Peter Gabriel's 2023 album "I/O"

[Multicore]

Listened to a few minutes of a few tracks. It’s just horrible. He should retire.

Correct.

Amazon Music has three "mixes" of each and they are all about the same to me. I have the greatest respect for Peter Gabriel based on his earlier works and for that reason I want nothing more from this.

 

[WillBrink]

Can't speak to the multi chan thing, listening 2 chan to it via streaming Qobuz/Roon. Sounds good, not great, on my system. One thing about say SO I enjoyed so much was not just the music, but how well recorded it was. Did some mentioned they thought the Dark Side sounded better than the bright Side stuff?

 

[ryanosaur]

Been a while since I listened to Up...

A little aside: the first ever commercial multichannel album ("Up") digital release was from Peter Gabriel! We (my team at Microsoft) collaborated with him to release his album this way. See: https://news.microsoft.com/2002/09/...-5-1-channel-surround-sound-digital-download/

He is definitely a pioneer in this regard.

Considering I built my rig for taking advantage of multi-channel audio, I would have loved to have access to this. Looks like the SACD is available on Discogs.

Regardless, streaming it now in stereo.

D@mn, such a fine effort. Great album. Only 4 tracks in and it is way more intriguing than I/O, frankly. Maybe it's because we are already friends, but the maturity and evolution of his music on Up speaks to me far more.

Still, it strikes me there is a sound to his music that can be found going all the way back through his catalog, a signature that is almost completely unmistakable. In some ways, one could argue there is a datedness to this, but on the other hand... it's him.

Glad I stumbled on this thread! A nice introduction to the new work and encouragement to shake hands again with an old friend!

 

[Chrispy]

Almost through the full Dark Side.
Of course I would choose that to listen to first after reading the thread... and beside, two old FB quizzes said I WAS Darth Vader.
So Dark Side it is.


Not bad. There are some bones I could pick. But a solid effort. Some of it was very enjoyable and would dig deeper. At some point I'll try to differentiate between the Jedi and Sith versions.

Agree with @Chrispy , the horns sounded almost artificial, maybe overproduced or poorly recorded which wouldn't really make sense, but they lacked the exciting quality I would expect. *shrugs Oh well.

I said something about horns? No chance to try the in-side mix?

 

[ryanosaur]

I said something about horns? No chance to try the in-side mix?

Thought you did... Maybe somebody else; the hazards of reading through 5 pages of thread and replying after the fact!
I put the album in my AMZ cart so I can get the multi-channel mix. Only $27! Ooh, and the USB-C to USB-c cable I need to charge my iPad is on deal right now... Hmmmmm.....

 

[AlfaNovember]

This brings me back to a thought I've had a lot lately - how far are we from having access to creating our own mixes. Lets say I have a particular "sound" I prefer - imagine a scenario where our audio rendering tools can adapt for that preferred mix for "my sound". Imagine having that kind of access to the music and having the chance to challenge (and improve?) the decisions of the artist. That said a "house mix" would probably be the most popular option for most folks, but in this community, I wonder .....

T-zero plus 3 years, actually: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_Player

A friend who collects interesting dead-ends of consumer tech has one in his collection, next to the General Magic tablet and Nokia sliding keyboards. The UX is... confounding for this GenXer.

 

[krabapple]

The surround mix is getting rave reviews over on Quadraphonicquad

HiRez Poll - Gabriel, Peter - I/O [Blu-Ray Audio (Dolby Atmos)]

At long last, please post your thoughts and comments on this brand new album from Peter Gabriel entitled "I/O", his first album of all new material since 2002! Throughout 2023, Peter has released each of the 12 songs on the occasion of a full moon with 3 different mixes, a bright-side (stereo)...

www.quadraphonicquad.com

 

[audioguy272727]

Mogwai's 2003 album Happy Songs For Happy People included all the separate tracks for the tune "Hunted By A Freak", along with Cubase software for creating your own version of the track. More recently, Crass provided stems for their tracks and encouraged people to submit remixes for a new release to raise money to support people suffering domestic abuse.

Clearly I need to get out of my shed more often .... thanks @oceansize and @AlfaNovember

 

[jcarys]

I both really enjoy the album, and the Bluray surround mix is state of the art. What's interesting to me is that there are some additional fill musical bits that are only on the surround, not in either of the stereo mixes. I'm pretty ambivalent between the two stereo versions, perhaps a tiny bit more to the Dark Side. I've been following the project monthly through all of 2023 as each song was released. For me, it's among the best releases of the year.

 

[mhardy6647]

Amazon Music has three "mixes" of each and they are all about the same to me.

Wait, what? Three of each = six in toto? Why, oh why?

... and no, not that toto.

nor this one.

Capes and wizard hats?
ahem.

I'd say old hat -- but that's even too awful for me.

 

[diddley]

The winner 4 me is the Blu-ray and the art work is lovely especcialy the middle finger in pink by Weiwei.But the sound and immersivnes of it is great.

 

[Ron Party]

The Genesis that Phil Collins played brilliantly with (and eventually fronted) in the 1970s was hardly the Genesis that he fronted in the 1980s.

The former should not be tarred with the lameness of the latter.

FWIWFM, ATOTT and Wind are the only 2 post PG albums worthy of the band's name. After that, I wish they would have donned a new band name so as not to be confused with the former. Feel the same way about other bands with significant personnel change... Fleetwood Mac instantly comes to mind.

 

[Golf]

The problem is Gabriel’s enthusiasm towards an over-pathetic attitude, which divides listeners in cheerful evangelists and horrified sophisticates.

