Have they ever released stems for any of their studio albums? A lot of their studio material would sound amazing with an aggressive (i.e. Flaming Lips-style) surround mix!
The only studio album thatās part of the Official Bootlegger program is actually my favorite, their polyrhythm prog album Polygondwanaland, but that was the first thing they put out under that program which has evolved over time. The assets for that one are the front cover in high res, and vinyl and cd masters in high res.
The 2024 US Tour was the first time theyāve committed to stems, so at the moment those shows (37 releases, some have been retroactively lumped into one release, Red Rocks was 3 different releases but now is one, Iām counting based on the current grouping) are the only things with stems.
Considering they seem to change their approach each tour, its entirely possible that all things going forward could have stemsā¦ or these might be the
only releases with stems, who knows.
That said they did mix their 2019 Europe Tour concert film Chunky Shrapnel in 5.1 for the limited theatrical release (and a blu ray thatās been promisedā¦ since 2019), and their latest Flight b741 has a streaming only (at the moment. A different release has been teased) Atmos mix. Itās kind of an open secret that this yearās US tour is going to be edited into a Chunky Shrapnel style doc, so itās possible thereās more official surround mixes coming when thatās out.
That said, with 37 releases full of stems thatās a lot of material to work with. With the band officially sanctioning ādo whateverā with these, the sky is the limit. Full show remixes like this, or compilations, or mashup-remixes (one of the companies putting out the all-synth San Fran show on vinyl realized they had an entire side to spare so they commissioned a remix using the stems). Heck if QQās mixers wanted to do a professionally minted and sold blu ray of mixes that would be allowed as long as the band gets sent āas much as you think is fairā to sell in their online store/pre-show āRecord Fairsā.
Ninja Edit: in the past I asked in an AMA if theyāve considered doing surround sound since they are so suited for it, and Stu responded āweāve looked at Atmosā¦ but we fold out drums and bass down to one track so it makes mixing hardā, that was a couple years ago now, and they do have one studio Atmos mix so maybe theyāve changed their process