MOST CONVINCING 5.1 LIST OF* *PENTEO or SPECWEB** , BEST SONGS YOU'VE HEARD or CREATED !

[fizzywiggs41]

Ok all you modest Surround Engineers , please provide a listing of your best heard or created with......

PENTEO 5.1 , QUAD 4.0 SURROUND Upmix Creations .
The Same goes for SPECWEB , and any *OTHER* Creative 5.1 upmix programs.

This Upmix listing of Music Artists Songs or Albums... is for all of us curious , and wannabee Surround Engineers .
And demonstrates the Surround potential for these systems for a variety of Stereo only Recordings .


Thanx ,

Fizzy

 

[J. PUPSTER]

This one (Penteo 5.1, but I usually also use extracted vocals from the fronts only to make a Center from isotope RX 8) -
Bootsy's Rubber Band - Body Slam!

ALSO THOMAS DOLBY
Aliens Ate My Buick

AND

Rock Candy Funk Party ‎– Grooove Is King
*4.0/4.1 works great with Involve Surround Master also!

 

[Sonik Wiz]

This one (Penteo 5.1, but I usually also use extracted vocals from the fronts only to make a Center from isotope RX 8) -
Bootsy's Rubber Band - Body Slam!


View attachment 68851

ALSO THOMAS DOLBY
Aliens Ate My Buick


View attachment 68852

AND

Rock Candy Funk Party ‎– Grooove Is King
*4.0/4.1 works great with Involve Surround Master also!

View attachment 68854

I know the last two are winners! I should listen to Bootsy.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

WOW !!
I would have thought by now more QQ 'rs would love to mention what they created on Penteo or SPECWEB or any other good 5.1 Upmix.

Oh well .....I guess there aren't very many worth bragging about . (or are there ?)




I know that the Penteo Sampler from some years back had an incredible 5.1 version of a Leonard Cohen song from the movie soundtrack to "Watchmen".

 

[sjcorne]

I keep coming back to these three titles, run through Penteo's 4.1 setting:
The Cars - Heartbeat City (MoFi SACD)
Ultravox - Live At St Albans 1980 (CD from Vienna box set)
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste & Three Friends (flat transfers from Three Piece Suite Blu-Ray)

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I keep coming back to these three titles, run through Penteo's 4.1 setting:
The Cars - Heartbeat City (MoFi SACD)
Ultravox - Live At St Albans 1980 (CD from Vienna box set)
Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste & Three Friends (flat transfers from Three Piece Suite Blu-Ray)

I was not familiar with that Gentle Giant nor the Ultravox , but :
I agree with your findings on that Cars Album.
I had The Cars-Heartbeat City in VHS HI FI and it sounded very good in surround via my Fosgate Tate II . I think it may have been in Dolby Surround , Dolby Stereo Hi Fi was indicated on the tape.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here's another one that turned out lovely, brought to my attention by our fine friend @humprof
worked on it off and on for probably 2 weeks.
* I think most folks here are just too modest to share, not my situation

 

[humprof]

Here's another one that turned out lovely, brought to my attention by our fine friend @humprof
worked on it off and on for probably 2 weeks.
* I think most folks here are just too modest to share, not my situation

View attachment 68907

Pup's Circus Money is definitely right up there with the best of 'em!

I'm not an upmixer myself, but I'm an avid consumer. Some others in my personal pantheon:

• An anonymous upmix of Station to Station (wish I knew who to credit and how it was done)
• DKA's SPEC upmix of Brian Eno's Drums Between the Bells
• PoRFiN's SPEC upmixes of three classic Jayhawks albums: Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow the Green Grass, and Rainy Day Music
• PoRFiN's SPEC upmixes of Rickie Lee Jones's eponymous debut and Flying Cowboys
• EoH's upmix of Kiko by Los Lobos (as for methods & tools, EoH used what artists would call "mixed media")
• FloydFlush's SPEC upmix of Animals and DKA's of The Wall
• Zeerround's SPEC upmix of Jesus Christ Superstar
• DKA's SPEC upmix of Songs in the Key of Life
• EoH's upmixes of Going For the One and Tormato

HomerJAU has done some brilliant Penteo stuff, too (as has JonUrban), but I haven't spent enough time with any of it yet to single out favorites--except maybe one he did at my behest: Bruce Cockburn's Dancing In the Dragon's Jaws. And in addition to Circus Money, Pup has done other superb and similarly painstaking work, notably Boz Scaggs & Band.

Lots of other more-than-honorable mentions, including many by Holland123, but that's enough for now.

