Customer Reviews
WOW,WOWY,WOW
1 remix is sweet, bringing the album to a new level of greatness. this 5.
By far their best and most diverse release, this is something to witness.
Album Review Specific To The 5.1 Surround Mix
1 mix of this album, and not the individual tracks nor the album itself. Just to be clear up front, I am reviewing specifically the surround-sound 5. There are numerous reviews and opinions of the songs and the band, under the entry for the original (2006) stereo CD release. This was my first DVD-Audio disc, and I do not hesitate to say I was very excited to give it a try, particularly for such a quality band and release.
To begin such a review the hardware utilized is essential. I have a Dell with a rather typical Phillips DVD Writer drive, to which is connected a Creative X-Fi soundcard outputted to Logitech X-540 surround sound speakers. This has proven to be a very good quality surround sound setup for movies of all varieties. If you are unfamiliar with X-Fi, it is a very powerful soundcard, particularly for the price, and is capable of near-professional levels of recording and playback. This isn't meant to be an advertisement, merely impressing that little quality would be lost by the hardware setup itself.
The virtual-surround feature it has for headphones is impressive to say the least, and as I also have a run-of-the-mill Plantronics headset, I also tested a stereo downmix of the surround-sound version of the album, which the X-Fi processed.
The Creative soundcard has a dedicated DVD-Audio player. I tried using my tried-and-true DVD software, namely PowerDVD 7. It has DVD-Audio playback capability, and it did an admirable job of playback, however there were noticeable deficits in the sound compared to the hardware-specific DVD-Audio player, so I shall continue the review using only the latter.
The soundcard was set to "Entertainment" mode, merely meaning it was set now for higher quality audio-playback. This includes settings such as 5. 1 surround (of course), along with reverb effects (I discovered that playback is best overall with this shut-off entirely), mild EQ in midrange (the X-540 speakers have extreme bass even at a minimal setting), and then permitting the X-Fi soundcard to perform all decoding, all with maximum dynamic range at 48-kHz output. I made other small adjustments as well, specifically for this disc.
The results impressed me immediately. The surround (rear) speakers are used very sparingly by this mix, and are typically only noticeable when a secondary sound, such as guitar effect, is reaching extreme pan or moving in that direction (to the back). The central speaker does not drown out the front side speakers, which is to me a common issue with many movie mixes. I was already aware that the X-540 speakers lack some crispness at the higher treble range, but was still pleasantly surprised by the effectiveness of the mix regarding this as well. Some songs have slight alterations from the stereo CD release, one I notice every time is a syncopated pattern during a quieter moment of one track, which I found mildly distracting. I suppose this will be a matter of artistic preference.
After listening to favorite tracks over and over again (note, the two bonus tracks are only on the stereo CD disc included - also, this release does indeed have 2 discs, the full album in CD form as well as the surround DVD), I then attempted to listen using the stereo headset. Admittedly the set is hardly of noteworthy quality, no Sennheiser here by any means, however I have gotten very good sound of all kinds from them in the past.
The stereo downmix of the surround recording was disappointing. The separate tracks interfere with one another when forced through two meager channels. Oftentimes a subtle background sound, previously a whisper, overwhelms the central vocals or music. The positioning also becomes claustrophobic, where a distant panned sound now is felt to be pressing up against your face and ear. More plainly, the two discs are justified: I play the stereo CD when using headphones, and now use (more accurately, blast) the 5. 1 special edition through shaking speakers whenever the mood hits and etiquette permits. Admittedly, with further tweaking the X-Fi soundcard might be able to tame some of these stereo-downmix issues, however it is worth first noting that I have used the current settings for countless movies and recordings of both stereo and surround varieties in the past, with very good consistent results.
I give this re-release, almost out of necessity, the highest rating, due to it being the first DVD-Audio I have been exposed to, along with the fact that it has provided a fresh and very pleasing reintroduction to this excellent latest effort. Through playback with the surround speakers I can easily become immersed in the clear and meticulously produced surround mix. I cannot speak for other computer setups, nor for home systems. My setup is I believe rather typical, and of mid-price range, and I expect any enthusiast of this band and of quality produced music in general already has a setup quite similar to this one, if not a flat-out superior one. This surround mix is an excellent effort, with very satisfying results.
. You can see a complete list of all Katatonia discography, or go back to the Katatonia tabs
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