Have yet to receive my copy, but I did get a chance to preview the surround tracks thanks to a kind fellow member. Unfortunately, my initial impressions are the same as
@svengaleekie and
@MCDave - what a disappointment. This mix is so conservative it makes Bradfield & Mackintosh’s
Clutching At Straws seem adventurous by comparison.
Aside from the occasional sound effect (the man speaking at the end of “Chelsea Monday”, for instance), the rears contain little more than ambient echo and a very subtle guitar or keyboard part. The upmix I did from the old stereo CD a few months ago often has more separation than this new mix from the multis.
There are so many missed opportunities. Take for example, “He Knows You Know” - the lead AND backing vocals are isolated in the center channel. To me, it seems like a no-brainer to put the “he knows...” line in the rears and have Fish’s “...you know” respond from the center channel.
"He Knows You Know":
The quiet middle section of the title track (“I act the role in classic style…”) is totally relegated to the front channels when it could have sounded very cool and 3-D spread out around the room. I got quite a bit out of that section just from working with the stereo.
"Script For A Jester's Tear" 4:00 - 6:00 (New 5.1 Mix):
"Script For A Jester's Tear" 4:00 - 6:00 (5.1 Upmix):
“Forgotten Sons” is probably the most interesting track from a surround perspective, but it’s still not even close to what could have been. The section from around 2:15 - 3:00 (“your mother sits on the edge of the world…”) has the TV announcer in the front and Fish in the rears. The prayer section has the voices in the rears and the “minister, minister” bit goes around the room. At the end, you can clearly hear the children singing “ring around the rosies” in the right rear. Again, I was able to get many of those same elements mostly in the rears by manipulating the original stereo mix.
"Forgotten Sons":
As for the remix itself, the biggest changes I noticed are that the bass guitar has been brought up much higher in the mix, and the overall stereo image seems to have been narrowed. All the elements that were hard-panned left or right in the old stereo mix are now maybe 50% left or right of center. I didn't notice any alternate vocals or instrumentation. On the plus side, the overall sound quality is definitely improved from the original and it’s fun to hear Fish’s vocals isolated in the center speaker.
Curious to hear other thoughts as more members receive their copies, but I’m really let down