Tubular Bells [Import, Hybrid SACD - DSD]

Mike Oldfield | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 15, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import, Hybrid SACD - DSD
• Label: Virgin Records
• ASIN: B000057NVH
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #83,466 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Tubular Bells, Pt. 1

2. Tubular Bells, Pt. 2

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Excellent Multichannel SACD, September 2, 2001

By 

ALK "ballparkvisitor" (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tubular Bells (Audio CD)

When it was released, Tubular Bells brought a lot of critical acclaim to Mike Oldfield. Virgin Records has recently re-released the album on multichannel SACD. The results are outstanding.

The multichannel SACD mix is presented in 4.0 channel sound (rather than the usual 5.1). This is because the original multichannel track was developed for 1970s quad. While usually transfering a quad track to modern multichannel is bad, in this case it works very well. There is no LFE or center channel included in the recording.

There is a very detailed description of the history of Tubular Bells in the CD booklet that accompanies the disc. The disc also contains the original two track Tubular Bells as an SACD layer and a CD layer. Interrestingly enough, some of the original Tubular Bells was re-recorded in the 1970s for the multichannel version. So the stereo and 4.0 mixes truly are different.

While I would normally not recommend taking a quad recording and releasing it in any modern format (see Paul McCartney's "Venus and Mars" on DTS CD as an example of what not to do), Tubular Bells sounds fresh and clean.

For those who have not heard the album before, it really defies categorization. While very "listenable", it is also very experimental in the use of instrumentation and creating an environment of interesting sounds. There are only two tracks on the SACD.

The SACD is playable on CD and SACD players. For high definition sound, you'll need an SACD player. For multichannel high definition sound you'll need a multichannel SACD player, such as Sony's SCD-CE775.

Overall this is very enjoyable music that luckily is now available in 4.0 channel surround sound.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Classic, Improved, March 25, 2005

By 

Jay L. Rudko (Pembroke Pines, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tubular Bells (Audio CD)

When I think of albums which have retained their popularity over the years, two come to mind. Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is one; "Tubular Bells" is the other. And the fact that both have been released on hybrid SACD attests to their popularity. In the case of "Tubular Bells", this was not the first quad mix of the album to be released. The first, which was released as a CD-4 "Quadradisc" in the US, and as both SQ and QS in most of the rest of the world, pretty much mimicked the stereo version, except for the slow fade-in of the beginning and a few music-spins-around-you effects. The mix on this SACD features one that was originally created to convince Mike Oldfield to allow this recording to be released in multichannel. In addition, the original stereo mix is included on both the CD layer and the SACD stereo track. The 4.0 mix on the SACD multichannel track is cleaner and less cluttered sounding than that first released quad mix, and is more straight-forward. This mix was also released as a quad LP as part of a box set (now available on CD, and despite claims to the contrary, is the SQ version). That set, "Mike Oldfield Boxed", is worth seeking out. It also includes quad mixes of "Ommadawn", "Hergest Ridge", and "Collaborations".Now, if only they could release this box set in SACD... I digress. I highly recommend this SACD for those who want to hear what this system can do, and for MO fans, to finally hear everything he wanted you to hear.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mike Oldfield "Tubular Bells", May 25, 2001

By 

Andrzej P.Urbanski (Poznan, Wielkopolska, Poland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tubular Bells (Audio CD)

When I heard this album in Polish radio for the first time just after it was released, I was sixteen years old. When I can hear it now in its newest technical version (hybrid CD, SACD and multichannel version) I fill almost the same impressions. It was almost unbelieveble that one young man (in early seventies) can imagine such a sophisticated music and consequently step-by-step, alone play and record it on multitrack recorder. New digital version of this recording enables listening to technical perfection of it. For instance delicate introduction and very deep bass further (my almost perfect headphones enables to hear how deep it really is). Despite of the many next recordings of Mike Oldfield(including three further versions of "Tubular Bells") this one I remember and like the most.