Ubertrout

47 minutes ago, uruguns said:

I wonder what does exactly 'discrete 5.1' mean

It means it's taken from the original multitracks, so the 5.1 mix has different elements of the mix arranged in discrete channels (as opposed to ambient where they're just spread around from a stereo mix).

15 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

We have a great place near me called "Bull Moose".. I actually bought a Guns Pasadena boot there a couple weeks ago... 

I love Bull Moose.  I'm in NH a few times a year for business and always try to sneak down to Salem, NH to their store there before I leave.

Their website is good too, although their price is a little above Amazon's: http://www.bullmoose.com/p/27324376/guns-n-roses-appetite-for-destruction--super-deluxe-edition (you might prefer to support them instead of Amazon, of course).

34 minutes ago, Tom-Ass said:

I'll probably end up buying the Super Deluxe version for a decent price.. Someone said they got it for $113. That seems worth it too me.

ImportCDs has it for $126, and had a 10% off coupon for a while, so $113 (plus $3 shipping).  Best price thus far.

What usually happens with these is that Amazon gets a few returns and then puts them on Warehouse Deals at close to half price.  That's how I got the Sgt. Pepper boxset for $60.  AFD is going to be the first one of these super deluxe editions I buy on release day.

5 minutes ago, AncientEvil80 said:

Which, unless you have a dedicated room to properly "feel" the surround effect, is completely useless and as some people stated: CLUELESS.

I'd be streaming the box on Spotify but for the surround mix.  To each their own.

19 hours ago, Blackstar said:

Is there a precedent where a release was promoted like this (a video with a label exec presenting it) and not by the artists themselves?

There is some interesting stuff between the lines of this recent interview with three Universal execs:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8461630/guns-n-roses-appetite-destruction-locked-n-loaded-edition

- The whole thing was mainly put together by the label. The band consented and approved, but they weren't much involved. In the end, they express the wish/hope that the band will "take over" the project (including doing interviews to promote it).

- The big expensive box wasn't in the initial plan, but then the label thought that there would be a market for it and their strategy focused on that (it seems that the pre-sales for the big box haven't gone as expected - what a surprise - and now they focus on the more approachable super-deluxe box and the cheaper editions).

The band hasn't actually promoted it much. They shared it on their social media and that's it. They play SOYL at the shows, but Axl hasn't introduced it so far or said anything about the box.

Thanks for sharing.  So...Slash has seen pictures of the box as concept art and said "wow."  Duff actually sat down with them and went through the box.  And Axl sent them some pictures but no direct involvement since.

Like others, I paid $116 shipped for the 5-disc version and I'm looking forward to it, but this could have been so much better.  Metallica's super deluxe of Master of Puppets is the same price and includes 10 CDs, LPs, and 2 DVDs.   But at least GNR are giving us a surround mix.

18 hours ago, Propaganda said:

Remasters are always good for volume purposes. I have to constantly put the volume up when I’m listening to Appetite. I hope they amped the sound a bit!

Dear god, no.  This post is why we can't have nice things.  If you want this you can always EQ the sound or whatever, but I want to be able to play AFD loud on a real sound system, and that means not mangling the audio by reducing the dynamic range.

AFD is one of the best-mastered rock albums of the 80s but analog-digital converters weren't nearly as good then.  The 24/96 remaster of Welcome to the Jungle that was included on a blu-ray sampler about 5 years ago had better dynamic range than the album, I hope the whole album is done that way.

If they're going to do a sonically destroyed version of this album for earbuds and cars, put it on streaming only, and leave the original version intact online as well.

9 hours ago, downliner said:

Is the 5.1 version of Appetite only available in this boxset and the L&L boxset? I'm curious to experience that. I've never owned a 5.1 surround system, but years ago a buddy played me The Downward Spiral in 5.1 and I was blown away by how different the experience was compared to just listening to the normal CD Will be expensive if I need to buy a surround sound system and the Super Deluxe boxset

So far it's only in the Super Deluxe Edition.  A few bands like The Who have issued surround mixes both on their own and in box sets, but most others have reserved them for box sets.  It's the marketing strategy...

If you're going to go 5.1 to get this, it can be done pretty reasonably - just be careful about all-in-one 5.1 sets.  These are good options, although if you can spend a little more you'll get much more power (I'd get a $400 receiver and spend about the same on speakers for good performance): https://www.lifewire.com/best-home-theater-under-500-4138572

On 1/19/2017 at 11:06 AM, double talkin jive mfkr said:

very strange personified by the song 14 years - axl and izzy are straight up soulmates in the sense of what true friends are for - the only problem is that axl is tremendously one sided in his thinking and this creates problems of division 

Well, they've known eachother for about 40 years at this point...and they've been fighting for most of them, but also have a foundation to their relationship that goes deeper than what any of the other band members have (except Slash & Steven).  I don't think the tour was that complicated...Izzy indicated he'd do the tour as an equal partner at least to Duff, and the three original members doing this tour weren't interested in diluting their share of the proceeds by agreeing to that arrangement.  They offered Izzy the option to appear as a guest musician for "fighter pilot money" in his words to the song, similar to their arrangement with Steven, which he refused.  So here we are.

