Tweets from Andy P. re: Oranges and Lemons

[rtbluray]

Is the instrumental mix not 5.1?

No, it's just in stereo like all of the other XTC and Yes releases containing instrumental mixes.

 

[atrocity]

No, it's just in stereo like all of the other XTC and Yes releases containing instrumental mixes.

Another interesting thing about this set is that some of it is 96kHz, some of it is 48kHz and some of it is 192kHz.

 

[rusinurbe]

Wow what a great mix, I had deliberately not listened to this album for a long time but its great, I had allowed myself time to forget how good the album is.

Crickey I need to set aside a week for the extras, though I did listen to Kneely track as I was sure I would never find it again without reference to the web site.

for all the Financial troubles they were having at the time they managed to pull off a great album.

 

[dr. simple]

The only word I could use to describe hearing "Oranges and Lemons" in 5.1 last night is MAGICAL.

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Wow what a great mix, I had deliberately not listened to this album for a long time but its great, I had allowed myself time to forget how good the album is.

Exactly.

for all the Financial troubles they were having at the time they managed to pull off a great album.

Yes! One of the many things that impresses me about this band is how a lot of their productions sound much bigger-budget than they actually were.

-- Jim

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

For what it's worth, for any DVD Audio Extractor users out there, I went back and did a proper metadata upload for this disc today (on the pop-up list, it's "Oranges & Lemons 2015 Blu-Ray"). What an amazing amount of content on this thing! Should keep us fans busy for a good while.

-- Jim

 

[privateuniverse]

Well, the postal lords finally smiled upon me and this arrived in my mailbox yesterday. (And there was much rejoicing!)

I've given the 5.1 one listen this morning and it did not disappoint. I was hearing all sorts of things that I had never noticed in the original stereo mix. One thing I had always disliked about the original was that Colin's vocals on "King For a Day" always felt buried and unintelligible, like he was mumbling. They come through was amazing clarity in the new mix.

After listening to the 5.1 mix, I moved onto the video portion. I found an annoying technical glitch there. If you chose the "play all" option, the first video plays fine, but then every subsequent video plays with the menu superimposed over the video. You have to re-select which video you want to watch to get rid of the menu.

 

[blue.monk]

After listening to the 5.1 mix, I moved onto the video portion. I found an annoying technical glitch there. If you chose the "play all" option, the first video plays fine, but then every subsequent video plays with the menu superimposed over the video. You have to re-select which video you want to watch to get rid of the menu.

Yep, I experienced the same glitch.

 

[rtbluray]

Well, the postal lords finally smiled upon me and this arrived in my mailbox yesterday. (And there was much rejoicing!)

I've given the 5.1 one listen this morning and it did not disappoint. I was hearing all sorts of things that I had never noticed in the original stereo mix. One thing I had always disliked about the original was that Colin's vocals on "King For a Day" always felt buried and unintelligible, like he was mumbling. They come through was amazing clarity in the new mix.

After listening to the 5.1 mix, I moved onto the video portion. I found an annoying technical glitch there. If you chose the "play all" option, the first video plays fine, but then every subsequent video plays with the menu superimposed over the video. You have to re-select which video you want to watch to get rid of the menu.

You can just hit pop-up menu on your remote, and it goes away. (At least it did it for me.)

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

From the "Other Recordings" page hit left or right button.

Ironically, if you load this disc into the DVD Audio Extractor software, this tune is the very first one on the list, and is selected by default. If you click the preview button, it will begin playing immediately, while showing a thumbnail of the "Hidden Track" screen.

 

[Plan9]

Now having listened to both I must say I much prefer the 5.1 mix to the stereo remix (and not just for obvious reasons!). The stereo seems too much "in your face" for me, although the clarity is impressive, and I even prefer the tonality of the 5.1.
I respectfully disagree with those who have said the suround placement is tame, it is very active to my ears and there is plenty to enjoy in the rear channels. The mix is very solid and has moments of pure brilliance. But of course I'm not entirely objective.

The flat transfer of the original mix is also most welcome, as it the first time I have heard this mix sounding not frightfully bright!

