From Neil Palfreyman in Bluray Forum
Big Big Train "Stone and Steel" BD 5.1 March '16
Besides correcting the date and giving the title of the BluRay it now also includes some “inside info” from my involvement in the on-going play testing of the surround material.
(If any admins read this and want to delete or close the original I would be happy for them to do so.)
Who are Big Big Train?
They're a contemporary Progressive Rock band who are, arguably, one of the most successful of the "new" bands in this genre in recent years, founded in 1990 by Greg Spawton, the current line up, which has been expanded for live performance includes Nick D'Virgilio, Dave Gregory, Rachel Hall, David Longdon, Danny Manners, Andy Poole, Rikard Sjöblom, Gregory Spawton and their sound engineer Rob Aubrey who is such an important part of the sound that they regard him as one of the band.
Their music could be shallowly described as "Trick of the Tail" era Genesis (indeed vocalist Longdon had an audition for Genesis back in the day) but dig deeper and you’ll find they're so much more than that. Melodic, thoughtful and complex (but not "twiddly"and quintessentially English both in character and song subject matter.
Have a look and listen here: Big Big Train website. The video of "Victorian Brickwork" on the main page will tell you everything you need to know about the band! (Watch it until the end as the brass section is spine chilling.)
I've been a fan since around 2007 and one of my biggest musical dreams has been to hear their music in 5.1. To say that I’m pretty delighted that it’s now coming true would be a massive under-statement.
"Stone and Steel"
(taken from the band's Facebook page FAQ)
"This will be a Blu-Ray and high-definition download release. It will consist of live-in-the studio performances of a number of songs plus some documentary footage and film of four live songs from the Kings Place gigs. Bonus material will be available online and may include interviews and drum-cam footage. Release date is March 7th 2016.”
To expand; the "live-in-studio" material was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s “Real World” studios using the live band line up complete with brass section and strings. This also served as an extended rehearsal for the now legendary “King’s Place” gigs this summer just gone. The King’s Place gigs were also recorded multi channel and “Stone and Steel” will contain material from both.
I haven’t seen a full track list, and even if I had the band have asked me not to divulge details, but I’m pretty sure that that not all content will be in 5.1. However, I do know from my playtesting that a very significant chunk, including some of their best and most epic songs, most definitely will be in surround.
Please don’t ask me, yet, about sound format. It’s not confirmed yet, but Greg’s keen on full resolution and it’s BD, so I’m very optimistic. To date I have been play testing flacs created from the wav files straight out of the DAWand I’ll add more when I can.
Update from Playtesting
I’ve done photography for the band a couple of times so when I saw confirmation that this release included 5.1 material I offered Greg my services as a play tester, reasoning that as I know them, they know me, I know their material inside out and have done quite a bit of 5.1 playtesting this would work well. Luckily he agreed.
So, for the past week or so I've playtesting the surround material that's going to be included in "Stone and Steel” in preparation for it’s release in March. It's not often you get chance to do something like this for one of your favorite bands and re-living a part of the hugely enjoyable King's Place gigs has made this a most intense experience. There have been moments when I have been quite literally speechless.
Listening to the recordings, musicianship and song structure in so much detail and clarity has also given me an even greater appreciation into just how talented these guys and girls are. The playing, recording and production qualities are all so good that the only thing that reminds me that it's actually live is the intense energy that's also been captured in the recordings and comes across in buckets full.
It's also been quite a departure from the norm in terms of approach to play testing for me, too. Because it's a first foray into surround for the band, including their engineer, Rob, it's worked out that I have had opportunity to provide input into how the surround mixes are laid out. In doing so I think I have managed to pass on some of my experience of Progressive Rock in surround and some of the things that can make it work so well. Rob's very quickly added this to his prodigious talents and experience as both a live and studio engineer and used it to fine tune his mixes, which were already very, very good. The result is musical magic. It's spine tingling, immersive, exciting and powerful. It's also stands up very favourably when compared to the best surround music I have in my collection. As live surround it’s up there with, say, “Anesthetise.”
It's been a dream of mine to hear BBT in 5.1 and, since the King's Place gigs, I have longed to re-live that very special experience. I'm pretty certain that "Stone and Steel" is going to do both of these immense justice!
Excited? You should be!
I’ll provide a few more updates as more is released, I’m given approval to do so and have time, but I recommend you add this one to your shopping list for 2016.
http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/foru...t.php?p=274556
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Originally Posted by JKL2000
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