Rush - Moving Pictures Now Out in High Res 96/24 and 5.1!

[Woochifer]

I knew that Rush had spent time in the studio years ago reworking their albums for 5.1 surround sound. But, with the demise of DVD-A and SACD on the major labels, it looked like those 5.1 remixes might never get into consumers' hands.

Well, now with Blu-ray solidly entrenched in millions of homes, Mercury has released a 5.1 version of its landmark Moving Pictures album in a new deluxe edition that includes a remastered CD and Blu-ray audio disc. The Blu-ray audio disc includes uncompressed 96/24 PCM tracks in both two-channel and 5.1 audio. Plus, it includes a 5.1 DTS-MA lossless track.

And in an unusual move, Mercury has also released this package as a CD and DVD-Audio combo pack. This is purportedly the first new DVD-A release since 2008. Since the DVD-A comes with a video-compatible layer that can be read by all regular DVD players and includes a 5.1 DD and 2.0 PCM track, anybody with a surround setup that wants to hear Moving Pictures in 5.1 can do so.

For now, this set is only available at Best Buy (other retailers will sell it beginning in May). Introductory price is $20 for the CD/BD combo pack, and $18 for the CD/DVD-A combo.

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Rush-Moving-Pictures-Blu-ray/20900/

[bobsticks]

Hell, this is a victory even for non-Rush fans. It's encouraging to see that there are still those within the industry that a) recognize the viability of high quality products in this world of dumbed-down dreck, and b) are willing and able to think outside the box.

[kexodusc]

Nice. Moving Pictures might rival Star Wars for most purchases of single title in my library.

[GMichael]

Nice. Moving Pictures might rival Star Wars for most purchases of single title in my library.
Dark side of the Moon tops that list for me.
MP in BR sounds like a keeper to me. When are they doing 2112?

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I got my review copy of this two weeks ago. All I can say is my ears were VERY pleased!

[Mr MidFi]

Dark side of the Moon tops that list for me.

Me too. It's almost a running joke now, like Spinal Tap drummers dying.

8-track... eaten by car stereo
Original vinyl... destroyed in house fire
Replacement vinyl... stolen by brother (who caused the house fire years earlier, the bastard)
Cassette... Lost, no idea what happened to it
CD... Still have it, in storage
SACD remaster... in current rotation
BD remaster?... Maybe, someday

[Woochifer]

I've given 5.1 and 2.0 tracks a good spin, and I must say very impressive! The 5.1 mix lends more of an epic feel to the music. This is very apparent with the opening notes of "Tom Sawyer" -- that song is made for 5.1. The main synth track is very effective when actively directed into the surround channels.

Compared to other older albums, the Moving Pictures mix does not isolate a lot of individual instruments into specific channels. This is good because 5.1 frankly sounds ridiculous when you got a bunch of point sources blaring out of each individual speaker. Where appropriate, the mix puts the guitar and bass tracks into all of the speakers at once. But, it's not overdone. If anything, the 5.1 effect is often understated.

As with other 5.1 mixes I've heard, the individual instruments are much easier to make out on the remix.

"Camera Eye" seems to have gotten to biggest makeover. There are some guitar tracks spread into the surround channels that I never noticed before in the two-channel version, and they reworked the vocals by eliminating the echo effect.

All in all, the 5.1 mix did what it was supposed to do -- clean up some of the audio, provide clearer differentiation between the individual instruments and vocals, and add some ambient effect to the mix. It's not a radical workover, but for the most part it is an improvement. Well worth a listen if you're a fan.

[Woochifer]

Hell, this is a victory even for non-Rush fans. It's encouraging to see that there are still those within the industry that a) recognize the viability of high quality products in this world of dumbed-down dreck, and b) are willing and able to think outside the box.

Now, I'm curious to see what else might get released next. Among the catalog rock releases that have come out on Blu-ray audio, we got Tom Petty's Damn the Torpedoes and Rush's Moving Pictures, plus Neil Young's box set.

Scanning over some of the Rush fan sites, the new edition of Moving Pictures has made a moderate stir, but not a huge groundswell of interest. Among the fans that are itching for more 5.1 Rush releases, the consensus seems to favor 2112 as the next release.

Personally, I would love to see Grace Under Pressure (or any of the other "synthesizer era" Rush albums in particular) get a 5.1 remix. That album sounded tinny enough on vinyl, but it was horrible on CD. No surprise that producer Peter Henderson also worked with Supertramp, who had similar issues when their albums made their way to CD.

