Ok, so I sat down with Watershed on the DVD again and relistened to it. I'll give you Hessian Peel, by far that is the best mix in multichannel. It was done very tasteful and everything seems in place and panned well. There are still a lot of segments though that when I'm listening, I don't feel the surrounds are being used properly. But, there are segments in each song that I found to be done nicely. I remember the first time I sat down with the DVD, I'd been listening to music all day. So, maybe I had a bit of ear fatigue.
I will give you this, the DTS track is a lot better than my initial perception. However, I still prefer the 2.0; but what I haven't done is an A/B. You're arguement regarding combining the channels and keeping (levels) and compression the same does hold a lot of water. So, when I get the time... I'll sit down and do an A/B comparison to see which one I prefer. It's hard to formulate an opinion when I haven't actually done all my homework! I'm glad you know what you're talking about, otherwise I'd probably have let the SE disc collect dust and have not relistened to it; especially when my initial perception was bad. Therefor, I owe you a 'thank you!'
I think part of it, is that we have different expectations of this surround mix, its alright in my book, even though I can see its short comings. Some real magic might happen however if Steven Wilson comes back for another Opeth album, now that we have this surround trend in their discography.
