Field Of Sound
As part of my homogenisation of the Failed Muso brand earlier this month, I also decided to merge another of my blogs into the Failed Muso blog.
This blog was called Field Of Sound and was started up to cater for my passion of multi-channel & surround sound audio. Regular followers will know that I am a massive fan of such things and my music collection contains many multi-channel recordings including the DVD AUdio version of Dark Side Of The Moon, the entire Bjork & Depeche Mode catalogue in 5.1, Queen’s A Night At The Opera and much, much more.
I started it up a while back but never really posted much to it sadly. However, the posts I did make have now been merged in with the Failed Muso blog in chronological order.
There is one final blog, again a poorly posted to one, called Zerox Machine which was an attempt at having a blog to rant and rave about anything other than music. I have decided not to merge this one as it’s not music related and I’m guessing music related shit is what you guys want from me. I may, but probably may not, import it as a secondary blog on here, if I feel it’s worth it.
Bjork – Surrounded
I have always liked Bjork. For one, she’s cute. Secondly, and most importantly, she is an incredible talent. Her music, her performances, her personality, are all so incredibly unique. Her music spans so many emotions and genres, evoking a myriad emotions and requiring in depth listening and a level of intelligence not normally required in pop music.
She is also no stranger to the world of 5.1, having released Vespertine, Medulla and Volta in various surround formats. Vespertine & Medulla were released in DVD-A & SACD as well as featuring Dolby/DTS mixes. Volta was just Dolby/DTS mixes. It would appear that Bjork has also seen the impending demise of DVD-A & SACD and tailored her output accordingly.
However, it is only these three albums so far that have received 5.1 mixes, until now. Surrounded is a luscious and sumptuous box set that contains her first seven studio albums, all featuring the original CD masters on one side of a DualDisc, with the other side containing remastered 5.1 versions in Dolby & DTS 96/24 along with all the accompanying promo videos for the singles. So now we can enjoy not only Vespertine and Medulla, but also Debut, Post, Homogenic, SelmaSongs and Drawing Restraint 9 in our favoured format (Volta is not included as this box set pre dates its release).
This box set has been out for some while but slipped under my radar. You can pick it up for as little as £49.99 from places like Play.Com.
I’m saving already 
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly….
Three more titles entered my surround music collection this week and the difference in quality and presentation couldn’t be more obvious.
First up we have the Good….
Their eponymously titled 12th album, containing the classic tracks, Mama, That’s All, Home By The Sea and Illegal Alien, is part of the Genesis Remastered catalogue that is seeing the light of day at the moment. Two sets have already been released, spanning 1976 to 1998. The final chapter, 70-75, will be available in September.
Presented in a similar way to the Depeche Mode remasters, these albums each have two discs. One is SACD/CD and the other a DVD Video. Both feature the entire album in 5.1. The DVD Video version offers either Dolby Digital or DTS 96/24 soundtracks as well as photo galleries and a short film of interviews with the band on how the album was made.
The packaging isn’t as sumptuous as the Depeche Mode albums, but sufficient nonetheless.
As for audio quality, it is superb as expected, with a rich and full soundscape. Phil’s vocals tend to be focused on the centre channel more than some other surround albums I have heard. 5.1 mixers vary between those that favour the front centre for vocals or those that like to spread the vocals around the soundfield. I tend to prefer the latter, but either way, this works.
I am now seriously tempted to acquire the rest of the collection.
Now for the Bad….
I was eagerly anticipating this title. I had scoured the web and the shops for this and eventually found it and it arrived promptly last week. This package contains not only the New Master of Oxygene, but also the “LIve In Your Living Room” performance of the entire piece by JMJ and friends in 2D and 3D !
Well, in 2D, this is an impressive piece, especially watching JMJ jumping on and off classic synths and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio gives it great depth, but the 3D version is poor to the point of being unwatchable ! I’ve tried numerous screens and glasses but it still looks very poor.
But the real mystery is the audio CD. On the Oxygene website, it states that there are 3 versions of this title. Version one is a single audio CD. No frills, just the album. Version two is a two disc affair, with the 2D film and what they claim to be a 5.1 multichannel SACD version of the studio recording. Version three is the same as version two but with the added bonus of the Stereoscopic film.
Well, my 3D version has just a regular Redbook audio CD. No mention of SACD anywhere.
Sadly, as these are quite rare in shops, I have not been able to find a 2D version which is claimed to be an SACD, so I can confirm it. If it is indeed SACD, it would appear that EMI/JMJ have hatched a cynical marketing ploy to get you to buy the album twice if you want the 3D movie as well as the SACD studio recording.
I am currently investigating and will report back as soon as I find anything out.
Finally, we have the Ugly….
I saw this for £6 in Zavvi and thought “why not”. It’s an unofficial yet legitimate release and I found out afterwards that Gary has disowned this release, saying he has nothing to do with it and didn’t approve it. I then found some reviews that said the quality was poor and indeed, it’s not the best in the world. If you’re going to release a sub-standard collection of recordings, you’re probably best not to release it on DVD-A, whose massive headroom will be unforgiving and show up any problems with consumate ease.
However, it’s nice to have something from Gaz in surround. Maybe it’s a potential project for him in the future. He has just re-released the 1979 Tubeway Army classic, “Replicas” to coincide with his tour this year (which I have tickets for next month !) and whilst this album is remastered and contains bonus tracks, it isn’t in surround. Can you imagine “Down In The Park” or “Are Friends Electric?” in 5.1 ?? 
