Marillion - Album 20 - An Hour Before It's Dark

[FrankieZappa]

Also you would lose the video documentary. Extras like the instrumentals only may be important when you get fed up with Hogarth's voice.

Happily enough, this time I've got spanish subtitles in the docu video to fully understand.

True , i liked the documentary.... but le me rephrase what I said earlier...I would have gone with a SACD altogether instead of having normal CD and CD+DVD..

Anyway...for the subtitles tuviste suerte amigo!!!

 

[JulesRules]

Thanks. Mine is a slightly different version. It doesn’t have the wording on the back identifying the surround mix, so I was a bit worried about opening it up if I had to return it. I checked the disc and, yes, there is a surround mix on the disc. Crisis averted! LOL
View attachment 76674

Can confirm, my copy just arrived here... no word of the 5.1!

 

[edisonbaggins]

One of the other problems I have with the surround mix is the volume of H's vocals, front and center - I find that they often overwhelm the rather tepid back channels. Interestingly, I find the instrumental surround version of the album to be a much more pleasant and balanced listen. Without the vocals, the complexity and layers of the music come through more clearly.

Just eyeballing the wav of Track 1, it appears that the center is mainly vocal. Try nudging it down?

 

[srbjab]

I agree, there's lot's of things you can do to try and improve a problematic recording, but since my system is dialed in the way I want it for everything else I don't think I (or anyone) should have to - this is the mix Michael Hunter and the band wanted to release, so it should stand or fall on its own. However, the upside is that I prefer most of the instrumental tracks anyway and they sound about as good as they can without adjustments.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Nobody said you have to, friend! The vocals sound great on my surround systems, fwiw...

 

[minimumtumbleweed]

I agree, there's lot's of things you can do to try and improve a problematic recording, but since my system is dialed in the way I want it for everything else I don't think I (or anyone) should have to - this is the mix Michael Hunter and the band wanted to release, so it should stand or fall on its own. However, the upside is that I prefer most of the instrumental tracks anyway and they sound about as good as they can without adjustments.

That's entirely your choice, of course, but in my experience there is no one setting that works for absolutely every recording (not to mention, different types of media, e.g. movies and TV). I have often found that there are recordings where I have to boost the center a bit, reduce it a bit, etc. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Geoff in Belfast]

Taking my first Blu Ray 5.1 DTS-HD MSTR listen now. You know on QQ when people say why don't they put that, whatever that is, on the Blu Ray, the Blu Ray can handle all that, this Marillion release packs about as much stuff I have seen on a Blu Ray.
This has videos, documentaries, stereo, surround, all kinds of stuff, see pictures.

There is what I thought was a USB stick, but it is something different, I do not know what type of drive it is called?

The book is perfect for me, lots of pictures and not too many words.
View attachment 76705View attachment 76706

Can I ask… I got the CD/DVD and separately the blu ray. But none of them have Made Again and Easter. So what’s that from?

 

[edisonbaggins]

Can I ask… I got the CD/DVD and separately the blu ray. But none of them have Made Again and Easter. So what’s that from?

Looks like they're on the USB drive, available only in the Ultimate Ultra Deluxe, AFAIK.

 

[mam]

The voice out of Center is agressive und harsch, terrible, first listening i can't have a focus on the music

 

[Cheezmo]

Call me crazy, but I just figured out how to rip the instrumental mixes with MakeMKV and DVD Audio Extractor only.

First backup as normal with MakeMKV, then dig down into the backup and delete BDMV/Playlist/00000.mpls (I also deleted BDMV/BACKUP/Playlist/00000.mpls but not sure if that is necessary).

(If you are trying to see inside BDMV on a Mac you will need to right click and choose "Show Package Contents").

Then open the backup with DVD Audio Extractor and you will notice the first title (the one with the regular stereo/5.1 mixes is missing but there is another 18 chapter title further down. That is the instrumental mixes. Rip as usual.

Definitely rip the standard tracks first as deleting the playlist for them will make it impossible to rip those (unless you put it back).

 

[GustavoLovato]

Hello everyone! I own (and love) “An Hour Before it’s Dark” on vinyl, CD/DVD, and Blu-ray (I wish the 5.1 mixes were more active and discreet as opposed to focusing on 3D space creation).
Don’t laugh, but I’m a teacher who was invited to sing at my high school’s talent show and I wanted to honor our nurses and health care professionals in general by singing over the instrumental version of “Care: Angels on Earth”. I don’t have the means to rip my Blu-ray but saw that quite a few of you in this thread did (complete with naming challenges). Would one of you kindly send me that particular file (just the stereo version in either full bandwidth or MP3 it doesn’t really matter that much for my little karaoke thing)? I would very much appreciate it! Stay well everyone. I’m glad to be part of this community.

 

[Beefalo]

Hello everyone! I own (and love) “An Hour Before it’s Dark” on vinyl, CD/DVD, and Blu-ray (I wish the 5.1 mixes were more active and discreet as opposed to focusing on 3D space creation).
Don’t laugh, but I’m a teacher who was invited to sing at my high school’s talent show and I wanted to honor our nurses and health care professionals in general by singing over the instrumental version of “Care: Angels on Earth”. I don’t have the means to rip my Blu-ray but saw that quite a few of you in this thread did (complete with naming challenges). Would one of you kindly send me that particular file (just the stereo version in either full bandwidth or MP3 it doesn’t really matter that much for my little karaoke thing)? I would very much appreciate it! Stay well everyone. I’m glad to be part of this community.

Welcome to the QQ forum @GustavoLovato

 

[JulesRules]

Only now listening to the instrumental version of the album and it's excellent... you do miss a lot of nuances in the normal mix.

 

[JoshBasswood]

Just a heads-up that the stand-alone bluray for this album can be had at a steal at Amazon at the moment.
Find several links here: https://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=16571