4-19-12 Pink Floyd in 5.1 Audio
Turtles / Mothers vocalist Mark Volman born 1947, funkster Bernie Worrell born 1944; Eddie, Are You Kidding?
You’ve certainly got your choice, when it comes to listening to Pink Floyd in multi-channel audio. The two main works in 5.1, “dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” are both somewhat readily available as SA-CD’s (“WYWH” is somewhat expensive, however).
Even the older version of “The Wall” DVD appears to be in 5.1 audio – not sure if they give you a 5.1 audio version in the enormous “The Wall” boxed set, though.
“Atom Heart Mother” was released as a quad LP in England; so I suppose they could eventually run that one down the pike as a multi-channel audio disc…but “AHM” isn’t a greatly loved Pink Floyd album, at least not in the U.S.A.! bet it wouldn’t sell as a multi-channel disc, if it cost any more than a normal CD.
Rumor has it that “DSOTM” is the best selling SA-CD of all time. I certainly didn’t have any trouble finding a copy, used. Yes, it sounds fine. The bigger issue here is: Do you want / need to listen to “DSOTM” in any format in 2012? It’s certainly one of the albums that got viciously over-exposed, largely thanks to the FM radio.
Not so with “WYWH” – some of that still sounds pretty good. If you want to cut to the chase, listen to the F/X at the beginning of “Welcome To The Machine” – nice 5.1 sound!
“The Wall” on DVD gives a nice 5.1 experience. I have not watched “The Wall’ lately; I see that Roger Waters is performing “The Wall” at the L.A. Sports Arena this coming May. That’s where I saw Pink Floyd perform “The Wall” in 1980!
The next two I would pick for the 5.1 treatment, if James Guthrie is reading this, is “Animals” and “Meddle”. After that, I am not really too into it.
Between ½ speed mastered LP’s and MiniDiscs, I certainly have some format variants on Pink Floyd!
Ronkanefiles's Blog 
I was lucky enough to see Bernie Worrell three times in Asheville. First: with his band, The Woo Warriors. You know it’s going to be a great gig when you see the stage crew set out clean towels along with the bottles of water for the band members before the show. Second: a special showing of the Bernie Worrell biofilm “Stranger: Bernie Worrell On Earth” at the local Fine Arts theatre with Worrell in attendance for a Q+A afterward. Third: Last year he was musical director for Bootsy Collins killer tour which played in town. There are some serious music chops in that man!