Roxy Music -Avalon 40th anniversary Dolby Atmos Mix (now streaming)

[rtbluray]

I really hope so because that mix is a stunner. It's right up there with Atmos mixes of The Hurting and 10000Hz Legend for me. There's still a mystery upcoming Rhino Blu-ray Audio title so I'm hoping for Avalon or The Cars.

"Avalon" is under Universal Music, so there's no way it will be released by Rhino
if Universal do not want to put out the Atmos mix on Blu-Ray as a standard retail release, best bet would be as part of the SDE Surround Sound Series (@PaulatSDE)

 

[GilWave]

Does anyone know if there is or will be a physical Blu-ray Disc release of this?

When I spoke with Clearmountain about it back in March, he said the label had no plans to release a physical version of it as far as he was aware. He finished that mix last September, it took almost a year to release it to Apple and Tidal - they move at a glacial pace.

Maybe Paul Sinclair at SDE will wrangle up one, time will tell.

 

[himey]

Definitely BR worthy!

 

[jamesc]

"Avalon" is under Universal Music, so there's no way it will be released by Rhino
if Universal do not want to put out the Atmos mix on Blu-Ray as a standard retail release, best bet would be as part of the SDE Surround Sound Series (@PaulatSDE)

Ah cool, I lost track of all the label shuffling over the years! It would be a shame if it doesn't get released losslessly.

 

[srbjab]

I would think a digital file download would be financially attractive - the packaging costs should be next to nothing.

 

[5.1 4 Life]

YES; a release of Roxy Music's Avalon in Atmos & 5.1 on Blu-Ray is long overdue (like the rest of their catalog). And if Universal can give Thin Lizzy a standalone BD release of Jailbreak/Johnny The Fox (via the SDE site as a limited edition), it's time for them to do the same with Roxy Music.

 

[Dynamic Editor]

One reminder I will say is that the 5.1 mix was made in DSD, so any transfer of it to PCM will be a little bit wonky on the technical side. I'm not sure if it would necessarily qualify as lossy if that mix specifically were included, but I think it's nevertheless worth it to include in a potential Blu-Ray so the 5.1 mix is made more readily available.

 

[Simon A]

One reminder I will say is that the 5.1 mix was made in DSD, so any transfer of it to PCM will be a little bit wonky on the technical side. I'm not sure if it would necessarily qualify as lossy if that mix specifically were included, but I think it's nevertheless worth it to include in a potential Blu-Ray so the 5.1 mix is made more readily available.

I'm sure the multitrack tapes would have been transfered to digital in both DSD and PCM as a precaution.

 

[KG10]

I'm sure the multitrack tapes would have been transfered to digital in both DSD and PCM as a precaution.

The original 5.1 mix was sourced from a 48/16 digital back up of the original analogue multitracks as the latter seemed to be missing at the time of the mix.

One reminder I will say is that the 5.1 mix was made in DSD, so any transfer of it to PCM will be a little bit wonky on the technical side. I'm not sure if it would necessarily qualify as lossy if that mix specifically were included, but I think it's nevertheless worth it to include in a potential Blu-Ray so the 5.1 mix is made more readily available.

Perhaps bob would do a new 96k 5.1 remix from the newly transferred multitracks? Although most likely I expect it would be a 48k one derived from the atmos mix.

 

[Monkish]

It's been fascinating to compare the 5.1 fold down of this Atmos mix to the dedicated 5.1 mix on the SACD, and to hear all of the differences therein.

I don't know which differences are due to the fold down, and which are a result of revised mixing choices, but while some songs feel similar in the two versions, others have significantly different placement choices. For instance: in The Main Thing, synths that were in the rears are now up front, while percussion and backing vocals from the fronts have flipped to the back.

Beyond the location shifts, there are a lot of touches I'm used to in the original 5.1 that are just gone in this fold down, and which I miss a *lot*. The tom hits during the intro section of Take A Chance With Me no longer echo front to back. The background vocals in the chorus of True To Life no longer travel from front to back. The tom fills in More Than This that were in the back are now up front. Etcetera.

A couple more random observations: the lead vocal on While My Heart Is Still Beating is much drier in this 5.1 fold down. And the cymbals during the big lead-up to the title phrase in To Turn You On, which were so wonderfully spread out in the original 5.1, feel really stifled here.

