DVD-A and an Observation - Anyone Else Seen This? (1 Viewer)

[Lin Park]

Have any of you ever been listening to a DVD-A in multi-channel and hear something you've never noticed before because it is coming from a speaker other than the mains and then realize that it's there in the stereo track but you couldn't hear it because it's overpowered by other things? This just happened to me on the Hotel California DVD-A with Life in the Fast Lane. At about the 2:15 point, a light tapping sound (sounds like rapping lightly on a bongo of some sort) comes out of the left rear speaker then the right rear and I thought it was a squirrel running across my roof. Then, it happened again and again and it is very prominent as the song fades out at the end. I quickly switched over to the stereo track and found that the sound had been there all along but it was overshadowed by bass drum. Awesome!!!

Lin

 

[KeithH]

Lin, yes, I have observed this before. The potential of multi-channel music is to provide more "space" for the instruments. This is desirable to me, however, it is often at odds with projecting the "real" musical experience. Often times, these added instruments that you never heard before come out of a rear speaker, which is fake-sounding to me. I prefer having the music in front of me, with the surrounds being used for ambience or crowd noise in the case of live recordings. Still, it is quite an experience to hear instruments for the first time in a multi-channel mix. The overriding problem for me is the "fakeness", however. A mixing engineer chooses to project an instrument or sound effect from the rear left speaker. He or she could always have chosen the rear right speaker or had the sound emanate from both rears, etc. It's that concocted sense of multi-channel that bothers me.

O.K., I'll get off the soapbox for now.

 

[John Tillman]

Try the DVD-A of Rumours! Lots of stuff that just wasn't there before. I don't have any problems with it, the more details, the better.

 

[KeithH]

John, I love the stereo track on Rumours. It obliterates the CD. I hear much more on the stereo DVD-Audio track than on the CD.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

You have to be careful about these kinds of things. Sometimes I hear something I did not hear before because of increased clarity and an improved soundstage. Other times I hear something I did not here before because what used to be "subtle" has now been made "obvious". YMMV, of course.
Regards,