Incidentally, Izzy's entire catalog is on Spotify now...I know it wasn't a few months ago.

I picked up the Rolling Stone commemorative issues, and saw an interesting bit, albeit one people have probably seen before.  Axl commented in the early 90s that Izzy would be perfectly happy to just record a song to four-track and be done with it, but that's not what the fans expect.  Kind of explains a lot.

On 12/8/2016 at 3:35 AM, SoundOfAGun said:

They better not touch AFD on that way; it was mastered in the days when mastering wasn't about squeezing the life out of any dynamics present with limiting/compression to compete with today's "sausage wavs" that you hear on the radio. At best, the differences would be minimal, it only seems to be a worthwhile effort if the original source material receives some kind of digital clean up as part of a restorative process (normally records from the 60s/70s). AFD sounds great as it is. 

Alt mixes would be cool if they exist though. 

The version of Welcome to the Jungle on the Blu-Ray Audio sampler was actually more dynamic than the album version: http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/94052

AFD is pretty much the only album boxset I'd pre-order if they did it right.

Izzy tweeted the lyrics, they aren't subtle, at least not to me.  He got offered "fighter pilot" money to join a tour where the band would be rolling in gold.  For the money he was offered he'd rather spare himself the aggravation and do his own thing.  My impression is that his noninvolvement in the tour is due to failure to pay him as a founding member.  But I suspect the three "core" founding members think that sharing the profits of the tour isn't worthwhile - he's not going to draw enough people outside of hardcore fans to make sharing profits with him as an equal worthwhile.  Adler is clearly getting scraps and the non-original members are getting paid respectable salaries, not the big bucks.

I've seen NITL twice now, and enjoyed it both times, but it's clearly a cash-in.  That's not a terrible thing, but it explains a lot.

This obviously never materialized. However, someone just posted the dynamic range of the Universal blu-ray audio sampler disc that includes Welcome to the Jungle, and it's substantially more dynamic than the AFD CD release . Pity we never got the whole album.

This obviously never materialized. However, someone just posted the dynamic range of the Universal blu-ray audio sampler disc that includes Welcome to the Jungle, and it's substantially more dynamic than the AFD CD release . Pity we never got the whole album.

Yep but DR isn't everything. The Barry Diament mastered standard CD, currently in print, is honestly pretty much as good as it gets. Even the MFSL doesn't sound as good.

But having AFD in 24/96 would be awesome, I wholeheartedly agree.

Totally agreed, DR isn't everything. But the fact that Welcome to the Jungle is even more dynamic than the CD, which was already pretty well mastered, suggests that the 24/96 version would sound even better than the current CD version, regardless of whether 24/96 confers additional benefits. I agree we can't know for sure, but I'd really like to find out.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78866398&docId=APP20060425083500#docIndex=5&page=1

Fascinating. This is a 2006 application for Slash/Perla to use the GNR logo for merch. To be clear, this is a trademark application, not a copyright registration, which would not be examined but would also have minimal legal effect. The US Patent and Trademark Office rejected the application on the grounds that there were existing registrations for the marks by GNR, and the application was eventually deemed abandoned.

This obviously never materialized. However, someone just posted the dynamic range of the Universal blu-ray audio sampler disc that includes Welcome to the Jungle, and it's substantially more dynamic than the AFD CD release . Pity we never got the whole album.

Reviews for the BD-Audio albums have been mixed...the harsh reviews have been for Nevermind (the 20th anniversary mix was a brickwalled hot mess) and a few others. However, others like In Utero have gotten very positive reviews.

I'd be shocked if it's not the original album. This is the record company's initiative, not GNR's.

The issue with a 5.1 mix isn't the availability of the masters, it's a matter of initiative and getting approval from the band (this isn't inside information, btw).

According to one of the books, I think Slash's, UYI was originally supposed to be recorded for surround. Fun random fact. Those albums would probably benefit more than AFD with a surround mix.

And as for people caring...I can assure you that people do. This release doesn't matter if you listen on iPhone earbuds or PC speakers, but it matters a lot if you have a decent system or better.

This has been going around the audiophile forums, but I'm not sure if folks here are aware of it...Appetite for Destruction is among the slate of "High Fidelity Pure Audio" Blu-Ray audio releases to come from Universal. The disc will be playable in any blu-ray player, and will feature the album at a resolution of 24-bit/96 khz, compared to 16-bit/44.1 khz for regular CD. More info here. While blu-ray audio can have a 5.1 mix, most HFPA releases have only been in stereo, and there is no reason to think AFD will have a surround mix.

There is also apparently a HFPA sampler already in the wild which features Welcome to the Jungle in high-resolution. More info here.

No release date or anything, but is clearly in the pipeline.