HiRez Poll Beach Boys - PET SOUNDS [DVD-A/BDA]

[topsyandpip56]

I have a version of the DVD-V *cough*, and it sounds just as horrible as the DVD-A version. So methinks Mr Linett is trying to pass off a bad mix as bad authoring.

 

[blue.monk]

Hmm, this is a weird one. For the most part the surround mix seems to be "double stereo" with extra reverb added to the surrounds. And the surrounds are too loud. I don't know if any mistakes were made with the authoring but I don't see how reassigning channels would improve things. There are a few brighter spots with the bonus tracks. The a cappella “Unreleased Backgrounds” are discrete and very effective in surround. For one of the session highlights Brian’s voice from the booth appears in the surround left channel. But otherwise the soundstage sounds similar to the LP.

I think the stereo mix is terrific and am glad it was included. The original mono mix sounds about as good as I've ever heard it. So those 2 mixes in hi-res help make this a worthwhile purchase.

7

 

[Cheezmo]

I just went through all the tracks and only the first one "Wouldn't It Be Nice" has the obvious track reversal problems. I couldn't find any phase issues with Sloop John B. But sat blue.monk says, it isn't a very interesting surround mix in the first place.

 

[GOS]

Late to the party also. I've had this DVD-Audio for several years now. I honestly only listened to the whole disc 3 or 4 times. Again tonight. The music has SO MUCH POTENTIAL for an amazing surround experience......what the hell happened?

Anyway - I voted a 6. I mean, the music? Duh...it's a 10. The surround experience is a 6 at best. It just falls flat IMO. Also, the general sonics are also very thin to say the least. To me, it sounds no better than a standard CD in "fake quad" as we all like to call it.

That being said - I didn't pay very much for this DVD-A back in the day..and I'm happy enough to have it...just to say I have it.

 

[elshagon]

Okay, I'm probably a little late (10 years or so!) but I have found out what is wrong with this DVD-A:

The front channels and the back channels are reversed. Meaning the FL goes to RL and the FR goes to RR.
Then the Center channel and Sub are also reversed. Meaning the Center goes to the Sub and vice-versa.


It probably comes to the fact that the individual channels weren't clearly labelled when they went to the pressing plant (each channel is sent as an individual file) or simply the pressing plant messed up.
The mix is still slightly left-heavy but the placement makes sense now. If you can try it you'll see.


EDIT: Aargh, I talked too fast. That only works for the first track "Wouldn't It Be Nice". I tried it on "Sloop John B." and the track layout was different. On this one the Rear channels are reversed compared to the Front but it seems that also the phase is inverted... How could they do this so wrong?

Good job. I extracted the mono wav channels on "Wouldn't It Be Nice" and re-encoded it to .mlp and it does sound correct now. Hopefully someone does a new surround mix on this album. It deserves it.

 

[bangsezmax]

Hopefully someone does a new surround mix on this album. It deserves it.

You mean like the upcoming Blu Ray mentioned in this thread?

 

[skherbeck]

Decided to take a chance on this one in spite of the mixed reviews. I'll admit, I was never a real fan of this album aside from the hits. First off, I think the fidelity is great. The mix provides an immersive experience in that I feel like the music is surrounding me, however I don't hear many significant discrete elements. I spent the day ripping the album and messing with the channel assignments... What I found is that on "Wouldn't It Be Nice", the center and subwoofer are reversed, but this only occurs on that song. There is discrete, vocal-only info in the center channel of most songs, but you have to raise the level of the center channel to hear it. Also, there are multiple songs where the wave forms appear that they may be assigned to the wrong channels... The funny thing is, however, that when you start shuffling the channels around, it doesn't make much difference to the overall sound of the mix! And raising the center channel levels doesn't make it sound any better either (those vocals are already present elsewhere in the mix!) So, after wasting hours of my life, listening to these songs over and over, tweaking this and that, I decided the original mix is just fine... But I also decided this is an amazing, intimate, textured, emotional album that goes much deeper than the hits and I can't believe I ignored it all these years! I give it 3 for fidelity, 3 for content, and 1 for the mix, so 7.

 

[Scottie-boy]

I have owned this DVD-A for ages. I had bought it back in the day because I had always heard Pet Sounds was one of the greatest albums of all time. Was always a beach Boys fan through my Dad's collection of greatest hits, but had never listened to this one. I say that because I had no bias towards mono mix, stereo, etc.
When I first listened to it - I didn't get it at all. After listening to it several times its now one if my favorite hi-rez disks of all time. Its awesome music. I do understand some of the gripes about rears being to loud, channel displacements etc. - but I love it. 9 for me with hopes of another mix reaching 10.

 

[GOS]

I have owned this DVD-A for ages. I had bought it back in the day because I had always heard Pet Sounds was one of the greatest albums of all time. Was always a beach Boys fan through my Dad's collection of greatest hits, but had never listened to this one. I say that because I had no bias towards mono mix, stereo, etc.
When I first listened to it - I didn't get it at all. After listening to it several times its now one if my favorite hi-rez disks of all time. Its awesome music. I do understand some of the gripes about rears being to loud, channel displacements etc. - but I love it. 9 for me with hopes of another mix reaching 10.

Yeah, I didn't "get" the album at first either, but it easily one of my favorite albums of all time. Just outstanding. While, I did vote a 7 here, I simply could not live without my copy.

 

[Shikoku]

Review #2


PACKAGING
2003 DVDa version. I got this in Tokyo used. DVD Audio in a tall plastic case. Hard to replace the case if there are cracks, etc. Booklet is good but seems to replicate the DVD bonus content.

