Albums in 5.1 surround

I have that on bluray, but for some reason I've never really given it a proper listen. I'll do that once I have the time, will report back here.

Okay, I listened to it, and it is genuine surround mix... Though the back channels are mostly used create a space effect, most of the action is in the front and middle channels.

If you wanna hear albums that seriously use the back speakers to do some crazy things, you should get Isao Tomita's quadraphonic albums from the 70s, they've all been released on SACD in recent years. The Debussy one is k my favourite, it sounds incredible. Though the most ridiculous surround effects are probably on his version of Holst's Planets.

Cool. Are there any such albums also on DVD, or are they all SACD-only?

Perhaps a stupid question, but when you're listening to a 5.1 CD, what setting should you use on your receiver? Standard or something else?
When I listen to CDs, I usually go with an all-channel stereo setting, but I doubt I'd be getting the full effect with a 5.1 mix. I don't see any specific setting on my Pioneer for a 5.1 mix for CDs.

Cool. Are there any such albums also on DVD, or are they all SACD-only?

Perhaps a stupid question, but when you're listening to a 5.1 CD, what setting should you use on your receiver? Standard or something else?
When I listen to CDs, I usually go with an all-channel stereo setting, but I doubt I'd be getting the full effect with a 5.1 mix. I don't see any specific setting on my Pioneer for a 5.1 mix for CDs.

Oh, sorry, I think I misunderstood you, so your receiver does have a surround option, but you're asking how to play CDs with a 5.1 sound?

Well, regular CDs can't have a surround sound coded in them, it's not technically possible. Only SACDs do, and for those you need a dedicated SACD player, like the one I mentioned before. Some 5.1 receivers, like the Yamaha I have, do have an option for "fake surround", i.e. a setting that codes a stereo signal into something resembling surround that plays in all speakers. But I mostly use it with movies/TV shows that are in stereo, because IMO it emphasises the middle speaker too much, and at least in my set it's the smallest one, so I don't like having so much of the music coming through it.

So for music I just use the "play stereo through all speakers" setting, which has more oomph, but obviously there's no surround effect then, not even a simulated one. But IMO there's no point of playing music mixed to stereo with the fake surround effect. It works nicer with TV shows in stereo, because it puts the dialogue into the middle speaker, which makes it easier to hear.

DVD Audio discs play 5.1 as would its Blu-ray equivalent.

Yeah, they do, but DVD-audio discs need a player that can decode them, and many players, such as mine, only decode DVD-video, not DVD-audio (as DVD-A discs were an audiophile thing that never really took flight). Thankfully most audio DVDs have separate DVD-A and DVD-V layer, so you can get the surround sound with even a regular DVD-V player. The bitrate will be lower, but I think you really need to have the proverbial golden ears to notice any difference.

With blurays there's thankfully no such differences in decoding, as far as I know. If you have bluray player, it should be able to play any 5.1 audio bluray just fine.

Yep. My Samsung BD-J6300 Blu-ray player does not call out DVD-A specifically but plays every DVD-A disc in 5.1 surround that i've put into it connected simply over a HDMI cable.

Revive!

Are there any good ambient albums in surround sound? You'd think the format would we ideal for ambient music, but all I've managed to find are the surround DTS discs Pete Namlook put out on FAX in the years before his death... So any recommendations beyond the FAX stuff?

My absolute favourites are the 5 Labyrinth albums (Namlook and Lorenzo Montana), which have a really crisp and chill home-listening electro sound. The 5.1 sound is used nicely to emphasise both the mood and rhythm elements of the tracks, it sounds really cool and evocative.

Another big favourite are the two Elektronik (Namlook and Material Object) albums, they're the sort of gritty, experimental techno that's kinda atypical of FAX. Really excellent drum and rhythm programming, which sounds devastating in the 5.1 mix.

The final 2350 Broadway album is also in surround, it has some beautifully serene, enveloping drones, probably my favourite in that series. The Namlook/Le Mar album also has some nice drones as well as techno/electro tracks with beats, one of them especially uses the 5 channels for some fun, geeky gimmicks.

The Namlook/Move D albums of the 5.1 era are more varied in quality, but there are some gems among them too, especially the Raumland trilogy and Space & Time. They're kinda samey and the surround sound isn't used as noticeably as on some other releases, but there are some nice sci-fi effects on those too.

Namlook's 5.1 era solo albums are of more acquired taste, he seemed to put his more experimental drives there. The Urban Meditation series is mostly grey, foreboding drones, and the Pearl series is like modern electronic classical. Iterations is a unique album that experiments with loops that change every iteration. I think it's a fascinating idea, and the surround sound supports it effectively, but again, whether you like it depends on how you find this kind of experimental electronics. The only non-experimental solo work he released in this period is Subconscious Worlds, a fun, spacey techno album, kinda in the same mold as the Move D collabs, but without the irritating stretched vocal samples. If you like "classic" early-to-mid-90s FAX, that one is well worth checking out.

