Macross Plus Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Release Thread

[JB0]

13 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Or sell the book and extras to @jvmacross.

That only works for one person. Probably.

[sh9000]

Make that two people.  I'll also buy a spare of the book and the extras.

[Cowboy17v2]

Guess what guys? They are doing it AGAIN.  This time with the Vinyl LPs. 

 

https://x.com/AllTheAnime/status/1812192305471750284

 

 

 

Do you want the soundtrack on vinyl? In a 7LP set?? Well then,  you'll have to buy the SHARON APPLE EDITION that comes with the 200 dollar bluray set!

 

This damn thing is going to be 400 USD at least.  

 

I hate All the Anime so very much.  

Edited July 13 by Cowboy17v2

[isamu]

Why aren't they putting it out on CD???? I'm old enough to remember buying records on vinyl and don't get me wrong, it's a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane, but I don't want to deal with that format, and all the inconveniences that come with it anymore. I was super happy when CDs emerged as the successor to cassette and vinyl.

[Cowboy17v2]

6 minutes ago, isamu said:

Why aren't they putting it out on CD???? I'm old enough to remember buying records on vinyl and don't get me wrong, it's a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane, but I don't want to deal with that format, and all the inconveniences that come with it anymore. I was super happy when CDs emerged as the successor to cassette and vinyl.

Because no one cares about CD as a format anymore, that's why.  LPs outsell them now!  

[Seto Kaiba]

18 minutes ago, isamu said:

Why aren't they putting it out on CD???? I'm old enough to remember buying records on vinyl and don't get me wrong, it's a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane, but I don't want to deal with that format, and all the inconveniences that come with it anymore. I was super happy when CDs emerged as the successor to cassette and vinyl.

Because vinyl is trendy right now, and everyone else moved on to digital.

Physical media in general has been on the decline for the last twenty years thanks to the superior convenience and cost-efficiency of digital downloads and on-demand streaming audio.  Customers have largely moved on from CDs to digital formats the same way customers moved from LPs to CDs for their superior fidelity and capacity back in the 80's.  It's driven a bit of a counterculture-type interest in vinyl, which has seen a modest rise in the last four or so years.  Not to significant levels, but enough to overtake cratering interest in CDs.

I'd assume ATA probably didn't bother pursuing a license for a CD release, since the albums are already available in digital formats worldwide via Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, etc.  The main thing you do with a CD these days is rip it to MP3 or some other format and put it on your phone or cloud-based media app, so what's the bloody point?

[JB0]

CD IS a digital format. Which makes it, if nothing else, thematically appropriate for Sharon Apple's music.

[oshanmacross]

They better do some amazing work on the LP cover art.
Don't get me wrong, I adore the macross plus soundtrack and pretty much anything Yoko Kanno does.
But I don't see the point as I'll bet the M+ soundtrack was mixed digitally with 1994 technology, and never remasterd, as far as I know.
The CD's were re-released by Victor in 2013.

I kinda don't see the point....
But hey!.... you hipsters have fun.

To be honest.....I would love to be a audiophile, but too busy being a videophile

[Big s]

On 7/13/2024 at 1:14 PM, isamu said:

Why aren't they putting it out on CD???? I'm old enough to remember buying records on vinyl and don't get me wrong, it's a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane, but I don't want to deal with that format, and all the inconveniences that come with it anymore. I was super happy when CDs emerged as the successor to cassette and vinyl.

Just remember that whenever you hear some music nerd talk about the “warmer” sound on Records, that they’re really just referring to the scratchy scraping sound of the needle dragging across plastic 

[oshanmacross]

1 minute ago, Big s said:

Just remember that whenever you hear some music nerd talk about the “warmer” sound on Records, that they’re really just referring to the scratchy scraping sound of the needle dragging across plastic 

Scratching against Vinyl!
LOL

Forget the fact that each time you play an LP it degrades.
And you gotta get up off your @ass and move the goddame needle if you wanna hear something again.
Sorry...... "Stylus"
 

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, oshanmacross said:

Forget the fact that each time you play an LP it degrades.
And you gotta get up off your @ass and move the goddame needle if you wanna hear something again.
Sorry...... "Stylus"

Vintage audio tech is such a scam these days... it's long since fallen victim to "Monster cable"-ization, where objective performance quantification has taken a back seat to simply looking impressive and being conspicuous consumption "luxury" items.

The old school audiophiles would be horrified to hear "the youth" romanticizing the imperfections in mechanically inferior record players with wow and flutter numbers that'd have been unacceptably high in the heyday of LPs.   (This I know, because I've heard those strictures in person from the Ford audiophile society in person on a regular basis since I was a kid.  At one of their listening sessions just the other day, they showcased a new model tube amp with MSRP in excess of $70K because expensive=good brainrot has taken over the whole industry.)

 

[pengbuzz]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

Just remember that whenever you hear some music nerd talk about the “warmer” sound on Records, that they’re really just referring to the scratchy scraping sound of the needle dragging across plastic 

"Warmer" sound? They wouldn't know warmer sounds if someone stuck a flamethrower in their ear!!!!

