Surround Sound
Music CDs - Article No. 2 - October, 1996
By John Sunier
Surround Sound CDs
In the first of this series, I talked about
the many music CDs now available in Dolby Surround Sound, and
about the standard stereo CDs that can sound just as dramatic
when played back with any surround sound processor. The point is
that what makes possible the stereo effect on your front speakers
are the differences between the left and right channel
information. The more of this information and the cleaner and
more phase-accurate it is, the more realistic will be the
recreation of the performers in front of you. At the same time,
this information is what all surround processors (except
delay-line types) work with. The more of this information there
is in the recording, the better surround effects you will get via
your side or rear loudspeakers.
In the first article I suggested the best results obtained with
classical music CDs came from employing simple L - R ambiance
extraction rather than Dolby Pro Logic, even on Dolby Surround
music CDs. However, with the pop and jazz we're talking about
this time (rather than classical), there is more flexibility in
the soundstaging. It doesn't necessarily need to be a realistic
concert stage, since many of the recordings are entirely studio
creations anyway (where individual musicians are recorded
separately in isolated sound rooms). The higher-end surround
processors often sound terrific with this type of material, and
the occasional mis-steering of the Pro Logic circuits should not
be a problem with processors of the Proceed, Lexicon or
Counterpoint level. I found the 70mm setting on my Fosgate/Harman
Kardon to sound excellent on most of the CDs listed below, and
many were even more enveloping on the "Rock" setting,
which includes more active steering than Pro Logic to place
instruments all around the listener.
Now I'm going to concentrate on some of the jazz and pop CDs out
there that have demonstration-level surround effects. Two come
immediately to ear: "Carved in Stone" -- dmp Big Band
(dmp CD-512) and "By Way of the World" -- Spies (Telarc
CD-83305). The first is a release from the high-tech studio of
Tom Jung featuring classic big band arrangements of Basie,
Ellington, Kenton, Herman, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey: hits
such as "Take the A Train", "Satin Doll",
"Li'l Darlin'", and "April in Paris". Tom
recorded multi-track with 20-bit digital technology and had the
band seated in a horseshoe pattern around the leader. He used a
process called Circle Surround, a new highly-developed matrix
encode-decode system with dedicated processors now available.
(More on this next time in this series of articles.)
Spies is a fusion
jazz small group that appears to have been put together just for
the Telarc recording session. They have a variety and originality
far beyond other albums in this genre. The tunes are all
originals, and many make creative use of sound effects or special
effects. The surround qualities of the tracks "The Third
Rail" and "Rite of Passages" are especially
thrilling -- there are even sounds oriented vertically on the
sides of the listening room. This 1990 CD session was recorded in
Full Logic Shure HTS StereoSurround, a sophisticated alternative
to standard Dolby Surround, and the improvement is definitely
audible.
The
music of Henry Mancini has been surrounded by RCA Victor on a
number of Dolby Surround CDs. Among them are Mancini in Surround
(60471-2), Mancini in Hollywood (09026-61517-2), and Mancini
Themes from The Godfather & Other Movie Themes
(09026-61478-2). The first is subtitled "Mostly Monsters,
Murders & Mysteries," and includes "Creature from
the Black Lagoon", "Prisoner of Zenda" and
"The White Dawn". The Hollywood CD has five suites of
about ten minutes each spotlighting Academy Award selections,
Foreign Films, Peter Gunn, Music of David Rose, and Music from
Hollywood. The Godfather disc includes other great scores of Nino
Rota, a Disaster Movie Suite, A French Movie Suite, and another
from The White Dawn.
A new jazz quintet
aided by a few other instrumentalists is Roadside Picnic. Their
CD is "La Famille" (B & W Music BW067). They have a
distinctive approach with an exuberant and melodic quality -- all
the very original composing of leader Mario Castronari. Some of
the tracks utilize wordless voices and environmental sounds. The
latter nearly always decode beautifully to the surround channels
to immerse the listener in the sonic experience. David Arkenstone
is a New Age keyboardist-composer who assembles striking mixes of
electronic and acoustic instruments playing mixes of New Age,
jazz and classical. While his "Another Star in the Sky"
is not one of his film or video soundtrack efforts, it has
something of that feel to it, plus plenty of excellent surround
effects. The opening track, for example, starts entirely in the
surround channels and after about 45 seconds intersects with the
front channel feeds; it makes a good musical test of both the
levels and timbre-matching in your surround system. It's encoded
for Dolby Surround (Narada Mystique ND-62014).
