Pink Floyd - The Later Years (1987-2019) [CD/DVD/Blu-Ray Box Set]

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Borrowed a friend's 5.1 mix of AMLOR to listen to on my 5.2.4 set-up. Learning to Fly works really well with simulated Atmos, especially the section near the end "Above the planet on a wing and a prayer..." It sounds like the vocals are floating above vs. the rest of song which is center channel heavy. None of the other songs jumped out at me as being particularly noteworthy, though. For all the hoopla about re-recording the drum parts, there are an awful lot of 80's era gated-drum fills left in the mix.
 
After reading this thread I have verified that my ears are still fine. I doubted it after listening to the 2019 AMLOR mix, both in stereo and 5.1

I am of the same opinion of those who have explained here that they do not like this mix.

It is as if you were listening to a very low-quality MP3 (less than 80 Kbps), with little treble, while previous mixes were a FLAC. Yes, it has bass, but it sounds more blurred.

There is no point in any Hi-Res format with this type of mix/master, especially for those of us who like the sound of the snare drum, cymbals and Hi-hat in rock music. Also, the Gilmour voice lacks treble frequencies as if he were singing through a filter screen.

I cannot understand that someone likes this kind of mix more than the ones before, independently of the problems that happened when the original album was originally recorded. Because I cannot believe that this could be the result of a problem or accident during the mastering process, and nobody has noticed it.

Of course, other material, like the TDB bluray, sounds good to me in my rig. Its different and better sound to me.
 
After reading this thread I have verified that my ears are still fine. I doubted it after listening to the 2019 AMLOR mix, both in stereo and 5.1

I am of the same opinion of those who have explained here that they do not like this mix.

It is as if you were listening to a very low-quality MP3 (less than 80 Kbps), with little treble, while previous mixes were a FLAC. Yes, it has bass, but it sounds more blurred.

There is no point in any Hi-Res format with this type of mix/master, especially for those of us who like the sound of the snare drum, cymbals and Hi-hat in rock music. Also, the Gilmour voice lacks treble frequencies as if he were singing through a filter screen.

I cannot understand that someone likes this kind of mix more than the ones before, independently of the problems that happened when the original album was originally recorded. Because I cannot believe that this could be the result of a problem or accident during the mastering process, and nobody has noticed it.

Of course, other material, like the TDB bluray, sounds good to me in my rig. Its different and better sound to me.
Bienvenido al foro!
Me suena mucho tu nombre...yo vivi en Madrid 26 años , hasta diciembre del 2017..trabaje en Kirios como operador de Synclavier...
Saludos...
(yo , es que soy un poco pordiosero, y mientras una mezcla en Surround sea decente, o sea, no solo reverb en los rears- me vale..)
 
As it seems that Black Friday (or should that be Black Fortnight?) is upon us I just wanted to advise anyone still interested in acquiring The Later Years full boxset that Amazon Italy have it right now for 235 Euros. I decided to go for it and amazed that delivery to the UK is only 7 Euros. The total works out at under £210 once converted (bought in Euros as Amazon conversion was £220). Definitely the lowest price I have ever seen for it. Amazon US is about the same at $279 but import duties to the UK would be 🤬.
 
As it seems that Black Friday (or should that be Black Fortnight?) is upon us I just wanted to advise anyone still interested in acquiring The Later Years full boxset that Amazon Italy have it right now for 235 Euros. I decided to go for it and amazed that delivery to the UK is only 7 Euros. The total works out at under £210 once converted (bought in Euros as Amazon conversion was £220). Definitely the lowest price I have ever seen for it. Amazon US is about the same at $279 but import duties to the UK would be 🤬.

To anyone in the UK, if you want this from Amazon Italy get it before the end of 2020 while we remain in EU transition period. After that it is anyone's guess at the moment what the import duties might be.

Personally this is far too expensive.
 
I just listened to the 5.1 Remix/Remaster of AMLOR for the first time on my Carver Ribbon + Klipsch Surround system and it was weird! They didn't just move the sounds around. It seems like they completely changed the mix in many places. I assume these were alternate takes in many cases (having made my own album it can be night and day using different takes and unused parts or leaving other parts out) or perhaps some are now much louder instruments that were turned way down before and vice versa. Some were interesting. Some were not as good, IMO. I'm going to try it next on my home theater system with a 17.1 channel upmix and see how it sounds.

