5.1 surround sound mixes - how are these enjoyable?

Yes. It's a little weird because Entwistle went back and overdubbed new bass parts on those versions. I like his tone from that period, though.

 

99% of people aren't audiophiles either. Doesn't mean they aren't a market that shouldn't be catered to.

 

Compression aside....

as a Beatles fan, wouldn't you love to have the opportunity to go back to those 4 and 8 track recordings and listen to each track individually? To isolate what each member was playing and singing and really delve into it? To be able to experience even more what the recording session itself might have been like?

Many times multi-channel mixes can take us closer to that. I love the idea of The Beatles coming at me from 4 directions while I'm sitting in the middle of them.

 

I don't listen to surround so I can get exclusive perspective of every little finger-pick or paradiddle. I want surround so I can get closer-into the music they're all playing together. I don't want to miss those stacked vocals, I don't want to hear the interplay between the bass and drums without the piano...I want the whole performance...just spread out so my vantage point lets me "look around the room" and see what everybody's doing in context of what everybody else is doing.

And that includes the separate sessions that come together to make the whole. Save the isolated listening to different tracks for Classic Albums, where somebody who knows what they're talking about, can point out that other guitar solo that never made the final mix, or how they built this rhythmic figure or that crescendo (can you imagine how much fun it would be to see Mark Lewisons' commentary while punching-in and punching-out tracks while the "Side 2 Medley" is going on?). All I need from my surround, is to...surround me, with the music I already know from a detached distance.

 

Of course, that is precisely what I would give anything for. The recent Imagine box set got it right. The raw mixes are superb!

 

So the White Album is out and the 5.1 sounds pretty decent to my ears. The barroom piano in the back during Rocky Raccoon being a bit of a highlight !

As a side note is there a thread/website that keeps track of all the 5.1 music mixes available ? I've seen some for a list of old Quad Mixes but not for "modern" 5.1 mixes. Thanks !

 

HRAudio.net - Music is useful...

 

5.1 is going to sound crap on a poor system.
Or a system not set up properly.
Or if the mix is done badly.
Or if you're a 2.0 purist.

 

Stereo will always be king … but with that said a great 5.1 recording can be literally breathtaking. The 5.1 BR of the White Album is one such example, imo.

 

Wow! You forgot, or if you are dead.

 

Thanks, that looks like a great site. I noticed they didn't have Gilmour's "On An Island" 5.1 listed, well it's part of the Gdansk concerts so that's probably why. I couldn't see a "suggest addition" link so I guess I'll drop a line to the pop/rock reviewer ;-)

 

it is a great resource!

may i also recommend www.quadraphonicquad.com

 

Thanks, gotta love a forum to stay on top of things ;-)

 

Or if apparently you are predisposed to not like it...

I grew up in rehearsal space. Band, choral, orchestra, ensembles...stairwells...practice rooms...driving together from gig to gig on tour...some of my best musical experiences come from the experience of turning separate performers and performances into a cohesive whole. But I never forgot the extra perspective drawn from sitting in a singular position where your personal soundstage wasn't intended for the audience.

You miss a lot if you don't give yourself a chance to see the symphony; but you miss even more if you've never given yourself the chance to twist that kaleidescope, and avail yourself to several different angles. Like our host knows full well, only in different circumstances: the air between the instruments.

 

I have become a bit of an afficionado of 5.1 ( and quad) releases. There are some releases that I just don't see as being likely to add a lot to my listening experience. I have read the reviews here of the new Imagine collection. Now that is one I cannot imagine in 5.1 and I did not shell out for it. Tapestry is another that I never bought as I could not see it in my mind's eye as being likely to be immersive. I am now waiting to be corrected!

 

that's not really what it's about.
Do you like to listen to music in headphones?
For me surround mixes are like headphones, without having to wear headphones.
A lot of folks talk about the separation, but with a really good mix, that isn't what's going on at all. You have a greater sound field to lay tracks out on, but essentially it shouldn't really sound like all the individual tracks separated so you can hear each track individually.
There should always be a blend and almost all the mixes that I love have that blend, it just sounds cleaner, like using the full stereo spectrum to give each instrument a space to breath in. Again with good mixing that means sections that are supposed to be blended together, should still contain that element.

 

I was actually very pleasantly surprised by the Imagine set.
With the original album 5.1, it comes over more as a really good super wide stereo. The raw mixes how more of an immersive set up.
If you are able to give it a listen, do, because it is actually very well done

 

The raw mixes are indeed superb, but have they really got the blend that you mention a couple of posts up?

 

I have yet to listen to Imagine 5.1 but I generally prefer discreet elements coming out in a 5.1 mix rather than an "expanded" stereo.

Case in point, Dark Side of the Moon where Alan Parsons mix has stuff popping up left, right and back, whereas Guthrie's mix just feels like widened (processed) stereo, something Dolby Prologic II could produce.

 

the raw mixes probably don't, but I do enjoy them .... the ultimate mix, or whatever we are referring to it as does
I was working in a studio when surround came on to the scene, and had a lot of fun experimenting with recording for surround and mixing in surround. I love it personally.
These days, due to old age and meniere's disease, I can't listen in headphones, so surround is my substitute headphones. Headphones was my number one way to listen to music, because it put me right there. You know what I mean?

 

I think you and I are talking about the same thing(s). Surround gives us the option of enjoying a version of an album in which the source of the sound, is not detrimental to the whole. Or, an engineer/musician, such as Alan Parsons, can just ramp-up his vision of how he heard the music, to occupy more, different, and another balance of sources in space. So, for this fan of surround music, that is really what it's about. And, like I said, having spent much of my life in rehearsal, I have an affinity for hearing satisfying music from other angles besides Row AA in an auditorium. And, having spent even more of my life under a set of cans, I also occupy a comfortable vantage point when the soundstage stretches from one side of my head to the other, as opposed to being laid-out in front of me.

What really is the difference between the experience you get out of a surround recording, and the experience I get. Just the qualities of it we are there for, I suppose.

So yes...some of us go for the Salad Bar, just for the chick peas.

 

I'm listening to Bryan Ferry's Boys And Girls SACD in glorious 5.1 . Can't see how anyone good not find a well done 4.0 or 5.1 mix on a properly setup surround system enjoyable. I think that is part of the problem. Some of those that don't find surround music enjoyable haven't listened to a quality surround system that was calibrated properly.

 

I addressed that one back on the first page of this topic. It's very easy NOT to enjoy such things if they make you feel seasick, as it is sonically confusing and distracting. You clearly don't experience what I do, but do NOT blame that on the set up - my mate would be very insulted, as he spent a lot of time and effort getting things right (I'm the only one who has listened to his system and felt seasick).

 

You are an outlier.{the seasick part}

 

i'm trying to figure out how two speakers effect the fluid in the ear ... it sure is a bizarre one