HiRez Poll Who, The - QUADROPHENIA (excerpts) [DVD-A]

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Rate the DVD-A of The Who - QUADROPHENIA (selections)


  • Total voters
    29

JonUrban

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Included with the QUADROPHENIA DIRECTORS CUT box set, this DVD-Audio disc contains 8 tracks mixed by Pete Towsend from the Who Classic LP.

Please post your thoughts and comments on the DVD-Audio disc, including where you got it and what it cost.

Disc Five - DVD-Audio - 5.1 surround-sound mix
1. I Am The Sea
2. The Real Me
3. Quadrophenia
4. I've Had Enough
5. 5.15
6. Dr Jimmy
7. The Rock
8. Love Reign O'er Me


quadrophenia 700.jpg

:yikes
 
My copy arrived from Amazon this afternoon. My first quick listen was pretty damned fun. This sounds very "quad" to me with important song elements coming from various corners of the room depending on the song. I don't really know this album other than the "hits" but I'm really enjoying this so far.

Upon a few more listens, I have come to really love this. I can't testify to the improvement in quality in fidelity offered by the DVD-A over the original release as noted above, but this sounds great to me. The mix is aggressive with swirling waves, guitars and vocals occasionally emanating from the rear speakers, and all sorts of rewards offered to those who listen closely. While the miser in me wants to give lower grades due to this DVD-A essentially being a sampler and the overall cost of the box, I just can't do it. 10.
 
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I picked this one up at Best Buy today. It's a pretty impressive package. The 5 discs are stuck in the book itself, in pockets. The DVD-A has a very surround-ish mix, especially the first couple of tracks. The first track is a full-on demo track for 5.1 newbies.

It's nice to hear an old title that was never released in quad finally released in surround, as in someway you're getting the artist in their prime in a new surround showcase.

Won't vote yet, but it's a 9 or 10 for sure. I'm still not happy I had to buy the whole kit to get the kabootle, though. :)
 
This album has always sounded a tad "muddy" to me and so do the 5.1 selections on this EP. However, they still do have quite a bit more detail than the older stereo versions as is typical with multichannel releases in advanced resolution formats. I still must listen to the 2 channel remix included in the package before passing judgment on the 5.1 mix and voting...I want to hear if it truly sounds better in 5.1 DVD-A. Others have complained about a lack of bass on these 5.1 tracks. I also find this to be true but very correctable with a large boost of the tone control. The 5.1 mix itself is really good, other than "The Real Me" as it isn't as immersive as the other tracks and lacks the big impact that I was hoping for. I recall Entwhistle's remix for the "The Real Me" for soundtrack and how great it sounded, but I no longer have that LP for comparison.

Right now I am saying a minimum of a 7 of 10 for this 5.1 recording.
 
Sounds great, but like the post above, the highest I can vote is 7 since it is still missing 9 songs. At least it's a DVD-Audio disc though and not just DVD-Video...
 
This album has always sounded a tad "muddy" to me and so do the 5.1 selections on this EP. However, they still do have quite a bit more detail than the older stereo versions as is typical with multichannel releases in advanced resolution formats.

I listened today. I think the muddiness lies mostly in the sound of the cymbals. The original stereo sounds that way as well, and in all fairness it does sound better, I was just hoping the high-res treatment would clean that up a bit more. My guess is, that is just the way it was recorded on the master tapes.

On the positive side the 5.1 mix is good, and the sound quality is still better than I have ever heard on any version before. It comes with a huge (and heavy) book. Nice packaging. I haven't spun the CD's or the 45rpm single yet. I will spend more time with it before I vote.

I got mine from Amazon UK for £59.16 and £3.08 delivery and handling (about $98. US). Not too bad for a purchase here "In the year of the Box".
 
As usual, my focus with my vote is on what I am hearing. What tracks were, or weren't, done is secondary to me. These are professional producers. They have multitracks. What did they do with them?

To me, this was quite the schizophrenic mixing job. I think there was a real effort to offer real instrumental separation, and not the "big stereo" we tend to hear too much of lately. It's obvious in "Quadrophenia," which I thought was a magnificent job. Where it goes to shit is when there's an actual vocal here. There is way too much vocal spread and WAY too much vocal audible in the rears. You literally have a track entitled "lead vocal," and you could bring out the separation so much damn more if you focused that sucker in the center channel as much as possible. Why does everyone not named Steve Wilson do otherwise? "The Real Me" is practically mixed inside-out from what it should have been.

