Can you let me know what this is like - I can pick a copy up locally...
Ok.. Well after one complete listen through, here's my thoughts on the Iron Maiden DVDA.
Bruce's vocals are hard panned in the centre, with only a touch of reverb on them at front left & right, so if you're not a fan of that kind of mix this won't do it for you.
I feel the mix does slightly over-expose his vocals, which are not what they were that's for sure, he sounds more strained than I remember on the highs and big notes, plus the vocals themselves aren't as well recorded as one would hope.
This is one time where I'd rather they'd blended in more across the front 3 channels but it is kind of cool to solo his vocals when you turn off all the other speakers, even if his voice has aged somewhat and it shows up more than ever when you do.
The rear activity is unusual, isolated and discrete, certainly not ambient, just very limited and not very interesting.
The rears here only ever feature crunching rhythm guitars, tiny acoustic guitar trills when the music's less full-on, or synth strings on other tracks - and that's it! they hardly do anything!
not because they're quiet or they're just ambience but because not much has been steered through them. if more had been directed around the sound field I believe the whole mix would sound a lot less compressed and congested, giving all the music more room to breathe.
All in all, it boils down to a rather odd surround mixing decision and all the tracks stay faithful to that configuration, not one straying from : Bruce in the centre, just about everything else in the front stereo and these slightly muted, slightly odd electric rhythm guitars or synths in the rears.
Fidelity-wise, it's better than I thought it would be, plenty of bass pumping through the sub and acoustic guitars in particular.
for example check out the final track, 11. "Journeyman". the first couple of minutes are the nicest thing here by far - synth strings isolated in the rears, acoustic guitar strumming away very nicely in front stereo, Bruce's voice holding together well as not under too much strain but its still far from an audiophiles' dream, put it that way.
my biggest gripe with it though is the sound, as there's no mid-bass to speak of and a thin, compressed mid to top end.
it's not mastered as overloud as i'd feared and its far from the worst-recorded hard rock/heavy metal music i've ever heard, its more dynamic than the Megadeth DVDA I got the other week for example, which sounded like I was back in '88 playing it on a chrome tape.. just awful!
not one I'll be playing very often but far from terrible. It is a bit of an oddity, one of very few surround albums I've encountered whereby if the mix had been more open & ambient (which ordinarily doesnt do it for me) and less discrete (with better mixing choices as to what and how to shift things about in the rear and centre channels) I would have preferred it, as it would have suited the material better.
