More Gentle Giant in 5.1 coming - Free Hand, Interview and The Missing Piece

[Plan9]

And I could be wrong, too, but I am quite certain the multis weren't available, as it's been three years since Three Piece Suite was released, and nothing until last year's mega box. They released PatG in 2014, Octopus in 2015, then nothing (as I believe they were looking for other multis) until the incomplete compilation, Three Piece Suite In 2017. My understanding is that compilation happened because original multis for the first three albums were unavailable.

So, and again I could be wrong, I believe that the multis have surfaced since then...either way, its GREAT news!

The multis were available, to my knowledge, for these albums (at least the vast majority of them); Dan Bornemark even had the complete multis for The Missing Piece.
It took some time because they wanted to remix and release the more popular albums first.

 

[Plan9]

Somebody find the multis for Glass House please.

Originals likely destroyed in a fire, sadly.

 

[Plan9]

While we're making preemtive requests, I vaguely recall reading that the Quad mix of Free Hand available on DVD had rear channels swapped or some other channel assignment issue- does this ring a bell with others? If so maybe it can be corrected if included with the 5.1 remixes. I want to speak to the manager.

Yes, more info about the problem here: Gentle Giant - Free Hand - to swap or not to swap? and here: DVD/DTS Poll - Gentle Giant - Free Hand [DTS 96-24/DD DVD+CD]

 

[rugene]

Derek Shulman is begging to the quadraphonicquad community if anyone knows where are the master tapes of the others GG albums

 

[5.1 4 Life]

While we're making preemtive requests, I vaguely recall reading that the Quad mix of Free Hand available on DVD had rear channels swapped or some other channel assignment issue- does this ring a bell with others? If so maybe it can be corrected if included with the 5.1 remixes. I want to speak to the manager.

It sure does ring a bell with me. I have the CD/DVD release of Free Hand and I remember the discussions for it on this forum (as well as the 'switched rear channels'). I'm sure that SW's new 5.1 mix of the album will eliminate that problem.

 

[Plan9]

I can confirm that the multis for all 3 albums have been sent to Steven, however the mixing hasn't begun yet.

The idea for now is to release them all at the same time à la Three Piece Suite.

 

[MCDave]

How do so many of you have so much inside information? Who the hell are all you people???

 

[humprof]

How do so many of you have so much inside information? Who the hell are all you people???

Just keep it comin', is all I can say.

Let's see...we've got The Beatles Let It Be to look forward to, plus Gentle Giant, and now the Doobies Quadio. And the prospect, at least, of lots of streaming Atmos tracks & albums--once Tidal (and, hopefully, other players) get their act together. The world may be going to hell, but surround-wise, it's a very good year.

 

[Plan9]

How do so many of you have so much inside information? Who the hell are all you people???

Haha I've helped Steven Wilson on a few of his classic Prog albums remixes (mainly Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant, but others as well).

 

[Beefalo]

The world may be going to hell, but surround-wise, it's a very good year.

 

[MCDave]

Haha I've helped Steven Wilson on a few of his classic Prog albums remixes (mainly Jethro Tull and Gentle Giant, but others as well).

Well then, now that Greg Lake won't be bothering him at the mixing console anymore, perhaps you could persuade your friend to have another go at ELP and Tarkus!

 

[Infomas]

Well then, now that Greg Lake won't be bothering him at the mixing console anymore, perhaps you could persuade your friend to have another go at ELP and Tarkus!

Ouch!

 

[SHB]

Ouch!

Well then, now that Greg Lake won't be bothering him at the mixing console anymore, perhaps you could persuade your friend to have another go at ELP and Tarkus!

Indeed. Hearing Rave Up instead of Tank is most disturbing experience I had in multichannel. I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from that.

 

[JediJoker]

Here’s hoping they’ll include better masterings of the old quad mixes as well.

With the correct channel assignments.

I want to speak to the manager.

OK, Karen.

While usually provided in higher res (so there'll likely be some improvement), previous mixes (stereo and otherwise) that Steven includes are usually flat-transfers of the original masters.

A flat transfer would be a HUGE improvement on what Peter Mew did to the quads.

 

[Plan9]

Mixing is underway.

 

[timbre4]

Good news but mere months after I finally bought the DVD versions of Free Hand and Interview, LOL.

Perhaps but those have been around for years; these forthcoming SW mixes will likely make you forget about these. Plenty of lead time to put them up on eBay.

 

[Simplepast Presentperfect]

Hi Plan9, in all GG releases so far, a clean mix of the bass and the drums went to the subwoofer channel. Even in the live bonus tracks in Octopus! A real treat for all of us bass players. But in most if not all of the JT releases the subwoofer channel got the bass and drums cut off at, say, 400 Hz. Can you comment on that since you worked on both projects? Will SW use the same approach for the upcoming GG releases (clean mix in subwoofer channel?).

 

[Simplepast Presentperfect]

Yes, more info about the problem here: Gentle Giant - Free Hand - to swap or not to swap? and here: DVD/DTS Poll - Gentle Giant - Free Hand [DTS 96-24/DD DVD+CD]

The Interview release has a flaw in BOTH DTS and DD, see my recent post here. Only in DD they made it not to look so much as a flaw. Very happy to hear about the 5.1 release. Tough choice but songs like Get it back with its clever time signature (7/8+5/8) is one of my favorite GG tracks.

 

[ssully]

Hi Plan9, in all GG releases so far, a clean mix of the bass and the drums went to the subwoofer channel. Even in the live bonus tracks in Octopus! A real treat for all of us bass players. But in most if not all of the JT releases the subwoofer channel got the bass and drums cut off at, say, 400 Hz. Can you comment on that since you worked on both projects? Will SW use the same approach for the upcoming GG releases (clean mix in subwoofer channel?).

I have 'seen' (waveforms of) some 5.1 mixes where there is considerable frequency content above 'LFE' range in the LFE channel. The question is *why*. The term 'clean mix' in this context is new to me. Subwoofer/.1 channel lowpass filter options typically max out at 125 Hz, and are often set at 80 Hz, and the filters are steep. Why should .1 content -- signal intended to be output by a subwoofer -- contain frequencies much higher than that? Even if it could play them, it would serve to localize the subwoofer, something usually considered undesirable.

 

[4-earredwonder]

How do so many of you have so much inside information? Who the hell are all you people???

Surprised you don't know by now that QQ Forum attracts more than just lovers of all things SURROUND. Quite a few music industry 'insiders' also peruse and post on the forum and we are all the better for it.

I, for one, am more than thrilled that Steve Wilson will be doing these Gentle Giant remixes as, IMO, everything he touches is indeed GOLDEN!