K
kstuart
Guest
Hello,
I don't own any Deep Purple CDs, despite owning most of their releases on LP, so their DVD-Audio release of "Machine Head", a very influential rock album of the early 70's, seemed like a perfect way to fill that gap in my collection.
And I'm happy to report that this is one of those releases that fulfills the promise of DVD-Audio in every way. At each point, the producers have made the right choices to provide an excellent experience for all fans of this band.
For those not familiar with Deep Purple, they were one of the original and seminal "hard rock" bands. In what might have been the inspiration for the first part of "Spinal Tap", they started out as a 60's flower power band with the big radio hit "Hush", before sharply changing their direction into hard metal-tinged rock. In the early 70's, one often heard the phrase "like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple".
"Machine Head" was the album that most popularized their hard rock incarnation, and includes the FM radio hits "Smoke on the Water" and "Highway Star".
The highlights of this DVD-Audio release are:
- Extensive booklet describing all the unusual events surrounding the recording of the album - the book is so thick it barely fits into the jewel case cover.
- Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that will play in any DVD player.
- High Resolution 24/96k track of the original stereo mix from the album (at least it sounds identical to how I remember the album).
- Two interesting live concert videos of songs from the album (just the sort of thing you'll never see on MTV).
- The High Resolution 5.1 24/96k mix does not attempt to reproduce the original album sound, as it is already there in the High Resolution Stereo mix. Instead, it seems to me that the intent of the 5.1 mix is to allow the home listener to experience the impact of hard rock as reproduced in the studio. A 6-channel mix uses three times as much amplifier power as a 2-channel mix, and this is put to good use in reproducing the sound of the instruments with clarity and dynamics. However, the center channel consists of only the common information from the LF and LR channels - thus not penalizing the typical music fan who upgraded from two full range channels by adding 3 smaller center/surround speakers.
As such, this DVD-Audio release is highly recommended for Deep Purple fans, as well as fans of 70's hard rock in general.
I don't own any Deep Purple CDs, despite owning most of their releases on LP, so their DVD-Audio release of "Machine Head", a very influential rock album of the early 70's, seemed like a perfect way to fill that gap in my collection.
And I'm happy to report that this is one of those releases that fulfills the promise of DVD-Audio in every way. At each point, the producers have made the right choices to provide an excellent experience for all fans of this band.
For those not familiar with Deep Purple, they were one of the original and seminal "hard rock" bands. In what might have been the inspiration for the first part of "Spinal Tap", they started out as a 60's flower power band with the big radio hit "Hush", before sharply changing their direction into hard metal-tinged rock. In the early 70's, one often heard the phrase "like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple".
"Machine Head" was the album that most popularized their hard rock incarnation, and includes the FM radio hits "Smoke on the Water" and "Highway Star".
The highlights of this DVD-Audio release are:
- Extensive booklet describing all the unusual events surrounding the recording of the album - the book is so thick it barely fits into the jewel case cover.
- Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that will play in any DVD player.
- High Resolution 24/96k track of the original stereo mix from the album (at least it sounds identical to how I remember the album).
- Two interesting live concert videos of songs from the album (just the sort of thing you'll never see on MTV).
- The High Resolution 5.1 24/96k mix does not attempt to reproduce the original album sound, as it is already there in the High Resolution Stereo mix. Instead, it seems to me that the intent of the 5.1 mix is to allow the home listener to experience the impact of hard rock as reproduced in the studio. A 6-channel mix uses three times as much amplifier power as a 2-channel mix, and this is put to good use in reproducing the sound of the instruments with clarity and dynamics. However, the center channel consists of only the common information from the LF and LR channels - thus not penalizing the typical music fan who upgraded from two full range channels by adding 3 smaller center/surround speakers.
As such, this DVD-Audio release is highly recommended for Deep Purple fans, as well as fans of 70's hard rock in general.
