Ambience, like a typical classical recording.Originally Posted by taliesin
Ambience, like a typical classical recording.
"Well my son, life is like a beanstalk, isn't it?"--Dalai Lama
Tubular Bells 2003 is in fact a re-recording. More information on this wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubular_Bells_2003
Listened to this one in its entirely yesterday and enjoyed the surround mix of this re-recording a lot.
Today I listened to the Thrak 2015 5.1 surround (DTS-HD) mix.
My wife loved it, but I was unsure. I do like the stereo 2015 mix (tho it loses some ballz at the expense of separation) - but the 5.1 didnot "wow me" (if that's allowed on school property.....)
It was fine: highlights +
Vroom and Vroom Vroom Coda; walking on air, one time and the chamber music section of Dinosaur.
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
So I followed the above with finally opening the Heaven and Earth box set. Yes, it was still in the shrink wrap.
So I busted out the Blu-ray 5.1 of The ReconstruKction of Light having never heard this re-imagining.
Wow.
Well almost everything was wow except LTiA IV - which was disappointing though I am glad the vocal coda was kept.
But Prozac, TCoL, FraKctured - stunning
Death inspires me like a dog inspires a rabbit
Listened to the new 5.1 surround mix of Azure D'Or by Renaissance, wonderfully done by Stephen W. Tayler.
I have the LP, a cut-out on Sire, which doesn't sound that good, but I liked the album. In fact it was my only Renaissance for a long time.
This new mix shows how well this first album of the band without an orchestra was arranged, produced and played. A lot of details can be heard, while there's a lot more dynamic in the overall sound.
Genaissance? Maybe, but I don't mind
Thanks for the reminder. Played this the weekend too. Indeed, great ending with those Mellotrons and Moog all over the place.
Yes it’s one of my favourite moments on the surround mix.
I’ve been thinking about getting Azure d’Or - it’s not a huge favourite of their albums but from your description it sounds like it’s a big improvement.
Damn you 😁
Yesterday I pulled out the 2006-boxset from The Doors, containing all their studio-album with Jim Morrison as deluxe digipacks with a CD and a DVD with surround mixes by Bruce Botnick. I played the last one, L.A. Woman, and it surprised me after not hearing it for about 15 years. Very good sonic effects over all speakers.
None. I don't have surround sound. Am I missing something?
Good question. Some like it, some don't.
If you're enjoying surround sound in a cinema you also might like music coming to you from more than two speakers. If you don't listen to it and just enjoy the movie, then I wouldn't bother spending money on a surround system.
There are a few types of surround-mixes:
Some are very natural, especially classical and old jazz-recordings (the instruments don't switch from one speaker to another, but you feel you're in de middle of an orchestra/band).
Other mixes can have the purpose to surprise you with instrumenst effectfully coming from one speaker, then another. Special effects work like those in a movie.
And there are mixes that are somewhere between the first two.
Maybe you know somebody with a surround-system so you can experience it for yourself. Best way is often to start with The Dark Side Of The Moon.
I recently started on the ATMOS mix on the Gentle Giant Interview re-release. Holy Mole! What an amazing document! I cannot recommend it enough!
My General Thoughts about Surround: I find that most pieces of music sound better and more immersive in Surround (and especially, ATMOS). But more than anything, dense, complex music is what Surround/ATMOS is made for. The Gentle Giant album is very much that. All those layers of voices…it is so dense and thick. The stereo mix is very good, and if one has never experienced good Surround (like apparently @davis), one might not really understand what Surround can do. But once it is heard in Surround, and especially, in ATMOS (so that height speakers are engaged) the pieces open up. The brilliance of such a thick, dense recording is clearest when spread around the speakers (11 in my case).
I know. Many of you who have not heard a Surround mix by a great mixer (looking at you, Steven Wilson) can easily assume that it is all a gimmick, a freak-show mix that takes away from the song. Or, so many people say “It is just a scam to get you to buy more gear!” But in my opinion, once a person hears good music on a decent system, they will very much want to have a system to do music justice. So many people focus on the ATMOS side of things in this way, but I can assure you that the overheads are a huge. part of the magic of ATMOS. A clever person, such as Wilson uses the overheads not for gimmickry, but instead, uses them in such an artful way. You are enveloped in a hemisphere of sonic richness that is truly three-dimensional. To me, it is the summit of musical appreciation.
Most of us started in on Surround because of movies. Just using it for that alone is worth the price. But when one is a music fan, it is very easy to reconcile the cost. In my case, I slowly added and upgraded over the years.
As far as singling out people that are insanely good at this, Steven Wilson is perhaps the best, but there are several other great minds mixing Surround out there. A vastly and criminally overlooked genius is Magenta/Cyan/Kompendium Mastermind Robert Reed. His Surround and ATMOS mixes are so good. Check out any of the Magenta Surround mixes. And perhaps my favorite album for the medium is the Kompendium CD. It is on a different level. The impact, the beauty, and the crystalline delicacy of that recording is huge in Stereo, but phenomenal in Surround. (The only drag is that the original, special version that had the 5.1 Mix is next to impossible to find.)
