Silverline Gold

[Solar]

Ok I had a few silverline discs that were bad. And yes friends bought other silverline discs and said tha they were bad. I see a interesting disc in the store and do not buy it if it is made by Silverline. Now I am wondering if there is any gold in that silver. Are there any discs that are good or even great. After all it's hard to put out so many bad discs. I must say I just looked at the Silverline site and found a disc I have that I love the mix on AWAKEN is a good Silverline release. So any others. I am interested in finding a good Reggae disc.

 

[deepsky4565]

Although I've avoided most Silverline product, mostly because of this forum, I've really enjoyed many of the Inside the Music series of discs. The Surf disc is not great, mostly smeary 5.1. I do enjoy the Women on Top, and New Wave discs. Most of these mixes DO sound like true discrete 5.1. The Classic Rock one didn't sound as good to me, but it may just be the particular mixes aren't as good, or maybe more fake 5.1 on that one. Haven't listened to it in a while. I'd love to hear more comments about this series. BTW, I did pick up a sampler from this series, which is not a true DVD-A, but does have a mix of Huey Lewis and the News' Power of Love, not available in the series. It sounds discrete to me.

Others?

Dan in Spokane

 

[Cai Campbell]

The "Inside The Music" series is a bit hit and miss. There is some really great stuff there, though. Sorry, I can't think of any specifics off the top of my head, but they are certainly worth a listen.

There are some GREAT Silverline releases, to be sure, but these are few and far between. Someone mentioned elsewhere that it would be easier to list the Silverline titles that DO sound good rather than those which DON'T. I would tend to agree. Below is a list of Silverline releases that I have no problem recommending. These are all excellent DVD-A titles:

Awaken - Awaken
Big Phat Band - Swingin' For The Fences
David Becker - Germerica
David Diggs - E-Klek-Trik
Rambient - So Many Worlds (my favorite Silverline release)
Shankar & Gingger - One In A Million
Ziroq - Ziroq

There are probably a couple of other good Silverline releases I am missing, but these are the best, in my opinion. Now, all these titles have one thing in common that helps set them apart from the boatload of other crappy Silverline releases: THEY WERE NOT LICENSED FROM SANCTUARY RECORDS.

As far as I'm concerned, the Sanctuary logo is the kiss of death for the vast majority of Silverline titles licensed from this company (there are some exceptions). The details of the Sanctuary deal can be found elsewhere on this board, so I won't rehash the story. All I can say is that this deal between Silverline and Sanctuary should never have been signed.

It is because of this deal that we've seen the veritable glut of fake surround titles released from Silverline. With this deal, they went for quantity and not quality. If they had done the opposite and focused instead on releasing top-notch material such as I have listed previously, both Silverline and DVD-A would be in a much better position right now.

Yes, I blame the glut of Silverline's atrocious Sanctuary material for having a big part in the decline of DVD-A. However, I still have faith that the format can recover.

 

[russea]

Both the AAron Neville discs are outstanding -too bad they came out on Silverline ,it really limited their sales!

 

[zabble]

Motorhead's "Ace of Spades" on the Silverline label is a good discrete mix.

The only other Silverline that I have is "Inside the Music : Classic Rock" which was all discretely remixed with the exception of three songs : "Bad to the Bone" by George Thorogood, "Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf, and "Time Won't Let Me" by the Outsiders. These three songs are simulated "5.1".

 

[sspsandy]

I have 2 Silverline discs that have excellent discrete 5.1 surround, Corrosion of Conformity "America's Volume Dealer" and "Live Volume". These are incidently Silverline Sanctuary discs, however I think that the band had a big hand in mixing them.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Hmm, I've heard both the "Corrosion of Conformity" DVD-A's and neither sounds discrete to me. Also, the "Live Volume" was mastered at the wrong tape speed. It is played too fast. They almost sound like chipmunks. I think this is a terrible release.

 

[sspsandy]

Cai, I have to respectfully disagree with you here. While thes 2 discs may not be up to to the standards of say Yes "Fragile", they certainly do have a nice surround mix, especially Volume dealer which has different mixes from the cd and is way higher fidelity. The Live Volume sounds the same speed as the cd to my ear, but perhaps I need to give them a side by side listen, I understand you have very discriminating ears from your posts. Since C.O.C is a band that doesn't get much industry support, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they released DVD-A's of these titles, so I bought them in spite of the Silverline curse. I am a long time C.O.C fan. I just think that these two discs are pretty decent, better than many quad records in my collection as far as sound goes.

