HiRez Poll Marillion - SCRIPT FOR A JESTER'S TEAR [Blu-Ray Audio]

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Rate the BDA of Marillion - SCRIPT FOR A JESTER'S TEAR

  • 10: Great Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Terrible Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    41

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Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2020 reissue of the debut Marillion album "Script for a Jester's Tear".
This 5-disc deluxe edition includes a brand new 5.1 surround mix of the album on Blu-Ray, along with a whole host of extras!

(y) :) (n)

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Got this yesterday, package is top notch as is the content from a VFM point of view.
I know this album from the day/week of its release & very well as it must be one of my most played ever & a Desert island choice. The original on the various versions I have is probably one of the most awful sounding recordings I own considering 82/83, so this realistically could never be a 10 sonically but all I hope is an improvement particularly on the title track.
Based on the couple of spins I've given the 5.1 it's a bit of a revelation to me, I can actually hear the Bass lines & there's keyboards passages I've never heard/noticed before, obviously it needs a few more plays & I'm not certain of the overall mix yet, but have read a couple of messages saying I may send it back, don't if you are fan of the album/band. Given it an overall 8.
 
Big stereo. You can hear the surrounds, but I heard not one single thing that was discretely in the rears And I was listening hard the whole album for anything discrete. There was none. The music is all up front, with the rears just doubling the front left/right. Through the entire album, there was not one thing of interest in the rears.

Weak bass. REALLY weak. I had to get up and check both of my subs to see if they were actually on. The mix is quite bright, and in places the sound is a little harsh. I had to turn the volume down below where I normally listen due to the brightness.

I swear, the pair that did the surround mix don't seem to have a clue how to mix an album in 5.1. There was one point early in the album where both the lead vocal and the backing vocals were entirely sharing the center channel. I was astounded, but that's indicative of how the entire mix was done. It sounds like they did it hastily in the 11th hour and fiddled very little with the original stereo mix.

This was the most boring surround mix I think I've ever heard. The only good news is that it was cheap enough to make it worth the extras alone.

A big fat 6 from me. Would have been a 5 but I love the cover graphics and I'm too big a fan to go any lower.
 
Big stereo. You can hear the surrounds, but I heard not one single thing that was discretely in the rears And I was listening hard the whole album for anything discrete. There was none. The music is all up front, with the rears just doubling the front left/right. Through the entire album, there was not one thing of interest in the rears.

Weak bass. REALLY weak. I had to get up and check both of my subs to see if they were actually on. The mix is quite bright, and in places the sound is a little harsh. I had to turn the volume down below where I normally listen due to the brightness.

I swear, the pair that did the surround mix don't seem to have a clue how to mix an album in 5.1. There was one point early in the album where both the lead vocal and the backing vocals were entirely sharing the center channel. I was astounded, but that's indicative of how the entire mix was done. It sounds like they did it hastily in the 11th hour and fiddled very little with the original stereo mix.

This was the most boring surround mix I think I've ever heard. The only good news is that it was cheap enough to make it worth the extras alone.

A big fat 6 from me. Would have been a 5 but I love the cover graphics and I'm too big a fan to go any lower.
From your review, this should be a 3 or a 4 ;) ...
Thankfully this release is not that expensive.
 
From your review, this should be a 3 or a 4 ;) ...
Thankfully this release is not that expensive.

I hope others have a different experience. I've been told I don't pull any punches :eek:. You got the raw reaction, in the moment. If I had waited a few days, I might have given a softer evaluation. It was just a missed opportunity for a stellar mix of an album that is very important to me.
 
I always liked this album too. I guess I'll wind up buying it, if only for the extras. That, and I'm also a bit of a completist. But it's so disappointing for a record that had so much potential to get such an uninspiring mix. :mad:
 
I hope others have a different experience. I've been told I don't pull any punches :eek:. You got the raw reaction, in the moment. If I had waited a few days, I might have given a softer evaluation. It was just a missed opportunity for a stellar mix of an album that is very important to me.
Makes me wonder if this is an upmix?
 
it’s definitely not an upmix. I’ve analyzed all of the 5.1 mixes for this album in Audacity and it’s definitely a new mix from the multitrack tapes.
That's good to hear. Can you comment on whether there is truly nothing discrete in the surrounds? Are there at least parts that heavily favor the surrounds?
 
