Listening to Now (In Surround) - Volume 2

[Tornado Red]

My favorite of all of the RUSH HFPA Blu-Rays released last year. Enjoy!

It's great, glad to have it in my collection! I bought 2112 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Then the HFPAs started to come and I picked up Fly By Night, which was hugely disappointing IMO. I'm glad I didn't let that deter me from delving further, the recent acquisitions Signals and A Farewell To Kings are top notch :upthumb

 

[edisonbaggins]

It's great, glad to have it in my collection! I bought 2112 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Then the HFPAs started to come and I picked up Fly By Night, which was hugely disappointing IMO. I'm glad I didn't let that deter me from delving further, the recent acquisitions Signals and A Farewell To Kings are top notch :upthumb

What do you find lacking about FBN? I have the DVD-A versions and find them all to be of similar quality, sound and mix-wise, but might not have been paying attention to certain things.

 

[fredblue]

It's good, although I would probably put it towards the lower-end of the Warner Japan 5.1 SACDs released. (It's still better than "The Doors" or "Fragile" however.)

Well I'll take your assessment maybe not so much as damning it with faint praise and more that its up against some stiff competition with those Warner SACDs..

Elliot Scheiner's "Nightfly" and Captain and Me" are still two of the best surround things I've ever heard.. so really did any of the others ever stand much of a chance..?

Oh and then there's "Rumours" and "Hotel California".. haha.. poor old "Fragile"..

 

[fredblue]

Boulez Conducts Ravel is a superb Quad transfer to SACD (which is 5 channel). This one was done right! It's immersive with discrete rear channels. Highly recommended!!

Boulez Conducts Bartok (SACD) was screwed up. Its rear channels are only ambient. The performance is wonderful, though.

Ah right, I better give Mother Goose another gander..

Thanks! :upthumb

 

[fredblue]

I promise you I'd never have been listening to this music were it not for surround obsession...

Oh I've picked up a few like that over the years too..

 

[rtbluray]

It's great, glad to have it in my collection! I bought 2112 a few years ago and really enjoyed it. Then the HFPAs started to come and I picked up Fly By Night, which was hugely disappointing IMO. I'm glad I didn't let that deter me from delving further, the recent acquisitions Signals and A Farewell To Kings are top notch :upthumb

I'm also glad that you weren't deterred from getting the other HFPA releases after purchasing and listening to "Fly By Night". All of the RUSH 5.1 Blu-Ray/DVDA releases have some merit to them in terms of musical content, surround mix, and/or fidelity.

 

[rtbluray]

Well I'll take your assessment maybe not so much as damning it with faint praise and more that its up against some stiff competition with those Warner SACDs..

Elliot Scheiner's "Nightfly" and Captain and Me" are still two of the best surround things I've ever heard.. so really did any of the others ever stand much of a chance..?

Oh and then there's "Rumours" and "Hotel California".. haha.. poor old "Fragile"..

Precisely right, Adam. "The Captain & Me", "The Nightfly", "Rumours", and "Hotel California" are definitely the best of all 10 of the Warner Japan SACDs released. Then there's "Chicago V", "What's New", "Foreigner 4", and "Machine Head", all of which are good but do not match up in comparison with the top 4 mentioned. Then there's "The Doors". Why oh why did they choose that one when they had such great other titles like the Alice Cooper 5.1 mixes, "Workingman's Dead", or "No Secrets". Any of those other titles mentioned would have been a better choice than "The Doors".
Finally, the SACD of "Fragile" is also now a wasted disc, but we wouldn't have known that at the time.

 

[skherbeck]

I'm also glad that you weren't deterred from getting the other HFPA releases after purchasing and listening to "Fly By Night". All of the RUSH 5.1 Blu-Ray/DVDA releases have some merit to them in terms of musical content, surround mix, and/or fidelity.

I agree about the Rush mixes; the only consistently good disc (from a surround standpoint) from beginning to end would be "A Farewell To Kings"; otherwise, each disc has it's moments! (On Fly By Night, By-Tor and the Snow Dog is pretty good!). For me, Signals is the weakest, mainly because my favorite songs have the less interesting mixes (the mixes seem better on the less popular songs from that disc). All worth owning, though! I believe the HFPA discs have the same surround mixes as the DVD-As, don't they?