Anyhow... if this fold down existed in a vacuum, I'd probably rate it a 9. But, it doesn't. And, to me at least, it very apparently lacks the warmth and lushness and magic of the SACD mix, which is on my all-time top five 5.1 list.

So, this fold down is more like an 8 to me. I'm glad I got the chance to A/B the two versions. And now, I have no need to listen to this one ever again (except maybe to hear the true surround mix of India -- the master couldn't be located for the SACD mix, and they compensated by panning the stereo mix from speaker to speaker).

 

[GilWave]

It's been fascinating to compare the 5.1 fold down of this Atmos mix to the dedicated 5.1 mix on the SACD, and to hear all of the differences therein.

I don't know which differences are due to the fold down, and which are a result of revised mixing choices, but while some songs feel similar in the two versions, others have significantly different placement choices. For instance: in The Main Thing, synths that were in the rears are now up front, while percussion and backing vocals from the fronts have flipped to the back.

Beyond the location shifts, there are a lot of touches I'm used to in the original 5.1 that are just gone in this fold down, and which I miss a *lot*. The tom hits during the intro section of Take A Chance With Me no longer echo front to back. The background vocals in the chorus of True To Life no longer travel from front to back. The tom fills in More Than This that were in the back are now up front. Etcetera.

A couple more random observations: the lead vocal on While My Heart Is Still Beating is much drier in this 5.1 fold down. And the cymbals during the big lead-up to the title phrase in To Turn You On, which were so wonderfully spread out in the original 5.1, feel really stifled here.

Anyhow... if this fold down existed in a vacuum, I'd probably rate it a 9. But, it doesn't. And, to me at least, it very apparently lacks the warmth and lushness and magic of the SACD mix, which is on my all-time top five 5.1 list.

So, this fold down is more like an 8 to me. I'm glad I got the chance to A/B the two versions. And now, I have no need to listen to this one ever again (except maybe to hear the true surround mix of India -- the master couldn't be located for the SACD mix, and they compensated by panning the stereo mix from speaker to speaker).

The fold-down is an algorithmic decision within the Atmos software engine, the SACD 5.1 is a human being who also mixed the original stereo version..

This Atmos version makes ample use one the side and eight channels for 7.1.4 - the algorithm has to decide where to fold down those 6 channels to 5.1, based on assumptive criteria that Dolby baked-in to the software. Not surprised thet the deviated 5.1 SACD mix is more to your liking.

 

[himey]

In the comments here, Bryan Ferry's channel says there will be a disc.

 

[KG10]

In the comments here, Bryan Ferry's channel says there will be a disc.

Another one he made though said dvd version coming soon unless he meant blu ray.

 

[texeast]

Thanks for the info himey!

 

[Dynamic Editor]

Another one he made though said dvd version coming soon unless he meant blu ray.
View attachment 108686

The team (or he) must be using the term "DVD" loosely here. I don't think Atmos can be encoded on a DVD.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

The team (or he) must be using the term "DVD" loosely here. I don't think Atmos can be encoded on a DVD.

You are correct.

 

[5.1 4 Life]

Another one he made though said dvd version coming soon unless he meant blu ray.
View attachment 108686

I hope he meant to say Blu-Ray since that's the only disk format with Atmos capability. Anyways, a physical release of Roxy's Avalon in 5.1 should sell like hotcakes!

 

[KG10]

The team (or he) must be using the term "DVD" loosely here. I don't think Atmos can be encoded on a DVD.

Unless they developed some kind of pro logic system where by the atmos channels are encoded into 5.1 to which the receiver then decodes it back to atmos. However would obviously have much worse quality than streaming especially as the 448 kb/s ac3 audio stream is even more lossy.

I hope he meant to say Blu-Ray since that's the only disk format with Atmos capability. Anyways, a physical release of Roxy's Avalon in 5.1 should sell like hotcakes!

Correct me if I'm wrong but I assume this would be released on Rhino right?

 

[splinter7]

Given the folding hands (aka.. prayer) emoji, I read this as a hard copy version is hopefully coming soon.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

View attachment 108700

Given the folding hands (aka.. prayer) emoji, I read this as a hard copy version is hopefully coming soon.

That’s interesting, given it’s Atmos wouldn’t he mean Blu-ray?