Sarah McLachlan's Mirrorball and Diana Krall's Live in Paris.. (1 Viewer)

[Tom Garvey]

Are these well done or were you disappointed?

Thanks

 

[Patrick Sun]

On Mirrorball, stick with the normal 2-channel audio track because the 5.1 channel audio track is just too funky sounding. The video is okay, nothing too stunning.

I still haven't watched the Diana Krall: Live in Paris DVD yet.

 

[Tom Garvey]

Thanks Patrick.. I'm only using two-channel so I guess it works out good for Mirrorball.

 

[Marc Colella]

The Diana Krall DVD is great.

Decent video quality (anamorphic widescreen) and the the sound is great. The inclusion of 15 minutes of concert rehearsal footage and 2 music videos (anamorphic widescreen also) is nice.

It has more tracks than the Live in Paris CD and is cheaper to boot (where I am anyways).

 

[David_Jr]

I couldn't agree with Marc more on Live in Paris. I have watched it several times and am amazed at the recording. I am a fan of hers anyway, but it is great music. Great ensemble and orchestra as well, but the real attraction is Krall on the piano. She is fantastic!! Highly recommended.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

The DTS track on Diana Krall -- Live In Paris is wonderful. Also, this is a 16x9 anamorphic transfer, which is an added bonus for anyone with a widescreen TV.

I agree that the two-channel mix of Mirrorball is much better than the 5.1 mix. The latter has way too much echo, and it is difficult to make out the vocals at times.

 

[Tom Garvey]

Thanks for the responses. I ordered Live In Paris.

Mirrorball doesn't sound too convincing. Would I be better off with the CD.. which I don't have.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I do not have the CD of Mirrorball, but I do prefer her studio CDs Surfacing and Fumbling Towards Ecstacy over the concert DVD.

 

[Tom Garvey]

Thanks Scott. I have Surfacing and think I will try to pick up Fumbling Towards.... I heard it's a quality recording.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I like the Mirrorball DVD a lot, and wholeheartedly agree that the 2-channel mix is superior to the 5.1 mix. The 5.1 has too much artificial "ambience" in the mix which makes it sound muddy and indistinct.

The video is pretty good. It is non-anamorphic with a slight widescreen matte putting it somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5:1.

Regards,

 

[CraigL]

Wow...am i the only one that LOVES the 5.1 mix on Mirrorball? I think it's so amazingly enveloping. But I am also a die hard Sarah fan and know every lyric anyway.
I would never use the 2.0 disc. Wouldn't it help to just turn down your back speakers a bit?

As for the Mirrorball CD, it does not contain the whole concert.

And Fumbling is her best album to date...and probably one of the best I've ever heard. Surfacing is childs play in comparison. Pick it up immediately.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

As for the Mirrorball CD, it does not contain the whole concert.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but isn't the CD a collection of performances from several different concerts rather than just a subset of the Mirrorball DVD/Video? I don't own it and have not heard it in a while, but for some reason I had that idea in my head.

Regards,

 

[Felix Martinez]

On Mirrorball, stick with the normal 2-channel audio track because the 5.1 channel audio track is just too funky sounding. The video is okay, nothing too stunning.

IIRC the Mirrorball 5.1 mix has no lead vocal in the center channel, thus the cause of much funkyness (in the bad sense of the word). I don't think this was a creative decision, as Sarah's vocal is much more distinct in the stereo mix. If there was a conscious decision to forego a lead vox in the center channel, I would think a wide front L-R spread of her voice would have been the way to go, and this did not seem to be the case. It's almost as if the L-R are support for a missing center channel vocal.

I think the Mirrorball was dropped by someone in the mixing/mastering, although I'm not sure. I was gravely disappointed when I rec'd the disc as a gift for the holidays a few years ago, and I returned it and got Fleetwood Mac: The Dance instead. What a great decision!

My $.02
Felix

 

[Robert_Z]

I own mirrorball and like it well enough. I never bothered to listen to it in 2-channel. 5.1 sounds fine to me.

I have a question for the Krall fans (I've been debating buying this DVD for a while). How similar in sound is this music to her Love Scenes CD? I like the slow songs like "I Miss You So," "Ghost of a Chance," and Gentle Rain." The other songs on that CD are crap.

So, are the majority of songs on Live in Paris like the 3 songs I mentioned, or are they crap? Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I just watched Live In paris today for the first time in dts. The sound is great. Her songs are a collection of traditional jazz, bossanova, and jazz balads.

 

[CraigL]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but isn't the CD a collection of performances from several different concerts rather than just a subset of the Mirrorball DVD/Video?

Not true.

Sarah's tours (for the most part) all have the same set lists. I saw her 3 times on that tour. It's always the same. I also have many boots from it. All the same.

When it aired on Pay Per View originally, they had cut out two songs but reinserted them for the vhs/dvd.

They MAY have been several different concerts but it doesn't matter. They all had the same set.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Craig,
Perhaps you misunderstood my question. I was asking if the CD is a collection of several performances from the tour rather than the identical performances represented by the concert film. If the CD has different performances of the same songs, then it is not just a matter of which songs are present or absent.

Regards,

 

[CraigL]

Ken,

I understood your statement perfectly. Honestly, it doesn't matter much that there are different "performances" from different shows. To be honest, Sarah doesn't vary her "vocal stylings" and you'd be hard pressed to find very much of a difference between those recordings and the ones on the dvd. The songs that aren't included have (for the most part) been included on bonus cd's or singles. I haven't done a direct comparison to the DVD on any of them as I usually never listen to that album. If i want to listen to that tour, I'll almost certainly listen to my 2CD of the DVD. The Mirrorball CD fades out before and after each song and is less complete sounding regardless of the fact that it's missing half the set list.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Okay. I was thrown off by the "not true". I wonder why they would pick and choose performances for the CD if there was no variation between them?

Regards,

 

[CraigL]

It's very possible that they didn't pick and choose.

However, a lot of my favorite artists have every single one of their shows recorded from the soundboard for archival purposes. It's very possible that they could have recorded a few shows for the purpose of the live album. However, they only filmed the last two nights of the tour to make the DVD and I would assume they wanted to stick with the audio from those two nights as well.