 

[HomerJAU]

Bruce Cockburn's Dancing In the Dragon's Jaws

I‘d never heard this before I did the upmix. I’ve listened a few times now. Great album that sounds excellent via Penteo.

All The Cars and Dire Straits albums upmix very well, as do most AC/DC. Those all have great stereo panned mixes (producing nice surround) but just as importantly, have excellent mastering and dynamics for that ‘audiophile sound’.

I like my Steely Dan AJA Penteo 4.1. That’s usually my demo for visiting mates that want to know what I’ve been doing during Covid lockdowns over last year and a half.

The first 5 Led Zepps turned out nice too. I read LZ were innovators of stereo panning techniques, modifying mixing boards etc.

I also often regularly play Penteo 4.1 upmixes of several favourite albums that are not necessarily discrete but are way more immersive due to the 4 speaker sound spread. Four full range speakers sound better than two! (Joe Jackson, Sting, Robert Plant, Joan Armatrading…)

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Here's another one that turned out lovely, brought to my attention by our fine friend @humprof
worked on it off and on for probably 2 weeks.
* I think most folks here are just too modest to share, not my situation

View attachment 68907

I often wondered why Becker didn't release his solos in DVDA as Fagen did. You'd think he would , what with them having Elliot Scheiner on tap as their go to Surround Engineer.
Plus I think E.S. was a fan of the Dan's music .

 

[DuncanS]

I‘d never heard this before I did the upmix. I’ve listened a few times now. Great album that sounds excellent via Penteo.

All The Cars and Dire Straits albums upmix very well, as do most AC/DC. Those all have great stereo panned mixes (producing nice surround) but just as importantly, have excellent mastering and dynamics for that ‘audiophile sound’.

I like my Steely Dan AJA Penteo 4.1. That’s usually my demo for visiting mates that want to know what I’ve been doing during Covid lockdowns over last year and a half.

The first 5 Led Zepps turned out nice too. I read LZ were innovators of stereo panning techniques, modifying mixing boards etc.

I also often regularly play Penteo 4.1 upmixes of several favourite albums that are not necessarily discrete but are way more immersive due to the 4 speaker sound spread. Four full range speakers sound better than two! (Joe Jackson, Sting, Robert Plant, Joan Armatrading…)

Yep the Aja up-mix sounds great!

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Pup's Circus Money is definitely right up there with the best of 'em!

I'm not an upmixer myself, but I'm an avid consumer. Some others in my personal pantheon:

• An anonymous upmix of Station to Station (wish I knew who to credit and how it was done)
• DKA's SPEC upmix of Brian Eno's Drums Between the Bells
• PoRFiN's SPEC upmixes of three classic Jayhawks albums: Hollywood Town Hall, Tomorrow the Green Grass, and Rainy Day Music
• PoRFiN's SPEC upmixes of Rickie Lee Jones's eponymous debut and Flying Cowboys
• EoH's upmix of Kiko by Los Lobos (as for methods & tools, he used what artists would call "mixed media")
• FloydFlush's SPEC upmix of Animals and DKA's of The Wall
• Anonymous SPEC upmix of Jesus Christ Superstar
• DKA's SPEC upmix of Songs in the Key of Life
• EoH's upmixes of Going For the One and Tormato

HomerJAU has done some brilliant Penteo stuff, too, but I haven't spent enough time with any of it yet to single out favorites (except maybe one he did at my behest: Bruce Cockburn's Dancing In the Dragon's Jaws). And in addition to Circus Money, Pup has done other superb and similarly painstaking work, notably Boz Scaggs & Band.

Thanks @humprof.

That's quite the list of 5.1 upmixes. Nice to know that someone's keeping track of the good ones.

FWIW The Stevie Wonder , Songs In The Key Of Life album was recorded in "Binaural".
That may or may not have lent a lot of validity to the 5.1 surround upmix sound .
Shouldn't hurt it , I'd think.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

I‘d never heard this before I did the upmix. I’ve listened a few times now. Great album that sounds excellent via Penteo.

All The Cars and Dire Straits albums upmix very well, as do most AC/DC. Those all have great stereo panned mixes (producing nice surround) but just as importantly, have excellent mastering and dynamics for that ‘audiophile sound’.

I like my Steely Dan AJA Penteo 4.1. That’s usually my demo for visiting mates that want to know what I’ve been doing during Covid lockdowns over last year and a half.

The first 5 Led Zepps turned out nice too. I read LZ were innovators of stereo panning techniques, modifying mixing boards etc.

