I’ll start with the strong parts because there are a couple. The instant 2112 starts, it envelopes you with those alien sounds across the sound field and sets you up for what should be a great album. The acoustic guitar in Tears is great as well. It's sitting in the surrounds and give a nice compliment to the electric up front. It happens in Something For Nothing too and gives a nice balance to that part of the tracks.
And now for the bad. The reverb is HORRIBLE. My goodness. What a disaster. There is quite a bit on it in the stereo version, but its just slathered on the 5.1 mix. Its like Chycki liked how Vital Signs sounded on Moving Pictures and just decided to make the whole album sound this way. On this record, reverb is in every speaker, which just overwhelmed the mix. Its just too much and honestly, unlistenable.
I listened to this whole album with only the center and surrounds, and i’m confident that the center is the LR summed in places. In other parts it sounds like its JUST reverb for… everything? It’s part of the reason this sounds cluttered and everything is kind of narrow. It’s a puzzling mixing move.
I muted everything but the center to just see what exactly is in it and went through 2112.
Overture: Its the LR summed except he vocals reverb “Ahhhh’s” are so buried in it.
The Temples of Syrinx: LR summed.
Discovery: I think its just the vocal, guitar and waterfall reverb, maybe a 50/50 mix at most but probably closer to the 100% wet reverb.
Presentation: It’s the vocal reverb with bass, ALL the drums, cymbals, guitars.
Oracle: reverbs for guitar, vocals, All drums, cymbals, bass
Soliloquy: Vocal verb, guitars, faint waterfall, All drums, bass. The guitar solo its in the center and front left
Grand Finale: It’s definitely the LR summed.
It’s honestly shocking to me how horrible this is. At the same time, its fascinating to try and figure out why anyone would do this… It happens in all the other tracks in different ways as well.
If you mute the center, you really don’t miss anything and its a slightly better listening experience. Vocals are still screaming out of the fronts and only a couple things are truly buried because of it. Some guitar solos are in it, but they’re also in the front at a little lower level. It also slightly cuts down on the awful reverb all over this mix.
When I was done analyzing the center, I muted it and only heard the surrounds. I realized then that there are points in everything song where the rears sound mirrored to the fronts. Like a upmix. During the solo in in Soliloquy, you can hear all the drums and toms back there. Even kick drum! The guitars/vocals are definitely boosted compared to the front, but all the drums are still there. During the Grand Finale, the panning guitar is twice as loud as everything else, but its still sounds the same as the LR otherwise. A Passage To Bangkok in the surrounds sounds… like the stereo mix, except with the one guitar lick boosted way higher. The Twilight Zone sounds like the stereo mix but with more vocal reverb and the whispering voice boosted. Lessons sounds like the stereo mix as well. I didn’t even want to listen to the rest of the record after that. This is not what you do to create an “immersive” experience!… The more I dive into this, the more frustrated and disgusted I get.
I’m going to start to give a better breakdown of why I am scoring the way I am. I like to score more on the mix instead of everything at a 30/30/30. It’s the main reason I am here. I make the content 10% because I don’t think anyone really cares if I like the material or not. Everyone can stream an album and make up their mind to purchase based on that themselves.
Breakdown:
Mix: 50% - There is a little bit of nice panning happening, but there could be so much more. The center channel is messed up BAD. Cannot be understated enough. Surrounds are a joke as well. 1/5
Fidelity: 30% - Drums don’t sound that great to me and just is kind of blah as a whole. Luckily the stereo mix sounds fantastic. 1/3
Content: 10% - It’s my second favorite band and this is their most important album. 1/1
Packaging: 10% - I have no issues with this. A pretty accessible title with no crazy box set automatically gets a 1/1
It should be a 4 but i’m going to give an extra point to the only redeeming quality to this, which is the comic book going along with the album. It was really cool and took me away from the horrible mix for a moment. Luckily the high quality stereo version is on this, which is the only thing i’ll listen to from this one. So much potential wasted on this release. Wow…This one really makes me sad.
Total: 5/10