What's actually interesting is that, if you put your ear up to that center channel, this isn't a "use the center for ambience" kind of mix. There's unique information in there. It's just repeated in the other four channels too often. God gave you a center channel twenty-something years ago. Get over yourself and use it to your advantage. :)

What's good is very good, and "Quadrophenia" is worth the price of admission itself. 7 of 10 overall.
 
To me, this was quite the schizophrenic mixing job.

The perfect word (schizophrenic) to describe many current releases and some (many? Yes Fragile anyone?) older releases. I had been thinking the same exact thing. As soon as i get my thoughts together, I hope to comment constructively on some of the really good posts lately. there is a lack of a coherent mixing philosophy combined with a lack of vision about how a record should sound that is disconcerting.. I might change careers just to start doing this the way is should be done. Of course, pete should be the final word on how this should sound and, overall, this is really good, but the end lacks the grandiosity that it deserves. Maybe it was rushed (doh!) out the door. My main thought, really applies to other mixes- so I'll comment elsewhere on that.
 
After listening again, I am sticking with my 7 of 10 rating. After playing the 5.1 mixes, I put on the CD and enhanced it to 7.1. I only made it through a couple of minutes of The Real Me and gave up...the 5.1 mix blows away the 2-channel mix in clarity, definition and overall satisfaction of presentation. However, the package doesn't hold together as well as the would the complete album in 5.1. The main themes seem quoted too frequently in this "best of Quadrophenia" 5.1 collection without songs like Dirty Jobs et al there to both break things up and conversely, aid in pulling it all together as well.

Unfortunately, the cymbals in the 5.1 mix remain "smeared." The Real Me doesn't have the impact it should when it comes in at the end of I Am the Sea. As mentioned in earlier posts, one would have hoped that the digital wizards would have been able to correct the cymbals and add impact where appropriate as did Stephen Wilson in Cross Eyed Mary from Aqualung. Finally, I find that I have to boost the bass control on all of these cuts, but that is not a big deal as doing so doesn't ever seem to hurt the overall sound balance.
 
The Real Me doesn't have the impact it should when it comes in at the end of I Am the Sea. As mentioned in earlier posts, one would have hoped that the digital wizards would have been able to correct the cymbals and add impact where appropriate as did Stephen Wilson in Cross Eyed Mary from Aqualung.

The Real Me was a bizzare mixing job on this. You get primarily vocal in the rears instead of instrumentation which, as you said, really robs you of a powerful, immersive experience. Even from stereo, you can get that vocal more centered, and more instrumentation into the rears. The lack of imagination, and willingness to just get a bit more aggressive when mixing to 5.1, just shocks me sometimes.

We both voted 7 out of 10, albeit for different reasons, so it looks like we're on the same wavelength here.
 
When I play this EP, I raise the center channel volume a bit. This way you get more of the sorely lacking dryness of the vocal in the mix as well as a louder bass on several songs. I have a feeling that the center channel was mistakenly lowered during the mastering process.
 
Love the music, love The Who and the box is a great package in itself but I can't forgive the often odd surround mix choices, the strange EQ on some tracks (bass heavy on some, bass shy and over trebly on others) and the final nail in the coffin, the lack of all the tracks mixed in 5.1! So its a sad "7" from me... Could and should have been so much better.
 
6. A good mix, long overdue. One of the best albums by anyone! Still, this disc is a ripoff. True, it's better than having none of it in surround at all. I would have bought an ultra expanded Quadrophenia, even without the surround mix. Still, I just can't help but being SCREWED in buying something that's incomplete. Just an excuse to come back and stick us for more $$$$ later. A shameless money grab!!

If by lousy content you mean, not enough of it, I agree. Otherwise....wha???
 
I don't like the music one little bit. Guess I'm more a fan of their earlier material. Pre-Tommy...

Im with you on this with the exception of 5:15 i really think this album is just not that good.
It just rambles a bit too much.

One of teh reasons i did not get the box, though if teh full album had been in 5.1 then I may have, definitly an album i dont need to explore to the n-th degree
 
By the way, wasn't there a rumor that Townshend was going to provide downloads in 5.1 of the rest of the album? I seem to recall reading that here earlier...
 
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