I'm still undecided on whether I like any of the tracks better. It seems mind-boggling they can't do a nice remix without changing the entire tone of the songs in various places. It seems like an alternate cut of the album. I did read there was another version of AMLOR (Delusions of Maturity) that "sounded nothing like Pink Floyd" and the studio balked and made them go back and change it all. I'd be curious to hear THAT mix, but this seems like someone having some fund with making the album sound different to just sound different in many places. I don't know why they'd put the bass line for Sorrow, for instance in the center channel area right next to the vocals as it tends to mask them. I did like some of the crazy new bass guitar bits with much lower sounding lows and what not, though. I'll be curious to try it downstairs.

BTW, I HATED the Division Bell 5.1 mix (god awful bass compared to the 2-channel mix, especially on High Hopes; unforgivable really). I think 5.1 for 5.1's sake clearly doesn't work. I bet you could have 10 different people make 10 different versions of either of these albums and 1-3 would be good or possibly great and the rest would SUCK. And there lies a major problem with surround music. What goes in the surround channels or overhead? The industry has had 70 years to play with basic stereo and love or hate it, they can make solid mixes with it that are "cohesive". Start moving the guitar into the surround speakers on Learning To Fly with the Synth bit in the front and it loses "cohesion" between the two. It no longer sounds like one part. Frankly, I'm shocked at how basic many parts are to that song once you realize they are all different bits here and there (I mean one guitar chord and then a joystick-style synth bender? Wow. It never struck me like that before even though it should have.

They need to get the guys that did the Atmos mix of Booka Shade's "DEAR FUTURE SELF" to do Atmos mixes of all the Pink Floyd albums. I bet they would be crazy interesting (maybe not better, but interesting). I can just imagine Piper at the Gates of Dawn in Atmos.... :D
 
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OK, I tried out A Momentary Lapse of Reason Remixed 5.1 on my 11.1.6 system and spent about 1 hour comparing different modes on "Learning To Fly" and to the CD version alone. My final conclusion is thus. Overall, the average mix levels are MUCH BETTER than the original album and surround effects are surprisingly good on that system, regardless of the upmix (or lack thereof) mode. Even the stereo downmix of Learning To Fly wipes the floor of the original 2-CH version, IMO. OTOH, there are a few MAJOR problems on a few of those songs that cannot be fixed on the playback side which ruin a few songs. Notably, the worst offenders, IMO are "On The Turning Away" and "Yet Another Movie". On the former, where a great clear Gilmour vocal suddenly degrades into muddy cow manure when it changes to "It's a sin that somehow, light is changing to shadow". You can hear a clear change to a different vocal take and the levels are low and muddy compared to the opening bit. It stays that way the rest of the song and it doesn't matter how clear the guitars and other instruments are, you can't fix a muddy lead vocal! The original 2-channel version is perfectly fine for the vocals the whole way through. If you listen carefully, you can tell it changes there too, but the difference is it stays clear and loud!

"Yet Another Movie" has and even weirder problem. When the central main bass guitar kicks in shortly after the first delayed bassy piano/whatever sound before the vocals begin, it's like 20x louder than the original CD. While the original version continues that need delayed bass effect across the front, it gets drowned out here by this long sustained bass note from the center that is barely audible past the flurry of notes (sustain dies out). Here it holds on like it's bass feedback or something. It's god-awful sounding and that bass guitar plays at that level the ENTIRE SONG! It drowns out vocals, the Casablanca lines in the background, basically everything is harder to hear than it should be. When it transitions to "Round And Around" you're like grateful as hell as it's gone.... How the hell that could be missed in mixing is beyond me.

Those were the two worst tracks (shame since they're both great songs). But they're not totally alone. "A New Machine" is ruined with screechy/harsh/metallic voice processing that doesn't sound that way on the original CD. It only doesn't ruin everything because it's short and relatively unimportant, IMO.

Signs of Life is fine, if not exciting, but it's hard to screw it up when it's got limited bass to begin with.

One Slip has some funky new sounding rhythm bits, but they're not terrible. The surround is otherwise great on it and I think I can live with it.

Sorrow is fine except they throw the bass guitar very close to Gilmour's vocals in the center (in the home theater there's more vertical separation and so it didn't bother me like it did on the Carver speakers where they seemed to overlap more). Overall, the surround effect works here. Bass is vastly improved compared to the CD.

Learning to Fly is awesome in surround. I have few complaints about the new mix on that one. It was good no matter what mode I used even downmix stereo. Average mix levels compared to the CD are vastly improved and bass is much better. The only weird thing here I think is in the middle bit where the processing is placed on David's voice after the airport talkie bits, it sounds kind of strange in surround (downmix stereo is clearer), but I think that's the original effect being increased in volume and spread out a bit more. It probably could have used a slightly better effect there (just spread the voice out over the room more).

