DVD/DTS Poll Bowie, David - Station To Station [DTS DVD]

[lennon fan]

Neil, I'm not having your experience with this (and I should note that I love the Crimson work, it's definitely better than this) but starting at the beginning of Station, center has no train -at all- or guitar, it's a very dry Bowie vocal (and this is my experience with all 6 tracks) it's totally discrete. Wildisthe wind is unbelievable for how dry the center channel vocal is, with the beginning nothing but kick drum and rim shot, no guitar at all until bowie sings. . ...on all cuts the level is low but i have the center running through its own amp, with separate stereo amps running fronts and rears, so muting is no prob. The volume on the center needs to be turned up. This is on an oppo.

 

[lennon fan]

some more observations....station is just awesome center channel, golden years has no vocal at all until he says 'don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere' alll background vocals are completely cut out. word on a wing has nothing but piano vocal rim kick drum and dry vocal, beginning is totally silent. no backgrond vocals. Stay has a silent beginning, when the bass comes in there is a faint echo of that classic guitar riff. interesting melotron I haven't heard before it's so buried in the original mix!

 

[lennon fan]

s

 

[vonwegen]

boy am I glad I cancelled my order in time for this TURKEY!

 

[bayards]

Bought the 3CD version (for the live material) then the big box vinyl set too for the surround. Ripped what I needed and put it back on ebay and got back almost what I paid. I'll listen to Neil and re-tweak the mix on my PC bringing the left/right fronts down a tad then.....

Here's hoping they bring out Aladdin Sane (properly) one day.....

 

[blue.monk]

Worst. Surround mix. Ever.

I love this album and am so saddened by the shoddy treatment. Most of it is really just stereo with massive reverb in the rears and faint dry vocals with selected instruments in the center. It is also shrill and cold with none of the warmth of the original recording.

Isolating and cranking the center channel is interesting for the dry lead vocal but kick, snare, bass and occasional guitar or keyboard are mixed right in! "Wild is the Wind" would appear to have the vocal more prominent than the others (it is a stunning vocal performance).

This is such a wasted opportunity. Station to Station has potential for a brilliant surround mix with so many interesting parts and colors in the arrangements - multiple guitar and keyboard tracks as well as great backing vocals and percussion. What a waste.

1

 

[jsayers]

This box goes for over $300 on Amazon now for those who bought this for the surround and have it sitting on the shelf.

 

[fredblue]

I got a Promo set of this recently (4 discs, the album, the gig and the DVD) and started to playthrough the 5.1 for the 1st time yesterday.. good grief, it's ODD..!! @:

The only track that sounded any good without much tinkering was Wild Is The Wind.. then I started to have a play around.. I whacked up the centre and rears by 7-8db.. lowered front L&R by a couple apiece.. and certain tracks started to gel more.. there was still obnoxious reverb a-go-go in the rears but generally it was much more like it, the centre channel whacked up was a revelation, I was hearing all sorts of "new" little vocal bits in there!

Is there any way, after extracting the individual six channels, that one could "reverse engineer" the reverb in the two Rear channels, de-compress Front L&R, bump up levels in Centre and Rears and put it all back together again..???

 

[fredblue]

I have been tinkering further with this one and there is some redeeming it.. centre channel does have quite a lot of cool stuff going on in it, it is just so MUTED compared to everything else.. and the Front L&R are disgustingly maximised, I don't know what the mastering engineer was thinking (it could not have been mixed like this surely? although the reverb in the rears does make me wonder..

On the basis of the mix "as is" I would have to (this HURTS) give it a "3".. fiddle-farted around with a bit I'd give it a "4", maybe a "5", mainly for the centre channel stuff unique to this mix, which is so nice to hear.. I hope the whole Bowie catalogue gets remixed properly (as has been rumoured for years, Visconti wants to do it, or maybe even has done it, since he had his own studio completely rejigged for 5.1 recently apparently..) if ever an oeuvre (of work that is ) deserved it..

 

[GOS]

Oh, but what Wilson could do with the Bowie catalog. Surely Steven loves his music....

 

[edisonbaggins]

This thread makes Baggy sad, 'cause he wubs him some Bowie...

 

[rtbluray]

Oh, but what Wilson could do with the Bowie catalog. Surely Steven loves his music....

Not that it would matter anyway though, cause Bowie has said in the past that he only wanted 5.1 surround mixes of his music created by the original production team (the original producer and recording engineer), so if that still stands, Steven Wilson will never have a chance to mix any of Bowie's music in surround himself.

 

[edisonbaggins]

...Bowie has said in the past that he only wanted 5.1 surround mixes of his music created by the original production team (the original producer and recording engineer)...

Perhaps he'll be swayed by a good demo, at some point, like Fripp was.

