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Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms [2005 20th Anniversary Edition] (1985) [DVD-A Layer]

Posted By: TopCat
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms [2005 20th Anniversary Edition] (1985) [DVD-A Layer]

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms [2005 20th Anniversary Edition] (1985) [DVD-A Layer]
Rock | DVDFab Image (ISO) | 4.4 GB | All Covers included


Technical Details:
DVD-A side of the DualDisc
Audio Streams:
DVD-Audio 5.1 96kHz/24bit PPCM
Stereo 48kHz/24bit PCM
Dobly Digital 5.1

The DVD-A AUDIO_TS Folder IS Watermarked. If your standalone player is not capable of playing a burned, watermarked DVD-A (the 5.1 PPCM audio stream), the disc will stop playing within 15 to 30 seconds.

The DVD-A was ripped with DVDFab 5.1.1.0 in Clone Mode. ImgBurn is recommended for burning the ISO.



Review:
Introduction:

Dire Straits' 'Brothers In Arms' needs no introduction. It was arguably the Compact Disc's 'killer-app' album which almost single-handedly launched the new digital format over two decades ago into households across the world, not to mention bringing digital recording technology into studios. Two decades later at Mark Knopfler’s own recording facility at British Grove Studios, the album gets the high-resolution surround-sound treatment we've all waited for. Renowned audio engineer, Chuck Ainlay – known to some as "Mr Digital," explains to High Fidelity Review's Martin Fendt how he remixed this project to DVD-Audio and SACD formats.

Before going into all the nitty-gritty, it is worth noting that the honour of following in Neil Dorfsman's footsteps to remix Dire Straits 'Brothers In Arms' (BIA) onto high resolution DVD-Audio and SACD came to Chuck Ainlay mainly by circumstance, since he has been the default producer and recording engineer for all the recent Mark Knopfler solo albums as well as the last couple of Dire Straits ones 'On Every Street' and the live album 'On the Night.' Once he received the call and agreed to take on the project, the most pressing task was to actually locate the original master tapes – which as luck would have it, were scattered far and wide.

Ainlay recalls: "When we started out with the search for the tapes, we assumed that for an album of that magnitude these things would be highly protected in a vault and everyone would know precisely where all the assets were. But as it turned out, some of the reels were in LA, some were in Europe in the Mercury vault, and some were found in Mark’s own vault. In fact I'd been asked to come over to British Grove Studios in London a couple of times to mix the album, only to realise that we didn't have all the assets we needed. It was not until the second week of January 2005, when I went through all the notation, that I was pretty certain we had everything necessary to mix the album.

The Mix - From the Listener’s Perspective:

Unlike many so called surround-sound mixes which just use the rears sparingly and for ambience, Ainlay intended that for this project, the rear speakers would be highly utilised. Indeed, there is information placed in the rears which is as loud as that in the fronts. And we are not just talking about effects and 'jingle-jangles' in the back. To this end, and since this is not a live performance, Ainlay takes the artistic liberty of utilising the rears to a large extent thus surrounding the listener by the music as if he/she is 'centre-stage.' He also makes the soundstage even larger by using effects to produce dimension 'beyond' the speakers themselves. He was of course mindful of the fact that the two 'featured' parts of Dire Straits were Mark Knopfler's lead singing and also his solo guitar playing. Consequently, Ainlay feels that for the most part, Mark's guitar playing needs to be in front of the listener. "However, there are some deviations from that idea," he notes, "such as when some of Mark's acoustic guitars and rhythm instruments are placed left and right rear, complemented by various ethereal 'off-in-the-distance' effects."

For example on one of the songs the saxophone is placed in the right rear while a guitar comes from a far-off place using the left rear, and all this whilst not distracting the listener from focusing on the actual lead subjects in the front and centre. Regarding the lead vocals, Ainlay carefully keeps these in the centre channel primarily, which also spreads out to the adjacent left and right fronts, being about 6dB down in these. The result is that even if the listener is off-centre, he would still find the vocal imaging to be anchored straight up in the front centre.

