Gentle Giant's "Free Hand" and "In'terview" coming on DVD audio in february..

[rusinurbe]

I listened to it (while browsing the Internet, so I was not concentrated on it) and there was nothing that interrupted my pleasure in listening. Probably I missed the effect. Perhaps it was made by intention to show the possibilities of quad-sound in 1975?!?

Markus

Listened to Free hand and it sounded fine. I ahve no reference though as it was the first time i have ever heared it.

 

[steelydave]

Well I got In'terview today and the channel assignment on this one is correct, no front left/rear right vocal splits. I think I actually like this one more than Free Hand, although most reviewers seem to disagree. The Mix is again very adventurous and the music is pretty crazy - it's hard to imagine a time when music like this had a mass audience!

One small niggle with the mastering is that the rears seem to be too low - there are a couple of solos that ping-pong from front to back and noticably lose power when they are in the back speakers. I will have to get this one in to my DAW as well and see if the waveforms confirm what my ears are hearing.

 

[LizardKing]

Well I got Free Hand in the mail today (In'terview should be with me tomorrow) and I think the surround mix has been botched at some point. I think the front and rear channels have been reversed on one side, so lead vocals/bass guitar/drums come from the front left and rear right. I swapped the cables on my player so that this was rectified and everything sounds way more cohesive - I will do some more listening to this and maybe rip it to my hard drive at some point to verify. Perhaps someone else with this disc could let me know if they're having the same issues.

The good news is the mix is in excellent fidelity and very very active. Exactly what you'd want from a circa 1975 quad mix!

I'm getting the same issue...

I'll create a disc with the RF & RS swapped.... & report back on how it sounds... I don't really want to swap my cables... its a nightmare to change them ....

 

[LizardKing]

I'm getting the same issue...

I'll create a disc with the RF & RS swapped.... & report back on how it sounds... I don't really want to swap my cables... its a nightmare to change them ....

Sounds waaay better with the channels switched.... EMI's track record with surround releases isn't great recently with problems on the discs:

Wish you Were Here, Aqualung and now this!!!!! Arghhhhh.......

 

[MyCuff]

4 channels = 12 times as many ways to get it wrong. Still pretty pathetic. Mine should show up any day now, but my anticipation is mellowed out by this news.

 

[SMS]

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but could somebody briefly explain how you created a disk with the channels swapped? What software do you use?

Thanks!
Brad

 

[LizardKing]

I don't want to take this thread off topic, but could somebody briefly explain how you created a disk with the channels swapped? What software do you use?

Thanks!
Brad

After extracting the DTS track from the disc I used Audiomuxer https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...7-Audiomuxer-new-software-on-surroundbyus-com
to:

1. Convert the DTS to WAV
2. Create mono WAV files
3. Merge the mono WAV files (with channels swapped)

You can then author a disc from the wav files - I used Audiomiuxer to create a Blu-ray disc...

 

[LizardKing]

Sounds waaay better with the channels switched.... EMI's track record with surround releases isn't great recently with problems on the discs:

Wish you Were Here, Aqualung and now this!!!!! Arghhhhh.......

Arghhhh...... Should have thought about this.......and of course the channel levels need tweaking to get it balanced......what a @#$!^ UP!!!!!!

I really need a proper mastering tool.

 

[Ge Someone]

.. I think the front and rear channels have been reversed on one side, so lead vocals/bass guitar/drums come from the front left and rear right. I swapped the cables on my player so that this was rectified and everything sounds way more cohesive [..]

The good news is the mix is in excellent fidelity and very very active. Exactly what you'd want from a circa 1975 quad mix!

This disk comes with a 4.1 DTS (and DD) track. Could it be that your player recognises it as a 5.0 track? Some (software/hardware) players are known to mix that up (not sure which and firmware versions etc.). To me at least Free Hand sounded correct.

And I agree with the good news part, a lost gem this quad mix. My favorite GG as well.

