The Piano Man is in the Atmos house! 1st listen and so far 
Billy Joel "Piano Man" now streaming in Dolby Atmos!
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The Piano Man is in the Atmos house! 1st listen and so far
Halfway through this now and......wow! This is great. It's downmixing to 5.1 beautifully. It blows away the mixes of Nylon Curtain and Innocent Man.
I quickly A/B'd the 4.0 and new mix of the opening track. Much different approach. The 4.0 has the drums in the rears, not the case for the new mix.
@PaulatSDE this could be a great title for the series since there's a new Atmos mix and an old quad mix
himey
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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Innocent Man did finally show up on Tidal 360. I imagine Piano Man isn't very far behind.
Piano Man (360 multichannel mix) is there ID: 120929182. The previous 360 was Quad.
himey
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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I am many time zones away from you, but thanks for the heads up. Too bad they didn't keep both mixes, but nice we now have an immersive one.
Currently listening to Piano Man in 5.1. These remind me some of the Elton John 5.1 mixes in that the rears spring to life in the choruses, to really nice effect.
I do wish Sony Japan would reissue the quad which I have still never heard.
I do wish Sony Japan would reissue the quad which I have still never heard.
Some of the mixing choices are pretty similar to the quad (guitar parts in the back on "You're My Home" and "Worse Comes To Worst", orchestra comes from behind in "Billy The Kid", etc), but the sound quality is markedly improved. It also fixes the quad's biggest sin, Billy's nearly-inaudible lead vocal in "You're My Home."
I just noticed that Billy Joel - Piano Man on Tidal in 360RA actually has an immersive mix credit.
Bradshaw Leigh is credited as the 360RA Mix Engineer. Presumably he is responsible for the Atmos mix as well.
Bradshaw Leigh is credited as the 360RA Mix Engineer. Presumably he is responsible for the Atmos mix as well.
The surround mix on Piano Man is great. I googled Leigh and found his website. It says he was also responsible for the Atmos mix of The Nylon Curtain, which wasn't a great mix. Strange.
And doing a little sleuthing, I just found this interview with Leigh regarding the Atmos mix of The Nylon Curtain.
....and more sleuthing, I just found Leigh's Facebook page. He's responsible for the Atmos mix of An Innocent Man as well.
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Funny enough, I happened to meet Leigh (and Adam Grover, who mastered all the BJ Atmos mixes) in person at an industry event earlier this evening. They played the title track (from the lossless ADM master) over an expensive-looking PMC 7.1.4 array and it sounded pretty sweet.
Interestingly, he mentioned that the key difference in mixing Piano Man versus the other two albums was that it featured studio musicians rather than Billy's touring band. I brought up the quad mix too and he was aware it existed, though he hadn't heard it.
He also mentioned working on an Atmos mix of 52nd Street that's due out on the streaming services soon.
.."In general, I'm not a big fan of taking classic records and panning each musician to a different part of the room. I think the song often suffers for it."
that Nylon Curtain mix, from a Surround Music perspective, is to me about as poor as you can get. yes, there's a fair bit of effects placement and panning so at first glance it feels Surround-y but just about everything musically gets lumped up front. ugh.
inconsistent mixing i'd say but a better job than Nylon Curtain
if there's any 360RA plans afoot for other artists of BJ's ilk, please don't let this chap loose on things like the Bob Dylan or Paul Simon catalogues without somebody like Frank Fillipetti by his side who really knows how to mix music in Surround..
his Piano Man mixes are a palpable improvement on the other two but there's still not a great deal of flair or spark of imagination about them. he may not have checked out the (flawed imho) Quad of Piano Man but he should definitely refer to FF's 5.1 mixes of 52nd Street & The Stranger
Scott65
1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
the nylon curtain probably caused that......"In general, I'm not a big fan of taking classic records and panning each musician to a different part of the room. I think the song often suffers for it."
that Nylon Curtain mix, from a Surround Music perspective, is to me about as poor as you can get. yes, there's a fair bit of effects placement and panning so at first glance it feels Surround-y but just about everything musically gets lumped up front. ugh.
Damned synthetic polymers!the nylon curtain probably caused that....
The number of times per day I say this exact phrase...Damned synthetic polymers!
Just got this into my email in-box, nice article, thanks @sjcorne
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/billy-joel-piano-man-dolby-atmos/
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/billy-joel-piano-man-dolby-atmos/
And this just popped up on The Midnight Special's YouTube channel:
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