Sgt Pepper Surround Mix

I agree. I find it mildly annoying, especially with the song snippet repeating over and over.......

 

FYI...99.9% of blu-ray audio discs, DVD-A discs, disc that use a video menu always with a sound snippet on the top menu.

 

a number of Blu-ray Audio discs have Dialog Normalization embedded in either one of the DTS HD MA or Dolby True HD streams (mostly the Dolby True codec afaik) which may account for some differences perceived by some users on some setups?

 

First listen: SDE on the 5.1 surround sound mix of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper

Detailed review here.

 

Ok, but does that make it a good idea? It's obnoxious, IMO.

 

I'm not saying it is a good idea. It's just a decision made on behalf of the record companies that will probably never change. So mute your audio on the top menu...

 

I don't think it's just record companies. Pretty much all DVDs and BluRays have that, unless you have auto-play enabled on your DVD and then they just launch in.

 

I understand. But the subject was surround music discs...

 

It's why I usually keep my volume turned down until I know the material I want is about to play.
Sometimes there's some good stuff on menus, I never knew about the really cool Digging In The Dirt remix (Peter Gabriel) until I searched what the title music was on the Play: The Videos DVD-Video.

 

As surround mixes go this has to be judged against 'Love', which in many ways is a reference disc for what can be done with recordings of this age.
Sadly where 'Love' is a 9/10 surround mix this is a 4 or 5 just missed opportunity and lack of engagement.

15 years ago I might have been more impressed with this but things have moved on a lot since then.

Sound Quality wise this is exceptional but surround mix wise so sad.

I really would like to know what Elliot Scheiner would have done with the material.

 

Great, but that doesn't address the mix. I don't know your system, you could be getting accurate kick out of the mains. His system is small mains and very dependent on the LFE channel. I think we understand each other regarding the difficulties of maintaining a base line across different surround systems. Brian Wilson said he didn't like stereo because it gave the end user too much control over the mix.

 

Sounds like they largely agree with me, except that they are tempered by wanting to continue to receive review materials.

 

Yeah but it has to be the same reason. To make a DVD audio you need to insert some video for it to work and it's probably the same with as menu - you would need to insert some audio. It's probably more work for them to insert a silent loop than to just grab something they already have.

 

No, silent audio would be much much easier.

 

I've authored DVDs and the menus reflect whatever you put in there. If you want it to be silent, you simply do not place any audio on that track.

 

And there is the expert explanation. Thanks. I guess they just do it that way! Surprised that it works based on the (obviously) little I know...

 

i feel like we are in agreement, but what we are writing would indicate that we don't.

I will sum up as follows

Giles wanted a 5.1 mix that followed the blueprint of his father's 1967 mono mix, but also taking some creative liberties afforded by 2017 technology that he thought his father and the Beatles would agree with. The mix would not be my choice for a demo disc when trying to sell a surround sound system, but it a fine presentation of a classic Beatles recording.

A consumers evaluation of surround music can be dramatically colored/influenced by the set up of their system.

 

I agree Love was fantastic.

 

Courtney or Mike?

 

Does this dash the hopes of future Beatles albums in surround? Especially the pre-1968 stuff where it only exists in 4-track.

 

Nice explanation. Thank you!

 

Not so sure about that:

Peter Gabriel responds to 'open letter' about the "So" Deluxe Box Set

 

I really wanted the surround mix but there was an ice cube's chance in Hell that I was going to spend over $100 on the super deluxe set for a bunch of discs I didn't care about just so I could get the surround mix.

That said, I can at least feel more confident in my decision after reading this thread.

 

Fair enough. I should have said something to the effect of "They seem to be saying things similar to what I said, but in a more tempered manner". It's always dangerous to assign motivation and I should know better. My mistake.

 

SDE have been critical of box set formats, packaging, marketing or missing stuff, but they don't often say the content inside are very underwhelming.