Pink Floyd

[seasonsinthesky]

Each set that makes up the whole box (apart from the bonus discs, the vinyl singles and other memorabilia) will be released individually starting early next year. So if you don't want to break the bank but still want this, you'll have to wait a little bit. That's what I'm going to do, and I'll get the sampler as something to tide me over until then.

Good. Would be bloody ridiculous to buy this hulking beast of crap I dislike – I know, heresy, heresy, get the pitchforks – just for Meddle and Pompeii in 5.1, AHM quad, The Man/The Journey, etc.

[onthewall2983]

It's just "Echoes" that's in surround sound, and not 5.1 but quadraphonic 4.0. Same with the whole Atom Heart Mother album per the breakdown from the official site. Obscured by Clouds isn't in surround at all but there's a new stereo mix on CD that's part of the new set. Some sites are still reporting the erroneous news that was leaked yesterday about it. Like Burningshed, where it's pre-order went up today. For the whole thing there, it's available for the more agreeable price of $410.60.

[botley]

I already have the Man/Journey suites in a million iterations from bootlegs and a fairly decent transfer of the AHM quad mix; for me this is all about having the restored videos and new remixes/outtakes we haven't ever heard before.

Hard to believe there are still today existing professional recordings of Pink Floyd in 1967 and 1968 that've never even surfaced on bootleg, yet here we are.

[thevoid99]

The fact that "Vegetable Man" will get an official release has me wanting this more than ever.

[henryeatscereal]

i'm really interested on the unreleased songs from the "Zabriskie Point" soundtrack, and not trying to sound picky but why remix "Obscured by clouds"?, i'm curious to hear it too but is there any special reason?

[onthewall2983]

...for me this is all about having the restored videos and new remixes/outtakes we haven't ever heard before.

Yeah, and the Pompeii performances in 5.1. I'm more interested in the Atom Heart Mother quad mix than I am "Echoes", because the engineer Andy Jackson described the "Echoes" mix as wildly inaccurate. I'll be interested in hearing how well restored the BBC sessions are, particularly from 1970 since I've only ever heard that concert in mono.

[botley]

i'm really interested on the unreleased songs from the "Zabriskie Point" soundtrack, and not trying to sound picky but why remix "Obscured by clouds"?, i'm curious to hear it too but is there any special reason?

I don't know, but perhaps it's the earliest complete album for which all the multi-tracks survive in good enough condition to remix. Or perhaps they just wanted to give it 'a fresh coat of paint' (in Reznor-speak). I mean, it was done incredibly quickly by Pink Floyd standards. They did the whole session, including separate mixes for all the film cues that appear on the album, in about two weeks during breaks from the Eclipse tour.

[onthewall2983]

I'm encouraged that none of the original albums bar Obscured by Clouds are on CD on this set. It could mean that in the future we could see deluxe editions of Atom Heart Mother and Meddle with new stereo and 5.1 mixes.

Also really encouraged by the more reasonable prices for the whole thing on some sites. Of everything on the extra discs I'm actually most interested in finally seeing More and La Vallée ​and hearing the music in the context of those films.

[onthewall2983]

I don't know how extensive the audio/video restoration is for some of the live footage included on this, but I should tell some of you planning on buying this to beware that it's probably not all as pristine as some of what's included in that trailer I linked above. I've seen some of it on YouTube and it seems like it was filmed by a news crew just in for some shots of whatever festival or gig they were doing at the time.

[botley]

I don't know how extensive the audio/video restoration is for some of the live footage included on this, but I should tell some of you planning on buying this to beware that it's probably not all as pristine as some of what's included in that trailer I linked above. I've seen some of it on YouTube and it seems like it was filmed by a news crew just in for some shots of whatever festival or gig they were doing at the time.

Yeah, I don't think there are complete gigs on video that exist. It's mostly fragments, really, or the band miming to studio tracks. But I can't wait to see what the live version of "Interstellar Overdrive" with Frank Zappa looks/sounds like.

[onthewall2983]

The Wall and The Division Bell will be the next albums to be re-issued on vinyl

[onthewall2983]

[botley]

"If you listen to the second string of pressings you'll find that sibilance isn't there." Heheh. Glad they're keeping the rounded corners and sticker from OBC's original cover. I may get all of those eventually, but for now I'm quite happy just with the Doug Sax-remastered CDs from the 1990s and also looking forward to the Early Years stereo remix of OBC coming at the end of this year.

Mind you, I'm also very happy with the newly reissued More LP; I feel the remastering sounds brilliant. They fixed a lot of the sonic issues that original pressings had, without over-doing it (just Doing It!... a little contemporaneous Floyd reference for you there) or compromising on the overall quality. Eh, fuck it — definitely going to pick up The Wall LP next.

[onthewall2983]

So according to some other forums, there were apparently new 5.1 surround mixes ready of Meddle and Obscured by Clouds to go with the new box, but were called off at the very last minute. Either not coming out at all, or hopefully at a later date.

