Tears for fears announcement - Songs for a Nervous Planet (live) SDE Blu-Ray with SW Atmos Mix Oct 25th, 2024

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They must still be having issues with the shipping, as mine didn't ship yet.
Considering Nov 1st bank holiday, I don't think I'll get it before the 4th, and that being lucky.
A bit frustrated this time, TBH.
 
Well, I saw the movie last night at what seemed to be a nice theater in Columbus, OH.
(Never been to it before so can't speak to its quality other than they serve Guinness!)
I was at the concert that this film is composed from. Gotta say I was not jumping for joy about a lot of the movie.
The credits at the end of the film say it was mixed by (guitarist) Charlton Pettus.
There is also a credit for someone I didn't remember the name of but I am assuming she didn't handle the music based on the credit.
No mention of anyone else. (Though I didn't stay for the music videos of the 4 new songs...)
At best I would call the sound OK. But not TFF quality.
As expected, there were a lot of vocal overdubs. This unfortunately causes several things to happen.
Outside of the distracting lip sync issues, (often unavoidable and not noticed by those who don't pay attention to such things) there is a real lack of energy from the audience in this film. As I said, I was there. The crowd was singing along and very loud throughout, and not in a bad way. That energy is totally missing. Some of this might be caused by the overdubs clashing with the vocals coming in through the audience mics. But there are spots where Roland points his mic into the crowd and we still can't hear them. Not good!
The music mix was also really messed up in the theater. I was sitting dead center and anything that wasn't coming from the screen (LCR) was way off. It made me wonder if the system was not set up right.
Anyhow... gotta say I'm just going to rely on my memory of the show itself going forward. The source material (the studio albums) are such a joy to listen to that I don't feel the need to revisit this again. Your mileage may vary.
 
Well, I saw the movie last night at what seemed to be a nice theater in Columbus, OH.
(Never been to it before so can't speak to its quality other than they serve Guinness!)
I was at the concert that this film is composed from. Gotta say I was not jumping for joy about a lot of the movie.
The credits at the end of the film say it was mixed by (guitarist) Charlton Pettus.
There is also a credit for someone I didn't remember the name of but I am assuming she didn't handle the music based on the credit.
No mention of anyone else. (Though I didn't stay for the music videos of the 4 new songs...)
At best I would call the sound OK. But not TFF quality.
As expected, there were a lot of vocal overdubs. This unfortunately causes several things to happen.
Outside of the distracting lip sync issues, (often unavoidable and not noticed by those who don't pay attention to such things) there is a real lack of energy from the audience in this film. As I said, I was there. The crowd was singing along and very loud throughout, and not in a bad way. That energy is totally missing. Some of this might be caused by the overdubs clashing with the vocals coming in through the audience mics. But there are spots where Roland points his mic into the crowd and we still can't hear them. Not good!
The music mix was also really messed up in the theater. I was sitting dead center and anything that wasn't coming from the screen (LCR) was way off. It made me wonder if the system was not set up right.
Anyhow... gotta say I'm just going to rely on my memory of the show itself going forward. The source material (the studio albums) are such a joy to listen to that I don't feel the need to revisit this again. Your mileage may vary.
Good to know since I was considering going to one of the Columbus locations to see it today. Were you at Polaris or Crosswoods?
 
Listening to the boys now.
Arrived yesterday but had to wait till today, as trying to help my daughter buy her first house 🏠
I explained how it all works and she's got the house they wanted!!
Now it's the process of securing the mortgage ( she has an offer in principle) and getting the legal bits sorted.
Hopefully will move in before or on February 1st 2025.
Yep, that's how long it can take here.
 
Just seen the film at the cinema and while it’s great, it was immediately obvious that SW didn’t do the surround mix (credited at the end to “Laurel Canyon Live”). Which makes sense, I guess, once I consider how this must’ve been put together… But talk about a missed opportunity for me to actually hear one of his much vaunted mixes in a proper cinema system! There was some stuff at the back and at the sides on occasion, but only on a few tracks. Weird. Also, the lead vocals tended to drown out other elements and guitars sometimes got lost. They should've just called Steven in from the get-go instead of producing two different multichannel mixes.
Mostly because I remembered them including "My Demons" and "Break the Man", probably the two weakest songs on the new album, but excluding "Master Plan" and "End of Night", two of their best tracks.
Curiosly enough, they did play End of Night at the filmed show but excluded it from the film and album. Not sure why.

Master Plan wasn't played at any show yet.

I think My Demons sounded really good in the film.
 
Just seen the film at the cinema and while it’s great, it was immediately obvious that SW didn’t do the surround mix (credited at the end to “Laurel Canyon Live”). Which makes sense, I guess, once I consider how this must’ve been put together… But talk about a missed opportunity for me to actually hear one of his much vaunted mixes in a proper cinema system! There was some stuff at the back and at the sides on occasion, but only on a few tracks. Weird. Also, the lead vocals tended to drown out other elements and guitars sometimes got lost. They should've just called Steven in from the get-go instead of producing two different multichannel mixes.
I could be way off-base here, but the reason for two surround mixes might be because the live album and concert film use different edits of the same performance.

For the Porcupine Tree Closure/Continuation Live release, SW actually created two different sets of Atmos mixes - one is the 'live album' with all the talking between songs edited out (this is what you'll hear on the streaming services), whereas the standalone Blu-Ray with video keeps all that stuff in. In the deluxe edition, there's a second Blu-Ray that has the edited version in TrueHD.

In this case, it sounds like Charlton Pettus and the band created the 'live album' stereo mix first (with the chatter between songs edited out) - and then Steven did the 5.1/Atmos mixes from those sessions. I haven't seen the concert film, so I don't know if for sure if this is this case - but when I saw the band live at Madison Square Garden in June 2023, there was a fair amount of talking between the songs (mostly Roland).

Another possibility is that because Steven's mix was done in a nearfield room, maybe it didn't translate well to a theatrical environment. But his mixes have been adapted to play in those big L-Acoustics rooms that seat a larger audience, so that probably isn't the case.
 
I'll be seeing it tomorrow night. I often find that I enjoy listening/watching movies in my home setup rather than in the theatre. A perfect example are the new Dune movies. With a home Atmos setup cranked up to 11, it sounds so much better than in the theatre. You can feel the percussion and low frequencies in your chest. The smaller space provides for a more immersive sound. I think they dial down the volume in the theatres too because they don't want the old folks to complain.
The sound might be better, but you'd have to have a rather big bad-ass screen to match the visuals (which perhaps you have). Coincidentally, I watched Dune 2 last week at home (through a streaming service) and regretted not bothering to go see it in the cinema at the time.
 
The sound might be better, but you'd have to have a rather big bad-ass screen to match the visuals (which perhaps you have). Coincidentally, I watched Dune 2 last week at home (through a streaming service) and regretted not bothering to go see it in the cinema at the time.
I was the same with not seeing Dune part 1 on the big screen. I didn't think it would be my sort of thing. Sheer muppetry on my part. I was first in the queue for part 2 though 😊.
IMAX - sounded great too 👍🏻
 
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