CONTENT
I'm not a huge Beach Boys fan, but I do love this album. It's a marvelous piece of music on so many levels (composition, engineering, production). 5.1 version, stereo and mono too. Load of extras (videos, lyrics, discography, tech notes, etc.)

5.1 + FIDELITY
My opinion: Although it's not my fave 5.1, I still I like it! There is some controversy about the separation (with the phantom center speaker), but I enjoyed this. Maybe because it's different from other 5.1 productions...? Rears were active and good "stereo" vocal separation in the front (LOVE the vocals!) Nice 5.1 work for a 1966 recording.

SCORE
8

 

[Marcsten]

For some reason this album sound best in Mono.

Well I ordered this a bit ago and so I guess I will be disappointed. Maybe. I am not too much a Beach Boys fan. Surf music (excluding the Ventures) has never been my thing so I doubt I have even heard all of this album. So we'll see. I have nothing to compare it to from the past such as the mono mix. Hope springs eternal. It was only $18. I guess I should have been suspicious by the price!

 

[GOS]

Well I ordered this a bit ago and so I guess I will be disappointed. Maybe. I am not too much a Beach Boys fan. Surf music (excluding the Ventures) has never been my thing so I doubt I have even heard all of this album. So we'll see. I have nothing to compare it to from the past such as the mono mix. Hope springs eternal. It was only $18. I guess I should have been suspicious by the price!

Well, in my opinion, catagorizing this album as beach music is an incorrect assumption. It's not even close. Their older music? Obviously. Pet Sounds is a tour de force. Listen to "Don't Talk" What a beautiful song. Nothing "beach" about it. As, several songs. Anyway, give it a chance.

 

[GOS]

Giving this a vote of 1, means, you absolutely HATE the music. Because, part of the vote is content. Other is mix, etc. A 1 means, the mix is shit and the music is shit. And, maybe that is what the votes mean???

 

[Marcsten]

Well, in my opinion, catagorizing this album as beach music is an incorrect assumption. It's not even close. Their older music? Obviously. Pet Sounds is a tour de force. Listen to "Don't Talk" What a beautiful song. Nothing "beach" about it. As, several songs. Anyway, give it a chance.

Totally agree and this is one reason I opted to buy the 5.1. If it were a release of one of their earlier 'surf' albums, then I would have passed. I realize this was a major break for them and, arguably, for parts of pop music. That's the reason I am taking the chance despite what I've read.

 

[GOS]

Totally agree and this is one reason I opted to buy the 5.1. If it were a release of one of their earlier 'surf' albums, then I would have passed. I realize this was a major break for them and, arguably, for parts of pop music. That's the reason I am taking the chance despite what I've read.

Did you get the DVD-A, or the bigger box with the blu-ray? Either way, $18 is a great price, and it will give you some idea. The surround mix is sort of lame. But, it still gives a bit more openess, than the mono or stereo versions. I have both. I listen to it often.

 

[Marcsten]

Did you get the DVD-A, or the bigger box with the blu-ray? Either way, $18 is a great price, and it will give you some idea. The surround mix is sort of lame. But, it still gives a bit more openess, than the mono or stereo versions. I have both. I listen to it often.

The DVD-A. I would have been thrilled to get the box for that, but no such luck. $22 with shipping. I just spent $99. for the Tarkus box. Love ELP and that album in particular. Probably paid too much, but I am shocked what that stuff goes for. I commented on HOnky Chateau last night as I was listening to my copy after a long time of the SACD. When I looked at Ebay and saw they were all $125+ I figured $99 for Tarkus was as low as it was going to get. Ouch. But I do have Brain Salad that I bought in the store when it came out for less than $20 so maybe it balances out?

 

[jaybird100]

First thing you have to know about this disc is that it's 4.1, not 5.1. The center channel is not used at all. This was intentional, and I agree with the decision. Typically, I turn off the center channel for music, anyway. It's not surf music, but a new direction for the Beach Boys, at that time. I was a big Beach Boys fan back in the day, and still enjoy their music today.

 

[ar surround]

I have heard, from someone who must remain nameless but was actually present and heard the original surround mixes right off the DAW in the Studio, that there has been an almighty cockup in the manufacturing process, as in the studio everything sounds simply stunning.
When the engineers heard the disc, they were almost in tears.
There is allegedly stuff out of phase, on the wrong channels, all manner of problems.

I'll write my contact, and ask him to write out for us all exactly what was wrong.
But it would seem as if the Authoring loused everything up.

I just saw this post from Neil...He posted it in 2004, a couple of years before I became a QQ member. This probably explains why I am so disappointed in this 5.1 mix and thus only gave it a 6. I need to review the whole thread to see if there are any suggestions on how to fix this mix as it would be worth the effort.

 

[Marcsten]

First thing you have to know about this disc is that it's 4.1, not 5.1. The center channel is not used at all. This was intentional, and I agree with the decision. Typically, I turn off the center channel for music, anyway. It's not surf music, but a new direction for the Beach Boys, at that time. I was a big Beach Boys fan back in the day, and still enjoy their music today.

Well I run 4.1 with the center channel blended to the other fronts. It works fine on the vast majority of discs, but I do prefer the old 4.0 sacds.

 

[jaybird100]

Has there been a hint of a re-release of this album on BD-A? Has this already been done? Did they fix the problems, or if it hasn't been released, and will be, will they fix the problems? Come on, UMG, give us the goods!