I also often regularly play Penteo 4.1 upmixes of several favourite albums that are not necessarily discrete but are way more immersive due to the 4 speaker sound spread. Four full range speakers sound better than two! (Joe Jackson, Sting, Robert Plant, Joan Armatrading…)

Yep , Bruce Cockburn , should be one of the better candidates for surround upmixing.

I have that first Cars album and it sounds pretty good moving in stereo ?

I'm not at all familiar with that Aja , though . Maybe one day in the near future , because like most of us here on QQ , I too am a big fan of Steely Dan.
Sure would be a treat getting all their 70's albums in surround .
Maybe We need a groupie willing to do favours for UMe , so they can finally see the light of Day.
Any volunteers willing to give up their channeling rears for rear channels of the Dan ?

Some years back I did some SQ Encoding from stereo ..on Zepp's first album . Why ...well because it is full of echo's and reverb and just like you say .Homer , ... and plenty of wide stereo pans.
Sure there was some music coming from the rear channels , but it was very amateurish on my part.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Here’s another one that just seemed too easy with great separation; like it may actually be QS encoded (supposedly so!) Maybe someone like SWT would be into doing a surround mix, now that would be awesome

https://www.discogs.com/Gong-Shamal/release/2762345

 

[fizzywiggs41]

Here’s another one that just seemed too easy with great separation; like it may actually be QS encoded (supposedly so!) Maybe someone like SWT would be into doing a surround mix, now that would be awesome

https://www.discogs.com/Gong-Shamal/release/2762345

I think if anything it would have been SQ , as it was indicated as such on some CBS/Columbia Records . But only on one side of the album.
FWIW There should be a picture of that , somewhere's on QQ , pupster .

 

[neil wilkes]

Bad Reputation by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
Absolutely stonking well done - fake as our UK Prime Minister, but sounds great (whereas he of course....well, that's not why you called (to borrow someone else's tagline))
When I first heard this I was staggered. Highly recommended.

Another one - very oold now but still better than any other attempt I have heard was the original TOUP (Two Of US Productions) DTS-CD upmixes of the first 5 Zeppelin albums. Highlights include Page's looong slides down the fretboard panning from front right to rear right and other wonderful touches abound.

 

[Bob Romano]

This one (Penteo 5.1, but I usually also use extracted vocals from the fronts only to make a Center from isotope RX 8) -
Bootsy's Rubber Band - Body Slam!


View attachment 68851

ALSO THOMAS DOLBY
Aliens Ate My Buick


View attachment 68852

AND

Rock Candy Funk Party ‎– Grooove Is King
*4.0/4.1 works great with Involve Surround Master also!

View attachment 68854

You sent me that Bootsy a while back and it's Slammin'

 

[Bob Romano]

Bad Reputation by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
Absolutely stonking well done - fake as our UK Prime Minister, but sounds great (whereas he of course....well, that's not why you called (to borrow someone else's tagline))
When I first heard this I was staggered. Highly recommended.

Another one - very oold now but still better than any other attempt I have heard was the original TOUP (Two Of US Productions) DTS-CD upmixes of the first 5 Zeppelin albums. Highlights include Page's looong slides down the fretboard panning from front right to rear right and other wonderful touches abound.

Ahhh TOUP. I remember them well.

 

[zeerround]

Yeah predating commercial upmix tools, Spec and to some extent AART/EOH there was TOUP, and GART, and maybe one more that escapes me at the moment. Those methods were, to my knowledge, never shared, although TOUP talked about using mono and stereo mixed sources for the same material.

 

[Infomas]

My favorite SpecWeb upmixes so far:

Jon Astley's 2 albums, especially The Compleat Angler. His production is off the charts good for that era. Supposedly Pete Townshend said that this was his reference album when listening to a new system.

Patrick Moraz - The Story of I (this isn't really "I", but a symbol that looks like an "I"). Synths and percussion flying all over the place. Very active.

Caravan - For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night. Anything with violin seems to come out great.

Pointer Sisters - Pointer Sisters. Their first album. Great production. Did it from a needle drop.

Klaus Schulze - Timewind - If the original didn't F you up when you first listened to it on headphones, being surrounded by it at the end should do the trick.

Sam Phillips - Martinis and Bikinis. Great production leads to good upmixes.

Steely Dan - Countdown to Ecstasy - Way better than the real quad thing that is out there. Lots of separation.

Traffic - Low Spark... & John Barleycorn - Both sound great. Their music was made for surround... and drugs. I tested the surround.

A couple of songs also stood out:

Lucifer's Friend - Spanish Galleon
The Tubes - What Do You Want From Life - Hold on to your hats at the end.