 

[Cai Campbell]

I would agree that many of the Silverline/Sanctuary releases sound better than some of the stuff that came out of the quad era, but that's not much of a compliment, if you know what I mean.

Yes, do a comparison of the "Live Volume" DVD-A compared to the CD. You should find that the DVD-A runs at about 8% faster than it should. I probably never would have noticed this, but somebody else on this board pointed it out a while ago (I would do a search and provide a link, but I'm too lazy). Something about that title always bugged me and when I found out about the speed-up problem, that explained it for me.

As for the fidelity of these discs, they are fine. Aside from the speed-up problem, the only point you've made that I'm disagreeing with is that they are discrete. It has been awhile since I've listened to them, so I'll have to go back to be sure, but if memory serves me right, I didn't think they sounded discrete at all. I'll do my homework and get back to you on this.

 

[sspsandy]

Cai, you were right, I A/B'd the CD and DVD-A, and it is faster. I would have gone on my merry way in blissful ignorance without ever knowing. As for the mixes being discrete, I'll amend that by saying that they pretty distinct surround mixes, the live one has more of a live concert surround, although alot going on in the rears, the studio one has kind of a front heavy mix that is punctuated by the rears kicking in and out, sort of a primitive version of how the Doors L.A. Woman is mixed. Silverline is bogus, especially Sanctuary. I no longer recommend these discs to anyone. I am not buying any more Silverline discs (unless it's another C.O.C. disc, or Monster Magnet, Stabbing Westward, Queens of the Stoneage, I wouldn't be able to resist). I am a huge C.O.C. fan, and I think DVD-A is a great format, the two together was impossible for me to pass up. Even though I know these discs are no good, I still end up listening to them a lot and enjoying them, they do sound better than the cd's to my ear. I think the comment that C.O.C. sounded like chipmonks is a little harsh, after all these are some of my favorite rock heros we're talking about here, the disc is collectable as an oddity if nothing else. Besides, before I got the strobe fixed on my HK ST7, I was runng the turntable too fast without knowing it, I mean the guitarists sound so intense at a higher speed, especially Hendrix.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Well, to be fair, I said they "almost" sounded like chipmunks. All I was trying to say was that it sounded a little odd... like the pitch was too fast on a turntable or something (kinda like you were talking about with yours.)

Hey, it happens to the best of us! I bought a "Sly and Robbie" vinyl set. These guys are great rhythm masters in the drum & bass tradition. Anyway, I wasn't familiar with the music in the set and the friggin' records didn't indicate whether they should be played at 33 or 45 rpm. I tried both and thought for sure it was 45 rpm. I really liked the music and played those records a lot! Well, I come to find out that I was wrong. These were 33 rpm LP's. But you know what? I can't stand to listen to them at 33 rpm! The songs are already stuck in my head at 45 rpm and there is no going back! So, I know what you mean. Ignorance can be bliss.

Getting back on track, a serious production error like that for a DVD-A is unforgivable. A "proper" record label would initiate a recall-and-replace program. Not Silverline. As far as I know they haven't even acknowledged the error.

 

[sspsandy]

I think the speed up was deliberate. They added a bonus live video to an already long concert, so they speeded it up to sqeeze it all in. Should have added the video to the studio disc, it's shorter. Although I'm not ruling out lack of quality control, third rate production, and low rent mastering added to good old fashioned flim-flammery.

 

[Cai Campbell]

Speeding up the primary content to make room for bonus content is unforgivable. If this is true, somebody at Silverline deserves a serious smack upside the head.

 

[Quadzilla]

I got flamed pretty badly a few months back for suggesting that some would sacrifice sound quality for video and other features. I was assured that there was tons of leftover room on a DVD disk to accommodate everybody. Just another reason that Silverline (likely a clandestine business unit of Sony if you dig into it) will eventually kill the DVD-Audio format.

Mike.

P.S. That was a joke by the way ... but I know some conspiracy theorist will take me seriously. I am ready for the inevitable thrashing!