Michael Marquart/A Bad Think - new album "X" coming 8/19 (with Bob Clearmountain Atmos Mix!)

[sjcorne]

You may have already seen the first single up for sale at IAA, but the full album will go live as an MP4 & MKV download on 8/19. I'm told that a Blu-Ray release will follow in late September/early October (due to manufacturing delays), and that Clearmountain has only mixed the album in Dolby Atmos with no dedicated 5.1 option. I fought for the high-resolution Dolby TrueHD/Atmos MKV download option, so be sure to show your support if you want to see more Atmos content in that format going forward. I've heard the Atmos mix and it's to Clearmountain's usual high standard, with lots of distinct instrumentation in the side and rear surrounds. If you enjoyed The Savior and Lifelike, it'll definitely be of interest.

In the weeks leading up to release, we're also running a limited-time scavenger hunt with prizes for the winners. Check it out!
https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/2022/08/coming-soon-to-iaa-a-bad-thinks-x/https://xmarksthe.site/

 

[DuncanS]

When I and my brother went to Cardiff to see Nick Mason I played him A Bad Think's "The Saviour" in surround in the car back, he loved it, so bought the CD. He still doesn't get why I love surround though!

Just come across this which reminds me I must buy the surround download of Lifelike from IAA!

 

[sjcorne]

https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/x-a-bad-think-atmos-mp4-mkv/https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/x-physical-blu-ray-a-bad-think/

 

[J. PUPSTER]

https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/x-a-bad-think-atmos-mp4-mkv/https://immersiveaudioalbum.com/product/x-physical-blu-ray-a-bad-think/

Wow, going physical also- exciting!

Is there a predetermined number of copies or just sell within a time period of interest?

 

[Cheezmo]

Atmos version on Apple Music

 

[Infomas]

And no 5.1 mix. I'll pass.

 

[Belgiumliver]

And no 5.1 mix. I'll pass.

All Atmos mixes play in 5.1.

 

[sjcorne]

Poll now available:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/threads/a-bad-think-x-blu-ray-audio-dolby-atmos.32836/

 

[edisonbaggins]

All Atmos mixes play in 5.1.

Also, if Bob Clearmountain saw fit to do stereo and Atmos mixes only, I'm going to trust his judgement on that.
He's been the biggest proponent of 5.1 that I know of. He would not forgo it on a whim.

 

[Infomas]

All Atmos mixes play in 5.1.

But it's not made for 5.1, so there is no guarantee it's going to sound any good. I love Bob's work, but it isn't him doing the downmixing to 5.1.

 

[CINERAMAX]

As long as MMH can convert to 5.1 Flac Im cool with Atmos, but sometimes MMH dos not convert TrueHD to flac.

 

[AYanguas]

But it's not made for 5.1, so there is no guarantee it's going to sound any good. I love Bob's work, but it isn't him doing the downmixing to 5.1.

We have read Steven Wilson to say that he prefer to do a separate 5.1 mix in addition to the Atmos mix, to suit for his monitoring listening tests in the studio.

What would think or what would do Bob Clearmountain, considering he knows very well how a 5.1 listening should behave, as @edisonbaggins said?

 

[marpow]

Atmos version on Apple Music

Checking this out now. A little tame, but I need to give it some more time.

 

[AYanguas]

Checking this out now. A little tame, but I need to give it some more time.

Feel the same.

Music is good, but Marquart voice is like he is tired and unwilling

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

Where can I purchase this disc?

 

[Mesozoic Mike]

Thanks, but never mind. I found it and ordered it. I do like this music.

 

[Stupy]

Hello.

The Tidal version of the X album grabbed my attention last night. Wow. This is great music.

Embarrassingly, I hope I may ask a couple of questions here because I have never purchased from immersiveaudioalbum.com previously; and am not looking so great financially right now (far from the only one here it appears! ).

I see three albums here available in forms of surround - The Saviour (2019), Lifelife (2021) and X (2022).

The prices here - are they all in USD before conversion to anything else?
I'm seeing digital downloads at 17.99 + 17.99 + 22.99 = $58.97 US
Converted to Aus dollars with anticipated shafting = $90.00 AUD
Am I on the correct path?

Just checking what I'm realistically looking at if/when I can do it =) To date I've only done physical discs and Tidal/Deezer streaming. These high quality downloads seem a great idea.

Also... I know it's late to the party but re the above discussion on atmos vs 5.1 mix; I recommend this thread - Atmos and TrueHD 7.1 playback on 5.1 systems - Tests, Results, questions, experiences - it's remarkably deterministic how atmos behaves on a 5.1 system. From my experiments and understanding at this stage (subject to better knowledge!), I am personally comfortable with the idea of purchasing an atmos mix to play on my 5.1 system.

 

[Stupy]

Hello again.

For anyone starting this path with immersiveaudio.com (IAA) and A Bad Think as I have now done... here are some observations.

Yes, as is the case in the small print, the prices are in US dollars. Post conversion ended up paying about AUD$96 for the three A Bad Think multichannel album downloads. Expensive for no physical product but given I expect this is a niche market and a top quality product I accept it.

The only quirk I discovered is that after your purchase, do NOT use the download all option. It tried to use Google Chrome to initialise far too many file downloads at once. I ended up downloading the files individually with no apparent problems.

Tech solutions for playback. I play my audio mostly on a PC with HDMI output. The 5.1's were 24 bit 96kHz FLAC, solid stuff with no adjustments needed. The Atmos files were in two formats where only one matters to me - the lossless mkv files. MusicMediaHelper converts from mkv to m4a; then playable via the "normal" solution of foobar with the ffmpeg plugin (installed and set up to link to ffmpeg). All then play from PC; beautiful. The atmos files themselves seem the same bitrate/quality as I have seen on blurays like R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People.

Early impressions positive of all A Bad Think albums. Well recorded, mixed and produced. Again, I am limited to 5.1 but no regrets on this first purchase from IAA.

Thank you sjcorne for your role in making all of this happen!

 

[sjcorne]

Early impressions positive of all A Bad Think albums. Well recorded, mixed and produced. Again, I am limited to 5.1 but no regrets on this first purchase from IAA.

Thank you sjcorne for your role in making all of this happen!

Glad to hear you enjoyed them! I still think it's pretty cool we were able to get Clearmountain-mixed surround stuff on the site, he's one of the best at it.

I hear your frustration on the downloader functionality - all I can say there is that the development team is very small and not really experienced with handling these kinds of files, but I've been working with them to try and improve it. If anything ever goes wrong with one of your downloads, you can write to the support email (or even PM me here) and we'll pass the files over to you via a time-limited Dropbox or WeTransfer link.