One last thought…I know a number of guys that have more money in their stereo systems than I have in my Surround set-up. So I find that the enjoyment I receive from my system far exceeds the cost.
Back to you, davis…I really appreciate your simple but very powerful question. There are many folks like you out there. The best advice I can give you is to seek out an aficionado that has a good set-up and some great discs. Go over and listen. Maybe it isn’t for you. But I think that most of us would see the attraction of Surround once experienced.
I extend the invitation to all of you that might happen to be in (or visiting) the Tucson area…come over to my house and let me crank it up.
Last edited by Gizmotron; 08-30-2023 at 06:14 PM.
That was a great post, @interbellum!
Thanks, Gizmo, but I'm glad you added your view, because I find it hard to explain in English.
B.t.w. Stephen W. Tayler is also a very good mixer of surround-sound.
An often heard slogan of surround-haters is: "you only have two ears". That's true, but the ears hear sounds from more than two directions, which is very handy in traffic for instance, but a delight in music.
Interbellum and Gizmo have pretty much said it all.
As an example I listened to Tull's A album tonight and the way Wilson has placed the instruments on the soundstage gives a much better understanding of the interplay between Anderson and Barre with Jobson as the new player bringing new sounds to the band.
There are some keyboard parts that were buried in the original mix which add a lot to the overall experience of the music.
The other thing I find with a lot of surround mixes is with the subwoofer it adds a nice heft to the bottom end. A definitely has this - the rhythm section of Pegg and Craney sound very muscular compared to the original mix.
Just got this one this week: The Lexicon Of Love from ABC with a fine Dolby Atmox Mix by Steven Wilson.
Of course I knew the singles when they were released, but never bought the LP, so - especially after reading Trevor Horn's memoires - I was curious to get me a special edition of this album. And here it was! Very well done.
https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/...blu-ray-audio/
@taliesin: my music-room isn't very large, so I didn't get me a subwoofer when I bought my surround-system.
That makes sense - being a bass player for me not having a sub was never an option. ��
Yesterday I listened to TOTO IV, multi-channel 5.1 mix on SACD, which was released last year in Japan in a beautiful 7"-package.
Nice!
I see that there is a NEKTAR “Remember the Future” CD/Blu-Ray package coming out that has a 5.1 mix. I am interested!!
And in an echo of what I have said before (about letting friends experience my set-up) I had one of my neighbors over last night to listen to Surround Music, and to watch a 4K BluRay Nature DVD.
He is actually popping for the top of the line Sennheiser Sound Bar, but i wanted him to hear what that device would be emulating. I played portions of the Robert Reed KOMPENDIUM Surround Sound disc. They were suitably impressed. And by the way, he stated a very simple but very effective piece of advice to his wife as he listend to Kompendium: “Close your eyes and you’ll get a better sense of the sounds all around you.”
“Well spoke, Puck!”
—Will Shakespeare
Got my Broadsword and the Beast package today so that was my surround listening for tonight sorted.
Bottom end is very full and heavy (which I like) and overall it sounds very good.
Guitars on Flying Colours sound great.
Just listened to the 5.1 surround sound mix from Steve Hackett's Please Don't Touch as can be found in the boxset Premonitions: The Charisma Recordings 1975-1983.
This is a very enjoyable mix, especially because Steve and band used a whole lot of different accoustic and electric instruments, plus plenty of sound-effects. I'm sure Steven Wilson must have a lot of fun mixing this beauty from 1978.
I missed that box when it came out and it looks like the individual albums are out of print as well - I should have been more on the ball.
Yes, sometimes you have to be quick. There are copies on Discogs, but those prices are way too high. Even Hackett doesn't carry Premonitions in his shop anymore, but there's a nice page with info: https://www.hackettsongs.com/news/newsGeneral77.html
I just listened to Exposure Fourth Edition - the 2021 Steven Wilson DTS Digital Surround 5.1 mix. I only have the CD/DVD-set, no need for all those extra's. The DVD also includes the sterer-version of the previously unreleased Last Of The Great New York Heartthrobs from 1978 with all vocal by Daryl Hall.
The surround-mix is quite effective, with sounds floating arround all speakers. Especially Exposure is nice: Spelled Ex - P - O - S - U - R - E from different speakers.
This evening I was in a Gentle Giant-mood and played the 1976 quad mix from the 2011-CD/DVD-set of Interview, followed by the 2015 Blu-Ray-version of Octopus (which includes a live-version of Excerpts From Octopus, recording in 1976 in 5.1 DTS surround.
What a unique band and sound. I guess I should follow this one of these days with the quad mixes of "The Power And The Glory" and "Free Hand"; haven't heard them since a long time.
I listened to Memories Of Machines by Tim Bowness and Giancarlo Erra, a CD/DVD-set from an album that was released a few years earlier as Warm Winter under the bandname Memories O Machines. The surround-mix on the DVD makes this quiet album, with fine vocal harmonies and some Floydesk guitar/keyboard-parts, worth listening. The set contains two bonus-tracks, which are also on the DVD.
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