Surroundablog

FOURTH ANNUAL SURROUND MUSIC AWARDS

Top Surround Pros and Projects to be Honored on December 15, 2005

NEW YORK, NY (September 23, 2005) -- CMP Entertainment Media, the producers of the Surround 2005 Conference, has announced that the 2005 Surround Music Awards (SMAs) will be held on Tuesday, December 15 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Hollywood, CA. The fourth annual event, which was held at the Beverly Hilton for its first two years, features a new category for DualDisc projects and will include appearances from top music industry professionals.

The Surround Music Awards honor those who have excelled in multichannel music recording and mixing throughout the year. Previous winners include Queen, James Taylor, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Alison Krauss. The SMAs are also becoming known for the dramatic live performances that take place each year, including Graham Nash and David Crosby at the inaugural event, Dweezil Zappa two years ago, and an all-star tribute to Herbie Hancock featuring George Duke last year.

Nominees and winners will be selected by a blue-ribbon panel of judges from the Surround Sound industry. The deadline for entries is October 14. For more information on where and how to submit entries, please visit www.surroundexpo.com or fill out the attached entry form PDF.

In addition to the judged awards, a number of special honors will be given as well, including Best of Show, Surround Pioneer Award, Surround Artist of the Year, and Listener's Choice, which is presented by Highfidelityreview.com and features a selection of titles voted on by the public.

One new category has been introduced for 2005. With the proliferation of DualDiscs hitting retail shelves over the past year, a category has been added to honor those working in the nascent format. This year’s nominated categories are as follows:

Good News for People Who Love Stereo

(Epic) Epic recording artist Modest Mouse will release their platinum selling Good News For People Who Love Bad News as a DualDisc on October 11th. The first disc includes the entire original album and an added bonus track "I've Got It All (Most)," which was previously only available as a b-side on the "Float On" single. The second disc contains videos for both "Float On" and "Ocean Breathes Salty" a new music video titled "Stiff Animal Fantasy" set to the song "World At Large." Also included is an interview directed by and featuring lead singer Isaac Brock, which first aired on MTV's Advance Warning.

Hypnotize-d by a System of a Down DualDisc

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Six months after System of a Down's Mezmerize debuted at number one on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, the uncompromising and outspoken quartet returns with Hypnotize, part two of a promised two-album set. American Recordings/Columbia will release a cd and DualDisc version of Hypnotize, the band's fifth studio album, on November 22.

Adding to the excitement is System of a Down's just-announced American Music Award nomination for "Favorite Artist." This marks the second time the group has been nominated in the Alternative category. The American Music Awards will be held in Los Angeles the same day Hypnotize hits stores.

Both the CD and DualDisc versions feature 12 new songs as well as artwork by Vartan Malakian, father of SOAD's guitarist/singer Daron. The packaging for Hypnotize is specially designed to physically join Mezmerize and Hypnotize together, forming one unified product with continuous artwork. In addition, the DualDisc edition will contain exclusive behind-the-scenes footage showing the making of both records.

To SACD or not to SACD? That is the Question by Ken Kessler

Editor's note: Death to Ken Kessler and a pox on Stereophile....

London, Tokyo, Portland (Maine), and Points Global: Just because some of us write for the audio press doesn't mean we're any better informed than anyone else when it comes to the truth about the single biggest format screwup since Betamax.

I am utterly mystified by the current state of SACD and DVD-Audio, especially since Sony has all but disowned the former and no one talks about the latter. DVD-A is looking less and less like a dodo that might someday be revived, Jurassic Park style, from DNA, and more like a unicorn or chimera. Does anyone any longer give even a hoot about DVD-A, a format whose launch was mishandled so comprehensively and sublimely that its virtues have been utterly forgotten? But SACD . . . well, whether you think it sounds better or worse than DVD-A doesn't matter at this stage. At least it's got a substantial catalog of recordings for consumers to sample.

Or so one would believe. I can't get a firm handle on this either, but to the best of my reckoning, between 1500 and 2000 SACD titles have been released so far. (Chad Kassem, Josh Bizar, and the rest of you in the software sales side: please send the correct number to the usual address.) But try finding them if you don't use mail-order. Judged by the yardstick of retail support, SACD doesn't seem much healthier than DVD-A.

Reggae Icon Burning Spear Release the First-Ever Indie DualDisc Project

Disc Makers, the nation's leading independent media manufacturer, and Grammy-award winning reggae artist Burning Spear have announced the release of Spear's new studio album, Our Music, the first-ever independent release on DualDisc. This release marks the first project by a non-major label artist to incorporate the revolutionary new technology that combines CD and DVD content onto one double-sided disc. The album will contain new tracks from the reggae legend along with exclusive behind the scenes interviews and live footage from the recording sessions for Our Music.

Aerosmith Vegas Club Show Headed To DualDisc

By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

Aerosmith kicks out the jams on the upcoming live disc "Rockin' the Joint," which was taped Jan. 11, 2002, during a rare club show at Las Vegas' the Joint. Due Oct. 25 via Columbia as a DualDisc, the album culls highlights from a set that included an uncommon six songs from Aerosmith's classic 1975 album "Toys in the Attic."

Although it features only 11 of the 25 songs performed that night, "Rockin' the Joint" includes rarities like "Light Inside," "No More No More," "Seasons of Wither" and "Rattlesnake Shake." The DVD side of the album will offer live performances of as-yet-unconfirmed tracks.

Aerosmith has been kicking around the idea of releasing this particular concert for several years. "Those are so fun. That's when we really feel confident to bring out the old bluesy stuff," bassist Tom Hamilton told Billboard.com of Joint-style club shows in the spring of 2002. "It definitely influences the set list -- very much so."

Here is the track list for "Rockin' the Joint":

"Beyond Beautiful"
"Same Old Song and Dance"
"No More No More"
"Seasons of Wither"
"Light Inside"
"Draw the Line"
"I Don't Want To Miss a Thing"
"Big Ten Inch Record"
"Rattlesnake Shake"
"Walk This Way"
"Train Kept a Rollin'"

Down-under DVDplus for Double Happiness

In Australia, we're beginning to see DVDplus discs that can hold a full-length audio album on the red-coded CD side while the blue-coded DVD side can provide up to two hours of video.

And it's not just CD-audio and DVD-video. They can also contain DVD-audio, CD-ROM and other formats, even high-definition Blu-ray in the future.

The new limited-edition "Digipack" of Double Happiness by Jimmy Barnes has ignited local interest in the format. On the CD side are 12 duets, and on the DVD side is a 37-minute documentary, The Making of Double Happiness.

DVDplus discs are similar to DualDiscs in the US. In fact, they derive from the same patent but have slightly different specifications.

Dieter Dierks is the global patent holder for hybrid dual-disks, whether they be CD/DVD or CD/Blu-ray. He, Warner Music Group and Aussie Stephen Millard - the former senior director of marketing of Sony Music Australia's Epic Music Group - all had the same idea at the same time.

"They beat me to it with the patents but I ended up teaming with Dierks to help him commercialise the disc," says Millard, now joint CEO of DVDplus International.

"Dierks ended up buying all of Warner's patents because they could not get the (DualDisc) to function."

And that's where hybrid discs got a bad name. The DualDisc's audio layer is similar to a CD's but doesn't follow the Red Book CD specifications. Because of this, some CD players are not able to play the CD side. In fact, at one point Philips and Sony refused to allow DualDisc titles to carry the CD logo.