Opeth - Pale Communion 5.1 (Blu-ray)

[lolbroek]

Just bought the CD + Bluray edition yesterday and gave the 5.1 mix a spin. No problems with the mix and/or lossless sound coming from my Oppo/Marantz combo. This sounds amazing to my ears. Finally we get uncompressed Opeth. It's really, really good in my opinion. And I like to think my ears are pretty OK (well, more than that actually )

I hope you guys get the issues sorted out fast!

 

[lolbroek]

Oh and indeed: the letter size in the booklet is extremely small. I'll have to go dig up the magnifying glass for sure. And indeed, whoever said that font wasn't helping things either: you're totally right!

 

[steelydave]

Oh and indeed: the letter size in the booklet is extremely small. I'll have to go dig up the magnifying glass for sure. And indeed, whoever said that font wasn't helping things either: you're totally right!

[COLOR="#D3D3D"]There's nothing wrong with the font size![/COLOR]

 

[Shadocal]

I played the 5.1 twice and the stereo mix once already in headphones

Love the album and mix. Recommended!

 

[PK]

I'm running a Yamaha 659 AVR and a Yamaha BD-S1065 BD player. Anyone out there with a similar setup not having issues with LFE? I'm curious if it is a compatibility problem.

My disc has not arrived yet

 

[Wildman]

My disc has not arrived yet

It's worth the wait. Material wise its the best Opeth yet. It's not what I expected, but always wanted to hear from them. More prog than metal. Lots of SW harmony vocals. It reminds me of what I thought Storm Corrosion would be like.

 

[IMachine]

I've heard the 5.1 mix yesterday evening for the first time. About 10 times the stereo mix before, so I knew the songs.
The 5.1 mix is ok, but nothing special in my opinion.
What I dislike is the handling with the bass. The bass could be a little louder and all in all the low frequencies are somehow muddy....not tense enough.
But these are minor faults.

As for the music.....I liked Heritage better, because it has a very special atmosphere.
Pale Communion is.......commercial!?
Goblin is the killer track!

Looking forward to see them live in october.

 

[IMachine]

A pity that you have these problems Nimbatus. I only listened to the stereo tracks yet, so cannot comment on the 5.1 sound.

Here are a few pics from the deluxe set. Nice little box.

View attachment 15842

View attachment 15843

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Yes...the box is nice....have you tried to remove the 7"s and put them back?
A matter of patience .
And the booklet is bigger....but to read the lyrics is still hard work

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Hi Nico, I tried to remove one, but was a bit short of time. Will give it another try today or tomorrow, but yes it takes some patience

 

[Thonolan]

I don'k know if some of you are having some kind of compatibility issues, but it sounds like a stellar mix to me. In fact, my first impression was that this may be the best SW mix I've ever heard. The bass was a bit more powerful and clear on Heritage, but everything else sounds better here, drums and harmony vocals being particularly stunning.

I've not even listened to the stereo mix yet, and I'm not looking forward to, as I highly doubt it can sound this good.

 

[Simon_LDT]

There is definitely something iffy about the 5.1. I mean, it sounds good but just not up to the usual Steven Wilson standard. The bass is definitely lacking. On the stereo track the bass sounds great and has presence, yet on the 5.1 it's there but just not high enough in the mix.

The drums are mixed a little weird too as they come out of both rears too. Now, at times it sounds great, especially with drum fills because the sound field is quite big but overall it sounds a bit wrong.

 

[IMachine]

There is definitely something iffy about the 5.1. I mean, it sounds good but just not up to the usual Steven Wilson standard. The bass is definitely lacking. On the stereo track the bass sounds great and has presence, yet on the 5.1 it's there but just not high enough in the mix.

The drums are mixed a little weird too as they come out of both rears too. Now, at times it sounds great, especially with drum fills because the sound field is quite big but overall it sounds a bit wrong.

Yep. That's exactly what I'm hearing too.

 

[Wildman]

This disk is perplexing. Reviews from stellar to rubbish.

I ran through the surround mix today twice at high volume making adjustments and was quite happy with how it sounded afterwards. On my system, it sounded more balanced by increasing the center 2db and eq adjustments to the center. When I listened to the center up close, it was not contributing much other than dry vocals, keys, and guitar solos. From the sweet spot, it seemed to pull the mix to the middle of the room. I'm going to listen to it again when I get time in a day or so and see if I feel the same about the adjustments. I also want to see how the adjustments sound on other mixes.

 

[IMachine]

I would not say stellar or rubbish.
It is a good 5.1 mix and the overall sound is also good, but there were better 5.1 releases the last few months.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

The stereo and 5.1 are dolby True HD streams. Could it be that the people who are experiencing a strange sound field have Dolby Dynamic Range Compression or Audio Normalization switch on? Just a thought.

 

[IMachine]

The stereo and 5.1 are dolby True HD streams. Could it be that the people who are experiencing a strange sound field have Dolby Dynamic Range Compression or Audio Normalizationbswitch on? Just a thought.

Oh nooooo. .

 

[DuncanS]

I ordered my copy direct from Opeth/Warner, so it hasn't arrived yet! :howl

 

[timbre4]

I'd forgotten that I had pre-ordered from Roadrunner directly and almost ordered it again elsewhere! Mine arrived here (Nashville TN) on Monday 8/25. One quick listen today, liking what I heard.


From QQ deep space

 

[rtbluray]

I'd forgotten that I had pre-ordered from Roadrunner directly and almost ordered it again elsewhere! Mine arrived here (Nashville TN) on Monday 8/25. One quick listen today, liking what I heard.


From QQ deep space

I also got mine in from amazon on Monday, and while I definitely need to listen to it again, I also like what I heard on the first listen.
It strikes me in many ways as being similar to "Heritage", yet there's also a lot in it that really caught me by surprise.
Chances are once a proper poll is initiated, it will end up being a '9' for me.

 

[Nimbatus]

There is definitely something iffy about the 5.1. I mean, it sounds good but just not up to the usual Steven Wilson standard. The bass is definitely lacking. On the stereo track the bass sounds great and has presence, yet on the 5.1 it's there but just not high enough in the mix.

The drums are mixed a little weird too as they come out of both rears too. Now, at times it sounds great, especially with drum fills because the sound field is quite big but overall it sounds a bit wrong.

That is basically what I'm hearing, too. Only that I'd say the bass guitar is almost completely gone, while it's very present in the stereo mix. I can only bring it back a little more by switching the phase of the LFE. Besides that, the way the drums are put into the rear speakers in such a prominent way sounds very weird and unnatural to me. To me it sounds like the direct mic tracks of the drums are almost missing and the only tracks left in the mix are the overheads and room mics, which Mr. Wilson usually puts to the rears at least to a certain degree.

I still don't believe that this is the way it's supposed to sound.