)
So, whilst many attach a quality label to SACD & DVD-A, some of these releases clearly show that the badge means chuff all.
Play.com withdraw SACD & DVD-A pages
A sad, yet inevitable, day for those of us who buy and enjoy SACD & DVD-A discs. Online retailer Play.com have decided to remove their SACD & DVD-A pages. This decision coincides with their new download shop being launched this week. There’s no doubting the business decision behind this, with downloads being a far more profitable marketplace. However, had Play stocked all the discs they had listed, I’d have certainly bought more.
It has been noted that typing in SACD or DVDA into Play’s search engine will still yield results and you will still be able to buy these. Maybe they will have a clearance promotion soon ??
So, that leaves places like Amazon to cater for our online needs, and of course the artists themselves.
So I guess that MP3 Surround and other new 5.1 digital file formats will now have to carry the mantle of surround sound music.
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon DVD-A. Could this be what surround sound music needs ?
I have always been a big fan of surround sound. My father had a Quadraphonic HiFi back in the 70′s (A lovely Dynatron affair) and I was hooked from that moment onwards. The concept of being surrounded by sound, having an audio image created all about me seemed natural and right. Stereo seemed restrictive.
It is only recently, since the mass acceptance of DVD and the 5.1 format into home theatres that the possibility of music in surround has been resurrected. Sadly though, it’s not much of a resurrection yet. It’s taking time. I’m sure it will get there, but there is confusion and animosity over the various formats and of course, you need to get consumer buy in for it to really take off. DVD-Audio & SACD are the two hardware formats that cater for high fidelity multichannel mixes at 24bit/96KHz. SACD is Sony’s baby, therefore titles available rely on industry affiliations and we all know where that can lead. For example, Jeff Wayne’s “Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds” is only available on regular Redbook CD and SACD, not DVD-A. Queen’s “A Night At The Opera” is only available in DVD-Audio, As is The Beatles “Love” album. However, The Beatles & Queen (as do many other releases) also have a DVD Video version available, utilising Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 found in all home DVD systems, so the user base is now much bigger, but the bug hasn’t bitten and the message still needs to be emphasised.
So what’s it going to take ? How are we going to convince people that multichannel music is the way forward ? Well, releasing classic albums in the format might help. Depeche Mode have recently released their entire studio catalogue in SACD/DVD remasters (see my post HERE), and of course “Love” and “Night At The Opera” are classics too. Fleetwood Mac’s album, “Rumours” (the 4th biggest selling album off all time) is available in DVD-A and there are some other classics there too. Current artists like Jean Michel Jarre & Bjork are big proponents of multichannel music but we need a landmark release to get people into it. And we also need a way of getting software involved in the playback process. There is now an MP3 Surround format, ratified by the AES and being adopted by many of the big name hardware & software manufacturers so this could be the push we need.
One classic album that got the multichannel treatment recently was Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” on SACD, released to celebrate it’s 30th anniversary. But what some people don’t realise is that this album was a surround sound pioneer at it’s creation, and not just 30 years later. Alan Parsons was the engineer on the original project and remixed the entire album for Quadraphonic sound. Sadly, the band (or the label) decided not to release this version, maybe because production costs were too high back then, and the multiple variations on the quadraphonic format meant that sales would be minimal. So, naturally, these quadraphonic mixes soon became the stuff of legend and folklore and various versions appeared as bootlegs. But recently, the orginal 1/2″ masters were transferred to the digital format and subsequently released (albeit unofficially) as the definitive quad mix. Here are the notes that come with the release…
Dark Side Of The Moon
From the original 1/2″ Master Tapes
This is the real deal. not the usual Q8 or SQ versions with all their limitations
(limited bandwidth on the Q8, Matrixed surround on the SQ etc) but a genuine transfer from the original master tapes.
Finally you can hear Alan Parsons mix as it was always intended to be heard in studio quality audio.
The only “liberty” we have taken here is an additional .1 track. You can make up your own mind as to
whether or not it is a worthwhile addition.
It also features all new artwork in both sections specially created for this DVD-Audio release
The disc will play on all DVD players, as it is a DVD-Audio/Video “hybrid” containing the following:
Audio_TS
MLP Lossless at 24/96 Resolution in 4.1
Video_TS
DTS from 24/48 Source files
Dolby Digital from 24/48 Source files
Additionally, it is possible to play both the lossy streams from DVD-Audio players.
Each type has it’s own menus. What you can access is dependant entirely on your player.
All Authoring, Encoding, Post Production and design is exclusive to this release.
FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE THIS DISC TO OTHERS, BUT ALWAYS “AS IS” AND IN FULL.
PLEASE DO NOT RIP AND REPOST IN ANY OTHER FORMAT. THERE IS NO NEED AS ALL DVD PLAYERS CAN READ THIS DISC,
AND DOING SO WILL DEPRIVE OTHERS OF THE FULL HIGH RESOLUTION FORMATS USED.
ADDITIONALLY, RIPPING TO DTS-CD WILL INVOLVE QUALITY LOSS DUE TO DOWNSAMPLING, AND WILL
REDUCE THE LISTENING PLEASURE FOR OTHERS.
Of course, this is unofficial, and probably illegal, therefore I won’t provide any direct links to places to acquire this. However, it’s safe to say that if you Google for it, you will find it. You will also need a BitTorrent client )
And how does it sound ? Fuckin’ awesome ;o)
