD (packed with an impressive amount of material in addition to the 5.1 sound) was about $26 including shipping and I could get both the CD and the DVD for $36, I was putty in their hands. I can't wait to hear the whole album; the sample of the title track on MySpace was equally impressive.

Obviously I'm looking forward to this. . .immensely! Thanks Baker and Bob for pointing this band out to me (well, my wallet won't thank you!). I'm sure I won't get to a review for quite a while, but I had to respond.
Josh

 

[Baker]

Well I'm glad you got (and liked) it !

I never received mine... nor any answer from magentashop and the shop from whom I've pre-ordered the DVD...

And I know no-one nearby who could make me a copy or lend it to me. I'm scrw*d and I can say farewell to my DVD review

Oh well... I'll find a used copy one day, or so I hope... But I'm happy to hear nothing but good reviews about it being a REAL 5.1 album !

 

[SoonerCaniac]

I never received mine... nor any answer from magentashop and the shop from whom I've pre-ordered the DVD...

Did you use Paypal and/or a credit card? You really should take advantage of the buyer protection programs available to you from either entity when enough time passes.

I'll let you know if I have trouble with the shop, I sure hope not! I'm disappointed that they haven't contacted you, that's not cool! Hopefully your DVD will turn up very soon!

Best,
Josh

 

[kvsawilson]

I received my copy of this a few days ago after waiting close to 3 weeks after ordering. I had never heard of this band until seeing the post that started this thread. I went to their website and listened to some clips and really liked what I heard, so went ahead and ordered it. With the dollar trading down near monopoly money these days it was pretty expensive to order from the UK, but there aren't a lot of surround choices these days.

Like I said it finally showed up last week and there was a sampler cd of the band included and I was able to listen to it in the car a couple times. From those listens I felt like it was a band trying to sound like Yes but coming off a lot more like Starcastle. Now that I've listened to this disc, I don't think so much of Starcastle but they are somewhere between a Yes and Renaissance kind of sound. There are some real great musical moments on this disc. With two 20+ minute songs it's been hard to really feel like I know them after just a few listens, but there are some great passages and I've really enjoyed listening so far. For me, I think the weak link is the singer's voice and the lyrics don't seem to work as well as the music does. Hopefully, it will gel a little better after a few more listens. She seems to sound better in quieter moments and I think it's when she's trying to sing over the louder passages that she just doesn't seem to have a strong enough voice to project over it. It is a very layered sound with lots of synths, acoustic guitars and strings all blended with some pretty powerful rhythms. I would think any fans of prog would find something to like here.

It is a true surround sound presented in Dolby Digital. While I think it's a very good mix, I can't say it's up there with the great dvd-a's and sacd's in respect to the clarity and richness of the sound as I think the dolby digital seems to be kind of thin sounding. It's definitely makes for a good listen, but leaves me wishing it could have been a real dvd-a or even had a dts track. There are extra interviews and a making of section and the leader of the band discusses how much better he thinks surround sound is for presenting his music. He comments how it's much easier to pick out the various instruments and how the larger soundfield really opens up the music. Like any of us here needed to be convinced.

Anyway, if you're a prog rock fan and would like some new surround music to try out, I would definitely recommend this one. I'll wait to vote until I've lived with a while longer, but I have been happy so far. It would be nice to think they could get a distributor in the US, but I see that Amazon doesn't even have the cd yet so the only option might be to order from their website.

I'll be interested to hear what any others have to say.

K

 

[BananaSlug]

FYI, The Laser's Edge has this title for $19. http://www.lasercd.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=DVDTMR003

I haven't bought it... yet, but I have bought a few discs from them and they are good.

 

[SoonerCaniac]

I won't get around to listening to the CD or the DVD for a little while, but I wanted to let everyone know that I ordered the CD/DVD package deal from the Magenta Shop on Sunday, 5/25 and it arrived today, (Tuesday) 6/3, so it was a very quick turnaround from the UK. Since I'm new to the band, I thought it was pretty cool that they also sent me a free promo disc called "The Collection" which contains 9 tracks from what appears to be five of their albums. I see kvsawilson got the same disc. I also got 5 postcard-sized advertisements with tour dates for the new album, not that I'll have much use for these.

In other words, I give a hearty thumbs up on my end for the Magenta Shop. Can't wait to give the music a spin. I also want to write the band to tell them to talk to Steven Wilson and get a proper surround release done on DVD-A next time.

Best,
Josh

 

[kvsawilson]

Well, I've been listening to this for a few weeks now and have to say I love this album. Keep playing it and liking it better with every listen. For my money it's some of the best Prog rock out there. Wish I could have got it from Laser's Edge for cheaper, but I'm going to order their live dvd and another cd or two from them.

Another gem, like RPWL and the Porcupine Tree stuff, that I probably would have never heard had it not been released in a surround format.

K

 

[Baker]

After a very long wait, I've been able to put my hand upon a copy of this Metamorphosis...

...by buying it a second time. Never got my copy from the Magenta shop, never got any reply from my TWO emails, still my credit card had been billed on March 10 ! Their bad luck. I bought it again from a little independant French shop located at the opposite of the country. I ordered it monday morning, I had it in my mailbox by tuesday noon. Errrr... big trouble here...