[botley]

So according to some other forums, there were apparently new 5.1 surround mixes ready of Meddle and Obscured by Clouds to go with the new box, but were called off at the very last minute. Either not coming out at all, or hopefully at a later date.

Frankly, I'm skeptical that multi-tracks from the entire Meddle album still exist and are in good enough condition to do a full remix (a BBC documentary in the past few years did have access to parts of the initial work tapes for "Echoes" with some of the instrument parts in isolation, but it wasn't from the final master 16-track tapes, if I recall correctly). The OBC tapes we know are still in good shape, because there's a stereo remix of the whole album coming out. But if Meddle is also fit to be remixed, why isn't it also present on the box in stereo at least? They are only including a studio mix of "Echoes" in Quad 4.0 surround, which was apparently created for a 1971 press album launch event and has been sitting on the shelf ever since. I'd assume that if OBC was mixed in surround this year, then the 2016 stereo remix is just a fold-down or something of that sort. So if Meddle was also remixed, why not put on a new stereo version too? There was no Meddle stereo remix in the leaked promotional information that was not final and turned out to be incorrect.

I'm not saying that what 'some other forums' are posting about is necessarily incorrect information, as I really want for there to be a Meddle remix -- it's one of my favourite albums by anyone. But if I had to speculate about why these surround remixes were being held back (providing that they do exist, and were held back), I'd say there's likely to be a holdout in the Floyd camp who wants them to be issued separately. If that's the case, then it's probably James Guthrie, who is a very strong advocate for the SACD surround format as the ideal consumer format for Floyd-related surround mixes. He has in the past strongly encouraged Pink Floyd to issue Wish You Were Here in surround on SACD, and worked really hard to preserve the integrity of all the albums that he mixed in surround specifically to be heard in that format (including Dark Side of the Moon and several Roger Waters albums). Maybe he sees it as a missed opportunity if all that work is going to waste as 'line item X' in an enormous box set that not everyone who buys will be able to play back if they don't have a surround system.

And if that were the case, I could see his point. Music releases on Blu-ray discs are not taking off like people had hoped they would, surround sound releases particularly are very patchy in that format, whereas SACD continues ticking along with its niche market of audiophiles using optimal hi-fi systems to play their favourite records in surround. If you were going to put all the work in that James does on these remixes, why not insist that it go to those people first? I still hold out hope that we'll see a lot more Pink Floyd surround mixes on future SACD boutique-market releases, at James' behest. Years ago he mentioned wanting to remix The Wall album for this format, but the multi-track tapes needed to be restored first. If he can succeed with that project, then surely there's hope for Meddle too, someday. Personally, I'm very happy with what we're getting in the box as it is.

[fillow]

People seriously need to stop endlessly remixing and remastering old records and focus on better mixing of new music instead.

[onthewall2983]

People seriously need to stop endlessly remixing and remastering old records and focus on better mixing of new music instead.

You can't do both?

[botley]

The problem is: no one is buying new music (well, I am, but I'm in a tiny minority who spends probably 100x as much money on music as someone else in my age bracket). It's understandable how much people gravitate towards confirming an emotional attachment to music they already know that they love rather than spending money on something they may like for a bit, and then forget later on. So they don't pay.

One of the unfortunate consequences is that a lot of new music is now generally recorded and mixed on the cheap, and mastered purely for competitive loudness (if at all) and so it tends to sound disposable and unsatisfying. There are, of course, exceptions.

[botley]

This is really cool for recording nerds like myself. It's an official listing of every studio Pink Floyd ever used to record and, when you click on each one, it reveals where they are and what material the band did in them (though it seems to pre-date The Endless River).

[onthewall2983]

[botley]

Badass! That's the May '69 BBC Radio session performance, sync'd up (pretty closely, too) with visuals from KQED TV's special 'An Hour with Pink Floyd' from almost a year later — and newly shot widescreen footage of Cambridgeshire. I guess we can expect a few more of these? Would be nice to get some 'official video' promos from the Syd era online.

[Exocet]

http://www.nme.com/news/pink-floyd/96077

So going to this.

Be interesting to see the equipment from the 1966-67 UFO club era and the Lasers from the 1994 tour.

[GibbonBlack]

ooooooo I'll be going to that too! I love the V&A!

[onthewall2983]

Roger Waters is 73 today

[GibbonBlack]

I got some tickets for the experience show in London. I've booked a hotel for my parents to go and see it too

[botley]

Okay, initially I was skeptical but I'm really, really glad I got the 2016 remaster of The Wall on vinyl, because it sounds absolutely enormous. Lifelike vocals. Biting guitars. Godlike drums. Earth shattering bass. Bernie Grundman for the fucking win.

[theburningreptile]

I'm watching the Wall live on my new TV AND holy shit its like a religious experience. One of the best concert films I've ever seen.

[thevoid99]

[onthewall2983]

[botley]

LOL an even bigger trainwreck than Bowie's version.