Manuel Gerres – Dimension One Review

Dimension One, World’s first surround DJ-mix, comes both on DVD (5.1) and CD (stereo) in one case. Combining these two formats is a great idea since listening to music in surround is still greatly uncommon. What’s even more appealing is that this compilation includes really big names in dance music – such as Tiefschwartz, Kollektiv Turmstrasse, Miss Jools and Marc Romboy – all remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround by Berlin DJ and producer Manuel Gerres and his studio partner Henning Flintholm (both of 5thDime Music).

To review this compilation I arranged couple of listening sessions with my co-blogger Heigo. None of us have listened to dance music in surround before, so we were quite unaware of what to expect from the “first ever 5.1 DJ-mix”.

First track (Argenis Brito) sounded great, not quite impressive, but great. Since we were sitting in the sweet spot, we could enjoy the music from a point of view of its mixing engineer. Surround image (not sure that this term exists, but “stereo image” would sound inappropriate) was a bit muddy in the low end (usual cost of production for clubs I suppose), but other than that – really big and transparent, leaving a lot of space for individual sound movements.

15-20 minutes into the CD I became much more excited, and, frankly speaking, music was also getting more intense (and panning – harder). When Marc Romboy’s Karambolage kicked in I was already on my feet, moving around the room, trying to imagine how this would sound in a larger space. And then I made a great discovery (which may seem obvious for some): you actually don’t have to be in a sweet spot! The nature of electronic music itself allows your brain to relax and not try to decode it. It doesn’t even matter where the center is! It doesn’t matter if I am facing the rear speakers! We are not familiar with physical characteristics of those sounds, so we don’t expect them to come from an explicit direction (i.e. voice – center).

Small theoretical sweet spot is a very common argument among the opponents of music in surround (especially in large spaces like night clubs). They say that it won’t work because listeners won’t get the same experience, that they will have to stand in the center of a room etc etc. But no, trust me, it does work, and it is even more impressive than I thought before. The thing is, even if you are standing close to the rear speakers (even if you are behind them – I tried this!) you will still experience a completely different and unfamiliar music reality, something that blows away any stereo club setup (even though a lot of them are still mono).

While moving around the room, I could definitely feel, that music was never the same, it was constantly changing. The relationship between different speakers created an unlimited number of mixes! Some listeners could argue that one can experience something similar with any conventional rock album mixed in surround, but I would definitely disagree with that! Rock albums are always mixed from a point of view of a listener in a sweet spot: the band is in the front, vocals – in the center, some surround noises/effects in the back + LFE. In electronic music you are not limited by listener expectations, you have much more options meaning you can really make use of this great technology.

It feels like we are getting to the point, when music will become magic again (as it used to be some decades ago), not a predictable series of parts/instruments/sounds.

If you want to hear how the future sounds like – go and buy Dimension One DVD, or visit one of Gerres’ live shows.