Not from Amazon anyway. They are easily ripped from the Blu-Ray though.
Marillion - Album 20 - An Hour Before It's Dark
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FrankieZappa
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Well I guess Marillion is offering it if you buy the disc directly from them.
correct
I had the same issue. It probably appears as a duplicate to DVD Audio Extractor. I used DVDFAB to create another blu-ray (main movie option) with only the second DTS MA track selected for inclusion. Then I opened this one in DVD Extractor. Because this was the only audio there, it worked perfectly.
I am listening to this for the first time and from an audio perspective I find this to be in general a "low-fi" experience.
Indeed, I'm terribly disappointed. I have blindly pre-ordered Marillion's records for years and I'm telling myself that this should be the last time. I had listened to the stereo last week: the flac download that was shared by the band last Thursday. From a musical perspective I found the experience as meh, and I parked the listening until getting the 5.1. Perhaps I made the mistake of listening after The Tipping Point and Memories of Machines. TFF is on another league and Giancarlo's mix is as solid as usual. And both are also very good in terms of sound quality.
An Hour Before it's Dark sounds like sh*t compared to any of them.
Off to the shelf it goes until I'm in a better mood to try again
I finished my ripping of this Marillion Blu Ray. Large Box Set.
1. USB download, is a Stereo WAV, 24/96 file. Includes all albums 18 tracks and the 12" Remix.
2. Blu Ray: I used MKV for the rip and I used MMH for the tagging, 100% successful.
Starting with MKV I selected the two 18 chapters, not knowing which was the vocal and instrumental tracks. Upon my extraction of MKV chapters and editing of tracks with MMH, I labeled the file Marillion 1 and Marillion 2 as I had no idea which was which. Loaded to NAS, uploaded to JRiver, listened and then re-edited the titles as Vocal 5.1 and Instrumental 5.1.
I also ripped as a video the two Murder Machines and Murder Machines 12"Remix both in 5.1.
Everything perfect with MKV and MMH as I always expect.
1. USB download, is a Stereo WAV, 24/96 file. Includes all albums 18 tracks and the 12" Remix.
2. Blu Ray: I used MKV for the rip and I used MMH for the tagging, 100% successful.
Starting with MKV I selected the two 18 chapters, not knowing which was the vocal and instrumental tracks. Upon my extraction of MKV chapters and editing of tracks with MMH, I labeled the file Marillion 1 and Marillion 2 as I had no idea which was which. Loaded to NAS, uploaded to JRiver, listened and then re-edited the titles as Vocal 5.1 and Instrumental 5.1.
I also ripped as a video the two Murder Machines and Murder Machines 12"Remix both in 5.1.
Everything perfect with MKV and MMH as I always expect.
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My regular ripping process using MKV and DVDAE ran into the same issue - no instrumental stereo or 5.1 tracks. To get around this I used the advanced or expert mode in MKV and extracted/saved the two 18 chapter audio tracks as mkv files, imported those into Audacity and then exported out to aiff for stereo and flac for 5.1. In MKV, the instrumental track was labeled t01 I believe (it was the second 18 chapter track listed). Labeling, splitting and exporting with Audacity is a bit of a pain (lots of clicks) but worked perfectly. In some cases I think I might prefer the instrumental versions.
I never said "My regular ripping process using MKV and DVDAE ran into the same issue - no instrumental stereo or 5.1 tracks." that I had any ripping problems, I just didn't know what the two 18 track chapters where, ripped em both, listened to one and knew exactly what to do. The tagging was easy as they where the same tracks and track names, thus only needed to change album name.
You need to come to the easy side of the street.
MKV and MMH for Blu Rays
DVADE for DVD.
SonoreISO for SACD's
Windows player for CD rips.
Life should be easy.
I decided to listen to this today as it was top of the pile (i.e. of the to listen to mountain!) as I'd read peoples comments, and wondered what I'd think.
From a single listen: musically I like it, overall good songs and with a different approach musically from some of their other albums, in that I'd say its dominated by the vocals (which isn't to my 'normal' liking). The surround is 'disappointing' and is more wrap round with the odd discrete element.
