Hello, On 17/05/12 17:28, Alex Mauer wrote: > On 05/17/2012 09:44 AM, Kuno Woudt wrote: >> AFAIK we also keep mono and stereo mixes separate (e.g. the Beatles), >> this is a similar situation. > > But isn’t that more because a lot of stereo mixes are actually > substantially different and not just a simple stereo→mono mixdown?
Even a simple stereo->mono mixdown will considerably change the experience unless the original stereo recording is already (mostly) identical on both channels. I'm not saying that a different number of channels in itself warrants a new recording, but that in the vast majority of cases having one or more extra channels will have an impact on the experience for the listener -- as such, listeners will have a need to keep these versions separate and thus obviously a need to have separate musicbrainz identifiers for them. I can imagine the three channel release which started this discussion be released on a two-channel medium as a Dolby Surround mix. So, on disc there would only be two channels, but with the correct decoder you get a three channel version equivalent to the three channel SACD release. The experience between those two versions would be largely the same for a listener, and thus there is no need to keep these two versions separate in a collection, so it would be OK for such a hypothetical dolby cd to share the recording identifiers with the SACD release. Obviously to what extent there is value in keeping very similar recordings separate in the database depends on how important these subtle differences are to you as a listener or collector. I personally would be considerably annoyed if I have different versions of recordings in my collection which musicbrainz cannot distinguish. So, I think it's OK for us to merge recordings which everyone considers identical -- but once someone shows up with a clear description why a particular recording should be separate, we should accept that. -- kuno / warp. _______________________________________________ MusicBrainz-style mailing list MusicBrainz-style@lists.musicbrainz.org http://lists.musicbrainz.org/mailman/listinfo/musicbrainz-style
