well you've quoted me kap, so I guess that means you feel sad for me - among others here - that don't "get it".. so here goes nuthin'..
fwiw I don't feel like my expectations of what could be done with this album in Surround were particularly unrealistic.
why's that?
well for one I acknowledge that its a 50 year old recording and there are limitations inherent in that, as to what the folks remixing it now could do with numbers and types of multitrack elements available to them and so on.
also, I accept that too much heavy handed crazy revisionism would not go down well with a load of people and so the producers of this new remix would aim for something more conservative perhaps (although some of those moaners, we all know one, have been proven not to be such die hard, hardcore surround music fans as us lot at QQ.. so why some folks feel the need to whine on about very active surround mixes being so inappropriate and inauthentic compared to the original Stereo when they don't really care and they can go back to their precious original anytime they like.. bah.. we could debate that one til the cows come home! life's too short!
)on a more personal level, all I've ever known up til now was the (to me, sometimes kinda "wonky") Stereo mixes..
and up until the early 90's when I first got Sgt.Peppers on CD, prior to that my only exposure to the album as an album was from occasional listening with my dear (now v.sadly departed) Grandpapa playing the record on his old console radiogram piece of furniture (it was like a cocktail cabinet, a stereo and a coffin all in one.. acres of rosewood and brass handles with warm glow lights everywhere!) and that's his nigh-on 50 year old LP, I still play to this day.. and I gotta tell you he loved playing this album even when I was a nipper..which come to think of it, was even by then a good number of years after the album came out (lets face it, its a stone cold Classic, the Classic album amongst Classic albums, in every sense.. Grandad obviously felt it was that much of a classic too, he loved it 10-15 years after it first came out).
what I'm trying to convey (sorry for the rambling, its just all one long stream of semi-consciousness!) and maybe I should have expressed this better already.. but I was first and foremost thinking of the music in the context of the only versions I know.
that is ;
1.) the Stereo - still never heard it in mono - and what I thought maybe could have been done with panning and a bit of creativity in remixing it into 5.1 surround based on the Stereo
2.) then looking at what modern technology could do 10+ years ago with The Beatles' music in the Love DVD-A in 5.1 (imho = jawdroppingly good)
..and in all fairness, if the result of this new Sgt Pepper 5.1 surround remix had even fallen somewhere in between what I'd always imagined it might be in surround (some harmonies back there, some harp over there, a bit of sitar over here, some crowd noise sound fx back there, etc) and with even only one or two instances of some of the crazy ass surround stuff they did in the Love 5.1 (that I love!) just to really remind yourself you're alive, then I'd be totally happy and have no hesitation in giving this a 9 or 10 in the QQ Poll..
..BUT, for me, the new 5.1 actually is less inventive and engaging than both the aspects of the old Stereo mixes I enjoy to this day (those that are more modern with lead vocals in centre front mostly but not always) and just about everything i love about Love in 5.1.
so for those reasons, among others, at this point I'm just plain underwhelmed by this new surround remix.
I don't feel particularly sad about it... disappointed, yes.. from what I felt (you can argue the toss otherwise, I won't be offended) was not some outlandish expectation starting point I don't feel was out of whack to what they could do with it in surround with modern techniques.. but please don't feel sad for me kap! oh and don't cry for me Argentina.. the truth is I never left QQ! I mean you!
