Whatever the personal reasons behind the rift between Steve and Tony, the 5.1 remixes had the lead electric guitar parts buried in the mix vs the original mixes. Significantly buried!
If there was a guitar solo with single note leads (as guitar solos tend to be), the guitar notes are matched to single notes from the keyboard parts going on. If Tony is playing a chord, those single guitar notes only get the volume of the single notes from the keyboard chords. Even and especially if Steve is playing a lead line or solo! These aren't mix mistakes. This is consistent and intentional.
The crispy bright thing and the vocal getting bumped up from what appears to be limiting across all channels sure looks like after the fact novelty mastering damage. Can't say for sure. But it doesn't match the mix work.
It would be great to have these remixed with the original aesthetics but I don't think that's in the cards. It doesn't look like it after those 5.1 remixes anyway! We get some bits of some truly great mix work and get to hear some nuance that was obscured before but with the revisionist element firmly in place.
And turning down bass parts on this one too! Not just the guitar solos this time. An equally revealing and frustrating remix.
