Failed Muso

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

Latest SACD purchase: Propaganda – A Secret Wish

This arrived today, and whilst I have yet to listen to the whole album, I did listen to “Duel” and “Dr Mabuse” which both sounded awesome and really work well in DSD & 5.1. Another Horn & Lipson masterpiece )

The SACD can be bought from Amazon UK HERE

I had also forgotten how attracted to Claudia Brucken I was (and still am !)

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.

The Final Five….

At last !! The final five Depeche Mode Remastered albums turned up today. A tad delayed due to the fact that Songs Of Faith & Devotion was out of stock, but well worth the wait. Sadly, as I am an impatient man, and Mutebank weren’t sure until this week that they were going to get SOFAD in anytime soon, I ordered the five albums again from a shop on eBay. Fingers crossed they will turn up ok and I guess I will just have to find buyers for them. So, if anyone wants them at £12 per album with a nominal P+P charge, just drop me a line. First come, first served. I’ll do all 5 for £60 with free shipping. [UK ONLY - Any overseas, contact me first]

Anyway, here are Music For The Masses, Violator, Songs Of Faith & Devotion, Ultra & Exciter with the first five that I got last month, Speak & Spell, A Broken Frame, Construction Time Again, Some Great Reward & Black Celebration. Along with Playing the Angel (SACD/DVD) and 101 (SACD), I now have the entire DM 5.1 catalogue. Will they ever do the SOFAD Live album in 5.1 ?? That would be the icing on the cake )

EDIT: Albums sold ! )

Genesis Regenesis !

Following in the footsteps of Depeche Mode and their back catalogue conversion to 5.1 (although the work probably started sooner on this project) is the issue of Genesis’ back catalogue of studio albums in 5.1 and stereo SACD/CD/DVD Remasters. 14 of their 15 albums (Their 1969 debut “From Genesis to Revelation” is not included and one can only speculate that it has something to do with the fact that convicted peadophile, former music impressario and producer of the album, Jonathan King, owns the rights to this album) have been given the treatment and are the culmination of a project started back in 2003.

Each album will be available individually as a dual disc package, or you can buy chronologically ordered box sets. Currently available are the 76-82 (A Trick of the Tail, Wind and Wuthering, And Then There Were Three, Duke & Abacab) and 83-98 (Genesis, Invisible Touch, We Can’t Dance, Calling All Stations) albums. The final set of albums will be released in September 2008. These include the 70-74 albums (Trespass, Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

Whilst I’m an admirer of Genesis’ work, I’m not a huge fan, certainly not in the same way I am a fan of Depeche Mode, so I may buy these either one by one when I can, or wait till the price is reduced in some offer.

Either way, it is very welcome to see such influential artists releasing their material this way. It’s just a shame that Peter Gabriel only saw fit to re-release his solo work in stereo SACD, not 5.1 (Except “Up”)

EDIT: An interesting article on Peter Gabriel and his favourable attitudes towards 5.1, sent my way by Yuri of PS3SACD.COM

Have Sony lost it ? PS3 & SACD

When trying to convince people of the benefits and wonders of surround sound when it comes to music, I’m often told that it would be more accepted and embraced if people didn’t have to go out and buy new hardware to play the damned discs, and I can do nothing but agree. True, you can buy a combined multi format player, like the Pioneer DV600 (I have a slightly older DV-575) which plays every CD/DVD format known to man except HD derivatives. I am sure that there are also HD capable players that do similar jobs too. But many people already have good DVD players and/or games consoles, so why buy another box ?

One solution is to get the software released in as many formats as possible. Releasing the material in regualr Dolby Digital and DTS is one way, with both of these formats being playable on regular DVD Video players but at lower qulaity levels than those used by DVD-A or SACD. This isn’t a problem because to be perfectly honest, not many people would notice. This way, the hundreds of thousands of households that already have a home cinema system with 5.1 speaker configurations can experience surround sound music. Looking through my collection of surround sound albums, I can see only 2 that are exclusively SACD when it comes to multi channel. All the others include a DVD-V version as well as a a DVD-A or SACD version.

But ultimately, it’s about getting a hardware user base installed, and Sony recently had the most ideal opportunity to do this with the release of the PlayStation3. Original models were capable of playing back not only PS3 games, DVD and regualr CD but also BluRay with the HD versions of Dolby Digital and DTS and SACD !!

With the obvious mass acceptance and buy in of the PS3, SACD looked to have finally got the opening it needed to gain a foothold.

But no.

Bizarrely, Sony released a range of “updated” PS3′s, obviously in a bid to attract more sales and to justify the lower cost, they dropped certain features such as PS2 compatibility and, amazingly, SACD support ! How dropping SACD support saved money I’ll never know, but what were Sony thinking ??? Being one of the SACD partners (Philips being the other), surely they stood to benefit from the increase in SACD sales that surely would’ve come from the PS3 user base ? With over 10.5 million units sold, that’s a massive potential market. Many of those 10.5 million will have hooked their PS3′s up to their surround sound set ups and been able to benefit from the SACD system.

I find it quite incredulous that Sony dropped the ball on this one. One hopes that they will re-introduce it to newer variants, but I’m not holding my breath.

For more info on PS3 and SACD, visit PS3SACD.COM

An interesting article that shares me sentiment can be found HERE

Latest Surround Sound purchase

The first Depeche Mode studio album to receive the 5.1 treatment was Playing The Angel, released as a double disc SACD/DVD package in 2005. Disc 1 is a Hybrid SACD with stereo and 5.1 layers. Disc 2 contains a DD & DTS 96/24 5.1 mix plus a “Making Of” Documentary, photo gallery and a couple of promo video’s.

As with all their other 5.1 releases, this is a fine example of the medium.

On a side note, I’m currently awaiting delivery of the remaining five DM remasters but apparantly, Songs Of Faith & Devotion is currently out of stock so Mutebank tell me that the rest cannot be shipped to me until it arrives (

I have sourced an alternative supplier and hope to rectify this situation very soon.

Depeche Mode – 101

My latest surround sound music acquisition is 101, the live album by Depeche Mode. The 101 project was primarily a documentary of the band’s For The Masses tour in 1988 and called 101 because the tour ended with their 101st gig of the run at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in front of 75,000 fans.

The film was recently re-released on 2 disc DVD with the film on one disc and concert footage and interviews on disc 2. The soundtrack album, also called 101, was originally released in 1989 and was a top 10 hit. This has been a fans favourite for many years.

In 2004, Mute decided to release a multi channel version on SACD. This included a remastered PCM stereo mix, a remastered SACD stereo mix and a 5.1 remastered SACD mix. Sadly, after a few weeks it became apparent that Disc 1 had authoring faults that made the multi channel layer unplayable. Mute responded by replacing all faulty discs at their own cost.

Trying to find a new copy of this album is quite hard. I decided to go straight to the source and bought my copy from Mutebank, the Mute Records online store, but even they were out of stock. I eventually tracked one down via an Amazon 3rd party seller and it arrived today. The first thing I checked was for the fault that appears at about 1:21 on track 4 and makes the rest of the disc unplayable. Thankfully, mine was ok )

Due to kids and stuff, I haven’t had time to listen fully, but I know the original album well, and this should be nothing short of awesome in 5.1 )

I also managed to track down the 2 disc DVD release in HMV this week for £7 !! (albeit the plastic cased version, not the “luxury” card sleeve). Bargain !