I've made do with a rip of the original Brazilian quad LP for several years. The mix is excellent, very engaging. Good use of the 4 channels to spread things out so you can hear every instrument clearly -- there's a lot going on in the mix that gets buried in stereo. The sub will be gravy.

Product Description
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ELO's first album 'Electric Light Orchestra', EMI are releasing both a CD/DVD and a 180 Gram Vinyl version on March 12th, 2012!

The '40th Anniversary Edition' CD features the original album and has 6 bonus tracks.

The accompanying DVD features a Quad to 4.1 DTS 96/24 (taking the original 1973 Quad and adding a sub to create the 4.1) and a flat transfer of the original stereo analogue master from 1971 in 96kHz/24 bit PCM stereo.

Sleeve notes for this release were written by Dom Lawson and the original 10538 Overture promo clip is included as as a special bonus!

Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006ZEZ4HE/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006ZEZ4HE/?tag=imwan-21

Interesting. I'd love to have all thei major releases in some sort of surround. Guess this one was easy to do.

Finally I'll be able to retire my old Japanese CD. Can't wait to hear the flat transfer!

This is the future of re-issued music as far as I am concerned. I find myself buying a lot of these CD/DVD-A sets.
I have mentioned in previous threads that the recent King Crimson CD/DVD-A sets have set the bench mark.
Special mention to James Barklay Harvest - Once Again and Caravan - In The Land Of Grey and Pink DVD-A that come to mind as well.
The audio on all these reissues is outstanding as is the booklets which is also very important.

NOTE: there is no listing for this on amazon yet.

Here's a track listing that was posted on

http://unofficialjefflynne.blogspot.com


Disc 1: CD

10538 Overture
Look At Me Now
Nellie Takes Her Bow
The Battle Of Marston Moor (July 2nd 1644)
First Movement (Jumping Biz)
Mr Radio
Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)
Queen Of The Hours
Whisper In The Night
10538 Overture (Acetate)
Mr Radio (Take 9 Recorded 18/11/70)
Nellie Takes Her Bow (Alternate Mix)
Whisper In The Night (Take 1/Take 2 Edit Recorded 28/4/71)
Mr Radio (7'' Single Version)
10538 Overture (Live) (2001 Digital Remaster)

Disc 2: DVD-Audio
10538 Overture (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
Look At Me Now (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital)
Nellie Takes Her Bow (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital)
The Battle Of Marston Moor (July 2nd 1644) (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
First Movement (Jumping Biz) (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
Mr Radio (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre) (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
Queen Of The Hours (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
Whisper In The Night (Quad to 4.1 DTS/96/24 and Dolby Digital) (2012 - Remaster)
10538 Overture
Look At Me Now
Nellie Takes Her Bow
The Battle Of Marston Moor (July 2nd 1644)
First Movement (Jumping Biz)
Mr Radio
Manhattan Rumble (49th Street Massacre)
Queen Of The Hours
Whisper In The Night
10538 Overture (Original Promo Clip) (2012 - Remaster)

Is Hoffman mastering the flat transfer? (with technical assistance from Stephen Marsh of course)

Pre-order links are now in the first post.

A small disappointment (which won't stop me from loving this release anyway): I was hoping they'd include the early quad mixes of the two final recordings with Roy Wood, "Boogie No. 1" and "Boogie No. 2", both of which belong more to the first album than to the Lynne-only era.

Agreed Linda, very strange those were not included, the video is great, would have been a nice inclusion on the DVD.

I hope they issue my favorite ELO album with a DVD 'A New Word Record'. That is by far the best music ELO produced in my opinion.

New World Record and Out Of The Blue please!

Put in my order for the CD/DVD at Amazon UK. Here's hoping we someday also get A New World Record too (as well as Out Of The Blue).

Got my order today. Somehow I ended up with 2 of them (Amazon UK let me order two seperate orders on two different days).
Usually they warn you when you do that (maybe not the UK).

So anyway, if anyone wants one, I'm willing to ship it ya for $10 flat.

John, I'll take it!

ok Kym, thats great
just PM me your address and I'll send it out tomorrow!

I just listened to the 24/96 flat transfer on the DVD. Uhhh... this sucks.

I hate being deceived like this. I was hoping this would be a flat transfer of the masters like they had advertised. The description in the booklet says Peter Mew played the tapes back on a Studer A80 through ADA 8 converters and no analog or digital processing took place. Bullshit.

Listening to 'The Battle Of Marston Moor' I could hear there was a LOT of added compression. It wasn't subtle. You can clearly hear the pumping and decreased dynamics. The rest of the album was the same, to varying degrees.

Peter Mew had to have used a limiter to get such hot levels, restricted dynamics and pumping compression artifacts, so I read about these converters on the Prism website. Yup, there's the limiter.

"Prism Sound 'Over-killer' selectable on analogue inputs: the best-sounding gentle limiting for louder masters - with no 'overs'"
http://www.prismsound.com/music_recordi ... r_home.php

I don't mind limiting. I use it myself. The mastering engineers I work with use them. Every record I've mixed has been mastered through one. That's not what bothers me. But if you use a limiter during a transfer to boost the levels four or five dB and it changes the musical relationships of the mixes then it's not a flat transfer. Don't advertise it a such. This is just as deceptive as other labels falsely claiming they used the original master tapes when they didn't.

I only bought this because of the 24/96 flat version. If I'd known it was going to be so dynamically reduced I wouldn't have wasted my money.

If anyone has a waveform fetish, I took a picture of my Pro Tools session. There shouldn't be this many flat tops on a flat transfer.

Sorry you were disappointed, Jamie. I would like to see this album's reputation elevated to the seminal, groundbreaking status I feel it deserves, rather than always being considered the black sheep of the ELO catalogue.

Well, I haven't listened to the flat transfer and probably never will. This purchase was for the surround mix, which is absolutely wonderful. It's better than the needledrop I had of the original, and I'm thrilled with it.

I love this album too and am glad to finally hear the Quad mix, but what a wasted opportunity.

Just noticed that too Jamie, what a load of crap

Thanks for the warning. my ONLY interest would have been for the 96/24 stereo.
I really don't get the loud mastering on some hi res stereo releases; most of the target audience hates that sort of mastering. I've heard several HD Tracks "studiomasters" with the same issue (though others are superb.

You really need to get more speakers, Geff.

I listened to the quad mix today and it is quite good then I watched the promo video of the 10538 Overture and it too is excellent.

I know you're being funny, but It isn't just the speakers. I require high quality audio; I would have to buy a new multi channel preamp, 4 more channels of amplification & lots more high end cable. $10k later...................... (don't know if 10k would even be enough!)

Point is I'd much rather have high quality 2.0 than medium to low quality 5.1

Only half kidding. You're missing another dimension -- several dimensions, perhaps -- by stopping at stereo. You of all people, Geff, I think would really appreciate it. (And I'm sure my system is a pipsqueak compared to what you'd want for surround.)