Well, whatever, I checked a few sketches off the 5.1 album, and it is a * REAL * 5.1 mix with many discrete rear sounds, sound effects coming from everywhere and all the usual stuff. So globally it was worth the wait ^^ But it definitely lacks power and tightness when compared to the original stereo CD, and I guess it manly comes from the Dolby-Digital-only mix. Once more, why spending so much time and so much money in surround mixing, a job that's quite complex, expensive, and even sometimes boring (as I guessed), if all your work is ruined with a "lossfull" (as opposed to lossless) sound format ? I mean, is the DTS license THAT expensive ? It's so stupid, NOW I can see why Pink Floyd did their DD 5.1 640 Kbps format for Pulse. DD too, but slightly improved. Therefore better than that.

But don't listen to the grumpy old french guy : Magenta is a "small" band, playing a not so hyped music, yet they had the balls to do it in real 5.1 and it's a real plus for the album. So go and buy it !!

 

[Baker]

Hey there !
Just wanted to let you know that the Magenta Shop finally got in touch with me, so everything I've written about my non-receiving of the DVD and so on... must be forgotten ! ^^ It was very cool of them to reply back so long afterwards, and I thank them for that. Guess one must never give up hope, even into the wild jungle of the Internet !

(By the way, speaking of Magenta... isn't it time to have a poll about one of IQ's live DVD surround mixes ? ;-) )

 

[BananaSlug]

My copy arrived yesterday (only got around to purchasing it the other day). I haven't listened all the way through and so far the music doesn't really grab me, but I wanted to let people know that the DD mix sounds pretty good. I put in the Rush disc after to make sure it wasn't my imagination, and this sounds miles better. More later...

 

[kvsawilson]

There didn't seem to me much interest in this one but I liked it a lot. I even went and searched out most of their cd's after getting this one and have become a fan of the band. Anyway, if anyone is interested, I got this email from them and there are releasing another of their older albums in surround sound. Unfortunately, I'm guessing it will be Dolby Digital like their last one since their isn't any mention of DTS. But it should be a good surround mix like the last one. Here is the email:


MAGENTA : UPDATE....

SEVEN : SPECIAL EDITION 2 disc RELEASE....

Magenta are thrilled to announce the forthcoming release of Seven – The Special Edition. Since the album was featured in “Classic Rock Present’s Prog’s all time Prog Top 50”, there has been renewed and unprecedented demand for the CD and we are very excited to be able to offer it in a very special 2 disc version.

The Special Edition features:

Disc 1 - CD. 78.54
The entire album completely remixed by Rob Reed and re-mastered by the legendary Bob Katz, who did such an amazing job on Metamorphosis. Included are a complete version of Pride and an enhanced version of Greed. Some tracks have been remixed extensively, while others only have minor tweaks. The album also features new sleeve notes by Stephen Lambe.

Disc 2 - DVD. 4 hours of material including:
-A brand new 5.1 mix of the album by Rob Reed based on the brand new stereo remix.
-Extensive interviews with Rob Reed and lyricist Steve Reed, discussing each track from a musical and lyrical point of view, the artwork and guest musicians, and also reflecting on the impact of the CD 5 years on.
-Behind the mix. Rob Reed discusses and dissects the multi-tracks of the original 2004 mix.
-Rare DV camera footage of songs from Seven being rehearsed and performed live.

Rob Reed talks about the thinking behind the remix:
“The plan had always been to do a 5.1 mix of the album, as we did with Metamorphosis. However, when I went through the multi-tracks I realised that there was loads of great musical parts that hadn’t been used in the original mix, so I decided to also attempt new stereo mixes utilising the great new equipment I have now, and the results were amazing. As the CD had been out of print for a while anyway, we took this opportunity to release the new mixes, which represent, to me, a genuine enhancement on the quality of the original.”

The Double disc Special Edition, which will be limited to a run of 2000 copies, before the album reverts to a single disc, will retail at £14 and is available to pre-order immediately via the Magenta shop at www.magenta-web.com and will despatch in August.

K

 

[peterzach]

The Double disc Special Edition, which will be limited to a run of 2000 copies, before the album reverts to a single disc, will retail at £14 and is available to pre-order immediately via the Magenta shop at www.magenta-web.com and will despatch in August.

K

Thanks for posting about this. I haven't purchased anything by this band but have been curious about them. Just downloaded Seven to have a listen and like what I am hearing. I just sent the band a couple of questions and one of main questions is if the surround has Dts. Maybe would be good if a few more QQ people question about the surround choice, even if it doesn't help for this release maybe it will for a future one if they do any more.

peter

 

[rusinurbe]

I ordered Seven and have been listeing to it today. The surround version is much better than the stereo version, yes MLP would have been better DTS would have been beter but teh Dolby presentation is not that bad. I liked the surround so much I have dived in and ordered Metamorphosis as well

 

[LizardKing]

Got this recently - looks like its hard to get now....

FYI - I've just sent an e-mail to [email protected] asking if they can make a hi-rez download of this available....

Hi

I recently purchased all of the Magenta DVDs with 5.1 Dolby Digital mixes (Chameleon, Seven and Metamorphosis) – which I really like .

I’d really prefer a better quality sound (hi-rez) version of these made available.

Is there any chance of offering a higher quality download – perhaps via a FLAC 5.1 download??

An example of this is the recent Anathema album which you can get as a download from Burning Shed here:
https://www.burningshed.com/store/24/product/436/3813/

I’d be willing to purchase 5.1 download these were made available ….

​

It can't hurt trying!!!

 

[LivingForever]

Good try! I know Rob Reed (Magenta) is a big surround fan and most of their work sounds pretty good too (not brickwalled), so I think there's a good chance he'd be up for this if it's financially viable.