 

[rtbluray]

I agree about the Rush mixes; the only consistently good disc (from a surround standpoint) from beginning to end would be "A Farewell To Kings"; otherwise, each disc has it's moments! (On Fly By Night, By-Tor and the Snow Dog is pretty good!). For me, Signals is the weakest, mainly because my favorite songs have the less interesting mixes (the mixes seem better on the less popular songs from that disc). All worth owning, though! I believe the HFPA discs have the same surround mixes as the DVD-As, don't they?

Yes the DVDAs are exactly the same as the Blu-Ray discs, all in terms of content, mix, and fidelity.

 

[fizzywiggs41]

For the weekend, German electronica.....extraordinaire !




Klause Schulze, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream-respectively.

 

[Tornado Red]

Yes the DVDAs are exactly the same as the Blu-Ray discs, all in terms of content, mix, and fidelity.

Do you recall when the DVD-As were done?

 

[edisonbaggins]

Do you recall when the DVD-As were done?

2011 - Andy Van Dette mix and master, IIRC

 

[rtbluray]

2011 - Andy Van Dette mix and master, IIRC

Partially right. Rich Chycki did the surround mixes, while Andy Van Dette mastered both the stereo and surround mixes. The same mastering is on the Blu-Rays too.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Partially right. Rich Chycki did the surround mixes, while Andy Van Dette mastered both the stereo and surround mixes. The same mastering is on the Blu-Rays too.

Grrr - Rick C... that's why the mixes aren't as cool as they could have been! :howl

 

[Tornado Red]

2011 - Andy Van Dette mix and master, IIRC

I note A Farewell To Kings HFPA's back page states:
2015 blu-ray edition
Supervised by Jeff Fura
5.1 Surround Sound Mixed by Richard Chycki at Midland, Ont.
5.1 Surround and Stereo Mastering by Andy VanDette at Masterdisk, NY

Of course it doesn't actually say the mixing and mastering was done in 2015. Easy to take labels the wrong way though @:

 

[edisonbaggins]

I note A Farewell To Kings HFPA's back page states:
2015 blu-ray edition
Supervised by Jeff Fura
5.1 Surround Sound Mixed by Richard Chycki at Midland, Ont.
5.1 Surround and Stereo Mastering by Andy VanDette at Masterdisk, NY

Of course it doesn't actually say the mixing and mastering was done in 2015. Easy to take labels the wrong way though @:

Well, if they redid, they redid it exactly the same, if accounts from those who have both are accurate!

 

[Tornado Red]

Well, if they redid, they redid it exactly the same, if accounts from those who have both are accurate!

Pretty sure you're right. But even over at DR they have it listed as the "2015 blu ray", but I'm guessing that's just the year the 2011 mix was put on the BD. Kind of confusing. The DR is all over the map on FBN and AFTK, couldn't find the Signals blu ray on their site. Guess that's one reason these are so hit and miss. I liked Rivendell and In The End on FBN, but thought the song FBN was flat with the percussion muffled...and it hurt to turn that one up. I should carve up the good songs from each of these and make one great BD @:

 

[DuncanS]

I managed to get round to listening for the first time in full on Blu-ray to Gentle Giant's "Octopus" & Yes "Fragile" today. All I can say is wow to both of them, fantastic.

The Penteo 5.1 mixes on the GG album are really good, the clarity of the found multi-tracked mixed ones are excellent. Its a great album, I am a real fan of Gentle Giant, I have all on either LP or CD, so I would love to get more Penteo upmixes if no multi's can be found of the rest of the albums.

The Yes is quite a revelation it just sounds great, breathes new life into the album, and the 5.1 mix is really nice, fits well. EDIT: I have the 2002 DVD-A.

So I've no more new Blu-rays to listen to, so the Denon is going to get shipped to see if it can be repaired - it won't play any disc other than a Blu-ray, until I've played a Blu-ray first!

 

[leahypc]

David Bowie - Stage (DVD-A)


Next: Mostly Autumn - Passengers (DVD-V/dts)

 

[leahypc]

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