As with many other 5.1 remixes, the 5.1 mix on Moving Pictures stripped away a lot of the processing used in the original stereo mix, which improved the vocals in particular. Grace Under Pressure is an even more sonically dense album, and shoehorning all those elements together into two channels already made for a mushy sound. Compound that with Peter Henderson's treble-heavy production, and it just makes me wonder what's actually on those original tapes that can be repurposed into a cleaner and fuller sounding mix.

Same would go for the stuff that Peter Collins did as well. At the very least, it would be kind of cool to hear some of those surround effects that Rush used in concert reproduced in a 5.1 mix.

As for other stuff, we know that Genesis has already done new 5.1 mixdowns, plus new stereo mixes for their entire catalog (the stereo remixes in particular were a big step up). Those titles were released overseas on SACD, but only got a DTS track on a standard DVD in the U.S. Might that catalog be a candidate for Blu-ray? Who knows. Gotta wonder if the 5.1 boat has already set sail for older catalog releases, particularly those that already came out earlier on DVD-A and SACD.

[3LB]

Thanks for the review Wooch. I can't imagine 2112 sounding any better than Moving Pictures, but perhaps its more iconic (for Rush fans). I don't currently have 5.1, but I'm tempted. Steve Wilson (Porky Tree) has been doing King Crimson 5.1 re-issues and engineered In The Land Of Gray & Pink (Caravan) and is rumored to be involved in the re-issue of an iconic '70s album, but isn't saying what it is.

It seems that an album would need to already have atmosphere in spades before it translates well into 5.1 (w/o sounding gimmicky). Moving Pictures is a very atmospheric album in its original stereo format.

[Woochifer]

Thanks for the review Wooch. I can't imagine 2112 sounding any better than Moving Pictures, but perhaps its more iconic (for Rush fans). I don't currently have 5.1, but I'm tempted. Steve Wilson (Porky Tree) has been doing King Crimson 5.1 re-issues and engineered In The Land Of Gray & Pink (Caravan) and is rumored to be involved in the re-issue of an iconic '70s album, but isn't saying what it is.

Yeah, I think that the sentiment for 2112 among Rush fans indicated more about how they viewed the album itself, rather than the production quality. I know that Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, and Hold Your Fire don't rank highly with most Rush fans, but the production and the stuff that got laid down on tape for those albums just begs for a 5.1 workover. Especially so when you consider that Rush's concerts have been using surround effect speakers since the Power Windows tour.

With all that extra maneuvering room afforded by the additional channels (not to mention improvements in digital audio technology in general), the remix can reveal a lot of elements that otherwise got obscured or processed into oblivion during the original stereo mixdown. Grace Under Pressure is probably Rush's most heavily processed mix, and it would be very interesting to hear how it would sound with those layers of processing removed (if available).


It seems that an album would need to already have atmosphere in spades before it translates well into 5.1 (w/o sounding gimmicky). Moving Pictures is a very atmospheric album in its original stereo format.

You'd be surprised. Some of the biggest improvements I've heard in 5.1 have been with the Concord Jazz SACDs. Those albums in particular had a lot of EQ, reverb, and other processing applied during the stereo mixdown. I already owned some of those albums at some point, so I was at least familiar with how they sounded.

I always thought original stereo mixes subjectively sound pretty good, or at least I thought they sounded good until I heard the 5.1 mixes! With a Latin jazz album like Tania Maria's Come With Me, the new 5.1 mix actually sounds less gimmicky because the heavy handed processing got removed. And I never noticed how excessive that processing was until I compared it with the new 5.1 mixes. Yes, some of the instrument placement in the surrounds can be cheesy, but the clean up on the 5.1 mix just makes everything sound more natural.

Moving Pictures is indeed ready made for 5.1 because of the many atmospheric effects used in the mix. The opening synth flourish in "Tom Sawyer" sounds absolutely HUGE in 5.1, and some of the overlaid guitar tracks on other songs got separated into the surround channels. I never noticed those sounds before, so either they were on the original multitrack tapes and never added to the original stereo mix, or they got buried under a pile of other tracks in the original mix. Either way, it's a nice way to get reacquainted with an old favorite.

[Slosh]

I listened to the 5.1 DVD-A track yesterday and it really does sound great. The surround mix is pretty subtle most of the time. Tastefully done IMO.

I still prefer SACD over DVD-A, but not for SQ reasons. No menus to navigate with SACD, just close the drawer and hit play.

NP: