Author Topic: The Official Flying Colors Thread  (Read 383792 times)

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Offline gzarruk

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Re: Flying Colors: Morse + Morse + Portnoy + LaRue + McPherson project
« Reply #2345 on: September 25, 2017, 09:06:55 PM »
Maybe they'll release an EP with a few songs? That would be really cool
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline The Letter M

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Re: Flying Colors: Morse + Morse + Portnoy + LaRue + McPherson project
« Reply #2346 on: September 25, 2017, 11:02:21 PM »
Another post I saw said that whatever this is goes back to their first album, so I wonder if it's a remix and/or remaster, or album outtakes and/or demos?

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Offline Mindflux

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Re: Flying Colors: Morse + Morse + Portnoy + LaRue + McPherson project
« Reply #2347 on: September 27, 2017, 12:53:28 PM »
Hold on to your hats! TODAY we're releasing True Colors, the original sound of our first album, before it was commercially mastered. It's available for $8 (excl. tax) as a digital download directly from us. You've heard of re-masters; this is an un-master!

The mainstream market demands albums to be LOUD, at the expense of sound quality. True Colors includes the original WAV files that Michael H. Brauer mixed down at Electric Lady Studios in NYC. It's the same mix you know, but with more dynamics and detail.

It also includes a brand-new 102-page (51-spreads) digital book, with exclusive HDR photos, along with 50 previously unpublished photos from the making of the album.



https://youtu.be/Zwkg2waXKFA


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Offline Nick

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Re: Flying Colors: Morse + Morse + Portnoy + LaRue + McPherson project
« Reply #2349 on: September 27, 2017, 12:55:38 PM »
Neat. Kinda upsetting that I have to buy something twice to get it how it should have sounded the first time, but I like that they are giving us the option. The photos are a nice touch as well.
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Offline antigoon

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Re: Flying Colors: Morse + Morse + Portnoy + LaRue + McPherson project
« Reply #2350 on: September 27, 2017, 12:56:48 PM »
Question is why a very niche prog band ever felt it necessary to cater to perceived audio engineering demands of a "mainstream market."

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2351 on: September 27, 2017, 01:03:23 PM »
Meh. Original sounds good to me.
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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2352 on: September 27, 2017, 01:05:18 PM »
Question is why a very niche prog band ever felt it necessary to cater to perceived audio engineering demands of a "mainstream market."

I agree with this in part, but I will also say they had an outside producer as an experiment and could have done this as another way to give professionals the controls to see what happened.
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Offline gzarruk

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2353 on: September 27, 2017, 01:19:38 PM »
Not interested in this at all. Just give me album number 3  :biggrin:
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline Nekov

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2354 on: September 27, 2017, 01:27:59 PM »
Probably not gonna buy this but the promo video was really fun
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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2355 on: September 27, 2017, 01:41:08 PM »
Not interested in this at all. Just give me album number 3  :biggrin:

Meh. Original sounds good to me.

Nothing to add from me.
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Offline Mosh

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2356 on: September 27, 2017, 01:46:21 PM »
Could be wrong (can probably be verified by liner notes) but I'm pretty sure a lot of these acts submit their albums for professional mastering in a different studio. I know Transatlantic did it (there's a bit about that in one of the documentaries). So while there's no chance of radio play, they're still getting the volumes close to industry standard.

Interesting release although maybe too much fanfare. Would be more enticing if they bundled it with the making of doc (which I never bought, was disappointed that they released it separate from the album).
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Offline RodrigoAltaf

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2357 on: September 27, 2017, 09:00:57 PM »
That video was really funny. And Mike looked so different in that footage!

Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2358 on: September 27, 2017, 09:14:23 PM »
Aha, my decision not to buy the album the first time around is finally paying off.

Offline TheAtliator

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2359 on: September 28, 2017, 03:33:19 AM »
That's funny, I always thought this album was one of the greatest sounding albums I'd ever heard. I've even pointed to it as an example to an audio engineer as my ideal sound production.

Maybe that's just because of the mix and the recording though. Would love to give this a listen.

Also, incredible social media and promo video work!!!!!!

Offline Mladen

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2360 on: September 28, 2017, 04:48:21 AM »
I'm not sure what the point of this release is. Is the band dissatisfied with the way the debut sounded? Did the fans ask for an uncompromised, raw mix? I never realized there's something wrong with the way the album sounded - it's still fantastic in terms of production as far as I'm concerned.

Offline ErHaO

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2361 on: September 28, 2017, 09:21:42 AM »
Out of all the bands/albums I enjoy that (desperately) need this, this is not one of them. I really like the debut a lot, and it always sounded fine to me. To my ears, the mix was great and the mastering wasn't detracting of my experience (but the mix remains the same here, right?). I absolutely prefer the production of the debut to their second album. But still, more dynamic sound is never a bad move, and this does not erase the original or anything. More often than not, post release remasters seem to make stuff louder, so this is a nice thing to have available.

Offline Sycsa

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2362 on: September 28, 2017, 06:28:09 PM »
I get a tad of comical pretentious prog vibe from all of this, then again, I still listen to mp3s half the time, so whaddaiknow?


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Offline Sacul

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2363 on: September 29, 2017, 02:01:54 PM »
Haven't listened to this yet, but the original album was quite compressed imo (DR6!) and while this one doesn't seem to be a huge improvement (DR8), hope it's easier on the ears.

