Pink Floyd/The Division Bell - Ask Andy Jackson about the Mastering and the Mix

[0tto]

Trouble is I don't think there's any back catalogue left, Steven W has done it all ;-)

as for reissues of remixed into surround back catalogues or even particular albums, there are still plenty ones, which will spark lots of interest for re-purchasing.
need to be only willingness of those, who holds the print rights and well organized promo campaign. i think labels or artists can even do sort of voting, which
albums would be preferable for remixing/reissue.
actually, comparing let say 10 years back to a present, i see quite big rise of interest to surround and HiRes formats.

 

[Scott M4]

Andy, my signal to noise just arrived and I'm in the midst of my 3rd straight listen. This is my kind of music - spacey and thoughtful. I'm of the clan that prefers a good quad mix to isolated elements in the center speaker and your mix has been a delight for me with lots of juicy details in the rears.

I see you played everything on the album. There's a feast of great sonics thoughout. Is that all from guitars or is there an occasional synth or sampler in there too?

 

[rtbluray]

http://www.grammy.com/nominees?genre=54

Congratulations Andy on getting a Grammy nomination for Best Surround Sound Mix for "The Division Bell"! Very well deserved!

The Division Bell (20th Anniversary Deluxe Box Set)
Damon Iddins & Andy Jackson, surround mix engineers; Damon Iddins & Andy Jackson, surround mastering engineers (Pink Floyd)
Label: Parlophone

You can also see the other nominees at the link above!

 

[Andy Jackson]

elmer
Andy Jackson

my first thought was... disc perhaps has BD files formats and structure, placed onto regular DVD medium, to cut the cost on production.
albeit such would be out of any known standard but technically it's still works on BD players.
but thanks you guys for clarification. ordered two disc, for me and my relative.

p.s. Andy, you're kidding about DTS sounds better than MLP?
that's impossible with the audio stream, from which almost 3/4 of an information about captured sound is missing, after compression into DTS format

This is not lossy DTS, it's just another runtime compressor, same as MLP. All I can say is on this material & the player I used, that was my preference, albeit not chalk & cheese

 

[Andy Jackson]

as for reissues of remixed into surround back catalogues or even particular albums, there are still plenty ones, which will spark lots of interest for re-purchasing.
need to be only willingness of those, who holds the print rights and well organized promo campaign. i think labels or artists can even do sort of voting, which
albums would be preferable for remixing/reissue.
actually, comparing let say 10 years back to a present, i see quite big rise of interest to surround and HiRes formats.

It really depends on just how much they can sell. I've no idea, I'm going to talk to some people & see if there's any legs in this

 

[Andy Jackson]

Andy, my signal to noise just arrived and I'm in the midst of my 3rd straight listen. This is my kind of music - spacey and thoughtful. I'm of the clan that prefers a good quad mix to isolated elements in the center speaker and your mix has been a delight for me with lots of juicy details in the rears.

I see you played everything on the album. There's a feast of great sonics thoughout. Is that all from guitars or is there an occasional synth or sampler in there too?

Thanks! There are a few sample keys on there, mellotron on a few songs, low grade piano & organ on 'spray paint' & that's about it. Apart from that, some sampled weirdness, whales, slinky (the toy) and a bunch of "50s sci-fi sound effects". Mostly guitars, a few odd techniques

 

[Andy Jackson]

http://www.grammy.com/nominees?genre=54

Congratulations Andy on getting a Grammy nomination for Best Surround Sound Mix for "The Division Bell"! Very well deserved!



You can also see the other nominees at the link above!

OH!! Just saw this. I didn't know!!! COOL!! (just as well I come here, no other f*cker told me!!)

 

[César]

Congratulations Andy because of a well deserved nomination! What I can't understand is why Marley's Legend or The Power and The Glory are not there.
Had I to choose, it'd have a hard time to make up my mind between Legend and The Division Bell.
And next year you can also win with either TER or David's new album!

 

[rtbluray]

Congratulations Andy because of a well deserved nomination! What I can't understand is why Marley's Legend or The Power and The Glory are not there.
Had I to choose, it'd have a hard time to make up my mind between Legend and The Division Bell.
And next year you can also win with either TER or David's new album!

"The Power and the Glory" is a lower profile release, but "Legend" is also absolutely deserving of a nomination. With that being said, I still prefer "The Division Bell" over "Legend", so I hope that mix is the clear winner!

 

[rontoon]

Legend has become one of my surround reference discs.

 

[DuncanS]

Hi Andy, Congratulations on the Grammy nomination, its well deserved. How about a surround remix of Wishbone Ash's "Argus", its an album I've always thought should have been released in Quad. :banana: Cheers. Duncan

 

[himey]

This is not lossy DTS, it's just another runtime compressor, same as MLP. All I can say is on this material & the player I used, that was my preference, albeit not chalk & cheese

If you were listening on a DVD player (or DVDA) the DTS is lossly not lossless. Lossless DTS-MA is lossless and only available on bluray. MLP lossless compression is the only option for DVD-Audio to keep it lossless with that format if you need the space on a DVD...

