Thompson Twins - Into The Gap blu ray audio #29 in the SDE series

[SeeMoreDigital]

There's a fault on the 5.1 mix of Doctor Doctor. It's the instrumental version - no vocals. The Atmos and Stereo mixes are fine, just the 5.1 of the first track on the album. I checked to see if the Instrumental album had the vocals on Doctor Doctor (maybe they'd been switched) but, alas no !

With regard to the 5.1 DTS-HD mix, track #1 'Doctor! Doctor! I can confirm the same. The lossy DTS core is the same too!

 

[beerking]

The Atmos mix is fantastic.
Another mixing engineer who has honed his craft, to produce this wonderful example of how Atmos could and should sound.

 

[Monkish]

There's a fault on the 5.1 mix of Doctor Doctor. It's the instrumental version - no vocals. The Atmos and Stereo mixes are fine, just the 5.1 of the first track on the album. I checked to see if the Instrumental album had the vocals on Doctor Doctor (maybe they'd been switched) but, alas no !

And Paul's response on the SDE site gives no indication that corrected discs will be manufactured:

"Yes, an unfortunate error. Apologies. However, the vocal 5.1 mix is accessible via the Atmos mix. If you don’t have Atmos and only 5.1, play the Atmos version and you’ll get a 5.1 mix. If you do have Atmos and want to hear it you can make your amp play 5.1 from Atmos by toggling through the sound settings."

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

And Paul's response on the SDE site gives no indication that corrected discs will be manufactured:

I hope this mistake won't prove too costly for SDE

 

[The Rang]

Here's hoping that Canada Post can get back into action so this disc makes it to me! They have been on strike for 2+ weeks now.

I haven’t received a shipping notice, so I’m hoping SDE is aware of the strike and is holding on to Canadian shipments until it’s resolved.

 

[himey]

I hope this mistake won't prove too costly for SDE

Hopefully they send test pressings to a few members here to avoid any issues moving forward.

They should offer a download of the fixed track.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hopefully they send test pressings to a few members here to avoid any issues moving forward.

They should offer a download of the fixed track.

Not a bad idea - personally speaking I would only need the audio stream

 

[himey]

Not a bad idea - personally speaking I would only need the audio stream

There are often authoring issues that could be head off at the pass.

 

[Monkish]

Hopefully they send test pressings to a few members here to avoid any issues moving forward.

They should offer a download of the fixed track.

Yeah, I'm highly curious who ends up play-testing these discs before shipping to catch these sorts of issues (whether it's Paul himself or someone else), and why this problem slipped through the cracks.

Anyhow, if Paul does indeed make good, whether by offering corrected discs or a fixed download, then all's well.

If he *doesn't*, and his response really is "shrug, listen to the folddown", then there are some big problems from a customer service perspective.

 

[dquad]

Yeah, I'm highly curious who ends up play-testing these discs before shipping to catch these sorts of issues (whether it's Paul himself or someone else), and why this problem slipped through the cracks.

Anyhow, if Paul does indeed make good, whether by offering corrected discs or a fixed download, then all's well.

If he *doesn't*, and his response really is "shrug, listen to the folddown", then there are some big problems from a customer service perspective.

IMO, I don't feel the issue reported is worth them spending money and resources to correct. I prefer Paul continues with new releases and it not be a hindrance for us enjoying additional ones. There is an alternative provided with the fold down.

Hopefully this is a learning experience and never happens again.

 

[Blackwood]

I’m not sure it’s fair to say his public response so far has been a shrug.

Perhaps everyone should read his comments in various responses here and make individual calls on what Paul’s attitude toward this is:

https://superdeluxeedition.com/video/thompson-twins-into-the-gap-sde-blu-ray-unboxed/

Still totally fair to want a corrected disc if that’s how one feels, though. I’m OK without a corrected disc.

 

[ramokoff]

Isn't it the record label's (in this case, BMG) decision whether this mistake will be fixed or not?

