Mike Mettler

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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: Law & Disorder
Mike Mettler  |  May 09, 2006  |  0 comments
  1. THE SOPRANOS (HBO, above - left). Jersey mafia don Tony Soprano: bigger than your average bear, and ten times as deadly. These movie-quality transfers set the standard, with excellent contrast, rich colors, and crisp, atmospherically lit images.
  2. THE SHIELD (Fox). Det.
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Blu-ray Movie Reviews
DVDs: TV Comedies
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 09, 2006  |  0 comments

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Music Disc Reviews
Eagles: Hotel California - 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 28, 2018  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Ah, the ’70s—the literal age of excess, as documented by the “everything, all the time” lifestyle credo personified by pop-music superstars like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. And yet, amidst all that glamour, glitz, and high drama also resided some damn fine music, too. Listen closely, and you’ll clue into a good bit of prescient social commentating by artists very much aware of the pitfalls of their experimentations, even while they basked in the afterglow.
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Other Tech
Editor-in-Chief Mike Mettler's Top 50 Albums of All Time
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 26, 2008  |  0 comments

As I noted in one of the five entries I wrote for our Top 50 Albums of All Time list (actually, I also penned three of the uncredited entries for albums 41-50 - see if you can guess which ones once our master list posts), I became an audio journalist to extol the virtues of great-sounding recordings.

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Spatial Audio File
El Spatial Audio Romance-O
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 03, 2022  |  1 comments

Sum-sum-summertime is officially in full-full-full swing, which means cueing up the latest five-spot of my all-new Atmos recommendations here in Spatial Audio File can only lead to many fun, fun, fun hi-res listening times ahead.

As always, each track herein has been fondly and thoroughly test-driven aurally via personal listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. As you’ll soon find out when you scroll and read on down, the artists themselves totally get why listening to the very best offerings of immersive Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks available in the always expanding Apple Music library is the right way to go.

And this week’s quintet of winning summertime fun immersive tracks are. . .

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The S&V Interview
Electronic Music Pioneer Klaus Schulze Emerges Anew With Silhouettes
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 21, 2018  |  0 comments
We check in with Berlin-born electronic-music maestro Klaus Schulze about his excellent new ambient album Silhouettes, his view of surround sound, how the many significant socio-political changes in Germany over the past 60-plus years have affected his creativity, and what future generations might make of his endlessly fascinating “picture music.”
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The S&V Interview
Elliot Scheiner, Surround Sound Mixmaster
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 25, 2018  |  0 comments
Legendary producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner at LA's iconic Capitol Studios.

“I make these records, so I know what the artists want to hear,” notes legendary producer/engineer Elliot Scheiner (a.k.a. ELS) while perched behind the main mixing board in Capitol Records Studio A in Los Angeles. I sat down exclusively in the control room with Scheiner and the members of acclaimed indie/folk-rockers Dawes to discuss their mutual and individual goals for surround sound recording and mixing, and how well it all comes across in the ELS Studio 3D premium audio system in the 2019 Acura RDX.

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Music Disc Reviews
ELP Reissue Series: Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Tarkus; Pictures at an Exhibition
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 14, 2016  |  1 comments
Welcome back, my friends… well, you know the rest. That opening line—made famous in “Karn Evil 9 – 1st Impression, Part 2” from 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery—certainly applies to the re-emergence of the remastered catalog for Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the groundbreaking British progressive trio that defined adventurous recording and outrageous live performance during their 1970s heyday. Actually, ELP vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Greg Lake prefers using the word original instead of progressive to describe the band’s signature sound—and the man does have a point.
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Music Disc Reviews
Elton John: Madman Across the Water - 50th Anniversary Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 27, 2022  |  0 comments
Performances
Sound
Elton John could do no wrong as the calendar came to the close of 1971. Madman Across the Water, his third album in that calendar year alone, came out in November, and it was considered to be the best entry in his Trident Studios orchestral trilogy, featuring production by Gus Dudgeon and arrangements by Paul Buckmaster. (The previous two releases in said trilogy were April 1970's self-titled Elton John and October 1970's Tumbleweed Connection.)
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Elvis
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 04, 2022  |  0 comments
Picture
Sound
Extras
What becomes an iconoclast the most? Some pop culture icons stand the test of time (The Beatles, The Godfather), while others only capture the zeitgeist of the era/movement they oh-so perfectly served (Strawberry Alarm Clock, we hardly knew ye!).

And then there are those larger-than-lifers who ride the sine wave of the popularity index, depending on which way the cultural-acceptance winds are a-blowing at any given moment.

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