 

[Andy Jackson]

If you were listening on a DVD player (or DVDA) the DTS is lossly not lossless. Lossless DTS-MA is lossless and only available on bluray. MLP lossless compression is the only option for DVD-Audio to keep it lossless with that format if you need the space on a DVD...

That sounds right. The player I was listening on is universal so it will play the DTS back hi-res. One reason we went with that DTS format is that it would negate the need to add dolby digital (low res) as it will guarantee it'll work on every player. Don't forget the PCM won't fit down a SPDIF cable, so a regular DVD player > a receiver won't deal with it. Given that scenario the DTS core component (1501??) will be way better than dolby dig. Anyhoo, you pays your money & takes your choice.

 

[0tto]

not really so. DTS (old one, not DTS HD MA) is mainly for purpose of convenience compatibility as it will play in any DVD/BD players,
unlike of surround MLP/PCM, which need designated for this format players, which in turn more rare and expensive hardware.
b.t.w. quad (4 channels) should be ok. on DVD-A without packing stream into MLP.
even 6 channel but no higher than 48KHz can be used without MLP on DVD-A
main purpose of MLP is to solve bottleneck issue of reading data from disk to processing chain. DVD reading spec has limit 9 mbps,
when 6 channel of PCM @ 96KHz has something like 13 mbps.


Andy, congratulation with nomination.
and next time when you'll see DG, you should talk and convince him into reissue as surround "Animals". there are millions worldwide,
who's for more than 35 years talking about prepared but never pressed quad version of this album. nevertheless it was or not,
it's obvious that quad or 5.1 version would be huge seller (but not in big inflated box filled with scarfs, marbles, coasters and such crap :howl )

 

[Cyber 1]

Just to add to what Otto said, go with both a flat transfer of of the original Quad mix 4.0 (if it does indeed exist) and an nice 5.1 with all the bells and whistles, Blue ray and DVD-A editions, A nice inflatable pig wouldn't hurt.
My take on the album is Roger and Dave vastly underestimate the desire Floyd fans have to hear this album in it's full glory.

 

[GOS]

Just to add to what Otto said, go with both a flat transfer of of the original Quad mix 4.0 (if it does indeed exist) and an nice 5.1 with all the bells and whistles, Blue ray and DVD-A editions, A nice inflatable pig wouldn't hurt.
My take on the album is Roger and Dave vastly underestimate the desire Floyd fans have to hear this album in it's full glory.

Yeah - I really don't know what to think. I mean, we all want all Floyd in 5.1......in a real bad way.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Just to add to what Otto said, go with both a flat transfer of of the original Quad mix 4.0 (if it does indeed exist) and an nice 5.1 with all the bells and whistles, Blue ray and DVD-A editions, A nice inflatable pig wouldn't hurt.
My take on the album is Roger and Dave vastly underestimate the desire Floyd fans have to hear this album in it's full glory.

with the promotion of The Endless River, Nick MaSon said in a Dutch newspaper that maybe more archive material will be reissued. Among them a reissue of Animals with better sound quality. Time will tell if that will include a surround mix as well.

 

[César]

Hello Andy. Do you happen to know what do the voices that can be heard before the end of Skins say? By the way, can you please tell us a bit more about the story behind Sum/Skins/Unsung? Where Nick's drums the origins of the songs and then the keyboards were adapted or the other way around? Thanks!

 

[Andy Jackson]

Hello Andy. Do you happen to know what do the voices that can be heard before the end of Skins say? By the way, can you please tell us a bit more about the story behind Sum/Skins/Unsung? Where Nick's drums the origins of the songs and then the keyboards were adapted or the other way around? Thanks!

The voices are just some stuff that Youth added, no particular significance, something about space, it's pretty unintelligible even when exposed.

Sum: started with the gated Farfisa thing. That defines the rhythm & shape. Drums are new. Slide is new.
Skins: started with a couple of loops of stuff from old DATs, they are still there on & off. New 'saucerful' style drums added & the mix switches back & forth between the loops & the new ones, added rototoms. The "music" is from a DAT of bonkers jamming (fuzz guitar & a sample of a farfisa loop, as per the beginning of CLuster 1)
Unsung: Again the basis is the gatey farfisa thing. Guitar is from an alternative performance of Marooned. It's 'random' sync, like Zappa got into for "Yo Mama"

 

[César]

The voices are just some stuff that Youth added, no particular significance, something about space, it's pretty unintelligible even when exposed.

Sum: started with the gated Farfisa thing. That defines the rhythm & shape. Drums are new. Slide is new.
Skins: started with a couple of loops of stuff from old DATs, they are still there on & off. New 'saucerful' style drums added & the mix switches back & forth between the loops & the new ones, added rototoms. The "music" is from a DAT of bonkers jamming (fuzz guitar & a sample of a farfisa loop, as per the beginning of CLuster 1)
Unsung: Again the basis is the gatey farfisa thing. Guitar is from an alternative performance of Marooned. It's 'random' sync, like Zappa got into for "Yo Mama"

Thanks Andy! I guess I'm a freak and the regular people are not interested by these details, but I would have loved to have all these pieces of information in the deluxe edition.