[Pontus]

8 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Vintage audio tech is such a scam these days... it's long since fallen victim to "Monster cable"-ization, where objective performance quantification has taken a back seat to simply looking impressive and being conspicuous consumption "luxury" items.

The old school audiophiles would be horrified to hear "the youth" romanticizing the imperfections in mechanically inferior record players with wow and flutter numbers that'd have been unacceptably high in the heyday of LPs.   (This I know, because I've heard those strictures in person from the Ford audiophile society in person on a regular basis since I was a kid.  At one of their listening sessions just the other day, they showcased a new model tube amp with MSRP in excess of $70K because expensive=good brainrot has taken over the whole industry.)

 

Indeed!  I consider myself a practical audiophile, and I dabble in design and building speakers with a friend who does the same for their components even.  I was kinda disappointed when, after years of doing demos for anyone to hear a difference between CD and hi bitrate MP3, he started saying how great LPs were.  But I don't care what anyone says, the static, hum, and delicate nature of LPs are just annoying.

I was doing some historical research into speaker building recently and was recommended to pay attention to anything from Floyd Toole who headed the engineering for Harmon in their heyday.  There's some excellent talks of his you can find on youtube in which he describes having done countless studies on sound quality with both the public and audiophiles.  If they can SEE the speaker, the coolest looking one sounds the best.  If you can't see the speaker, the one with the flattest response sounds the best.  I had naturally assumed that when building my speakers before even having found this; they don't look pretty, and they're not professionally engineered, but they're better than any big box store crap and they sound amazing.  Cheap too.  It's really not that hard to get good sound, and it certainly doesn't take thousands of dollars in equipment to get it.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The old school audiophiles would be horrified to hear "the youth" romanticizing the imperfections in mechanically inferior record players with wow and flutter numbers that'd have been unacceptably high in the heyday of LPs.

Oddly enough records were just the start. I’ve actually seen cassettes attempting to make a comeback in stores

[pengbuzz]

1 hour ago, Pontus said:

Indeed!  I consider myself a practical audiophile, and I dabble in design and building speakers with a friend who does the same for their components even.  I was kinda disappointed when, after years of doing demos for anyone to hear a difference between CD and hi bitrate MP3, he started saying how great LPs were.  But I don't care what anyone says, the static, hum, and delicate nature of LPs are just annoying.

I was doing some historical research into speaker building recently and was recommended to pay attention to anything from Floyd Toole who headed the engineering for Harmon in their heyday.  There's some excellent talks of his you can find on youtube in which he describes having done countless studies on sound quality with both the public and audiophiles.  If they can SEE the speaker, the coolest looking one sounds the best.  If you can't see the speaker, the one with the flattest response sounds the best.  I had naturally assumed that when building my speakers before even having found this; they don't look pretty, and they're not professionally engineered, but they're better than any big box store crap and they sound amazing.  Cheap too.  It's really not that hard to get good sound, and it certainly doesn't take thousands of dollars in equipment to get it.

Thanks for that tip, Pontus!! I'll definitely be looking up Floyd Toole's stuff on Youtube later today!

Some days, I'd rather deal with cassettes. I was very good at repairing ruined ones and splicing broken magnetic tape!

Edited July 15 by pengbuzz

[TheLoneWolf]

On 7/13/2024 at 4:14 PM, isamu said:

Why aren't they putting it out on CD???? I'm old enough to remember buying records on vinyl and don't get me wrong, it's a nice nostalgic trip down memory lane, but I don't want to deal with that format, and all the inconveniences that come with it anymore. I was super happy when CDs emerged as the successor to cassette and vinyl.

Because FlyingDog has the worldwide exclusive rights to the franchise's music on CD format.

If anyone seriously wants the soundtrack on CD, official copies are on eBay for less than $20 sealed.

[Mommar]

Seven vinyl?  There's only 11 tracks on the album.  What are the last three sides for?

Also, if it's 45rpm and single track per side the audio quality will be good.

[danth]

Wow. These people are insane.

I don't need M+ on BluRay this bad.

[Jasonc]

I know I'm late to the party, simply because I wanted to not deal with the usual complaining that we all do on a number of things. At some point, I did dive in and get this limited edition thing, and while expensive, it's around the same price I believe I paid for the Japanese blu ray release that came out several years before. That one had almost everything we needed on that, and I was OK with that one. I really thought hard as to why I needed (which no one really does) to get this as part of my collection, but I think I did just out of the sheer fact that I am fortunate enough to be able to easily afford it now. That wasn't the case a few years ago when I got the Japanese blu ray. The other reason is that this will be the first release of a Macross blu ray going out legally since the blockade started way back when.

I don't know if those LPs are a new edition that can be added, but to be direct here, I have no interest in them. I do buy LPs from time to time as a habit since my early DJ days when I had my 2 Technics 1200s and a mixer, but the records I usually buy are stuff that I would play if I were DJing, not to pretend I'm some posh Macross collector that only listens to Macross LP while sipping some SDF-1 whiskey (geez, I just pictured that, LOL). I have like 2 copies of each CD, and even then, this show didn't have a lot of music I cared for. I mean, I love Kanno's music and she made the music really work for this, but I've long since copied the CDs onto iTunes and then put them on my phone. LPs at this point for this genre make no sense at all.

