Pink Floyd have announced the 51st
Anniversary Meta-Edition of their classic album The Dark Side of the Moon.
(Apparently, they have made other albums.) The album has been given yet another remix with representatives of the band stating this is the first to combine modern digital techniques and vintage analogue technology contemporary to the making of the album.
“Some found the recent Dolby Atmos
mix to be very ‘modern’ sounding” said mix engineer James Guthrie. “We found that taking
the newly re-digitised multitracks and routing them back through the original
mixing desk gave as close as we could get to the sound Pink Floyd would have
made if they had today’s technology in 1973.”
As close as they can get until next year, anyway.
The original quadraphonic mix was
used as the basis for the new mix, enlisting a new hack of Pink Floyd’s
legendary azimuth coordinator with additional channels added for modern sound
reproduction.
The complete Meta-Edition will be released in an 8-disc box containing 5 CDs, each featuring 20% of the full mix and intended to be played simultaneously for full effect, the new Meta-mix on a single CD, The Dark Side of the Moon Live at Wembley again because up yours, and a Blu-ray disc containing the new Meta-mix in 5.1 and Dolby Atmos, the original unreleased Alan Parsons quad mix, a stereo fold down of the Meta-mix in 192kHz, 32-bit, and as yet unannounced video content, but probably the same concert films as the last three versions.
The Blu-ray also contains the
individual multitracks in WAV format, which will allow fans to mix the 52nd
anniversary edition.
The full-on Meta-Edition comes housed
in a 1/2048 sized pyramid which, as of the time of writing, also includes a
hardcover book of photographs, a crystal prism, a silk handkerchief, a velvet pouch
containing 3 grams of tobacco salvaged from Abbey Road ashtrays at the time of
recording, a replica of Richard Wright’s shopping list from November 13th
1972, and a 7-inch vinyl disc of the unremastered mono radio edit of Money
because you’re made of it aren’t you.
This release will be followed in six months’ time by an individual release of the Blu-ray disc negating the need to buy all the other trash to get the good stuff, and the in early 2025 by a quarter-speed mastered, 220 gram, 45rpm double LP on holographic mirrored vinyl.
In a press release, David Gilmour
described the 51st Anniversary Edition as, “Probably the only
version of The Dark Side of the Moon you need to own. This year.”
When contacted for comment, Roger Waters said, “Get the fuck off my lawn!”
The 51st Anniversary Meta Edition of The Dark Side of the Moon is released on April 1st, 2024.
