Back With A Heart (5.1 CD), DTS Entertainment, 1998 | Performance 8 | Sound 8 | I am afraid I haven’t paid much attention to Olivia Newton-John in some years. I remember Steve Kipner’s classic "Let’s Get Physical." I remember "Xanadu." Apart from that, Olivia’s career has largely passed me by. But it’s lucky that I didn’t pass this album by.

artist: David Benoit   album: American Landscape format: 5.1 CD label: DTS Entertainment release year: performance: 6 sound 8 reviewed by: Richard Elen I’ve enjoyed pianist David Benoit’s work for several years, and he has certainly produced a good deal over the years. He can also write a good tune, and as a result is easily criticized as being too commercial and not "serious" enough. Well, I suppose I have no taste: his most "serious" work, the album "Waiting for Spring," is not one of my favorites, while the indubitably poppy "Freedom At Midnight" is. Oh, well.

artist: Beck Bogert Appice   function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Jeff Beck, Tim Bogert, Carmine Appice format: DTS 5.1 CD label: HDS Records performance: 6 sound 8 reviewed by: Richard Elen Beck Bogert Appice was the only album widely released by its title team. There was a subsequent live album available only in Japan, but a second studio album never emerged, although it was apparently under construction when the band split.

artist: Bachman Turner Overdrive   function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Not Fragile format: 5.1 CD label: HDS - DTS performance: 6 sound 6 reviewed by: Richard Elen Many of the DTS-encoded 5.1 CDs we receive here for review are on Brad Miller’s High Definition Surround (HDS) label. Bachman Turner Overdrive’s Not Fragile is one of these. HDS’ releases cover the whole gamut, from reissues of quad classics through modern 5.1 remixes of classic albums to recordings originally intended for the 5.1 surround environment – and a lot of the time, I find myself wanting to be clearer about exactly which of these one is hearing. In the case of this high-energy rock band’s best-known album (containing what I seem to recall was their sole real hit, "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet"), I immediately noticed that the album has a center-front channel, unlikely for a quad mix, yet the structure of the mix in other ways seems to suggest that we are listening to a surround master from ...

artist: The Allman Brothers   function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); album: Live at the Fillmore East format: DTS 5.1 CD label: HDS/Polygram release year: 2000 performance: 7 sound 5 reviewed by: Dan MacIntosh I am generally in favor of being as free from convention as possible when it comes to instrument placement in surround. However, I regret that I seldom feel inclined to extend that freedom to live albums. In the majority of live albums (with the exception of Pink Floyd, Yes, and a few others), the original live mix was never better than mere stereo, and often rather less. A studio album allows artist and producer to do more or less what they like, from surround positioning to instrumentation and arrangement: when it comes to performing it live, you can always find a way to represent the studio recording effectively with perhaps more limited musical resources. A live album, on the other hand, is essentially a record of an actual musical event, and there is a lot to ...