The Complete "The Lord of the Rings: score - with 5.1 DVD (1 Viewer)

[PaulP]

Here's the first review I've seen: http://soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=173

Placed my Amazon order last night!

 

[soop.spoon]

For those of you who are concerned with the price tag... the liner notes alone are worth the cost.

This is an incredible set.

 

[Robert James Clark]

Wonderful!

DVD-A is only "mostly" dead...

I'll be picking this one up.

 

[PaulP]

WinDVD 7 will play DVD-A, FYI.

 

[Robert James Clark]

Thanks, I've got (and love) over 30 DVD-A's and a universal player. This seems like the most exciting Hires release in some time...

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Sigh..still waiting...:frowning:

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Douglas Adams has pointed out that there are additional liner notes for the score located here as a free PDF download:

http://www.lordoftherings-soundtrack.com/.

There is some marvellous extra info contained in The Companion Piece notes.

Still waiting for delivery on my set. Damn customs!:frowning:

 

[Dan Szwarc]

My short review:

Excellent. The packaging is neat in that the case looks like a LOTR book, much like the extended DVD sets.

3 hours seems to fly by while listening. I can't wait for the other two.

The booklet has the actual musical notes for each theme and points on the CDs to hear them (track and time). While I'm not a music major, it had lots of downright technical descriptions of the themes, instruments, etc.

Five stars.

 

[oscar_merkx]

Thanks for the great link

Awesome stuff indeed

 

[LanceJ]

So.......it's been six days-anybody listened to the dvd-a disc yet? Even a casual summary of the disc would be useful, like are there any visuals? Is there a stereo track? What digital resolutions are used? Are the mixes immersive or ambient?

All this wishing for more hi-res surround, but no one is talking about it when they finally have it in their hands.



If I was a label exec and saw this lack of enthusiasm I would be similarly unexcited about committing more $$$ to this format. :frowning:

 

[PaulP]

Lance, the review on Soundtrack.net mentions there is no real video on the DVD-A except the menu, and it comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 or DVD-A 2.0 and 5.1.

 

[Dave T.]

Wasn't going to pick this up, given the high price, since the DVD-A was the only part of the set I really wanted. But when A&B here in Vancouver had it on their shelf for $60 Cdn ($75 at HMV down the street), I decided to jump in, even though it still felt like a lot to cough up. Happy I did, though -- the booklet is indepth, and I'm sure I'll end up using the CDs to edit a fave bits version of the score for myself. As for the DVD-A, I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Very muscular recording with a wide dynamic range -- the loud bits are LOUD. Deep, deep bass on some tracks. Surrounds are there, but not too involved -- for the most part the soundstage is across the front, which I suppose is best for orchestral music like this. You certainly hear a fair bit of detail of instrumentation and voices that 'til now has been lost when listening to the film. Some nice harmony lines in the "Passing of the Elves" section I'd never been aware of before, the work of the deep strings on the "Saruman the White" track is great, and I enjoy how deep into the basement that bass note goes in the "Three is Company" section (where, in the film, Frodo and Sam are first setting out from the Shire, and Gandalf asks "Is it safe?"). And the horns and percussion of the "Caverns of Isengard" section (the movie's moth scene) are thrilling -- never heard those rattling chains before.

My solution to the rubber DVD holder problem, since it was off center on my copy, was to simply put the DVD into a slim CD-R case -- it fits perfectly into the box on top of the booklet and CDs, and the rubber nub then serves to hold them all securely in place when the case is closed.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Got mine today! But no real listening time.:frowning: Tomorrow at work! Love the packaging and have moved the DVD to a slim case like others have suggested.

 

[LanceJ]

Sorry folks-didn't mean to sound like a teacher admonishing his class to behave.

I just see ALL the surround formats slipping further into obscurity month by month and don't want to see them totally disappear. To me surround music is the biggest development in music since the CD.

************************************************** ******

Lately I've been sending emails about surround music to labels that issue music I like or actually own. They never reply so I am not sure if I'm pissing them off, if I look like a shill, or my message is just ending up in their spam folder. I usually put in a link to the document on the grammy.com site called "Recomendations For Surround Sound Production" so they have something professional to read.

And this thread over at quadraphonicquad.com about a professional surround music conference definitely motivated me even more, particularly this section:

my emphasis

Wow.

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Finished my first listen at work and really enjoyed being able to listen to the full music from such scenes as the Council at Rivendell and the gift-giving at Lothlorien. Loved the fact that they included Gandalf's and Bilbo's snippets of The Road Goes Ever On plus Merry and Pippin's drinking song.

Many listens ahead to fully digest it all.

Oh and Lance the 5.1 mixes are awesome!

 

[TheLongshot]

Just got it as a present last night. Nice collection. Only listened to the first CD so far, but lots of stuff I didn't hear before.

Only thing is, I don't like the hub the DVD-A is on. When I opened the package, the disc was loose, and I'm not exactly confident that the rubber hub will hold the disc. overall, tho, very nice package.

Jason

 

[Robert James Clark]

Sorry Lance,

I picked mine up at Fry's but I bought it for my wife to give to me at Christmas! I won't be able to listen til Sunday.

 

[LanceJ]

Good to hear this dvd-a turned out well. Actually since it's from Reprise (a Warner sub-label), I shouldn't be surprised since none of Warner's dvd-a discs that I own are stinkers (that may sound like butt-kissing, but it's true!).

 

[PaulP]

Mine will finally arrive today. Wow, can't wait!

 

[Lee-M]

...So how is everyone playing the DVD-Audio disc? I have a DVD-A capable player (Panny RP2), but I'm using the digital-out into my Anthem AVM20. It's reading both audio options from the disc (DVD-A Stereo or DVD-A Surround) as a 2.0 channel input, and assigns the DSP mode to whatever I have the 2.0 channel input set for (it can be changed on the fly, but DD 5.1 is not one of these options; I am allowed the full range of Pro Logic and PLIIx options, plus Anthem's proprietary DSP's).

The Dolby PLIIx Music mode sounds good, but I am wondering if there is a better option, either in software or hardware setup.

Am I really going to have to buy 6 RCA cables to output to my processor for the best possible sound? It would seem that my Anthem's DACs would be superior to the Panasonic's; sorry to sound newbie-ish here; I obviously haven't messed with DVD-Audio very much...