Simple Minds "Sparkle in the Rain" (March 2015)

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Email I received from Burning Shed:

Hi,

Thanks for buying Sparkle in the Rain from us.

We have been made aware of a fault on both the DVD in this box set and the standalone Blu-Ray disc. New discs are being made by Universal now.

We will automatically send you a replacement DVD or Blu-Ray disc as appropriate when we get them. You do not need to return anything or ask us - it will all just happen.

Obviously it can take a while for the new discs to be manufactured so please bear with us until we can send yours out.

Kind regards

Burning Shed Support
 
Quality control in manufactured Music discs is well and truly bloody dead!
I did not buy this disc yet but have been burned With Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd Immersion discs etc that were screwed up.
WTF is going on? Do they actually lisTen to them before manufacturing is done?
 
Quality control in manufactured Music discs is well and truly bloody dead!
I did not buy this disc yet but have been burned With Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd Immersion discs etc that were screwed up.
WTF is going on? Do they actually lisTen to them before manufacturing is done?

They need to send them to all QQ members for testing first for our approval. :D
 
Quality control in manufactured Music discs is well and truly bloody dead!
I did not buy this disc yet but have been burned With Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd Immersion discs etc that were screwed up.
WTF is going on? Do they actually lisTen to them before manufacturing is done?

Mistakes have been made.. happily it appears they are to be rectified..

..two wrongs don't make a right but let's not be under a misapprehension that quality control levels have suddenly plummeted..

..numerous surround discs from "back in the day" have chronic faults - and they never got fixed.. channel screw ups, glitches, lousy menu functionality, you name it.. too numerous to go into detail.. I'm sure we all own such defective 10-15 year old DVD-A's and SACDs?

..a lot has been done to learn from the mistakes of the past and to ensure they don't happen in future but things can and still do unfortunately go wrong despite the best efforts of all involved..

..so maybe we could just take a step back and consider those individuals who have spent many many hours of their time road testing in good faith the surround discs we here all buy, checking over the scores of variables where things can go wrong and helped to put so many of them right?

I'm a "glass half full" kinda guy so I'm optimistic this one will be cleared up quicker than you can say "Cassandra Wilson's Traveling Miles DVD-A"..! :D
 
Whilst one can appreciate that mistakes happen and that the most important thing is that those mistakes are identified and resolved as quickly as possible, one has to question why this happened and how it was allowed to happen. If you're in the business of publishing books, you have the text proof read by a number of people to check that it is ok. Does the same thing happen with audio? Some friends of mine have just released an album on vinyl and digital and they played test pressings on numerous occasions, identifying faults until it was ready. However, they didn't do the same with the digital stuff. Have we become lazy and do we simply assume that because something is held in the digital domain, it must be ok?

Whilst I respect those that do test these things, something went very badly wrong. Whether that happened after testing or during production, the processes in place failed to prevent a costly error. Costly in terms of re-manufacturing and also in reputation. I always do like to err on the positive side, but this is a schoolboy error from a supposedly professional, global organisation. And what of the many people who will have bought it and don't frequent places like this (yes, they do exist!) and have no idea that this was faulty? The damage can be, in many cases, permanent.

I repeatedly agonised about buying this item as I couldn't decide between the box set or just the Blu Ray, mainly because the box was far more expensive than other, comparable sets and I'm not sure I'm that much of a Simple Minds fan to justify that outlay, but then I'd be ready to click 'buy' on the Blu Ray only to then think that for a little bit more, I'd get much more value for money with the box. I dilied and dallied and decided to wait.

Boy, am I glad I did...
 
I promised myself to hold off buying these new releases after one too many balls up's (TAAB, Jakko BSS, etc...)... my stance has changed since however.. I don't blame people at all for being pissed off about these kinds of things.. but if I say to you that I now realise what a hell of a lot of hard work goes into these things (and that's an understatement) and those involved are doing their utmost to get the best end product out to stores.. and still things can go awry, I do feel rather differently about these kinds of screw ups now.

Anyway, I'm bowing out of this one, I don't want to get involved in a shitstorm in a teacup, I'm a lover not a fighter! :D
 
Today I will contact Groove.inc to find out if they will send replacement discs as well. The set arrived without any problems, so I might order in future again from them.