 

[rtbluray]

Perhaps he'll be swayed by a good demo, at some point, like Fripp was.

I'm certainly not holding my breath for that...

 

[edisonbaggins]

I'm certainly not holding my breath for that...

Nope! And at least there are a goodly few DB albums with good mixes. That's more than can be said for most acts.

 

[fredblue]

Nope! And at least there are a goodly few DB albums with good mixes.

True.. Young Americans and Heathen are V.Good.. Reality, Stage and Live are alright.. Ziggy ain't so great imho.. and STS is definitely not one of the good ones, unfortunately so since it is one of my favourite albums of the thin white duke's.. possibly the most favourite-est... *SIGH*

Give me the multi's and I could do a better job than this (and I don't know my a$$ from my elbow when it comes to this techno-stuff! )

 

[EMB]

This was a title I really, REALLY wanted to be as brilliant as I felt its potential would be but, alas...and the problem is that, for all the world, the sound here, at least to me, seems as if it were an SQ Lp decoded through a mediocre demodulator. It does have separation in all four channels, but the bleedthrough and cacophony in all channels resulted in a messy, in-discrete mix, rather than the discrete, nicely separated mix that was surely possible.

Indeed, there are elements--like Earl Slick's and Carlos Alomar's guitars, George Murray's bass, Roy Bittan's keyboards--that cry out for isolation they never receive. And that's not even going into the potentials of Bowie's vocals, which would have worked well isolated on some tracks, while all around us for others.

Given the quality of the songs and performances, this one was a very major disappointment, a highly bungled effort. But because the music's so good and mix was not, to my ears, in any way faux quad, I gave it a 5, but it's a week one. What were they thinking?


ED

 

[4-earredwonder]

Not that it would matter anyway though, cause Bowie has said in the past that he only wanted 5.1 surround mixes of his music created by the original production team (the original producer and recording engineer), so if that still stands, Steven Wilson will never have a chance to mix any of Bowie's music in surround himself.

Steve Wilson is most definitely a Bowie fan but according to his recent newsletter, he'll be touring most of this year and will NOT have time for remixing chores. He also pointed out that a lot of his unreleased (already in the can) remixes have still not reached market as yet [Roxy Music, etc.)

As always, NEVER say NEVER because I'm sure Wilson would be honored to remix Bowie's catalog.........so patience and fingers crossed are in order!

Although Bowie's producer, Tony Visconti, who I think did a stellar job of the Young Americans 5.1 remix, wouldn't be too shabby of a choice, either!

 

[rtbluray]

Steve Wilson is most definitely a Bowie fan but according to his recent newsletter, he'll be touring most of this year and will NOT have time for remixing chores. He also pointed out that a lot of his unreleased (already in the can) remixes have still not reached market as yet [Roxy Music, etc.)

As always, NEVER say NEVER because I'm sure Wilson would be honored to remix Bowie's catalog.........so patience and fingers crossed are in order!

Although Bowie's producer, Tony Visconti, who I think did a stellar job of the Young Americans 5.1 remix, wouldn't be too shabby of a choice, either!

What you quoted me on was something I said before Bowie's death, but something occurred to me after Bowie's death that also makes it unlikely that Steven Wilson would end up remixing albums from Bowie's catalogue.
A big part of the joy and satisfaction that Steven gets from working on these remixes is the opportunity to work closely with the original artist to hone and perfect the remixes until it reaches their approval and satisfaction, and you obviously don't get that anymore with Bowie now that he's dead.
I won't never say never, but I feel confident that Steven Wilson will continue to work with the best offers for remixing that he gets, and most of all, I hope he'll continue to surprise us!

 

[4-earredwonder]

What you quoted me on was something I said before Bowie's death, but something occurred to me after Bowie's death that also makes it unlikely that Steven Wilson would end up remixing albums from Bowie's catalogue.
A big part of the joy and satisfaction that Steven gets from working on these remixes is the opportunity to work closely with the original artist to hone and perfect the remixes until it reaches their approval and satisfaction, and you obviously don't get that anymore with Bowie now that he's dead.
I won't never say never, but I feel confident that Steven Wilson will continue to work with the best offers for remixing that he gets, and most of all, I hope he'll continue to surprise us!

Which is why I added Tony Visconti's name to the possible remixing chores. He'd probably be the most likely candidate since he was Bowie's producer forever and will probably have the added blessing of what is now known as the Bowie Family Trust!

I don't foresee that happening for awhile, however, if one can only fathom the miles and miles of unreleased Bowie material vaulted away somewhere for unspecified future release! Perhaps a Bowie Archives series on BD~A/V akin to the Neil Young Archives Vol. I would be in order....a good place to start, anyway.