Devin Townsend is well-regarded for his meticulous attention to details when writing, recording and performing. He was surely rankled when someone blasted the mixing of his Ocean Machine – Live at the Ancient Roman Theatre Plovdiv album on Youtube when it was released. Townsend immediately got down to the bottom of things and informed fans of the issue, discovering it was due to the music being incorrectly uploaded to Youtube. He made quick work of the problem, identifying that it was because when the album was uploaded, the 5.1 mix was used, then converted to stereo, leaving it with the bizarre sound that was heard online.
Townsend also sought to reassure fans who incorrectly assumed the same sound issues were present on the actual Blu-Ray release. He also set to work trying to fix the issue on Youtube, pointing out that it sounded fine to him on Spotify.
Taking it all in stride and keeping his cool (and owing it to meditation) in typical Townsend fashion, he kept fans in the loop as he explained what happened. In a series of tweets, he first hypothesized it had to do with the 5.1 to stereo conversion. Then, he seems to confirm his hunch, that the album was downmixed when it was
He then retweeted a fan of his, revealing the worst-case scenario when a mistake like this happens. The fan talks about being embarrassed about cancelling their order after hearing the online mix, assuming the Blu-Ray would sound the same. Luckily, he was able to re-order.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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