[Scott Dorsey]

Jeff Henig wrote:
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:
"Jeff Henig" wrote in message
...

I would be curious to know how people in rec.audio-pro react to the
quad version of DSM.

I don't yet have a surround system set up, but when I do, Alan Parson's
quad DSM mix is my targeted first experience, for sure. I've heard a lot
of good things about it, and DSM is one of my all-time favorite albums.

I have both the SQ LP and the surround SACD of a decade ago. (The mixes
are slightly different, aren't they?) It has always been a model of how
to do this sort of thing well.

I have several Elton John surround SACDs -- the original recordings of
which were /not/ conceived for surround -- and they sort of sit there and
die. Simply having a multi-track master is not enough to guarantee an
interesting surround mix.

At some point, I think I'd enjoy working with surround for the creative
opportunities it presents. But I think I need to, ahem, master conventional
recording first.

The thing about Dark Side of the Moon is that it wasn't intended to be mixed
to surround, but it was intended to be open and have a wide sense of large
spaces, so the tracks were made with that in mind.

The thing about surround is that you don't actually have to use it. You can
put instruments in the surrounds, you can put ambience in the surrounds, or
you can consciously decide not to put anything back there at all. Just because
you have all these channels doesn't mean you have to do anything with them.

They're there if you want, but people feel obligated to cram them full of stuff
so they feel they're getting their money's worth. It's like how once we had
24 tracks everybody had to put more instrumentation on because they couldn't
waste all that tape area....
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."