Live music recordings nearly always decode well to surround, and
"Moody's Party" (Telarc CD-83382) is no exception. It
has been processed with another surround sound system that
encodes localization information during mastering and requires no
decoder at the listening end of the chain. The Spatializer can
also be used in conjunction with Dolby Surround (and has on some
other Telarc releases), but this CD has no Dolby logo. James
Moody is the senior alto and tenor sax star, and playing with him
at his 70th birthday party are people like Grover Washington Jr.,
trumpet virtuoso Arturo Sandoval and pianist Mulgrew Miller. Bill
Cosby even sings a birthday tribute to Moody. With the involving
surround sound you'll feel as though you're a party to the party!
Another single-ended surround process among several is Roland
Space Sound. As with the others, it works best when you are
situated directly between your two front speakers. You really
don't require any surround speakers at all, but with them, the
effect is even more enveloping. Even without them, sounds can
still be located directly behind the listener. Suzanne Ciani is a
synthesist and creates as well as performs her own instrumentals
on "Hotel Luna" (Private Music 01005-82090-2). Several
of the ten original tracks use the Roland process; In
"Rain" the electronic raindrops seem to be coming down
from your ceiling throughout the listening room -- quite a
sensation! Most of the trippier psychedelic-influenced rock
groups made (and make) use of various spatial effects in their
music. Among the best are Yes, Pink Floyd, The Moody Blues and
Tangerine Dream. A recent trend of symphonic versions of rock
classics continues with Alan Parsons' orchestrations of Yes
classics played by the London Philharmonic: "Symphonic Music
of Yes" (RCA Victor 09026-61938-2). Current members of Yes
join the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Community
Gospel Choir in Parsons' lavish yet tasteful arrangements. Among
the hits are "Close to the Edge",
"Roundabout", and "Starship Trooper". Yes'
lead singer Jon Anderson has a solo CD that is not encoded for
Dolby Surround, yet possesses as much or more surround
capabilities as those that are. "Deseo" (Windham Hill
01934 11140-2) is influenced by the rhythms and melodies of Latin
America transmuted through Anderson's technologically advanced
electronic expertise. His high voice is joined by other vocalists
such as Milton Nascimento. Pink Floyd has played with various
tricks to increase the spatial qualities of their albums,
including binaural sound. Their symphonic-arrangement album,
again with the London Philharmonic, is standard stereo, but
really energizes the surround speakers into creating a mysterious
enveloping wash of sounds. Jaz Coleman was the arranger and Peter
Scholes the conductor. "Brain Damage",
"Breathe", "Money", and "Another Brick
in the Wall" are among their hits given orchestral garb.
This is on the classical new music label Point (446 623-2), so
evidently Philip Glass considered it in the classical mold and
deserving to share the shelf with others on his label. The Moody
Blues' music (along with Tomita) was made to order for
multi-channel reproduction and in fact was the source of some of
the few quadraphonic tapes that made both sonic and musical sense
with that ill-fated format. Even in the stereo versions of their
albums there is plenty of L - R information to make an excellent
surround experience. Until recently, comparison of the ambiance
information on a stereo LP vs. the same album's CD incarnation
tended to show the LP version with increased rear-channel
effects. However, CD mastering has made some great improvements,
and now the CD version is often equal to the LP and without the
surface noise or rumble. The enhancement of the limited-edition
gold CD pressings can increase the availability of this ambient
information even more. For example, Mobile Fidelity's Ultradisc
II series imparts not only an increased clarity and extended
frequency range for standard stereo playback, but gives surround
processors more information to work with in creating a believable
soundfield in the sides/rear of the listening room. The Moody
Blues' "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" (MFSL UDCD 643)
doesn't match the original 4-channel open reel tapes, but it
comes close, and does it with an equipment investment as low as a
$150 for a passive surround processor box, with less hiss and a
great deal more convenience in the bargain. (Your passive
choices, by the way, are -- in order of performance --
PhaseAround, Chase Technologies, and Dynaco.)