 

[blue.monk]

The Original Album Mix is a curious beast indeed. It appears to be a unique presentation, perhaps an early rough assembly before segues, crossfades and final edits. So we get longer, uninterrupted fades (“The Loving”, “Hold Me My Daddy”, etc) and clean intros (“Skeleton”, “Chalkhills”, etc) plus a drumstick count-in for “Pink Thing”. “Poor Skeleton” is longer - 2 extra repetitions in the coda section before the end. After “Merely a Man” the bells begin to fade in for “Millions” only to end abruptly and then on into “Cynical Days”. A hastily edited sequence change perhaps? Regardless it all sounds very good, worlds better than the original Geffen CD (which had its own mixing anomalies not found on the remaster or this new presentation).

 

[Franklin]

...worlds better than the original Geffen CD (which had its own mixing anomalies not found on the remaster or this new presentation).

Tell me more.

 

[rtbluray]

A little bit that I loved in the midst of reading Dave Gregory's liner notes for this reissue:

Studio assistant Tim Weidner was also on hand to help (with the mixing); it befell Tim to record hand-written maps of every knob and fader setting on the recording desk, in the event of a mix recall being necessary (and there were a few). Such was the studio assistant's lot in the days before computerized equalization recall. 26 years later, Steven Wilson would find these charts invaluable for his re-mix of the album you currently hold in your hand, sparing him hours of speculation and stress!

 

[rtbluray]

Another bit I liked from Dave Gregory's extensive liner notes:

Steven Wilson is possibly the only other producer who can be trusted to bring [O&L] into the 21st century, by adding some warmth and lustre to the new stereo and 5.1 digital masters without losing the integrity of the original mix. This is one I really have been looking forward to hearing.

 

[blue.monk]

Tell me more.

Yeah, the original US CD has a few minor differences to the remaster and blu-ray flat transfer. “Garden” - there’s a brief gap before the song kicks in after the fade-in intro. “King For A Day” has a different mix featuring, most noticeably, a much softer ’woodblock’. “Millions” has a longer fade in. There may be others but these are what I best remember. For what’s it worth the SW remix of “Garden” also has that brief pause. I don’t have the original UK CD or LP so I’d be curious to know where they fit in on these discrepancies.

 

[Plan9]

The Original Album Mix is a curious beast indeed. It appears to be a unique presentation, perhaps an early rough assembly before segues, crossfades and final edits. So we get longer, uninterrupted fades (“The Loving”, “Hold Me My Daddy”, etc) and clean intros (“Skeleton”, “Chalkhills”, etc) plus a drumstick count-in for “Pink Thing”. “Poor Skeleton” is longer - 2 extra repetitions in the coda section before the end. After “Merely a Man” the bells begin to fade in for “Millions” only to end abruptly and then on into “Cynical Days”. A hastily edited sequence change perhaps? Regardless it all sounds very good, worlds better than the original Geffen CD (which had its own mixing anomalies not found on the remaster or this new presentation).

As until now the master for this album was digital, my guess is this flat transfer is the mix before it was edited and crossfaded, then saved to the digital master we knew.
Not sure what to make of the original US CD. An alternate final edited digital master for review maybe?

 

[Plan9]

duplicate

 

[peterzach]

I did not want to put a post in the wrong area as I don't want to detract from the review section and I don't have my copy of Oranges yet so can't add anything but what a fantastic review you have done on this album Ryan in post 6 from here:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ges-and-Lemons-BluRay-Audio&highlight=oranges

You have captured what is great about well written and well crafted songs and this was a well written review(thats alot of well's) and that is the joy that great albums bring to the listener.
XTC has always been a underrated band and they should have sold gazillions of albums with their clever songs so if you haven't ordered this yet what are you waiting for, order now. , now how can I speed up my delivery and we have a holiday next week to boot so thats one less day for mail to arrive The joys of todays online ordering vs picking things up in person when we used to have many record stores to choose from.

 

[rtbluray]

I did not want to put a post in the wrong area as I don't want to detract from the review section and I don't have my copy of Oranges yet so can't add anything but what a fantastic review you have done on this album Ryan in post 6 from here:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ges-and-Lemons-BluRay-Audio&highlight=oranges

You have captured what is great about well written and well crafted songs and this was a well written review(thats alot of well's) and that is the joy that great albums bring to the listener.
XTC has always been a underrated band and they should have sold gazillions of albums with their clever songs so if you haven't ordered this yet what are you waiting for, order now.

Thanks for the kind words, Peter. You're gonna love it when your copy comes in, I just know it!