The final Dark Side of the Moog (XI) is also in 5.1. I'm not the biggest fan of that project, but the last album is one of the better entries in it, though I don't remember the surround sound doing much else than deepening the space drones. But if you like the DSotM series, it's certainly something you should hear.

DSOTM XI ?
hang on …

I got in to downloading a bunch of 5.1 records recently and playing them back via my laptop's HDMI output. Some highlights:

No-Man Schoolyard Ghosts -- this record is gorgeous and the mix is really sumptuous and subtle, Bowness's vocals are right up front in the center channel and all the strings, flutes, guitars and keyboards float around you. Excellent stuff.
Roxy Music Avalon -- per my post upthread, this one didn't disappoint.
2350 Broadway IV -- this is a really nice sounding record
XTC Skylarking -- Wilson's mix on this is exceptional, there are tons of little details that don't exist in the stereo mix, background vocals and whatnot. Oranges & Lemons is a good listen as well
Tears for Fears Songs from the Big Chair -- "Head Over Heels" on this is just everything you'd hope it would be
Moody Blues Seventh Sojourn -- this is a quad transfer but a really interesting listen in that it doesn't put everything in the front and sonics in the back, worth checking out

The one I'm jonesing for now is Propaganda's A Secret Wish

If you're into Tomita's style of playing classical music on synths, all of his quadraphonic albums from the '70s have been released as 4.1 SACDs (they don't utilise the middle speaker because the original quadraphonic system didn't have that). They're all worth getting, but the Debussy ("Clair de lune") and Mussorgsky ("Pictures at an Exhibition") ones especially are a treat if you like this kind of synthesiser music. They all have some pretty fun surround trickery too, I guess to emphasise the novelty value of a 4-speaker system.

I’d heard Tomita in surround was pretty glorious – Ultimate Planets is the second highest rated surround disc on Quadraphonic Quad. Alas no success pulling those down online yet.

I'd love to hear further thoughts on the Oranges & Lemons 5.1 mix, actually, because the stereo mix is notoriously crammed full of detail and it seems like the kind of record that would truly blossom with the addition of the extra channels.

I’d heard Tomita in surround was pretty glorious – Ultimate Planets is the second highest rated surround disc on Quadraphonic Quad.

That one probably has the most ridiculous surround effects I've ever heard on a surround album, basically just sounds jumping all across the listening field. So it definitely takes full advantage of the technology, your mileage may vary whether or not that's a good thing. :)

Personally, my favourite surround mix is probably on Björk's Medulla. It uses the surround field to great effect, but in an organic manner, it never feels like a gimmick like on some other albums.

haha when i was my fourteen my dad bought a 5.1 system and put all of the speakers in one place on the tv stand

also on the subject of flaming lips 'zaireeka', once i read a story on some forum about a young lad who bought it, set up four stereos in his living room to play it back... and his parents came home, walked in on him sat on the floor surrounded by the speakers and took him for a drug test lmao

I'd love to hear further thoughts on the /Oranges & Lemons/ 5.1 mix, actually, because the stereo mix is notoriously crammed full of detail and it seems like the kind of record that would truly blossom with the addition of the extra channels.

FWIW, Tusk is absolutely incredible in 5.1.

Revive! Has anyone checked out Dolby Atmos? I just noticed that Wilson has remixed. The first three Chic records for it. I also realized that my basement TV sound bar will play it. I don’t have it set up with any rear channels or anything yet but maybe I don’t need to? I also see that Amazon music streams at least some stuff. Which is certainly easier than all the massive multi track files I have pirated onto my laptop.

Jerry Harrison had some stuff to say in that TapeOp interview:

I just worked with Ed remixing all of the Talking Heads albums for Atmos.

-You mixed everything in 5.1 before, right?

That was with Eric “ET” Thorngren. [See Eric’s interview this issue.] He did the bulk of the catalog. Ed did (Talking Heads:) 77, and he did about half of More Songs About Buildings and Food, and then Eric did the other half. Because Eric and I still had the sessions from the 5.1, we had a head start on thinking about this. When we were doing the 5.1, we listened to all of these different (surround) records. There were certain people who wanted to make mixes feel like you were on stage, with the musicians around you.

-Yeah, some strange placement of the listener, as if you’d joined the band.

We felt that was not a very successful way to look at it. The other thing is that we realized that people would have these stereo systems, and then who knew what the rest of the speakers would be. We used the faux center of stereo, as long as it was then reinforced with the center speaker. By the time that we’ve now reached with Atmos, people have more sophisticated systems. I think that surround audio could be wonderful, but the majority of people who are going to be listening to Atmos will probably be listening to it on headphones, to begin with.