The Dogs of War is not a track I'm crazy about to begin with, especially the slow early part, but I thought this version improved it in that area quite a bit with the surround effects serving as a distraction. The levels were fine here, I think.

Terminal Frost was OK, maybe a tad harsh here and there with the saxophone (same for Dogs of War when the Sax about made me jump out of my seat on the Carvers it was such a sudden loud burst sitting in front of the main speakers), but the surround effects worked well.

Overall, despite a few major faults, I still liked this 5.1 mix better than The Division Bell, but then I like this album overall better than The Division Bell (save a few tracks like High Hopes, but it gets murdered by the lack of punchy bass in surround).
 
BTW, I HATED the Division Bell 5.1 mix (god awful bass compared to the 2-channel mix, especially on High Hopes; unforgivable really)

Just a comment from my audio room.... I have the Blu-ray audio version of Division Bell, and in particular, High Hopes simply kicks ass in terms of bass on my system. For example, from the 2:44-3:50 mark, I'm hearing/feeling bass that soars. Anyway, interesting. And, I'm usually the guy who complains about lack of bass.
 
Just a comment from my audio room.... I have the Blu-ray audio version of Division Bell, and in particular, High Hopes simply kicks ass in terms of bass on my system. For example, from the 2:44-3:50 mark, I'm hearing/feeling bass that soars. Anyway, interesting. And, I'm usually the guy who complains about lack of bass.

I dunno. All I can say is the regular CD version kicks me in the gut on those "Grass is greener" kick drum thumps on my Carvers. The 5.1 version does not. I don't care how much I turn up my 15" sub in the home theater, it doesn't kick me in the gut either (i.e There's deep bass, but not kick you in the gut type hits (on that one even the CD one doesn't quite get there where you feel you've been kicked in the gut, despite 110+ dB deep bass capability. Even my 70+ year old mother loves the CD version on my Carver speakers when she visits (requests to hear it a lot). Something changed in the mix. Maybe it's in the upper bass where Carvers have 4 foot ribbons and 700 watts to move the air in the 150Hz+ range plus there's a wooden floor to connect the bass to the chairs upstairs and a concrete floor downstairs. But then the home theater has 8 middle to upper bass drivers in "stereo" mode alone plus the 15" sub goes flat to 20Hz.

What kind of speakers are you using?
 
I dunno. All I can say is the regular CD version kicks me in the gut on those "Grass is greener" kick drum thumps on my Carvers. The 5.1 version does not. I don't care how much I turn up my 15" sub in the home theater, it doesn't kick me in the gut either (i.e There's deep bass, but not kick you in the gut type hits (on that one even the CD one doesn't quite get there where you feel you've been kicked in the gut, despite 110+ dB deep bass capability. Even my 70+ year old mother loves the CD version on my Carver speakers when she visits (requests to hear it a lot). Something changed in the mix. Maybe it's in the upper bass where Carvers have 4 foot ribbons and 700 watts to move the air in the 150Hz+ range plus there's a wooden floor to connect the bass to the chairs upstairs and a concrete floor downstairs. But then the home theater has 8 middle to upper bass drivers in "stereo" mode alone plus the 15" sub goes flat to 20Hz.

What kind of speakers are you using?
I'm using Klipsch RF-82 II for fronts and rears. Also a sealed Rythmik 15" sub. Yeah, I guess I'll have to see if I'm hearing kick, or just bass.
 
Gilmour was never satisfied with his original vocal. After singing it on tour for a while he felt he finally got it right and that's why the switch was made. They obviously don't share your opinion.

It's not the vocal in terms of how it's sang. It's too low in level (not clear to understand). You sound annoyed or something (hard to tell) that I think it sounds bad and yet AMLOR Remixed 5.1 is in the "Don't Bother Surround" thread on here because they think it's poorly mixed. I think some (most really) of it is actually great. I simply think that vocal isn't clear or at least loud enough compared to the previous mix and I think someone went nuts with the bass guitar on Yet Another Movie. There's some harsh bits in A New Machine, but I could live with that since it's not really a song. The rest is generally speaking a big improvement on the original album and it's a shame two songs were made worse, IMO when the rest is pretty good. I don't like the Division Bell 5.1 mix because it just doesn't sound as good to me, but here I think it's generally very good to excellent save those two things.

Personally, I never noticed anything wrong with his original vocals in OTTA. They sounded fine to me.
 
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