Offline Ben_Jamin

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2364 on: September 30, 2017, 10:38:07 AM »
Haven't listened to this yet, but the original album was quite compressed imo (DR6!) and while this one doesn't seem to be a huge improvement (DR8), hope it's easier on the ears.

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Offline ytserush

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2365 on: September 30, 2017, 02:26:49 PM »
I'm very interested in this.

But no CD no sale.

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2366 on: October 02, 2017, 07:08:54 AM »
I'm very interested in this.

But no CD no sale.

Boom.  Me too.

Though I agree; of the CDs I have from recent years, this isn't in the top 50 of CDs that are "hard on the ears". 

Offline goo-goo

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2367 on: October 02, 2017, 10:15:45 AM »
I bought this download and I must say, it does sound a lot punchier that then the first one. There's a few keyboard parts here and there that I didn't realize they were there before. The bass is where I saw major improvement (i.e. punchiness of the record).

Now I'm not sure how much background vocals MP did for this one, but it seems that Casey did a lot of them (at least from listening to this re-release).

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2368 on: October 02, 2017, 11:15:32 AM »
Argh.  In a way, I didn't want to hear that, because it means that for me this is probably worth getting.  I liked the first album well enough, and it sounds good, but it didn't really seem to jump out and grab me.  That's probably due to the compression tending to squish things dynamically, even if it doesn't sound brickwalled or anything.

I'll flip for remasters of stuff I've been listening to since the 70's or 80's, but it's hard to buy something again that's only a few years old.

Offline Mindflux

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2369 on: October 02, 2017, 11:18:02 AM »
Even MP said on twitter during a Q&A this weekend he wasn't sure why they released this 'remaster' as he had no problem with the version released originally.

Offline gzarruk

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2370 on: October 02, 2017, 11:34:50 AM »
Even MP said on twitter during a Q&A this weekend he wasn't sure why they released this 'remaster' as he had no problem with the version released originally.

So it was basically a label move just to get more cash flowing before album 3?
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline Mindflux

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2371 on: October 02, 2017, 12:32:47 PM »
Even MP said on twitter during a Q&A this weekend he wasn't sure why they released this 'remaster' as he had no problem with the version released originally.

So it was basically a label move just to get more cash flowing before album 3?

I'm not even sure the label did it. The website that hosts it seems to carry all things Steve Morse... so maybe someone who works closely with him?

Offline goo-goo

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2372 on: October 02, 2017, 03:28:24 PM »
Even MP said on twitter during a Q&A this weekend he wasn't sure why they released this 'remaster' as he had no problem with the version released originally.

So it was basically a label move just to get more cash flowing before album 3?

I'm not even sure the label did it. The website that hosts it seems to carry all things Steve Morse... so maybe someone who works closely with him?

It all depends on the contractual agreements between label and individual band members. Seems like Steve Morse might be the big fish in the band or the whole band retained the record's rights and decided to release it. Neal Morse released the "Island of Keyboards" through the Inner Circle which was basically a mix of the 1st Flying Colors album with the keys upfront in the mix. So technically, the 1st FC has been released 3 times (label, Neal Morse, and this remaster).

Online SwedishGoose

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2373 on: June 01, 2018, 06:27:09 AM »
Has anyone heard anything about the next album and a possible tour.....

Offline Mindflux

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2374 on: June 01, 2018, 07:01:18 AM »
Has anyone heard anything about the next album and a possible tour.....

I haven't. But with Mike being busy with SOA (and NMB) and Steve did a short Dregs tour and everyone else is likely busy.  I think Neal is also ramping up on the next NMB album. I seem to recall Mike tweeting a picture of everyone in NMB in a "skype session" recently...?


Offline Nekov

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2375 on: June 01, 2018, 07:34:51 AM »
Has anyone heard anything about the next album and a possible tour.....

I haven't. But with Mike being busy with SOA (and NMB) and Steve did a short Dregs tour and everyone else is likely busy.  I think Neal is also ramping up on the next NMB album. I seem to recall Mike tweeting a picture of everyone in NMB in a "skype session" recently...?

Yeah, there's a new NMB albums coming shortly. Also Casey will be touring with The Sea Within for sometime. I wouldn't expect this album this year.
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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2376 on: June 01, 2018, 08:46:00 AM »
Has anyone heard anything about the next album and a possible tour.....

I haven't. But with Mike being busy with SOA (and NMB) and Steve did a short Dregs tour and everyone else is likely busy.  I think Neal is also ramping up on the next NMB album. I seem to recall Mike tweeting a picture of everyone in NMB in a "skype session" recently...?

Yeah, there's a new NMB albums coming shortly. Also Casey will be touring with The Sea Within for sometime. I wouldn't expect this album this year.

Any timeframe for the Sea Within tour?

Offline Nekov

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2377 on: June 01, 2018, 09:07:46 AM »
They've already started and seem to be booked all the way through January next year. There are some wide open patches, like October though.

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Offline gzarruk

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2378 on: June 01, 2018, 09:19:20 AM »
But Mike will still say he always manages to keep up with his 87 bands at the same time... :biggrin:
It sounds like, "ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk, ruk." Instead of the more pleasing kick drum sound of, "gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk, gzarruk."

Offline Nick

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Re: Flying Colors (Morse/Morse/Portnoy/LaRue/McPherson)
« Reply #2379 on: June 01, 2018, 09:23:17 AM »
They've already started and seem to be booked all the way through January next year. There are some wide open patches, like October though.

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That link is for a dance group of the same name. :lol
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