HiRez Poll R.E.M. - IN TIME The Best Of [DVD-A]

Please post your comments, thoughts and observations.......

Overall, pretty solid and satisfying mixes, which makes me hopeful for the rollout of their Warner catalog next year. Unfortunately, I guess they couldn't find the multi's for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth," and it's simply a "reprocessed" fake surround mix. Hopefully they'll correct that for the "Monster" DVD-A.

Interestingly, the DVD-Video counterpart to this album contains several other songs not on the album, also mixed to 5.1.

I'll post a review I wrote awhile ago:

I am only a casual fan of REM but upon putting REM - "In Time The Best of REM" in my player and hearing the acoustic guitar and bass that start “Man On The Moon”, I started to smile. It took me less than ten seconds to be glad I made this purchase.

The word that comes to mind to describe the MCH mix is “mature” – I mean that like the Beatles stereo mixes “matured” through their career from the gimmicky everything being way in one channel or the other in their early work to a more natural mix. The main instrumentation is primarily spread across the front soundstage and the rears have some discrete accent percussion, backing vocals, and just enough other instrumentation to form a complete immersive experience. Since this is a compilation of music recorded at different times with different engineers involved, the quality is not completely consistent, however the variance ranges from pretty good to excellent. It never jars with a song that doesn’t sound like it belongs.

The mixes are the same as found on the other REM DVD-A releases so if you own those, you don’t need this one unless you need every available 5.1 REM track including the new tracks, “Bad Day” and “Animal”. Also included are a couple of soundtrack cuts that will most likely never make to DVD-Audio outside of this package.

The disk includes the usual “extra” pictures of the band. Also included is the “Bad Day” video and some rehearsal footage with four different user-selectable camera angles. Not included are the lyrics, which is a shame because REM’s lyrics are intelligent but not always intelligible.

This disk is as good as pop-rock for grown-ups gets. In addition to the 96/24 surround mix, it contains a 192/24 stereo mix which is so good, I actually got up from my chair a couple of times to verify that the subwoofer and center channel weren’t on because the imaging was so detailed and the bass so wonderfully tight. I had a hard time believing I was getting these results from just my two front speakers.

Unless you just don’t care for intelligent, fun, pop-rock, add this disk to your “Must Have” list.

Some of the surround mixes are stunning (Bad Day, Animal - yes I know they are the "new tracks"), some are very good (The Great Beyond, tracks from Reveal and Up, E-Bow the Letter) and some are wonky (I don't think What's the Frequency Kenneth was mixed from a stereo master - the "chattering" guitar is very different in tonality, and some of the "balances" differ from the 2 track mix - but I will agree that much of it sounds like 5 channel stereo).

The rest of it is very good, bringing out some details that were always there, but are now a bit more... er.... "focused". Am I the only one that noticed something is a bit "wrong" near the end of Stand, at the modulate? Not a major gaffe, nothing sounds "wrong", just something different from the stereo issue. I haven't bothered to A/B them yet to figure out exactly what it is...

I gave it a 7.

Uncle Al said:

Am I the only one that noticed something is a bit "wrong" near the end of Stand, at the modulate? Not a major gaffe, nothing sounds "wrong", just something different from the stereo issue. I haven't bothered to A/B them yet to figure out exactly what it is...

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Actually, there are problems with "Stand," now that you mention it. I'd forgotten about that. During the modulation, there's a bit of backwards echo leading up to the chorus. This is missing on the M/C mix. Likewise, the chorus prior to that is different as well. In the stereo version, they shout out "Stand!" after the first "Stand" of the chorus (and don't sing the "...in the place where you work"). The M/C version just plays out normal, like the rest of the choruses.

This isn't the only problem I've witnessed with Schiner's mixing of R.E.M.'s material. There are some minor differences on the "Automatic For the People" disc, and on the "Document" disc, there's an entire guitar overdub that is included with "The One I Love" that's not on the stereo mix (or if it is, it's buried WAY down). It's almost as if Schiner's not all that familiar with how the originals sound. I certainly would have loved to have had the original producer on their Warner albums (prior to the last two), Scott Litt, come in and aid on this. I wonder why that wasn't done. I'm hoping some of these issues are corrected by the time the new DVD-A's roll out next year, but something tells me they won't be...

Great document of how an indie band goes mainstream while still retaining their creative spark. Filled with tasty mix choices; the gentle percussion of Everybody Hurts hovering in space, the ambient war sounds of Orange Crush bouncing around the room, and particularly the eerie ghost-like presence of Patti Smith's background vocals on E-bow the Letter - - to name but a few. The lone clinker out of 18 tracks is What's the Frequency Kenneth. Skip button solves that one.

