Rick Wakeman & The English Rock Ensemble - “The Red Planet” CD+DVD out 4/3/2020

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I will therefore cancel my order.

Thanks for sharing, 🍻👑

I'm happy to have Grumpy Old Rick and Honest Rob Ayling keep my $40 and send me what they can when they can.
I still listen to plenty of stereo walking and driving, many options to spread a 2.0 mix around the surround room.
These are different times, mustn't grumble.

Just read a story in the local news about our community musicians trying to cope with loss of income from cancelled tours & gigs.

Communication and spreading knowledge will make this easier, appreciate the heads up.
 
Thanks for sharing, 🍻👑

I'm happy to have Grumpy Old Rick and Honest Rob Ayling keep my $40 and send me what they can when they can.
I still listen to plenty of stereo walking and driving, many options to spread a 2.0 mix around the surround room.
These are different times, mustn't grumble.

Just read a story in the local news about our community musicians trying to cope with loss of income from cancelled tours & gigs.

Communication and spreading knowledge will make this easier, appreciate the heads up.
No problem :)
I did confirm with Rob that I will purchase the standalone stereo CD.
My concern is, that they will still release the deluxe box set with no surround DVD, on it's due date.
That's the impression I got as he said 'if not happy with the purchase can ask for a refund'.
 
I am keeping my preorder but am less than enthused with it being stereo only now. I want the pop up packaging and I usually don't go for the box sets. I hope we can get the surround at a later date. It would be nice to know if the surround mix is gonna be forthcoming in some format or is it being dropped altogether?
 
I am keeping my preorder but am less than enthused with it being stereo only now. I want the pop up packaging and I usually don't go for the box sets. I hope we can get the surround at a later date. It would be nice to know if the surround mix is gonna be forthcoming in some format or is it being dropped altogether?
This an exact copy of Rob's e-mail reply:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your email.

Due the world events there is a delay in getting all the desired elements of the bonus DVD together, as a result, the surround sound part of this project has currently being put on hold. If you wish to cancel your order, please approach Music Glue customer service and they will take care of that for you. Alternately, given this is one of Rick's best albums in years, you may want to put up with the stereo version for a while. Now you have my personal email address, please feel free to email me here anytime.

Please be safe in these dark times,
Rob
 
acknowledged we're in the throes of this nightmare pandemic and the most exceptional circumstances demand some slack is cut, this is still an abject lesson in why you should think twice before advertising your product in advance as having features/elements that aren't finished.

i'll keep the order going as i'm keen to hear the album and am happy to own a physical package rather than some tawdry iTunes rendition.. the lack of Surround is a first world problem in a currently totally screwed up world but it is still a bit disappointing. if down the line the label were to issue a lossless surround download that'd be most welcome.
 
Perhaps at some juncture, Rick will see fit to release his new opus as a stand alone BD~A and dispense with the lossy DVD~V. There are a LOT of artists who are feeling the pinch from this horrendous pandemic and I just purchased two 5.1 albums from Bandcamp for less than the price of Rick's upcoming album and one has 2 CDs, a DVD and a 5.1 LOSSLESS BD~A included [for less than $20 delivered].

Rick is still collecting residuals from sales of YES albums which have recently been repressed on hybrid SACDs by Universal Japan so I don't think he's financially strapped.
 
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FYI Usually this stuff in the major labels is mixed and mastered long before ever getting the marketing department involved and announcing anything. I can only speculate of course. Anything could be going on and it's possible there could be some last minute seat of the pants thing. I seriously doubt it though.

Speaking of Nick Mason's SOS, there was a thread where Lee Harris was getting involved where someone was asking about the 5.1 mix as though they believed it was still a work in progress - just like this discussion here. He had to respond with something along the lines of: Lol, we mixed and mastered it months ago!

I think there are marketing people in the business that aren't music listener types. I mean 'tin ear' to the point where they wouldn't be able to tell the difference between stereo and surround! It's a business that needs different disciplines and this can be a legitimate thing and these people can be legitimately good at their non-audio related jobs. Sometimes it leads to awkward scenarios that make it appear the label either doesn't know what they're doing or that they're going after greedy tiered pricing or somesuch. You may have talked with one of the marketing people who thinks "5.1" is a buzzword. They're just not into the details of music or high fidelity. They're literally sitting there in front of a stereo playback and they might say "Oh of course we have that 'buzzword' here!" with genuine cluelessness.

On the other hand, I think it's pretty fair to be wrapped up in weather or not this is a surround release with Rick's history with the format! His first 3 solo albums were somewhat unique in that the quad mix was the fussed over mix and the stereo mix was the quick rough afterthought. They were being forward thinking and putting their weight behind the surround format at the time. It was the opposite for most albums then. The stereo mix got budget for rework and remixes to cross all the t's and dot all the i's while the surround mix often went out with the first (and only) draft. Even Dark Side of the Moon is like this with a few odd mix imperfections here and there in the quad mix.
 
This an exact copy of Rob's e-mail reply:

Hi Mike,
Thanks for your email.

Due the world events there is a delay in getting all the desired elements of the bonus DVD together, as a result, the surround sound part of this project has currently being put on hold. If you wish to cancel your order, please approach Music Glue customer service and they will take care of that for you. Alternately, given this is one of Rick's best albums in years, you may want to put up with the stereo version for a while. Now you have my personal email address, please feel free to email me here anytime.

Please be safe in these dark times,
Rob
Just the stereo version cd in a standard Jewel case comes to $25.63. Yowza!
 
Obvious question maybe - why not just postpone the release date?

Or if other commitments (are there any that haven't been cancelled?) mean they want the music release ASAP, then just postpone the release of the deluxe set until they can provide what was advertised. I recall when the deluxe set of Pineapple Thief's live deluxe was delayed I suggested that those buyers get a download code for the interim.....seems that'd satisfy things?
 
I've just cancelled my order :(. I told them I understood, of course, but wanted to let them know that I was specifically cancelling because I wanted a 5.1 mix. Hopefully if they get a few messages like that it will stick in mind for future releases and make it feel worthwhile to create a 5.1 mix.

I would have thought that delaying was the obvious thing to do, but maybe they have some promotion lined up (interviews, articles, ads) they didn't want to rearrange.

[I wonder if there is a paper craft forum somewhere on which people are celebrating that although Rick dumped the 5.1 mix at least he's kept the pop-up element. :)]
 
I have no problem with folks sticking to their principles and voting with their pocket book to drive behavior to encourage surround content.


[I wonder if there is a paper craft forum somewhere on which people are celebrating that although Rick dumped the 5.1 mix at least he's kept the pop-up element. :)]

I'm not celebrating, but I like pop-ups and the Minimoog on Mars art in particular. 🤓
It was a factor in placing my order, along with supporting the artist and label.
 
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