Please let us know the response - I was thinking of writing to them as well as I expect my copy to arrive any day now.
 
Mistakes have been made.. happily it appears they are to be rectified..

..two wrongs don't make a right but let's not be under a misapprehension that quality control levels have suddenly plummeted..

..numerous surround discs from "back in the day" have chronic faults - and they never got fixed.. channel screw ups, glitches, lousy menu functionality, you name it.. too numerous to go into detail.. I'm sure we all own such defective 10-15 year old DVD-A's and SACDs?

..a lot has been done to learn from the mistakes of the past and to ensure they don't happen in future but things can and still do unfortunately go wrong despite the best efforts of all involved..

..so maybe we could just take a step back and consider those individuals who have spent many many hours of their time road testing in good faith the surround discs we here all buy, checking over the scores of variables where things can go wrong and helped to put so many of them right?

I'm a "glass half full" kinda guy so I'm optimistic this one will be cleared up quicker than you can say "Cassandra Wilson's Traveling Miles DVD-A"..! :D

I love the Boz Scaggs DIG disc and it has a song on it that is almost unlistenable...but it's still a great disc and a favorite of mine...some people are going "over the edge" and they haven't even heard this disc yet...and we do have a good review from IMachine...I'm glad I ordered it...
 
Well when Snood bought the Rush Sector sets used about 6 months ago............then found out that the 5.1 on the first 2 were defective and was a known problem when they came out...........Snood did some snooping on google and the Rush forums. I found an email addy for Universal Music customer Service............. [email protected] think it is in the UK

Even though the Box sets were 4 years old...............I emailed these guys and within a day they responded twice............I had 2 discs bad. They sent me both the corrected discs no fussing at all............and even when one of the corrected discs showed up less than stellar looking, I emailed them again and they sent another replacement of the same disc. Did not have to send back anything at anytime. The sets were 4 years old and used. They sent them in a nice bubble envelope with a plastic slim jewel case from UK they paid postage. Was real impressed.

Well Snood did some more snooping about the new Simple Minds defective discs and people are bringing up this email addy again.

So SNood sent them a nice email asking if they were going to replace defective discs, etc.............you guys might want to use that email tooooooooooooooo - SNood will keep you posted.

Bought mine from Amazon UK...........so it's either send it back for same defective one...........or send it back for refund, but would lose money on shipping - Snood in USA - so holding out hope Universal Music will be replacing defective discs -Me thinks they will eventually :banana:
 
Last edited:
My HFPA arrived today in Connecticut from Amazon UK. I will start off by saying that I had never heard the music on this album before. Despite it topping the charts in the UK, it did not make much of an impression in the U.S. But as I've liked some of their other material and as this was a Wilson remix, I figured it was worth the risk.

As others have stated, the first thing that struck me in the 5.1 mix was how low in the mix the lead vocals seemed to be. There seems to be an (over?) emphasis on big drum sounds in the rear speakers. On some songs, there is some nice liberal use of the rears, but in other places the mix felt a bit too conservative for me. While the mix is mostly good, I don't find it as satisfying as Hand.Cannot.Erase or Songs From the Big Chair. Some of my reaction may be based on my not being overly impressed with the caliber of the songs [Full disclosure: I got into a heated e-mail exchange with the guitarist in my band this afternoon (why is it always guitarists??? LOL) so my mood may be influencing my enjoyment level of this music that I've never heard before.]

On the Amazon UK front.... They dispatched it on March 14 and said that I should expect it on April 7. It only took 7 days to get to me. I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten anything from them. Four days before they dispatched this, they dispatched my order of The Geese and the Ghost which still has yet to arrive. Go figure.....
 
Amazon US suddenly sent me an order update indicating that the Blu Ray has shipped a week early.
The cost did not drop like other recent pre-orders and Amazon is no longer offering the disc directly. It is available through third party vendors. Must be tied into the mix problem.
 
Never had to spend money to send back a faulty disc before. Glad I cancelled my order instead of assuming that they would send out replacements free of charge like other labels have done.
 
Back
Top