I was surprised that, given how recent the vintage of these recordings, how radically different some mixes are relative to the original stereo. This has its good and bad points, since some of the tracks are very adventurous mixwise, but also disconcerting. But, unlike Gabriel's PLAY, I don't find these nearly as repeatable, even though, admittedly, some are very, very good.

Kind of a mixed review...a qualified '7'.....

ED

Has anyone bothered to see if the tracks on this disc, from albums that were not released in 5.1 at the time of this discs release, are a different mix than those tracks on the newly released CD+DVD disc packs?

I wonder if these were just hastily put together mixes, while the real albums have a better mix on them.

I had not heard much REM before i bought this DVD-A {except for the few big hits}. I was pleasantly surprised by this music. Quite good. Good surround mix also. But i think this is probably enough REM for my tastes. But i might try one of the other new ones out, after i see which one has the best surround mix from the folks voting on them here, and go from there. I gave it an 8.

Peter, Mike and Michael did a great job at selecting the songs to be included in this collection. I love the fact that they left off some of the well-known songs like Shiny Happy People in favor of some of the lesser known stuff like Imitation of Life and At My Most Beautiful. After all, this is a best-of, not a greatest hits. The mixes are great and the sonics are killer. A perfect 10!

I loved these songs in stereo and this compilation in 5.1 is nearly perfect, a 9 here. This compilation, The Police SACD compilation and the Seal DVD-A compilation of songs familiar to most everyone are really my favorite discs to highlight how much better high resolution surround can be. Everybody should own this disc even if not an R.E.M. fan as surely many friends appreciate this music. My only complaint, where is "Shiny Happy People"? Surely everybody wants at least one really annoying song in high resolution surround, it should have been a DVD-A bonus song.

Chris

Chris Gerhard said:

I loved these songs in stereo and this compilation in 5.1 is nearly perfect, a 9 here. This compilation, The Police SACD compilation and the Seal DVD-A compilation of songs familiar to most everyone are really my favorite discs to highlight how much better high resolution surround can be. Everybody should own this disc even if not an R.E.M. fan as surely many friends appreciate this music. My only complaint, where is "Shiny Happy People"? Surely everybody wants at least one really annoying song in high resolution surround, it should have been a DVD-A bonus song.

Chris

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If you need Shiny Happy People in surround sound that bad, you can always by the Out of Time CD/DVD-A package.

I'm actually glad they left out some of the real well-known stuff in favor of including songs from the post-Bill Berry albums (some of their best, IMO). Keep in mind, In Time is a best-of, not a greatest hits. Big difference.

Glad you like it!

A good collection of great songs, made even better by the inclusion of some non-studio album tracks. A really great way to experience R.E.M. in 5.1.

Poor. Amongst the worst descrete 5.1 stuff I've heard. The 5.1 mixes just kill the feel of the originals: they sound dry, lifeless, and frankly, unfinished. As for Stand, in addition to what was said above the intro note isn't right either, and the mix itself is so disappointing.

analogdemon said:

Peter, Mike and Michael did a great job at selecting the songs to be included in this collection. I love the fact that they left off some of the well-known songs like Shiny Happy People in favor of some of the lesser known stuff like .... At My Most Beautiful........

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Brian Wilson has got to be jealous about that song. Better than his own stuff!

p.s. What an old thread.

JonUrban said:

Has anyone bothered to see if the tracks on this disc, from albums that were not released in 5.1 at the time of this discs release, are a different mix than those tracks on the newly released CD+DVD disc packs?

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...Kenneth appears to be an upmix on this disc (and the In View DVD-V), but is discrete on Monster. No other upmixes on In Time.

Gonna go wifff nein. On diss. Extra point 4 losing my religion...

Interesting that I had originally rated this a 9. I would not go nearly that high now since acquiring the DVD-A of Out of Time. Out of Time is a much more discreet presentation while this best of album is an ambient, big-stereo mix. Perhaps they did it this way because not of all of the music could be re-mixed as discreet presentations, and they wanted to deliver a consistent sounding album? Still good music regardless.

Question guys, I'm having an issue accessing the stereo tracks through my DVDA player. Are you going through an onscreen menu to access the tracks?

Thanks,
Rob

Question guys, I'm having an issue accessing the stereo tracks through my DVDA player. Are you going through an onscreen menu to access the tracks?

Thanks,
Rob