Pink Floyd "Animals (2022 Atmos mix)" Blu-ray Audio incl. hi-res Dolby Atmos; 5.1 and stereo mixes (2018 remix)

[AYanguas]

Quick Listen, not yet the whole album.
It is what expected from James Guthrie. Just a little "expanded" the 5.1 mix.
It sounds good, a little more immersive than the 5.1.

But it always disappoints those of us who prefer more discretely aggressive Atmos mixes.

Sound is "mainly" Quad, this time with the Surround Backs (Rears) engaged, instead of the Sides. With little amount of content on Tops. Nothing on Wides.

I would expect Gilmour guitar solos coming from above, but they come from the rears. Just very similar to previous 5.1 mix.

The Tops are only engaged with the subtle Rick's ethereal keyboards, that even giving a good "immersion" It doesn't turn out to be anything spectacular.

 

[Albert Dagger]

Quick Listen, not yet the whole album.
It is what expected from James Guthrie. Just a little "expanded" the 5.1 mix.
It sounds good, a little more immersive than the 5.1.

But it always disappoints those of us who prefer more discretely aggressive mixes.

Sound is "mainly " Quad, this time with the Surround Backs (Rears) engaged, instead of the Sides. With little amount of content on Tops. Nothing on Wides.

I would expect Gilmour guitar solos coming from above, but they come from the rears. Just very similar to previous 5.1 mix.

The Tops are only engaged with the subtle Rick's ethereal keyboards, that even giving a good "immersion" It doesn't turn out to be anything spectacular.

Sorry but this is not fair. The 5.1 was spectacular and an amazing reinterpretation of the original album. The Atmos mix maintains the greatness of the 5.1 mix making it even more immersive. I don’t see how this can’t be anything else than spectacular. It’s one of the best Atmos mixes I’ve ever heard, with plenty of discrete elements that were ‘designed’ this way instead of disjointed guitars travelling around the room. I think it is very balanced and incredibly immersive to the level that I don’t localise or hear my speakers, but just a cohesive mix. Guthrie proved many times to be one of the best surround mixers ever, in both Atmos and 5.1. His mixes are great and this is demo material.

 

[AYanguas]

Sorry but this is not fair. The 5.1 was spectacular and an amazing reinterpretation of the original album. The Atmos mix maintains the greatness of the 5.1 mix making it even more immersive. I don’t see how this can’t be anything else than spectacular. It’s one of the best Atmos mixes I’ve ever heard, with plenty of discrete elements that were ‘designed’ this way instead of disjointed guitars travelling around the room. I think it is very balanced and incredibly immersive to the level that I don’t localise or hear my speakers, but just a cohesive mix. Guthrie proved many times to be one of the best surround mixers ever, in both Atmos and 5.1. His mixes are great and this is demo material.

OK. I will listen more carefully to the full album following your observations. I recognize that the mix is quite immersive and balanced. I just miss some more "aggressiveness" with more discrete sounds swarming throughout the room, like in other wilder mixes from other albums.

 

[Albert Dagger]

OK. I will listen more carefully to the full album following your observations. I recognize that the mix is quite immersive and balanced. I just miss some more "aggressiveness" with more discrete sounds swarming throughout the room, like in other wilder mixes from other albums.

I think I understand your previous post, since the Atmos could be seen as an incremental improvement from a previous released mix, so it missed the novelty effect. But still wow to me

 

[César]

Honestly, not a huge step forward the already good 5.1 mix, but really enjoyable. While I would never call it a demo Atmos mix, it makes the existing 5.1 even better.
The wow effect I got with the previous mix, but had I heard this one before, I would have appreciated it much more.
BTW, the powerful bass in P3DO is still there

 

[Petr Kropotkin]

There's also a postcard and a sticker, in case you still care about PF's memorabilia

No other reason to buy Floyd stuff. Once I took the scarf, nine coasters, and three marbles out of the DSotM Immersion Box set, I threw the rest of the Box out.

 

[LuvMyQuad]

.Guthrie proved many times to be one of the best surround mixers ever, in both Atmos and 5.1. His mixes are great and this is demo material.

Ha Ha Ha... Oh you're being serious....

 

[LuvMyQuad]

Is the spoken part in Sheep still the same?

 

[César]

Is the spoken part in Sheep still the same?

Yes, but mixed in a different way. Nice

 

[harync]

As others have said, a nice incremental improvement of the previous 5.1 mix. If this had been released in 2022 we would be raving (and drooling) about it and ignoring the 5.1 mix. The packaging is nicer, and we got a postcard and a sticker!

 

[Albert Dagger]

Ha Ha Ha... Oh you're being serious....