When you're not being hammered by the fronts & centre the resulting fidelity is good. But the fronts & centre are way too loud (even if I didn't get round to removing the DTS-HD MA Dial +4), and the drums and vocals seem very 'harsh', which to me indicates excessive compression and a raising of the volume, I found it fatiguing.
So a definite musical
and sadly a for the surround/mix
From a single listen: musically I like it, overall good songs and with a different approach musically from some of their other albums, in that I'd say its dominated by the vocals (which isn't to my 'normal' liking). The surround is 'disappointing' and is more wrap round with the odd discrete element.
When you're not being hammered by the fronts & centre the resulting fidelity is good. But the fronts & centre are way too loud (even if I didn't get round to removing the DTS-HD MA Dial +4), and the drums and vocals seem very 'harsh', which to me indicates excessive compression and a raising of the volume, I found it fatiguing.
So a definite musical
and sadly a for the surround/mix
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- Jan 9, 2013
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- 25,711
I decided to listen to this today as it was top of the pile (i.e. of the to listen to mountain!) as I'd read peoples comments, and wondered what I'd think.
From a single listen: musically I like it, overall good songs and with a different approach musically from some of their other albums, in that I'd say its dominated by the vocals (which isn't to my 'normal' liking). The surround is 'disappointing' and is more wrap round with the odd discrete element.
When you're not being hammered by the fronts & centre the resulting fidelity is good. But the fronts & centre are way too loud (even if I didn't get round to removing the DTS-HD MA Dial +4), and the drums and vocals seem very 'harsh', which to me indicates excessive compression and a raising of the volume, I found it fatiguing.
So a definite musical
Perhaps, Dunc, returning from your recent sojourn in Sunny
Barcelona you're suffering a bit from Mediterranean fatigue!I found the surrounds to be just right. Not showy but complimentary of the fronts with plenty of discrete flourishes and the vocals and drums not at all fatiguing.
And since you were acknowledged in the accompanying booklet, I highly recommend you disengage the DTS~HD MA Dial +4 and listen INTENTLY again....preferably, an hour before it's DARK!
Wow! I find the fidelity to be quite nice!When you're not being hammered by the fronts & centre the resulting fidelity is good. But the fronts & centre are way too loud (even if I didn't get round to removing the DTS-HD MA Dial +4), and the drums and vocals seem very 'harsh', which to me indicates excessive compression and a raising of the volume, I found it fatiguing.
So a definite musical
Surround on the tame side, for sure.
There was not in the copy I purchased from Amazon. May be an artists site only bonus.
I'll look into that. They Instrumentals were definitely there there in the rip. They showed up when I opened the rip in Handbrake, Unfortunately you can get an audio only file from Handbrake.
FrankieZappa
Active Member
Gave it a spin this morning, already listened it 2 times.... the album is really good, I like it, particularly Sierra Leone.
Speaking from a surround perspective I think the album is, like many of you already said, a little bit tamed...it's not particularly a bad thing but if Steven Wilson was in charge we would have got much more. Still I think it's great there's a stand alone bluray this time and we didn't have to buy the Sūper Ūber exclusive mammoth set to have a surround mix.
I would have even gone with a SACD to have best of both worlds to contain the price even further but whatever...
Speaking from a surround perspective I think the album is, like many of you already said, a little bit tamed...it's not particularly a bad thing but if Steven Wilson was in charge we would have got much more. Still I think it's great there's a stand alone bluray this time and we didn't have to buy the Sūper Ūber exclusive mammoth set to have a surround mix.
I would have even gone with a SACD to have best of both worlds to contain the price even further but whatever...
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But they're harder to rip.
And might have been a problem trying to separate the vocal and instrumental tracks which was fairly easy with the BD ?
Also you would lose the video documentary. Extras like the instrumentals only may be important when you get fed up with Hogarth's voice.
Happily enough, this time I've got spanish subtitles in the docu video to fully understand.
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