Surroundablog

Grammy Awards 2007

The Recording Academy announced this year's nominations for Best Surround Sound Album today. My 2 cents....its a tie between "Morph the Cat" and "Valid Path". "Morph" was presented in High Resolution which resulted in an edge over "Valid" in terms of clarity. However; "Valid" had a more ingenious mix of transitions and cross-channel fades and sweeps. Alan Parsons versus Elliot Scheiner...now that's a battle royale. Let's just give it to both of them.

Oh...and for any of you Weird Al Yankovic fans that may check in occassionally to make sure I'm not bad mouthing your boy...forget about it...Al doesn't have a chance in hell....

Best Surround Sound Album
(For vocal or instrumental albums. Albums only.)

• Immortal Nystedt
  Morten Lindberg & Hans Peter L'Orange, surround mix engineers; Morten Lindberg, surround mastering engineer; Morten Lindberg, surround producer (Ensemble 96 Conducted By Øystein Fevang)
  [2L]
  
• Long Walk To Freedom
  Martin Walters, surround mix engineer; Martin Walters, surround mastering engineer; Martin Walters, surround producer (Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
  [Heads Up International]
  
• Morph The Cat
  Elliot Scheiner, surround mix engineer; Darcy Proper, surround mastering engineer; Donald Fagen, surround producer (Donald Fagen)
  [Reprise Records]
  
• Straight Outta Lynwood
  Tony Papa, surround mix engineer; Bernie Grundman, surround mastering engineer; Al Yankovic, surround producer ("Weird Al" Yankovic)
  [Volcano/Zomba Label Group]
  
• A Valid Path
  P.J. Olsson & Alan Parsons, surround mix engineers; Bob Michaels, surround mastering engineer; Alan Parsons, surround producer (Alan Parsons)
  [Immergent]
  
  

The Doors Perception Box set

Is everybody in...the show is about to begin...I just received my Doors' box set over the weekend. Several months of work went into this set, so I was filled with anticipation as I unwrapped it. Upon opening the box, the glued inserts promptly popped out and the set collapsed. I didn't pay it very much mind though cause its the music I came for...

I carefully pried the debut album out....they must've used a shoe horn to squeeze all 6 digi-packs into that too tight enclosure. Nevertheless...think music....think 5.1-ified "The End".....all right....load up the dvd. select the "High Resolution Surround" option and crank it up.

No vocals....NO VOCALS....NO WAIT...maybe if I readjust my channel settings.....still nothing. Fuck me. All right....readjust the settings back to the usual Wheeler house of surround. Next: alter the DVD player output from "DVD-Audio" to "DVD-Video". Back to "top menu" and up pops "DTS" and "Dolby Digital" Surround options. Now we're cooking with gas...select DTS and crank it up again. BLAM.....VOCALS...LOVELY SOOTHING MORRISON INFLECTED POETIC GIBBERISH....but where's my rears......NO #^*$%&(#$&o)(#*z*z#z REAR CHANNELS. Ok Wheeler calm down.....Dolby Digital isn't horrible...wipe the cold sweat off your brow and try this again...NO REARITUDE ON DD EITHER....ah crap...

Genesis sacds closer to reality than revelation

Got a tip this week from Marty of 5.1 heaven...The remastered Genesis sacd titles are coming this spring....apparently they are coming out in 3 different batches. Unfortunately though; the titles are all mixed up and aren't coming out chronologically. The bad news is none of the live albums are scheduled....even worse..."Calling All Stations" is coming out too...