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

I have just checked my back-up streams for this disc... The 5.1 DTS-HD MA 'audio only' stream for the 'Doctor! Doctor!' track works out at just 231MB...

I'd be prepared to download this if it were offered.

 

[JulesRules]

Hopefully they send test pressings to a few members here to avoid any issues moving forward.

They should offer a download of the fixed track.

Yeah, I'm highly curious who ends up play-testing these discs before shipping to catch these sorts of issues (whether it's Paul himself or someone else), and why this problem slipped through the cracks.

I think it might be a case of "too much" - much like there seems to be a correlation between box set size and frequency of errors. The more content is on a release, the more errors can occur, and the less likely it is that they're caught before release.

I worked on a few CD reissues (well, I made some suggestions, some of which were used and some not) and got test discs for feedback. There was a mistake on one of them that I noticed much too late, right before it was released. Admittedly, it's something you don't hear right away and I haven't seen anyone talk about it yet but I still hate how I didn't notice that earlier.

 

[bookofsaturdays]

I haven’t got the disc yet and I’m sure being in Canada I won’t be seeing it anytime soon. According to Paul’s comments on the SDE page, this is not a dedicated 5.1 mix so the fold-down should be exactly the same.

If it is a fold-down however, it begs the question on why it was included in the first place.

 

[himey]

it begs the question on why it was included in the first place.

Usually, it's marketing.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hmmm...

I know we're told that an Atmos mix folds down to 5.1 but it in my opinion it never sounds as good as a dedicated 5.1 mix!

 

[Monkish]

I haven’t got the disc yet and I’m sure being in Canada I won’t be seeing it anytime soon. According to Paul’s comments on the SDE page, this is not a dedicated 5.1 mix so the fold-down should be exactly the same.

If it is a fold-down however, it begs the question on why it was included in the first place.

Thanks for the heads-up about this, @bookofsaturdays.

If anyone's curious, Paul's comment is under the Into The Gap unboxing video on the SDE page:

"This wasn’t a dedicated 5.1 so just to stress the Atmos in 5.1 is the same as what is ‘missing’."

So, as someone who doesn't have the means or interest to expand into Atmos, the whole reason I've bought the SDE releases that I have is to support the continued creation of dedicated 5.1 mixes. And I've always assumed the 5.1s on what I've bought are dedicated, because the advertising has given no reason to believe otherwise.

I wouldn't have bought Into The Gap if I'd known the 5.1 was just a folddown. And this makes me wonder if I've been similarly misled about any of the previous releases I've bought or the upcoming stuff I've pre-ordered.

(As far as what I have -- I assume the Steven Wilson 5.1 mixes on The Hurting and The Lexicon Of Love are dedicated, since he's traditionally started with 5.1 as a basis for his Atmos mixing. But, since it turns out the David Kosten 5.1 of Into The Gap is just a folddown, how about his 5.1 of No Parlez? How about Bob Clearmountain's 5.1s on the upcoming Simple Minds Blu-Rays?)

I'm really really rethinking my support of SDE in the wake of all this. And don't get me wrong -- I'm happy for those who are approaching these releases completely from an Atmos standpoint. But, that's not me. And if there's not clarity and transparency about these 5.1 mixes, then I can't take any further chances with their product.

And I just need to throw in a hearty agreement with @SeeMoreDigital: an Atmos folddown will never be the same as a dedicated 5.1.

 

[Farles]

I haven’t received a shipping notice, so I’m hoping SDE is aware of the strike and is holding on to Canadian shipments until it’s resolved.

I have not received a shipping notice either, so I am assuming (hoping) the same thing as you. Too bad, as this is a big one for me, and was expected to be a Christmas gift from my girls (that, obviously, I didn't know about ).

 

[JulesRules]

The way I see it, an "approved" 5.1 can be a fold down but at least it has been (or should have been...) checked for how it translates on a 5.1 system, as opposed to having the end consumer handle that aspect.