Customer Reviews

Inside the Music - Classic Crooners

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A DVD Audio 96 Khz 5.1 surround, plus DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks collection of classic singers from the 1960's. Also includes BGV (Back Ground Video) photos of the artists while their track is playing. I was quite stunned to hear the tonal quality and excellant surround contained on these 11 tracks - the most outstanding for me were: Nat Coles' Ramblin' Rose; Vic Dana's Red Roses for a Blue Lady; Al Martino's Spanish Eyes; and Mel Carter's Hold Me Thrll Me. The only sad point was that the Peggy Lee version of Fever was a live one. An excellant omnibus...!

This is a great blast back to the 60's easy listening sound. These vocal performances are all among the best of the era. The downside to the whole thing is that the surround mixes sound contrived. In many cases, the original recordings only involved three or four tracks. To manipulate these tracks for 5.1 surround sound takes an act of wizardry. But without enough to work with, there are some problems. For the most part, though, what they were able to do is quite listenable. I do think, however, that it takes more tracks on the original master to make a good, legitimate discrete surround mix.

I've recently discovered that DVD-Audio discs were compatible with my DVD player (and that it had an optical digital audio port!), I've so far purchased six, including this one and two others from Silverline Records. All had astounding sound quality, especially the vocals. These were back before 'singers' had to crank up the instrument volume to mask the fact that they couldn't really sing at all. For true music lovers, some of these tracks will actually raise goosebumps when heard for the first time in 5.1 surround. At this writing, I don't have a home theatre system, opting to instead enjoy both movies and music with my AR Dolby Digital Wireless Surround Headphones. My favorite tracks on this one are "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" by Mel Carter and Vikki Carr's "It Must Be Him", but all are extemely well remastered and worth the price.