HiRez Poll Rush - FLY BY NIGHT [DVD-A/BluRay Audio]

[fthesoundguy]

I have to start by saying that while I am a huge Rush fan, this release has never been a favorite of mine to listen to. Nothing has ever really made an impact on me like all the other albums have. I flipped a lot between the stereo and multichannel. It enhanced it a lot (which I think was Chycki’s goal?), but still not groundbreaking by any means.

‘Anthem’ had some cool moments. Doubled vocals in the surrounds and the echo going from surround left to center to surround right. A really, really great moment. The second part of the guitar solo seemed weird to me. Felt like it went from the center in the first part to then mostly being in the right and surround left for me. A little off-putting.

‘Best I Can’, ‘Beneath, Between & Behind’, ’Fly By Night’ and ‘In The End’ all feel like enhanced stereo tracks, especially ‘FBN’. Nothing really good or bad to say about them. The Phaser on the vocal in ‘FBN’ were the standout moments from those. ‘In The End’ also had that phasey high-hat going between the surround left and right as well as another cool echo moment like in ‘Anthem’.

‘By-Tor and the Snowdog' also had a lot of cool moments. Loved the echo swirling around and the guitar / bass solo “fight” was great. There were a couple of moments that were weird however. When the snare and its reverb come into play in the middle section, it sounds off because the chimes are in the surround left, which make the reverb go from the center to mostly the surround right (even though its also in the surround left) because there’s nothing really else in it at that moment. A moment like that comes up in Rivendell too.

‘Making Memories’ was a nice surprise. The acoustic in the center then going to the surrounds at the start was awesome! It makes it really nicely balanced when the electric solo comes up in the fronts. I should listen to this track a little more often.

‘Rivendell’ still sucks. 5 minutes of my life I wish I could get back every time I listen to it. Do SOMETHING with the mix…. I would have done vocal in the center, acoustic in the front and electric in the rears. Something to just let this track breathe and balance it out. The surround left really gets let out of this track since the guitar is in both the front and rear right. It feels like my head is tilted. I know it’s like that in the stereo mix, but the surround really points out what a flaw that really is.

I appreciate Chycki putting the crash/ride cymbals in the surrounds, but it feels weird with all of Neil’s drums up front and then some random cymbals coming from behind you. Not really a cohesive unit to me. Sometimes it was hard to figure out where guitars were coming from sometimes. Usually that meant I could go up to every speaker and hear a bit of it. It made it feel really cluttered and a little exhausting to listen to.

Highlights: Anthem, By-Tor and the Snowdog, Making Memories, In The End.

It’s probably an 7.5, but i’ll bump it up to a 8 for now because By-Tor was pretty damn great. Made me appreciate it a hell of a lot more. Maybe i’ll come back and change it when I hear some of Chycki’s other Rush mixes. This just did not excite me at all like AFTK (SW mix) did. If this is Chycki’s best, then I guess its ok. Still glad to have it, and its a big improvement on the stereo mix for me. It's a fun album to just crank up and enjoy for the most part. I’ve already replayed this album more in the past week than I have in probably the last 10 years.

 

[Juggsnelson]

Changing my vote to 9. Here is why:

RIP Neil E. Peart

Love your reviews!!!!!

 

[hwkn]

I gave it a 9.......listening through my new[about a month old] av receiver it seems more discrete than I remember it being......Rivendell and In The End and also By-Tor were among the best imho.

 

[Miker1102]

I am a long time Rush fan and this one is just awful. The vocals and the bass are buried and there is little use of the rear channels. Honestly, I am so grateful to have the vinyl, and even the recent HD tracks FLAC. Maybe it's just the stereo from this mic but I don't think so.

 

[par4ken]

Revisiting this release, I find that it is much better than I remembered!

I know that I'm at odds with those fanatical Rush fans but this is my second favourite Rush album behind the self titled debut. It was the first Rush LP that I ever purchased. This release is a big step up from the stereo vinyl LP.

I hear the complaints about the guitar being unnaturally/impossibly located in more than one speaker but, really.... so what? A surround mix doesn't necessary have to follow any strict rules or be true to a live performance, it just has to sound good. As has been mentioned it was likely done to help fill out a mix that might have otherwise been a bit on the sparse side.

The comments about the guitar reminds me of when I first got my Sansui QSD-1. I was listening to April Wine's debut album and the guitar seemed to be coming from multiple locations at the same time. I chalked it up to the tri-band processing, the necessity of which I still question. Latter when I decided to service the unit I found that I could not adjust the midband vario matrix board. Repairing it by replacing a couple of chips fixed the problem enabling proper adjustment. The odd decoding behavior was fully cured.

I know that there have been complaints about too many releases getting too many eight votes. That is because when the three factors of mix, performance and sound quality are averaged out eight is the most common result. That is what I'm giving this release eight but it's almost a nine!

I keep joking with my friends that if I ever get another dog I'm going to name him By-tor!

 

[edisonbaggins]

By-Tor and the Snow Dog has been added to the Life in Surround 5.1 Videos playlist.
There is a very cool lead guitar vs. distorted bass guitar "battle" a few minutes in.
Guitar hard-panned left, bass hard-panned right, and both ping-ponging front front to back.
Very cool treatment of the song by Richard Chycki, IMO.