DVD/DTS Poll Gentle Giant - Interview [DTS 96-24/DD DVD+CD]

[Bob Romano]

Please post your comments on Gentle Giant - Interview (DTS 9624 and Dolby)

 

[MyCuff]

No vote from me yet. Mix is great. Sound quality is fine too, especially for DTS. I am not, however, digging the music. Took a chance, hoping it was like the Caravan surround disc, which I really like a lot. I have not opened the other one (free hand) yet, as they may both be put up on ebay...

 

[jdmack]

MyCuff, this isn't one of the best Gentle Giant albums. I think of it as their "Tormato." It's OK, but.... I'd still check out "Free Hand," as that was the album that first made me a fan.

J. D.

 

[rusinurbe]

I have to say that I prefer this, on first listen to 'Freehand' neither of which I have heard before.
I would not have brought this if not for the Quad on the DVD and its a great fun mix. the DTS is not to bad and for teh stereo folks there is a 96/24 PCM transfer as well.

Good value and great fun.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Like this album a lot. I am new to the music of Gentle Giant, so this is a very good introduction. The music is great, not very average Mix is well done too.

 

[fredblue]

I prefer Freehand to this and I'm not a fan of that either!

However, based on one full-sit-down-listen, I'll give this a "7"..
mostly because this is an amazing (previously unreleased) quad mix of music I'm just not fussed about.

 

[kap'n krunch]

A"9" from me...
Very interesting music, great Quad mix and the fact that EMI is sort of moving their asses to release Quad mixes in PHYSICAL format is a huge step forward.
Even though tape deterioration is evident on both releases (and on the ELO one), it's still better than a kick in the pants...

 

[rtbluray]

Gave it a 9 since it was not DVD-A. Not the best album but a great mix nonetheless. I wish more unreleased Quad mixes like this one would find their way out of the record company vaults.

Standout tracks are Give It Back, Empty City, and I Lost My Head.

 

[Plan9]

The music in itself might be a little less inspired than on Free Hand, but the surround experience is better on this one.
It is mastered a bit too loud for my tastes, but not overwhelmingly so. Very good sound on the whole.

 

[blue.monk]

A brilliant band but not one of their best efforts IMO. Even so, it is quite adventurous and has many fantastic moments. It is also the last of their truly progressive albums before the pressures of the day forced a more commercial route. The vintage quad mix is pretty good overall although the drums sound rather anemic on some of the more rockin' numbers (particularly the title track). I do hope Steven Wilson gets a chance to continue working his magic with their catalog. "The Power and the Glory" was fabulous. I give this one an 8.

 

[keenly]

Not the best mastering, a little harsh IMO.

 

[Ranasakawa]

The quad mix is a hit and miss. The album is not the best Gentle Giant album.

 

[jdmack]

I think I found a weird flaw on this disc that I hadn't noticed before. For those of you who can easily listen to just your front or just your rear speakers, can you check something? The quad mix sound find in Dolby Digital, but in DTS the front channels are summed to mono. The rear channels sound fine in either encoding. I've checked some other discs to make sure something wasn't amiss in my player, amp, cabling, etc. and all my other discs play as they should.

 

[blue.monk]

I think I found a weird flaw on this disc that I hadn't noticed before. For those of you who can easily listen to just your front or just your rear speakers, can you check something? The quad mix sound find in Dolby Digital, but in DTS the front channels are summed to mono. The rear channels sound fine in either encoding. I've checked some other discs to make sure something wasn't amiss in my player, amp, cabling, etc. and all my other discs play as they should.

Good catch! Mine has the same flaw. Hmm, I hadn't tried the DD layer before which means I haven't actually heard the proper mix. Pity, I doubt we'll ever see a corrected DTS version.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Is "summed to mono" an issue that is correctable (from a rip, not a remix from the masters)?
I'm guessing no.

 

[jdmack]

Is "summed to mono" an issue that is correctable (from a rip, not a remix from the masters)?
I'm guessing no.

No. The left and right front channels are both coming out of each of the front speakers. Though I suppose one could sync the front channels from the Dolby Digital tracks to the rear channels of the DTS tracks to half-correct it.

 

[artwwweb]

I think I found a weird flaw on this disc that I hadn't noticed before. For those of you who can easily listen to just your front or just your rear speakers, can you check something? The quad mix sound find in Dolby Digital, but in DTS the front channels are summed to mono. The rear channels sound fine in either encoding. I've checked some other discs to make sure something wasn't amiss in my player, amp, cabling, etc. and all my other discs play as they should.

Mine too, thanks for pointing this out. I knew it didn't sound good but didn't know why. I might try the "front DD rear DTS" fix but it's a pain to have to do it. Especially after having to fix the Free Hand disc.

Does anybody have this disc without the error? I'd be even more annoyed if they had fixed it but not done anything to help the unlucky ones. Maybe they could release corrected flacs to people who can prove purchase.

 

[artwwweb]

Ok, been thinking about this a bit. Rather than replacing the DTS with DD, you could perhaps take the DD front channels, invert their phase, and sum with the DTS. Basically, to take the DD channel from the DTS one. The point being that it leaves you with a DTS quality signal rather than a DD signal. Though it would be imperfect because the DD would not take away all the opposite channel signal, due to DD being more lossy.

I.e. (remembering that the current FL = current FR = desired FR + desired FL, so you can use either current FL or current FR)

Create DD FL and DD FR.

Invert the phase of both: DD FL’ DD FR’

Sum DD FL’ with DTS FL [or FR] = DTS FR + DTS FL – DD FL ≈ DTS FR.

Sum DD FR’ with DTS FR [or FL] = DTS FR + DTS FL – DD FR ≈ DTS FL.

I’m not sure I can bothered to do this, but I thought it was an interesting idea. I am also wondering if what I’m suggesting actually makes sense!

 

[WBP]

I don't think this as good as Free Hand but it still has some great moments and the quad mix is really good for me - love Give It Back and I lost My Head , what great musicians they were - Im going for an 8

 

[Simplepast Presentperfect]

I analyzed this release in detail ripping it with DVD audio extractor and using Audacity. Both DD and DTS have the same mono source in the front channels. The DD front channels sound "fine" because the right channel is delayed about 13 ms, just a trick to make it sound as reverb, but it is exactly the same source, bit by bit. For some reason they did not do that in the DTS channels, both channels are the same. My guess is that one track was not usable (damaged or whatever).