The Camera Eye | baniels.com | this is just a website.

The Camera Eye

Posted on April 6, 2011 9:29 am by Ben • 8 Comments

I have poured over my RUSH albums for a lot of years. I’m sure most RUSH fans are the same – every little nuance is known and memorized. As a drummer, I can say that most of this memorization has been focused on Peart. His drumming is what pulled me into their music to begin with.

So when I listened to the surround mix of The Camera Eye yesterday on the just-released DVD-Audio disc, I immediately noticed something. At first I thought my disc had skipped (not that I’ve ever had that happen on my Oppo). It was a little bit like a bad rip, where a hair of data gets lost. Whatever it was, it stood out. I have listened to the snare rudiments in the intro of this song thousands of times. While it is mixed more heavily in the surround version than in the traditional stereo, I can’t attribute this to something that I was just not able to hear before. This was different.

The difference only takes place in the last short roll before the hit of the open hi-hat (after which the clip ends). In the stereo version it starts with a roll that ends with some single strokes. In the surround version it sounds as though there was a slightly fudged roll thrown in where those single strokes should be. I am finding it difficult to explain with words – so please just listen a few times.

I never anticipated that a the surround remaster would use different takes than the original, but that is what this appears to be.

I ripped the tracks, both stereo and surround from the disk. Using the center channel from the surround mix, where the snare is more present, and some Adobe Audition tricks in the stereo mix to isolate the snare a little more, I have created a file to permit an easy comparison.

Mixdown

This is what you are hearing:

Stereo

Surround

Stereo

Surround

SLOWER Stereo

SLOWER Surround

SLOWER Stereo

SLOWER Surround

As a signpost, the one with the warbled tones is the original stereo – that was a side effect of bringing the snare more heavily in the mix.

Filed Under: Audio

John S Wendell

Yeah, it’s immediately clear. What a bizarre and tragic blunder on the part of the mixing people.
http://www.drivetopark.com Kid Eternal

Clear as a bell. I think I heard something similar near the end of Limelight but will have to relisten.

Dust on the original recording?

It’s also interesting that a track of electronic drum hits near the beginning of Witch Hunt appear to be missing?

I’m still super-happy with the release, but it is curious that they didn’t pull a hardcore fan in for a couple hours of QC. We’ve probably heard the album recordings far more than the band has – we’d notice before any of the triumvirate would!
- Ben
  
  I still need to do more listening. I still haven’t gone through the whole album front to back. I did notice some of the off beat e-drum hits in Witch Hunt to be way down in the mix compared to the original.
Tom

Yep, I hear it too. You’re like me, you have a good ear for that kind of stuff.
Craig

Yeah, it is apparent and does sound like a flub, yet hard to believe that someone with Neil’s rudiment skills–even back then–would flub single strokes??? Very strange.

Kid Eternal: totally agree with you. It makes perfect sense to send out a beta version to die hard fans who, as you say, have likely heard these recorded versions countless many more times than the band. Just like software companies send out beta versions to work out the bugs, so too might it be a consideration for these new mixes.

On the flip side, if any of you have worked in the studio, you know that by the end of the sessions, the engineer has heard a song hundreds of time in every nuance. But did i read Chycki say somewhere that he intentionally did not listen to the original stereo mix? Anyway, Great call Kid Eternal.
- Ami
  
  It was on the recent Vapor Trails remix of One Little Victory and Earthshine where Rich did not listen to the original stereo mix (http://ww2.richardchycki.com/archives/166).
  - Ben
    
    Thanks for sharing that. Even if the same approach was taken, would it not be odd to use a different take?
    
    I don’t know the process for remixing an album, but I would assume that they aren’t staring from scratch with all of the original takes.
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