Aerosmith - Rockin' the Joint (1 Viewer)

[Brian L]

I thought I would start a thread to discuss the new release. I am a long time fan of the band, and was not at all planning to buy this, but I read a couple positive comments on the sonics, and coupled with it being on sale at Walmart for less than $10...well, I bit.

Have not even finished a full listen, but thus far, its well worth the $10. The sonics are surprisingly good. I say "surprisingly" because I thought the sonics on Bobo were about as bad as it gets.

The track list is a bit odd, and pretty short, but there are some gems, particularly No More,No More and Seasons of Whither.

OK..I am going to now turn the floor over to other geezers like me that can't seem to stop buying the same music that they bought when they were 13

I will probably chime in after I give it a few more spins.

BTW, I obviously did not buy the Dual Disc. Walmart wanted $5 more, and rumor has it the DVD side is the same old bull shit "Enhanced Stereo" crap that Sony thinks is the way to move product. That and a few videos? No thanks. I did have it in hand before I found the redbook, and note that the warning that the CD is not really a CD were a bit more prominent than the other DD I own, Dire Straits. I guess they are trying to be a bit more up front and reduce the number of potential returns.

Brian

 

[Paul.S]

BGL:

Who engineered Bobo--Kevin Shirley? Or someone new/different? Trying to figure why you found the sonics so piss poor on that album.

-p

P.S. - Did you notice that O, Yeah! has been released on CD? I think originally it was a single layer SACD only release.

 

[Brian L]

No clue on the engineering of Bobo, Paul.

When it came out, I had just gotten a Turntable back in my system, and saw that it was available on Vinyl, so I said what the heck.

A bit disappointing...a really harsh sound to my ears. But for whatever reason, I Double Dipped with the cee-dee (must have been the lure of the Bobo Harmonica in the package!) but thought that the CD had the same tonal balance as the vinyl.

I will have to give it a fresh listen, though. Since then, I have established a separate 2CH only system which seems to be a lot more forgiving of brightness in the upper mids/lower treble. I find that certain discs that I perviously had trouble with are not so bad now.

But anyway, I really do think the sonics of Rockin' are quite good by contemporary standards (damning with faint praise, I suppose!).

Seems like I am very sensitive to harshness with cymbals, and on Rockin', they seem very smooth to my ears. There are even some nice bits where Joey is playing on the "Bell" part of the cymbal, and those sounds just hang in the air.

Are you sure about Oh Yeah? I thought that it was always a CD as well as a single SACD. I found this listing at CD Universe:

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinf...81455607&BAB=E

It shows an original street date of 2002. I picked up the SACD last year when Sony was blowing out a lot of there single layer titles.

Brian

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Brian- Don't know if you know, but the version Target sells has 2 extra tracks on it. I actually did pass on this one because I wasn't too thrilled with most of the tunes they picked. I think it's kind of interesting that for the TV commercials I've seen for this, they have Draw the Line playing in the background (i.e., a fairly old track from their "golden age" ).

 

[Brian L]

Yeah....heard about the Target version. At Walmart, this was almost an impulse purchase. I may actually double dip with the Target version, and give the one I have to my bro.

I got to listen to the whole thing uninterrupted last night. I am really liking it; uninspired track listing not withstanding. The sonics are actually damn good for what it is.

The highlight thus far for me: Before they play "Big Ten Inch" Tyler asks the crowd something along the lines of "So, do you want the old shit or the new shit?". 3,000 people scream out in unison "THE OLD SHIT". LMAO!

Brian

 

[Todd Stout]

I picked up the DualDisc version at Target on Wednesday for $11.98. The DualDisc does have the two bonus tracks on it but they are only on the DVD side and not the CD side. I really wish they would have included the two extra tracks on the CD side as well since that is likely the side I'll listen to more often.

 

[GuruAskew]

From what I've heard, the Target exclusive tracks were done very stupidly. As I understand it, the CD version has 2 bonus audio tracks, whereas the Dual Disc version is missing said bonus tracks on the CD side but includes them on the DVD side, meaning you have to buy the CD and the DD if you want to play the bonus tracks on both your CD and DVD players.

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Some of us do not buy DualDiscs if a CD version exists, so wouldn't matter for us.

 

[Brian L]

And some of us are idiots, don't find out about the special bonus versions, then make a last minute decision to buy the damn Dual Disc in addition to the Redbook, inspite of our best efforts not to

Yes, I again have succumbed to the forces of Evil! I had the Target CD in hand, and noting that the bonus tracks were not exactly my favorite Aerosmith cuts, I put it back. Then I noticed that the Target DD is also special in that it too has the bonus tracks, plus the 4 live video tracks. Sorry KCB! I WAS WEAK! PLEASE FORGIVE ME!

So, all that said, I made what I hope will be an interesting observation this afternoon. First off, I did some A/B comparisons to the CD, the CD side of the DD, and the "enhanced stereo" tracks of the DD (they are 16/48). I had the DD in my Pio 45a, and the redbook in my Rotel 1072.

I could not get a perfect level match (I can only adjust in 1 dB increments) but it was very close. Close enough that I can say that if there is a difference between the three different versions, I can not discern it. I listened for low end, smoothness of the cymbals, soundstage width and depth, and center image. Even though the two discs were in two different players, and the level match was off by perhaps 1/2 a dB, I am not hearing any difference.

But, here is something I was not expecting. The audio for the live video tracks is just about mono. I played these back in my 2CH rig, and there is hardly any stereo separation at all. If you compare the enhanced stereo version of "Draw the Line" with the video, the difference is obvious.

I don't know if they expect that the videos will be played back with Pro Logic decoding or what, but played back over a 2CH system it is essentially mono. Then again, a mono recording played back with Pro Logic would not sound any different, so this one has me scratching my head a bit. They even made the effort to do the video in anamorphic widescreen. Why go mono on the audio?

EDIT: Looked at it at lunch today...it does not appear to be anamorphic, although I am pretty sure that I saw a listing at one of the e-tailers that said so.

Brian

 

[Brian L]

Well, I have to stand down a bit on Bobo. After doing my A/B bit with Rockin', I pulled out the cee-dee of Bobo and gave it a listen on the 2CH rig.

Still somewhat bright, and there is something that is a bit grating about the snare/cymbal sounds, but it is no where near unlistenable.

Of course now, I need to retract any negative comments I ever made about any recordings until I can listen again on the 2CH system.

Thanks Paul. Thanks a pant load! See you guys again in about a year

Brian

 

[Paul.S]

BGL:

You're welcome, buddy. Anything I can do to give you an excuse to listen to more music.

Interesting comparative s.q. findings on the CD vs. the DD's CD side vs. the DD's "enhanced" (16/48 is not "enhanced," dammit!) tracks.

-p

 

[Brian L]

Paul,

I am not sure the lack of apparent difference between real Redbook, DualDisc pseudo-redbook, and the "enhanced stereo" was all that much of a surprise to me.

I have opined before about how Sony (and any other label that uses it) was really spinning things to call 16/48 enhanced stereo; total marketing bull-shit, IMHO.

And while it has been reported that the Dual Disc CD was equivalent to a very scratched up, poor quality CD (thus requiring the player to use tons of error correction), it would appear that with this title, my player is not having any obvious problems, nor is there anything audible occurring that I can detect.

In fact, unlike my DD of "Bothers in Arms", the CD side of Rockin' actually loads in my Denon 3910. It takes it a moment to figure out what he disc is, but it does load. I also note that I was able to play both sides in my laptop.

One more thing....

I note that the warning label on the Dually does not say that the disc may not play in some machines. It actually says that it will not play in some machines. Interesting choice of words, methinks.

Brian