[windhoek]

Nocturama, Abbatoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! are being reissued on 30th July 2012 with a bonus DVD containing 5.1 mixes of each album to complete the reissue series. Although the DVDs aren't DVD-A discs, at least we're getting 5.1 mixes plus some bonus tracks and videos.

The albums are available to pre-order from Amazon and Play etc, but the best price I can see just now is £10.99 each delivered @ Play.com

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds announce final 3 reissues with 5.1 Surround, bonus material | slicing up eyeballs // 80s alternative music, college rock, indie

[Jon_C]

That is fantastic news. Thanks for the heads-up.

[Vipers @ HiFi Lounge]

This really is great news, the previous Nick Cave Re-Issues of Murder Ballads, Boatmans Call and No More Shall We Part were fantastic, especailly the DVD that you could rip to 24bit which sounds amazing

[windhoek]

Phew, thanks for the posts guys; for a few hours there I thought I was the only one interested in these reissues lol

[windhoek]

I just listened to Abattoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus and sadly, I have to say the experience was rather disappointing. If I had to mark it out of ten, I'm afraid the best I could give it is seven, and here's why...

1) The DD and DTS versions don't sound hi-res (the DD surround version in particular was almost unbearable!). Not only don't the DD and DTS versions sound as good as Porcupine Tree DVD-A releases, they don't sound as good as Joe Cocker's Night Calls DTS release.

2) The surround mixes are poor. The DD surround mix is almost unbearable and although the DTS version is better, it isn't great by any means. The surround mix just doesn't sound like a proper discrete mix the way Dark side of the Moon (or even Joe Cocker's Night Calls) does. In fact, it sounded at times like my AVR was up-mixing from stereo to 5.1 using Dolby Pro-Logic II - that's how naff it was!

3) There's a fault at the start of The Lyre of Orpheus. The first 3 seconds of this track are mute so when it does become audible, it does so too late because the song had started 3 seconds earlier!

I'm in no doubt that if this CD/ DVD release had been left in the prodigious hands of Steven Wilson - the hardest working guy in rock 'n' roll - the 5.1 mix would have sounded superb. Alas however, it wasn't.

Fwiw, I've got a few other NC&TBC CD/ DVD releases and the 5.1 mixes of those releases aren't fantastic either, but some of them sound better than the 5.1 mix on Abattoin/ Orpheus.

[probedb]

DD/DTS aren't hi-res sound formats so I'm not sure why you'd expect them to sound hi-res? How does hi-res sound anyway?

I'll be sticking with the standard releases then

To be honest I've never listened to any 5.1 mixes of any albums that have them although I have various NIN, Opeth, Pink Floyd stuff. I should really give them a go!

[Curly99]

looks like I will be sticking to the albums/cds I have then, could the poor mix just be the fact it was/is a stereo recorded mix they are trying to mix up to 5:1.

Curly

P.S I just bought another copy of Abattoir Blues/ The Lyre of Orpheus (original CD) that comes in a nice box to go along side the fold out cardboards sleeve version I already have.

[windhoek]

Originally Posted by probedb

DD/DTS aren't hi-res sound formats so I'm not sure why you'd expect them to sound hi-res? How does hi-res sound anyway?

I'll be sticking with the standard releases then

To be honest I've never listened to any 5.1 mixes of any albums that have them although I have various NIN, Opeth, Pink Floyd stuff. I should really give them a go!

I expected the DTS version to sound better (OK, perhaps more mid-res than hi-res), but compared to other DTS albums I've got, it just didn't sound as good. Hopefully the Nocturama and Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! will sound better and have a more defined 5.1 mix.

As to how how does hi-res sound, I've got over 50 SACDs and a few DVD-A discs and Abattoir/ Orpheus was quite a bit short of that quality. I'd even go so far as to say the redbook CD would sound better on my CDP than the mid-res DTS version does at present.

[windhoek]

Originally Posted by Curly99

could the poor mix just be the fact it was/is a stereo recorded mix they are trying to mix up to 5:1.

I think most pop/ rock 5.1 mixes were originally intended for a stereo only release. I think there's a only a few albums that had multi-channel in mind at the time of recording; Dark side of the Moon, Tubular Bells, one or two albums by Bjork to name a few. But the vast majority I think, were intended for a stereo release.

[windhoek]

I listened to Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! last night and have similar views about it. Although I like the music, the surround sound listening experience wasn't as enjoyable as other 5.1 albums. I don't know why DD/ DTS were chosen as the surround sound formats, but knowing how good DVD-A and SACD surround sound can be, I can't help wonder how much better these albums would sound if they were released in one of those formats.

[Jon_C]

Saw some of these in HMV (central Belfast) for £3 each this evening: Dig, Lazarus, Dig, Nocturama and Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. Damn shame I have those ones already.