Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here

“Back in the quad era, if any band actually delivered worthwhile use of the enveloping experience surround sound offered, it was Pink Floyd. With SACD, we can now have it in true, discrete form, instead of messing about with barely workable quadraphonic vinyl, and while this isn’t the first time it’s been reissued in a multichannel digital format, this is the best-sounding version I have ever heard. ‘Welcome To The Machine’ is so massive that I had to switch off the subwoofer and listen in 5.0 for fear of destabilizing the recent underpinning to our home. Along with Dark Side Of The Moon, this is one of the band’s most potent releases, presented here with respect.” — Sound Quality: 90% — Ken Kessler, Hi Fi News, May 2019

One of the biggest SACD reissues in the history of the format — back in print

Wish You Were Here(?) Now you can be. Total lifelike recreation of a chart-topping, pioneering, way-ahead-of-its-time blockbuster.

You talk about a title made for multichannel SACD! It’s as if they knew at the album’s creation that this format would be available. Finally, technology caught up with Pink Floyd. And oh how lucky we all are to still be around to hear this legendary studio recording in its full potential.

Pink Floyd chose Acoustic Sounds and Analogue Productions to handle the exclusive distribution of this monumental SACD and we are honored and thrilled to be a part of the huge Why Pink Floyd…? campaign that includes remastered CDs, Blu-rays, DVDs, LPs, memorabilia box sets and this, the first-ever multichannel presentation of Wish You Were Here. The SACD also of course includes a stunning stereo mix. And as this is a hybrid disc, the record is of course also playable on a standard CD player.

On its release in 1975 Wish You Were Here topped the album charts in both the U.K. and the U.S. Reflecting the band’s thoughts of the time on the music business and exploring themes of absence, Wish You Were Here contains the classic cut “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” a tribute to founding band member Syd Barrett.

In fact, Barrett, who’d long been absent from the lives of Pink Floyd’s band members, stopped by the Wish You Were Here recording sessions at London’s Abbey Road Studios unannounced. The reunion — with Barrett reportedly appearing in poor mental condition — is said to have been an emotionally stirring event for the band, and apparently that encounter would be the last any of the band members were ever to see of Barrett, who died in 2006.

As they did with their previous release, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd made great use of studio effects for this, their ninth album overall. The record’s winding soundscapes are perfect for the canvas of multichannel SACD. Spacious and airy, the record breathes like a living being.

Wish You Were Here was selected by Rolling Stone as No. 209 on their list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. And that’s before they heard it like this!

5.1 surround mix by James Guthrie
Assistant engineer Joel Plante
Mastered by James Guthrie and Joel Plante
Mixed and mastered at das boot recording
DSD authoring for SACD by Gus Skinas

“…Analogue Productions got the exclusive for the latter’s appearance in 5.1 on SACD. The results are spectacular, given that the progressive rock of the day – this dates from 1975 – was conceived from the outset to immerse the listener in sound. Regardless of its surround sound aspect, this is a dazzling effort…today’s discrete multichannel capabilities truly liberate the sound in all of its open and spacious glory.” Sound Quality: 92% — Ken Kessler, Hi Fi News, February 2012

“The Analogue Productions SACD of Wish You Were Here offers a premium quality compact package and the rapturous sound quality of high resolution audio…For Pink Floyd Fans, Wish You Were Here represents the perfect synergy of sonic perfection, lyrical emotion and instrumental proficiency. Deservedly so, Wish You Were Here now joins Dark Side Of The Moon on the Super Audio CD format, offering Pink Floyd fans the quintessential audiophile listening experience. Highly recommended!” — Paul Powell Jr., Brain Damage, December 2011