Yes, I know it’s a bit late to be reviewing this album, but this isn’t as much of a music review as it is a technology review.
DualDisc isnt really a new technology, it’s just a new way of bringing you slightly different listening experience. Basically, you buy a DualDisc disc, and you get both CD and DVD content on the same double sided platter. Imagine taking a CD and a DVD and sticking them together, back to back, and that’s roughly what you get with a DualDisc. Depending on which way up you put the disc in your player of choice, you get either a standard stereo mix CD or a full, multichannel, 5.1 mix DVD.
I’d seen DualDiscs start to appear a few months ago, but when I saw
With Teeth as a DualDisc I thought it might actually be interesting enough for me to take a look at and see what the fuss was all about.
There’s no point in talking about the CD side of the Disc, that’s been reviewed to death by both the ‘love’ and ‘hate’ NIN camps, so, flip the disc over, stick it in the DVD player, and let's see what we’ve got…
The main feature is the
With Teeth album, remixed into 5.1 surround. Basically, this is DVD–Audio. You’ll only get the full benefit of this if you have a proper 5.1 surround sound amp and speaker package, obviously. Instead of the sound coming just from a pair of speakers, you now have 6 speakers, the sound bouncing between them to give you more of an immersive experience. If you’ve never experienced this before, it really is quite impressive and difficult to describe with the justice it deserves.
While the album is playing, if you have your TV on and on the right channel, you get a full playlist on the screen.
Alongside the new album, there’s also the video for
The Hand That Feeds and a discography section called
Body Of Work. This lists all the NIN releases with track listings and cover artwork. You can browse thru the different releases and view the track listings, also, on most of them, you can highlight some of the tracks to listen to sound clips and even video clips of the songs.
Although, technically, there’s enough space to put more on the disc, I have to point out that in the US I picked this album on DualDisc up for only $15.99. The standard release of the CD was on the shelf next to it for $13.99. That’s a lot of extra material for only an extra two bucks. More than worth it to get the 5.1 mix of the album.
With a DualDisc, you get a standard CD that will play in any CD player, but you’re also getting a DVD to give you more of a listening/viewing experience for an extra few bucks.
www.dualdisc.com
