News From The World of Multichannel Music & Kazaam's Site Updates
It's a little sad, but I knew this might someday happen. GeoCities, which hosts this website, has announced that they will be eliminating their free, ad-supported accounts and shutting them down sometime during 2009. I haven't yet decided if I will try to transfer my site to one of Yahoo's premium fee-based web hosting plans or if I will reluctantly let my homepage disappear completely.
This band has been extremely good at providing mutlichannel music releases. And as evidence of their continuting support, Depeche Mode's newest album, according to Amazon, will be offered as a special 2-disc deluxe version which should include 5.1 surround mixes. Probably just Dolby Digital (or maybe DTS) for the US market, though. Expect an April 21st release.
The Porcupine Tree frontman, always busy on the multichannel music front, has a new solo project that will see official release on DVD-Audio this week.
Genesis Box Set: I neglected to mention earlier that the third and final Genesis box set, "1970-1975", was released back in November. As with the two previous sets, "1976-1982" and "1983-1998", the boxes contain both stereo CD and multichannel DVD versions of the albums. The US releases merely get lossy DTS for the surround mixes. However, some import versions come with SACDs.
Blu-ray players that support SACD/DVD-Audio: A few months ago Denon announced a universal Blu-Ray/SACD/DVD-Audio player, albeit one that costs thousands of dollars. Oppo, on the other hand, is hoping to release a more affordable blu-ray player that will include SACD and possibly, if they can work out the technical details, DVD-Audio, too. EZGear, meanwhile, is working on a BD player that will play SACDs, but not DVD-Audio.
Remember the 'Monster Music' record label from a few years back? You know, the label run by the folks who sell Monster-brand speaker cables? Well... apparently they're still around and are planning a DTS 5.1-channel release of rap artist Ludacris' newest album, "Theater of the Mind", on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Who knew? Drops in February. Chat about it over at the QuadraphonicQuad forums!
Someone at the QuadraphonicQuad forums pointed out a web blog that indicates the 1968 album "Song Cycle" may see release as a 5.1-channel DVD. Check out the November 1st news segment at Van Dyke Park's official website. No official release date, but it does sound very promising.
The classic album from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer has been reissued in Europe as a deluxe, multi-disc set. One of the discs is a hybrid SACD that contains a 5.1 surround mix.
This has previously been reported elsewhere for a while now, so I figured I should finally mention it here. Amazon.com's preorder says it will be a CD+DVD-A. I hope they're right. Update: This has been released. DVD-Audio surround mix was done by Nathaniel Kunkel.
It appears that the band's entire back catalog will be remastered and reissued as 2-disc special editions which will contain newly created 5.1 surround mixes. The first batch of albums is tentatively scheduled for release by the end of 2008. Be sure to check out the QuadraphonicQuad forums so you can stay on top of any new or changing information.
Amazon.com indicates that the slightly more expensive, special edition of the new album includes a 5.1 mix of the entire album. Is it good or bad? Read more about it over at QuadraphonicQuad.
Thanks going out to a QuadraphonicQuad member for pointing this one out. And also a big thanks to David Gilmour for giving us more 5.1 music, assuming all goes as planned. According to the blog at DavidGilmour.com, "On An Island" will be released on DVD as part of a special 4-disc version of "Live at Gdansk", to be released in September 2008. Update: This has been released.
I had no idea until a fellow S&V forum brother alerted me to this current pre-order. It's called "Schoolyard Ghosts". The 'Burning Shed' store indicates it has a 5.1 mix and orders via their website will ship late April or early May. Not sure if the DVD-A version will be available only via their site or if it will receive wider distribution.
I've moved those sections of my webpage to "in site" rather than redirecting to external sites. Also, I added car audio stuff to the "Fun Zone".
It's a sad world when we can't even get a lowly 5.1 Dolby Digital mix on the upcoming MVI release of "Chicago: Heart of Chicago" hits album. Let's hope things change. Anyway, in the meantime I've gone ahead and upgraded my system to take full advantage of the new hi-rez, lossless audio codecs found on BluRay. I bought a Onkyo TX-SR605. Wonder if there's any chance the project team over at Rhino might would give us a "Heart of Chicago" Blu-Ray MVI with an uncompressed, high-resolution 5.1 PCM mix? I mean if I really begged and pleaded, that is.
He's a man of his word. We first heard about it during one of his video blogs. It's called "Ringo 5.1 - The Surround Sound Collection". Click here for artwork. And check out the thread at QQ where it is rumored to include Ringo's favorite material fom his "Ringo Rama" and "Choose Love" albums. That thread suggests it is a 2-CD + DVD-Audio package, but both Amazon and CD Universe say it is simply a 1-disc album. Hopefully, we'll still get high-resolution DVD-Audio; but it looks like we'll just have to wait and see. Per KOCH Records, a March 4th release is planned.