That's good to hear. Can you comment on whether there is truly nothing discrete in the surrounds? Are there at least parts that heavily favor the surrounds?

There’s definitely discrete moments in the mix, mostly voices and other effects that appear behind you. It’s not the greatest 5.1 mix I have ever heard but definitely not the worst either. It improves on the original stereo mix for sure.
:)
 
That's good to hear. Can you comment on whether there is truly nothing discrete in the surrounds? Are there at least parts that heavily favor the surrounds?
Check the last minute of Chelsea Monday and you will be able to hear Fish's banter on your left surround and later some whisper on the right. That's very disconcerting after the whole song being just echoes on the rears. disappointing for a song I've loved for years.
In any case, as Ryan said, it's an improvement over the stereo mixes we knew so far, in my opinion.
Thanks to the QQ bud that lent me the record, my copy from Amazon will arrive some time in late 2020, I hope.
 
For me, this is the worst of the Marillion releases in terms of a discrete surround mix. That being said, I think this sounds really good in terms of fidelity, and for me there’s enough bass. So... if you think big stereo is better than regular stereo, you might want this, but it’s a let down if you’re looking for a good surround mix. I think this is the last time I preorder a Marillion release. 6.
 
I am sadly giving this a "6" for the surround mix.
My unofficial vote on the whole deluxe edition is an "8"

As almost everyone else has pointed out so far, the mix is a rather large disappointment. I agree with what @sjcorne commented on in the Blu-Ray post. While there are some discreet moments, they are few and far between. Mostly prominent on backing vocal parts but strangely inconsistent across the whole release.

I had to drop the center channel and pump up the rears to really get some audible balance to the surround mix. Unfortunately, I couldn't pump the rears up too much as I started to experience a phasing type problem where the rear reverb like sound started to screw with the balance of the front speakers.

I did not experience the bass problem that @MCDave reported either on PCM or DTS. On the contrary, the bass lines are much more prominent on the 5.1 & stereo mixes than the original '80s mix. I never really heard before how detailed some of the bass lines were. Perhaps MCDAve meant that the low end output wasn't lighting up his subwoofer?

I think the mix's biggest sin is not being adventurous in the rears. That is kind of strange because they certainly have played with some of main vocal lines in panning them to the extreme right & left channel way more than the original mix ever did. I can't believe that they didn't even take advantage of the easy surround moments. The phone call at the end of "He Knows" is stuck in the center channel and they do nothing with the ambient nature and party sounds at the beginning of "Garden Party".

Another weird thing to me is that the mix seems to focus on center speaker. That discrete bass line I was talking about (on the title track) is firmly centered. Rothery's solos are also crammed into the center speaker.

The two atmospheric tracks, "Web" & "Chelsea Monday" would have been magnificent with an immersive mix but they choose to keep it more in the big stereo vein.

They finally get it going in the right direction with "Forgotten Sons" but it is a little to late.

On the plus side. The fidelity of the remix is phenomenal. A tremendous improvement over the original '80s mix.
The documentary is enlightening to even long time fans and the inclusion of the video "Recital" is awesome. A very nice transfer from an old video source. I would have appreciated to hear "Grendal" in even this lackluster surround mix but it wasn't to be.

I will not write off the whole package completely given the awesome fidelity clean up and that the surround mix isn't the worst thing in the world.
 
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30% SURROUND MIX - How good is this mix? I agree that better than stereo is the best you can describe this. I boosted the rears +5db and that helped a lot. I'm no surround engineer but I've listened to enough surround mixes to hear an opportunity missed when listening to this album. 6
30% AUDIO FIDELITY - How does it sound? No problems here and in contrast to an earlier comment I found the bass to be a standout on the surround mix. Even so, it's not necessary a revolution as other releases are. 8
30% CONTENT - Do you like it. Is it good music. Will you go back to it again? Marillion is a 'new' discovery to me through their surround releases. I never heard this album before and enjoyed it. 8
10% OVERALL PACKAGE - Format, packaging, added value (extra discs), marbles, format, encoding, ease of play, menu layout, bonus content (videos, making of), documentation, and other things you like or don't like about it. If you're not going to do a stand-alone release, then the Tull and Marillion sets are the way to release a deluxe set. Reasonably priced, lots of extras, and dimensions that can be easily stored/displayed. 10

Doing the math, that equates to 7.6. Sadly, due to the surround mix, I'm going to round down to a 7.
 
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