Mike Mettler

Music Reviews
The Beach Boys: Sail On Sailor – 1972 Deluxe Edition Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 26, 2023
Performances
Sound
In the early-1970s, two new VIP members of The Beach Boys not sporting the surnames Wilson, Love, or Jardine came to the forefront of the band — namely, guitarist/vocalist Blondie Chaplin and guitarist/drummer Ricky Fataar. Though their tenure in The Beach Boys was short-lived, the energy and creative verve these two artists of South African descent injected into this consummate California band’s era-transitional gambits were noticeably palpable for a decade, often overshadowed by the sheer magnitude of their groundbreaking 1960s recordings.
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Audio Video News
Beck’s Bolero: An Aural Appreciation of Jeff Beck, The World’s Most Fully Realized Three-Dimensional Guitar Player
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 13, 2023

Jeff Beck was the guitarist’s guitarist. He came of age during the British Invasion, and he created sound after otherworldly guitar sound that would cause you to both tap your foot and bob your head in appreciation while concurrently boggling your mind. Sadly, Beck passed away in his native England on January 10 at age 78, following a brief illness. Luckily for us, his recorded legacy spans seven decades, and whether the playback format was mono, stereo, or surround sound, Jeff Beck could always be heard playing on a three-dimensional plane. S&V music editor Mike Mettler looks back on the stellar career of a singular artist who influenced generations of listeners and musicians alike.

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Spatial Audio File
Atmos Lang Syne: The Ten Best Immersive Audio Tracks of 2022
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 30, 2022

Where did all the time go? Time, flowing like a river. Time is on my side (yes it is). Time to play B-sides. Are you eye-rolling at all my lyrically borrowed time comments yet? Anyway, it’s high time to take stock of what we’ve heard and what we’ve learned this past calendar year, seeing how a) time flies, and how b) time is indeed all around us—just like the best Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos mixes are, in fact.

With all this time sensitivity in mind, it seems to be the exact right time (last one, I promise) to comprise my Top Ten list of the best immersive audio tracks of this past year. As always, I’ve thoroughly spec’ed and checked all of the tracks I’ve selected here by way of my personal deep-dive listening sessions on both my home system and headphones alike. You’ll find each and every one of them amidst the cavalcade of Made for Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos tracks within the ever-expanding immersive audio libraries on Apple Music Unlimited, Amazon Music, and Tidal.

Enough with all the time-wasting—here are my choices for the ten best, thoroughly immersive audio tracks of 2022, which are, in reverse order from 10 to 1. . .

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Music and Soundtrack Features
Remaster Class: The Kinks - Muswell Hillbillies & Everybody's In Show-Biz
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 20, 2022
The Kinks were at a crossroads. As they entered the 1970s, the British pop/rockers hadn't yet ascended to the next toppermost level, even after achieving new heights following the songwriting leap Ray Davies took with the still poignant 1967 track, "Waterloo Sunset." It took two critical back-to-back albums, November 1971's Muswell Hillbillies and August 1972's Everybody's in Show-Biz, to fully get them there—and then they never looked back.
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Sponsored
Miracle Workers
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 09, 2022
Checking in exclusively with the producers behind the massive new box set for Queen's stunning May 1989 album The Miracle, to learn why you'll want it all—and you'll want it now.
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Spatial Audio File
Ryan Ulyate Gives Us the Full Breakdown of His Stellar Dolby Atmos Mixes for Tom Petty’s Greatest Hits
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 28, 2022

Tom Petty always, always knew how to ensure the music he made over the course of his long and storied career would sound the absolute best it could during playback in any format. Petty’s longtime engineer and production partner Ryan Ulyate continues to both carry that torch and up the ante, as evidenced by his stellar mixing of all 18 tracks found on Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ November 1993 Greatest Hits collection in Dolby Atmos. Recently, Ulyate and I got on Zoom together to discuss how he created the stems for these Atmos mixes by accessing the original masters, which songs on Greatest Hits are the most immersive and why, and what Tom himself would have said upon hearing his music in Atmos—perfect topics all for deep-dive coverage in this month’s Spatial Audio File, methinks, so read on. . .

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Stream On
Livestream Platform Mandolin Brings Concerts to You
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 10, 2022
Burgeoning fan-oriented livestreaming platform Mandolin is making all the right moves when it comes to offering high-quality live music options for home consumption.
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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsUltra HD Blu-ray Movie Reviews
Elvis
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 04, 2022
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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Spatial Audio FileThe S&V Interview
Here, There and Spatially Everywhere
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 28, 2022

The Beatles’ Revolver further solidified the creative validity of the rock album format when it was released in August 1966. Seeing how Revolver’s Super Deluxe Edition multidisc LP/CD box set incarnations have been officially released via Apple/UMG today, October 28—not to mention the inherently excellent Revolver Atmos mix by producer Giles Martin concurrently being made available digitally—I had to find out why I needed to get that Atmos mix into my listening life. Therefore, Martin and I got on Zoom together recently to discuss exactly that. He also shared with me what his late father, original Beatles producer George Martin, thought of his multichannel mixing skills. These are all perfect topics for this month’s Spatial Audio File (he said he said), so read on, read on. . .

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Music Reviews
Remaster Class - David Bowie: The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 20, 2022
Just Turn On With Me

"To be played at maximum volume." So went the listening instructions appearing in all caps near the bottom left of the back cover of David Bowie's June 1972 career-defining dystopian space-glam saga, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars.

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