The phenomenal German group Tangerine Dream continues to turn out
albums at a steady pace, their recent work colored by a heavier
beat and more of a pop sound than their spacey excursions of
yore. Both recent CDs on the Miramar Recordings label have lots
of surround-decodeable details to create a most trippy sonic
environment: ("220 Volt Live" MPCD2804; "Tyranny
of Beauty" 23046-2).
There's another type of super-spatial pop genre that is entirely
electronic and has probably sold better than any other electronic
music recordings of any sort. These are the wonderfully catchy
creations of Jean Michel Jarre, son of the film composer Maurice
Jarre. With primitive 1970's-vintage synthesizers and electronic
gear he assembled smooth-flowing albums without titles for the
specific tracks but with rhythmic and melodic hooks that buoy the
listener along. His two biggest albums are now reissued on gold
CD from Mobile Fidelity: ("Oxygene" UDCD 613;
"Equinoxe" UDCD 647). I had forgotten what amazing
spatiality these albums have -- sounds sail all around the
listening room! And they don't sound dated in the least. Great
fun all 'round. Lastly, in the trippy-rock department, is another
of Alan Parsons' efforts, a collection of some of his hits played
by his group in live performances: "Alan Parsons -- The Very
Best Live" (BMG Music 09026-68229-2). No symphony backing up
here, but Parsons' creative use of electronics often gives that
impression.
This leads us to the category of surround CDs recorded at live
events, but first, how about putting some images up on that
screen to go along with the trippy rock? There are some
laserdiscs and videos of material along these lines (such as the
Miramar VHS on the Grand Canyon, "Canyon Dreams," with
music by Tangerine Dream), but you can easily synchronize almost
any of these CDs to some of the "light show"-type of
videos now available. Often their own soundtracks are not the
greatest, so substituting some of the above CDs is a good move. I
would suggest Miramar's "Grokgazer," by Todd Rundgren
-- a state-of-the-art abstract animated visual trip something
like a computer screen saver gone ballistic, or the uniquely
beautiful and fascinating two-hour fractal animation VHS video
'Mandelbrot Sets and Julia Sets" (Art Matrix, 800-PAX-DUTY).
That's not a hot-selling video title to be sure, but you don't
have to be mathematician or scientist to appreciate these amazing
kinetic designs. In the "live" category, almost
anything taped in front of a live audience is going to reproduce
with plenty of surround information, unless the remote engineers
employed the "forest-of-mikes/16-to-64-track" approach.
In that case you will probably end up with nothing on the
surround speakers or just noise and distortion. Here are a couple
of recent live sessions that drew me into the music experience:
"Concerto Pour Harmonica" (TCB Records 94802) -- This
concert featuring jazz harmonicist Toots Thielemans and pianist
Fred Hersch plus the Lausanne Big Band and the Lausanne Chamber
Orchestra was recorded live to two-track and preserves the
audience sounds and excitement. "Stanley Clarke &
Friends Live at the Greek" (Epic EK 57506) -- Seven tracks
of terrific mainstream jazz with such talents as bassist Clarke,
drummer Billy Cobham and guitarist Larry Carlton. No idea where
the Greek is, but the crowd it held was supportive and
appreciative, adding to the "being there" sonic
experience in surround sound. The Swedish Opus 3 label doesn't do
live recordings (with an audience) but neither do they make
studio recordings. Their policy is to tape strictly acoustic
performers playing in a real acoustic space, such as a large hall
or church, for the most natural and musical reverberation. A good
introduction is their sampler "A Selection from the Tomas
Ornberg, Gunnar Lidberg, Pygme Jazzband and Stans Band"
(Opus 3 CD 7977).
Several tracks of mostly traditional jazz, performed with great
accuracy and gusto, are heard from each of the four music groups
listed above. They were each recorded direct to two-track analog
tape in small halls with short but very natural ambient
qualities, and these come across superbly in the surround
information. In Surround Sound Article No. 3 we'll look at some
other encoding processes that can result in excellent surround:
UHJ/Ambisonics, the new Circle Surround, binaural and HDCD, plus
some standard stereo CDs to seek out for the superb surround
field hidden in their two channels.
John Sunier
© Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997
Secrets of Home Theater & High Fidelity
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