 

[LizardKing]

This disk comes with a 4.1 DTS (and DD) track. Could it be that your player recognises it as a 5.0 track? Some (software/hardware) players are known to mix that up (not sure which and firmware versions etc.). To me at least Free Hand sounded correct.

And I agree with the good news part, a lost gem this quad mix. My favorite GG as well.

Its displaying as 4.1, and sounds come out of all the correct channels.

Have a listen to the initial vocals in the first track - you'll hear that they are from LF & RS..... Then try and switch RF & RS (if you can easily) and see if you prefer it.....

 

[sukothai]

Then try and switch RF & RS (if you can easily) and see if you prefer it.....

I tried the switch and I don't like it. I prefer the channels as they are. Of course, I have a swivel chair in the center of my sound-field.:banana:

 

[capsid]

So is this RF to RS switch an error or a deliberate mix?

 

[LizardKing]

I believe its an error....

 

[capsid]

I believe its an error....

Have you reported it then?

 

[blue.monk]

I don't believe there's any issue with the channel placement on Free Hand. Yes, there are some unusual aspects to the mix but, to me, it sounds like the boys were having fun and experimenting with the 4 channels. Even though it doesn't often present the soundstage found in many modern surround mixes (band & lead vocals front, auxiliary vocals & instruments rear) there's plenty to lead me to believe it's correct. For instance Kerry's overlapping vocals during the middle part of On Reflection alternate between rears and fronts and the tambourine in Taybont is discretely placed in rears. The mix on the opening track is a bit wonky but the overall balance of the disc seems right to my ears.

Someone earlier in this thread had speculated that the first One Way release of the album might be the quad folded down and I think you're right! The quad mix contains the extra percussion in On Reflection as well as Derek singing one of Kerry's lines in Time To Kill. Those were two of the most obvious discrepancies I remember from the One Way release.

Cheers,
Eric

 

[sukothai]

^ what he said.

 

[LizardKing]

Have you reported it then?

I've sent a message to Amazon.... we'll see what they say....

I still don't think the intention was to do LF-RS split on the main vocals....I'll have another listen to both (the issued version) & my tweak & report back.

 

[jdmack]

Someone earlier in this thread had speculated that the first One Way release of the album might be the quad folded down and I think you're right! The quad mix contains the extra percussion in On Reflection as well as Derek singing one of Kerry's lines in Time To Kill. Those were two of the most obvious discrepancies I remember from the One Way release.

I don't have this release yet, so I can't do a full comparison. But I ran both an Adobe Audition SQ and an AA QS script on "On Reflection" from the One Way release. Of the two, the QS script produced something closer to quad separation. But I would be surprised if the tapes used to make the One Way release were actually encoded quad tapes. For one thing, the instrumental fugue at the end is nearly in mono, though the out of phase drums move nicely to the rears with both SQ and QS decoding.

Has anyone else tried comparing quad decoding of the One Way CD with the quad mix on this release?

J. D.

 

[bayards]

I had a bash with DVD Audio extractor last night on both discs. I had split the tracks into mono tracks and combined within Sony Sound Forge as I wanted WMA Pro output for my media centre.

I initially took channel 1 as FL, channel 2 as FR, channel 3 as LFE, channel 4 as SL and channel 5 as SR. It sounded odd. So I then went with channel 1 as FL, channel 2 as SL, channel 3 as LFE, channel 4 as SR and channel 5 as FR. That sounded way better. I did both albums like the latter and am pleased with the results.

Later I extracted the audio again but not as a combined split - all into one wav file. This way it seems as if channels 1 and 2 should be LF and RF. But it sounds a little crazy on track one.

I agree with comments above that the vocals so not always stick to the front 2 channels. Whatever the effects are great - lots of discrete use of the soundstage. The track Talybont is just so amazing!

This morning I took the stereo CDs in the car to work to have another listen and try and identify what should be in the left and right channels lol.

What japes!

H

 

[John Svensson]

This must be selling like hotcakes! Orders with my local guy didn't get filled or via CD Universe....they are saying try again for Mar 20th. We shall see.....might have to go the Amazon.uk route unless these are already getting scarce! John