[JB0]

5 minutes ago, Jasonc said:

pretend I'm some posh Macross collector that only listens to Macross LP while sipping some SDF-1 whiskey (geez, I just pictured that, LOL). I

While smoking an officially-licensed Captain Global pipe.

[Jasonc]

1 minute ago, JB0 said:

While smoking an officially-licensed Captain Global pipe.

Ah man, don't give me goals. I have the Yamato helmets, so I guess if I'm gonna go that route, I might as well destroy it in one sitting.

[Master Dex]

2 hours ago, JB0 said:

While smoking an officially-licensed Captain Global pipe.

Oi, no smoking on the bridge!

[Chronocidal]

3 hours ago, Jasonc said:

I know I'm late to the party, simply because I wanted to not deal with the usual complaining that we all do on a number of things. At some point, I did dive in and get this limited edition thing, and while expensive, it's around the same price I believe I paid for the Japanese blu ray release that came out several years before. That one had almost everything we needed on that, and I was OK with that one. I really thought hard as to why I needed (which no one really does) to get this as part of my collection, but I think I did just out of the sheer fact that I am fortunate enough to be able to easily afford it now. That wasn't the case a few years ago when I got the Japanese blu ray. The other reason is that this will be the first release of a Macross blu ray going out legally since the blockade started way back when.

For me, the restored Manga subtitles, and optional audio fixes for the OVA were enough to convince me.  The first edition blu-ray set wasn't bad, but it was missing a few things that felt weird for them to leave out.

[Jasonc]

4 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

For me, the restored Manga subtitles, and optional audio fixes for the OVA were enough to convince me.  The first edition blu-ray set wasn't bad, but it was missing a few things that felt weird for them to leave out.

I definitely agree that it had things that I missed. It wasn't close to the definitive version, but the cost of that one and this isn't too far off. With that, I felt a bit more at ease being able to eventually pull the trigger on this. It may be sacrilege, but while I'm happy to be seeing this, I'm more excited for the MII release, even if I'm not the biggest fan of Kickstarter funded projects. I am looking forward to some of the cool little additions this will have as well.

[Seto Kaiba]

13 hours ago, Master Dex said:

Oi, no smoking on the bridge!

And don't take your eyes off that monitor!

 

15 hours ago, JB0 said:

While smoking an officially-licensed Captain Global pipe.

NGL, I'd buy it... and I don't even smoke.

Edited September 4 by Seto Kaiba

[Rhubarbarian]

17 hours ago, Jasonc said:

... while sipping some SDF-1 whiskey (geez, I just pictured that, LOL). 

Probably only a matter of time! It's the next wave in merchandising as we all get older:

[Graham]

On 7/15/2024 at 11:44 PM, Big s said:

Oddly enough records were just the start. I’ve actually seen cassettes attempting to make a comeback in stores

I'm actually at the stage where I miss cassettes. 😅

[Chronocidal]

24 minutes ago, Graham said:

I'm actually at the stage where I miss cassettes. 😅

They certainly were an easy way to make copies of things, though at this point most of us carry around digital libraries in our pockets that make them pretty archaic.

[Graham]

Yeah, I mean it's great that our mobile phones give us access to pretty much every song/movie/TV series that's ever been recorded.

But more and more recently I find myself yearning for the simpler times of the 70s and 80s and even the 90s (at least up to the mid 90s), before the internet and mobile devices and social media.

Guess it's just another sign of getting old.

[Duke Togo]

First review is up on Reddit. Person got it at NYCC. The discs are stored in the book, so anyone thinking of selling the book is going to have get cases for the discs.

What a terrible choice.

[azrael]

14 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

First review is up on Reddit. Person got it at NYCC. The discs are stored in the book, so anyone thinking of selling the book is going to have get cases for the discs.

What a terrible choice.

🤨😒 Yeah, still content with not pulling the trigger on this release. Reviewer also said he had a difficult time removing the discs (potential for disc cracking if not careful).

[David Hingtgen]

Reminds me of the days of multi-disc CD games, where you needed to have a pile of spare cases, because the discs were nearly impossible to get back in safely/scratch-free from whatever they had rigged up to hold them inside at the factory "that wasn't anything like the normal way"---because it was panic-inducing just getting them out the first time.   (that, and when it was trendy to make the part actually holding the disc clear--which meant half the teeth would shatter within the first 1 or 2 uses due to brittleness)   

[jvmacross]

On 9/4/2024 at 12:56 PM, Rhubarbarian said:

Probably only a matter of time! It's the next wave in merchandising as we all get older:

[sh9000]

Preorder not cancelled.

[Keith]

On 10/17/2024 at 6:46 PM, Duke Togo said:

First review is up on Reddit. Person got it at NYCC. The discs are stored in the book, so anyone thinking of selling the book is going to have get cases for the discs.

What a terrible choice.

Honestly, I'm going to swap the discs with the Japanese BD release, and pop the big mess in the closet (using the superior Japanese packaging for the shelf), so whatever.