Whether or not he's a top surround mixer is a personal opinion, but we are all biased when we assess a new surround mix in comparison to an existing one we prefer. I strongly believe that the dislike for Guthrie's early mixes was caused by the existence of great quad mixes for The Dark Side and Wish You Were Here. But, on their own, the 5.1 mixes of these two albums are good and what many here call 'discrete'. The 5.1 of Welcome to the Machine is one of my demo tracks.
The same is happening here. Many of us are familiar with the great 5.1 mix of Animals, which is the starting point for developing this Atmos. Hearing an incremental improvement from that mix doesn't give you the same goosebumps as the first time you heard it in 5.1.

 

[sjcorne]

Sound is "mainly" Quad, this time with the Surround Backs (Rears) engaged, instead of the Sides. With little amount of content on Tops.

Yep, completely agree. I felt there was little to be gained by listening in 7.1.4 versus 5.1, aside from a few interesting moments here and there where things are partially elevated into the heights (like the 'stone..stone..stone' vocal delay). I was hoping more of the effects would come from above, like the 'shards of broken glass' bit or the animal sounds during the segue from "Pigs" into "Sheep," but those parts basically sound the same as in the 5.1 mix to me. The only passage where I really felt like the whole space, top and bottom, was being utilized was during the spacey synth solo section in "Dogs".

There are also a lot of passages with elements in the 'phantom sides' (between the front and rear speakers), like the 'crying guitars' in "Dogs" or electric piano at the beginning of "Sheep." It could've been cool to have those parts instead appear discretely from the side speakers - especially since there's already a dedicated 5.1 mix on the disc, so no need to worry about how it translates to six channels - but again it pretty much sounds the same as in the 5.1 mix.

 

[Guy Robinson]

Yep, completely agree. I felt there was little to be gained by listening in 7.1.4 versus 5.1, aside from a few interesting moments here and there where things are partially elevated into the heights (like the 'stone..stone..stone' vocal delay). I was hoping more of the effects would come from above, like the 'shards of broken glass' bit or the animal sounds during the segue from "Pigs" into "Sheep," but those parts basically sound the same as in the 5.1 mix to me. The only passage where I really felt like the whole space, top and bottom, was being utilized was during the spacey synth solo section in "Dogs".

There are also a lot of passages with elements in the 'phantom sides' (between the front and rear speakers), like the 'crying guitars' in "Dogs" or electric piano at the beginning of "Sheep." It could've been cool to have those parts instead appear discretely from the side speakers - especially since there's already a dedicated 5.1 mix on the disc, so no need to worry about how it translates to six channels - but again it pretty much sound the same as in the 5.1 mix.

Sounds like I made the correct decision in giving this one a miss and using the funds to get something "new"

 

[beerking]

Received mine yesterday

Playing it now because yesterday I was at Wembley with over 35,000 Oxford United fans.

And Oxford beat Bolton 2 0 to win the Division One playoff final.

To put into words what this means to sooo many of us Oxford fans...It was and is a fantastic result and day

Oh, and I'm enjoying the expanded 5.1 mix.
Or as JG calls it....Atmos

 

[perzon57]

Received mine yesterday

Playing it now because yesterday I was at Wembley with over 35,000 Oxford United fans.

And Oxford beat Bolton 2 0 to win the Division One playoff final.

To put into words what this means to sooo many of us Oxford fans...It was and is a fantastic result and day

Oh, and I'm enjoying the expanded 5.1 mix.
Or as JG calls it....Atmos

Saw the match on the telly, good match, congrats to all you Oxford fans.Listened to Animals Atmos on Apple Music, and as you say not much Atmosy, but nice deep bass here and there. The 5.1 upmixed with Auro 3D sounds better to me, but I have the disc en route anyway.

 

[olgitnorm]

Received mine yesterday

Playing it now because yesterday I was at Wembley with over 35,000 Oxford United fans.

And Oxford beat Bolton 2 0 to win the Division One playoff final.

To put into words what this means to sooo many of us Oxford fans...It was and is a fantastic result and day

Oh, and I'm enjoying the expanded 5.1 mix.
Or as JG calls it....Atmos

You should have held up a Quadio sign so we could all see you

 

[quadrifonico]

Content: 10 (It's Animals!)
Mix: 8 (The Atmos did indeed lift the sound and put some "air" under it)
Fidelity : 9 (I waffled on this a little)
I voted a 9.

When I get a chance to really crank it I may change my vote. We'll see.

So you have no subwoofer issues with this release? My subwoofer sleeps off during the Atmos track

 

[Clement]

In the window of St. Paul's Cheapo Records – this takes me back:

 

[mandrix]

So you have no subwoofer issues with this release? My subwoofer sleeps off during the Atmos track

OK playing again now. No sub issues.

 

[mandrix]

If anything, I have a tiny bit more respect for Roger's playing.