 

[krabapple]

Gave it a listen in surround. And BTW, what I noted before about surround vs stereo mixes is true here: there is zero evidence of significant digital compression on the surround waveforms. Full dynamic range there.

It's immaculately recorded (even the 'low fi' rhythm samples), Peter is in fine voice, lyrics seem potentially interesting, the surround mix is lush and enveloping. But the music is mostly a steady drip of mid tempo MOR, with some cheery, slightly uptempo tracks like the title track. There's nothing much really new or experimental from him here. That makes it of a piece with Us and Ovo and Up, for me. (Though Up at least had the menacing and rather grating 'Darkness' as the opening track, a bold move.)

That's after one listen, actually skipping through some repetitive parts. Maybe I'll change my mind with further acquaintance.

 

[DavidShe]

Gave it a listen in surround. And BTW, what I noted before about surround vs stereo mixes is true here: there is zero evidence of significant digital compression on the surround waveforms. Full dynamic range there.

It's immaculately recorded (even the 'low fi' rhythm samples), Peter is in fine voice, lyrics seem potentially interesting, the surround mix is lush and enveloping. But the music is mostly a steady drip of mid tempo MOR, with some cheery, slightly uptempo tracks like the title track. There's nothing much really new or experimental from him here. That makes it of a piece with Us and Ovo and Up, for me. (Though Up at least had the menacing and rather grating 'Darkness' as the opening track, a bold move.)

That's after one listen, actually skipping through some repetitive parts. Maybe I'll change my mind with further acquaintance.

On the first track, "Paneticon", do the cymbal crashes at 5:01 sound less distorted than they do in the stereo mix?

 

[krabapple]

Couldn't say, I haven't even bothered with the stereo tracks yet. I'll check it out

 

[Sal1950]

If you have an excellent Atmos or even 5/7.1 system, the Hans-Martin In-Side immersive mix is the best IMO.
I do believe this is the way Peter intended the new album to best be heard.
He's very into the immersive listening experience.
YMMV

 

[krabapple]

The surround mix ripped as a Dolby TrueHD file with 7 channels. My AVR folds it down to suit my configuration (5.2, as in, 2 subwoofers) and it sounds great.

 

[sm5]

I listened to the Atmos-specific mix with a calibrated Neumann Atmos setup and it did sound better than the stereo version to me.

Something to note: before I calibrated the Neumann sides and four heights: everything sounded worse in surround than stereo! Not just this album, but all surround mixes I could find! So if you're comparing Stereo to Surround mixes: I highly suggest you make sure to use room correction otherwise you may get a bad impression of the mixing on any of the Spatial/Atmos mixes. 5.1 might have been okay: but I think room correction is a huge aspect when you go beyond 5.1 to 11 speakers and a sub or two in one room.

As far as this I/O Album specifically:
I think this is the way all albums should be released in the future: One ATMOS/Spatial album (mix) for the people listening on surround setups, and a COMPLETELY SEPARATE STEREO album (mix).

The conundrum for any mixing engineer mixing Atmos is do you mix it to sound the best for people listening on headphones, stereo speakers or surround speakers? Despite the thought that Atmos can be the one format to rule them all -as it can be one file for immersive down to binaural: it doesn't seem to be the best way for the actual best sounding mixes.

When mixing you need to decide: do you make this Atmos mix for 99% of people listening on headphones or stereo speakers: or the few who are actually listening to the album on a surround system? If you make an amazing mix for Atmos speakers: then it's pretty much bound to sound not so great in stereo. If you make an amazing mix in Stereo: it's bound to sound not as great in surround.

Another big problem is Apple converts Dolby Atmos to binaural for headphones different than the Dolby Atmos Binaural renderer does! Mixing engineers just need to hope that everything is in phase or sounds okay in stereo after apple's spatial mixdown does whatever it does. If Apple/any company changes the way things are mixed down in the future ... perhaps they found a new magic algorithm to make things seem to really sound like they pop out of your headphones: well that means the Atmos mix the engineer made will further be changed.

Overall, I think having two separate mixes like this album would be best for sound quality. Otherwise, instead of mixing down all the channels to stereo/binaural for headphones: just having the stereo mix instead play - like A/B type setting? I wouldn't want someone thinking a song sounded terrible, when they were really accidentally just listening to the binaural mixdown of the Atmos mix instead of a actual stereo mix made for stereo listening.

I've yet to hear a good Atmos headphone mix or stereo mix that's better than the original stereo (Unless stereo version was really bad initially) It takes lots of skill and effort to make a decent stereo mix and usually you listen on multiple speakers/rooms and headphones to make sure it sounds good on all. Trying to get a mix made for 11+ speakers to sound as good as a specifically made stereo mix seems like a nearly impossible task.

Either way, I do enjoy the album and appreciate the separate stereo & surround mixes release and hope more artists do something similar in the future or Dolby makes an option to encode a designated stereo track in an Atmos file instead of just a mixdown to stereo.

 

[Sal1950]

Something to note: before I calibrated the Neumann sides and four heights: everything sounded worse in surround than stereo! Not just this album, but all surround mixes I could find! So if you're comparing Stereo to Surround mixes: I highly suggest you make sure to use room correction otherwise you may get a bad impression of the mixing on any of the Spatial/Atmos mixes. 5.1 might have been okay: but I think room correction is a huge aspect when you go beyond 5.1 to 11 speakers and a sub or two in one room.

There's a reason why nearly every AVR ever made had at least some most basic form of DRC included.
If levels and timing aren't close to on point, nothing can be right.