However, so as to make the vocals 'float' a bit more, Ainlay pulls them very subtly away from the front speakers and towards the back by putting a sparing amount also in the rear speakers. This effect is also aided by the judicious application of delay effects, harmonisers and reverb, etc. to create dimensions beyond the front speakers and give that same sort of depth which one would be used to hearing in a stereo presentation.

Now for drums and percussion: Where possible, and with the help of ambient microphones, Ainlay draws the cymbals back slightly and by putting them mostly in the front but with some also in the rear. The toms also float back into the room somewhat by doing the same thing, whereas the snare and the kick-drum are more obviously anchored on the front wall, whilst the piano is spread with effects so it fills the room entirely. There are also appearances of a venerable Hammond B3 organ, which, in some cases has been doubled-tracked such that there are moments when one of the Hammond B3 tracks is in the front left/right, while the other emanates from the rear left/right, to result in a huge swirling sound all round the listener.

Synth pads are also used to effect in both the fronts and the rears simultaneously which 'fill-up' the room. But besides these more ethereal 'paddy' elements, Ainlay is deliberately more discrete about placement of other cornerstone elements including accordions, saxes or percussion instruments which usually feature in the front left/right or surrounds.

Thoughts on DVD-Audio and SACD Formats:

And now to the very end product: As touched-upon earlier, Bob Ludwig performed all the EQ in the digital domain from the PCM 96kHz 24-bit 5.1 Nuendo tracks at his extensive facility in Portland, Maine. This was basically just a digital transfer through his EQ and compression at 96/24 for the DVD-Audio version, but then he had to resample it for SACD.

"I think both the SACD and DVD-Audio products sound great," enthuses Ainlay. "However, from the purist point of view, I do prefer the 24-bit Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) DVD-Audio (on the DualDisc) over the DSD hybrid-SACD version. On a previous Mark Knopfler album, 'Shangri-La,' we mixed to lots of different formats: We had a Nuendo session running 96/24; We also mixed to a DSD Sonoma system. Interestingly, as much as we had heard about how great DSD recording technology was, we nevertheless felt that it altered the sound to some degree, whereas the 96/24 LPCM was more representative of the original mix straight out of the console. In addition, we also mixed it to half-inch analogue tape at 30 IPS, as well as to 15 IPS, one-inch tape in two-track. And everyone in the room had the same opinion that the 96kHz 24-bit PCM was the closest representation of the console bus, and coming second was the 15 IPS one-inch analogue tape. Thereafter, it was a toss-up of which came in third and fourth – i.e. was it the Sonoma DSD, or the half inch 30 IPS tape? So going forward now, we have basically determined that we prefer 96kHz 24-bit PCM for recording over the Sonoma DSD. I was really surprised at that. I thought that I would like the Sonoma DSD recording the best, but after speaking with other people and Bob Ludwig himself – who is highly knowledgeable of DSD – we feel there is nevertheless is an inescapable 'softening' effect which DSD imparts. To me this seems to emulate analogue to some degree, but is not necessarily the closest representation of the console output."

– Martin Fendt, HighFidelityReview.com

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms [2005 20th Anniversary Edition] (1985) [DVD-A Layer]


Tracklisting:
1. So Far Away (5:12)
2. Money for Nothing (8:26)
3. Walk of Life (4:12)
4. Your Latest Trick (6:33)
5. Why Worry (8:31)
6. Ride Across the River (6:58)
7. The Man's Too Strong (4:40)
8. One World (3:40)
9. Brothers in Arms (6:59)

Total Time: 55:10

Line-up/Musicians:
Mark Knopfler: guitar, vocals
John Illsley: bass, vocals
Alan Clark: keyboards
Guy Fletcher: guitar, vocals
Terry Williams: drums

Guest Musicians:
Omar Hakim: drums
Jack Sonni: guitar
Michael Brecker: saxophone
Randy Brecker: horn
Malcolm Duncan: tenor saxophone
Neil Jason: bass
Tony Levin: bass
Jimmy Maelen: percussion
Michael Mainieri: background vocals
Dave Plews: horn
Sting: vocals on "Money for Nothing"


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Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms [2005 20th Anniversary Edition] (1985) [DVD-A Layer]