Blu-ray High Definition Audio Discs - first thoughts

[The_Lhc]

The image shows musicians being recorded in a circle though and far from creating a higher level of realism, this type of recording would sound artificial, as you don't ever hear a live performance with musicians surrounding you.

In fact it sounds anything but artificial, with a superb sense of involvement and beautiful clarity.

Artificial is the perfect world, this doesn't reflect any sort of real life situation. Pointless.

Apart, of course, from the real-life situation in which the recording was made.

It's not a real-life listening scenario though, you know, one with an audience, no audience is ever going to be surrounded by the musicians (other than a Mariachi band in a Tex-Mex restaurant perhaps) in that manner, so what is it trying to achieve?

 

[John Duncan]

It's not a real-life listening scenario though, you know, one with an audience, no audience is ever going to be surrounded by the musicians (other than a Mariachi band in a Tex-Mex restaurant perhaps) in that manner, so what is it trying to achieve?

I'm more interested in an interesting sensory experience than it necessarily being true to life.

 

[Overdose]

The image shows musicians being recorded in a circle though and far from creating a higher level of realism, this type of recording would sound artificial, as you don't ever hear a live performance with musicians surrounding you.

In fact it sounds anything but artificial, with a superb sense of involvement and beautiful clarity.

Artificial is the perfect world, this doesn't reflect any sort of real life situation. Pointless.

Apart, of course, from the real-life situation in which the recording was made.

The experience is artificial, not the sound.

No live event has the musicians arranged like in the images shown and so for this purpose the format is more of a gimmick.

 

[Alec]

Reasons why, Alec?

Total lack of interest from Joe Music Buying Public.

I think I missed some punctuation somewhere.

 

[davedotco]

It's not a real-life listening scenario though, you know, one with an audience, no audience is ever going to be surrounded by the musicians (other than a Mariachi band in a Tex-Mex restaurant perhaps) in that manner, so what is it trying to achieve?

I'm more interested in an interesting sensory experience than it necessarily being true to life.

Have you tried Anne Summers?

 

[altruistic.lemon]

@ Overdose, Would be a fascinating experience if they were - apart from making the conductor's job more difficult, surely it is time to think of moving away from the rather staid traditional forms of audience/musician placement.

 

[GSB]

The best of my multichannel SACD's provide a fantastic imersive experiance compared to listening in stereo.(both DSD)

 

[hammill]

The best of my multichannel SACD's provide a fantastic imersive experiance compared to listening in stereo.(both DSD)

Completely agree. I think the multichannel is the point, not the higher than CD resolution.

 

[Overdose]

@ Overdose, Would be a fascinating experience if they were - apart from making the conductor's job more difficult, surely it is time to think of moving away from the rather staid traditional forms of audience/musician placement.

I hear what you're saying, but unless there's an audience of only a few people (no more than a handful), no band, group, act or ensemble is likely to be able to surround them, hence the artificial experience.

Why not take it to the next level and mic from above, that way you could install ceiling speakers as well and imagine a choir of angels singing down on you? Using gimmicks to sell a product unfortunately detracts from the real possibilities, one of which is to create a true 'depth' to a soundstage.

 

[BigH]

The best of my multichannel SACD's provide a fantastic imersive experiance compared to listening in stereo.(both DSD)

Which albums are they?

 

[Andrew Everard]

No live event has the musicians arranged like in the images shown and so for this purpose the format is more of a gimmick.

No live event has the sound coming from two little boxes, so any recording is artificial. The 2L sessions were just an interesting experiment, both in the arrangment of the musicians around the microphones and the seating of the performers in mixed desks, and the result – IMHO, of course – is a fascinating recording.

It's also available in stereo 320kbps MP3 if you want – I know, a flagrant waste of data, but you could always downsample it to 128kbps and then throw the original away.

 

[mr malarky]

Reasons why, Alec?

Total lack of interest from Joe Music Buying Public.

I think I missed some punctuation somewhere.

If it fails it will likely be because of too few titles being released, due in turn to record companies refusing to invest in the additional production costs (the same record companies who simultaneously complain that people arent buying CD's anymore and they can't make money out of downloaded music...).

 

[Overdose]

No live event has the musicians arranged like in the images shown and so for this purpose the format is more of a gimmick.

No live event has the sound coming from two little boxes, so any recording is artificial. The 2L sessions were just an interesting experiment, both in the arrangment of the musicians around the microphones and the seating of the performers in mixed desks, and the result – IMHO, of course – is a fascinating recording.

It's also available in stereo 320kbps MP3 if you want – I know, a flagrant waste of data, but you could always downsample it to 128kbps and then throw the original away.

No, but the live event is taken in by two little boxes, ie our ears and then we can place the various musicians on the stage or in the orchestra. We don't listen in mono,, we listen in stereo, so a stereo recording tries to mimmick what we would hear in this sense.

This takes nothing from the unusual recording and how it might sound however.

 

[GSB]

The best of my multichannel SACD's provide a fantastic imersive experiance compared to listening in stereo.(both DSD)

Which albums are they?

Pink floyd DSOTM...imho how the band would want the album to be presented.

Pink floyd WYWH..

The Doors, The Doors..

 

[Andrew Everard]

Pink floyd DSOTM...imho how the band would want the album to be presented.

There was a bootleg DVD-Audio floating around at one point claimed to be of the original Alan Parsons quadrophonic mix of Dark Side..., which was said at the time to be closer to the original intention than the SA-CD multichannel mix. Not being a Pink Floyd aficionado, however, I couldn't say how accurate such a claim may have been.

 

[GSB]

:?

http://www.pinkfloydz.com/darksidesandv.htm

 

[The_Lhc]

The Doors, The Doors..

ITYM: The Bells, the Bells!!!!

 

[emperor's new clothes]

gsb wrote:

Which albums are they?

Pink floyd DSOTM...imho how the band would want the album to be presented.

Pink floyd WYWH..

The Doors, The Doors..

+1. also live recording in 5.1 on Pulse. Saw PF live in Coventry in 1972 performing Meddle with 'quadraphonic' rear speakers. Set the controls and interstellar overdrive were magnificent with the late Richard Wright's various keyboard effects wizzing arround the small venue. Heard Sansui and other quadraphonic amps at various Hifi shows but was doomed by the lack of source. Was listening to Us and Them on 181.fm the eagle via rPac and Sennheiser 558s last night and marvel how a lowly 128kbss stream can produce such an imersive and detailed sound. The mysteries of Hifi and those tiny receptors in the ears. I bought DSOTM in 1973, have various CD versions, SADC, DVds , rips in lossless and several ways of playing each. All from the same master tape. I enjoy all of them.

 

[ReValveiT]

...Most apparent on Brothers in Arms 20th aniversary which is night and day from the original CD....

Really? So the fact that BIA was TRACKED, as in RECORDED in 16/44.1 doesn't make you stop and think that any differences you hear are purely in the mastering, or in your mind?

This is proof-plenty that all this hi-res nonesence is a gimmick purely to suck the audiophool into buying their music all over again.

 

[ReValveiT]

REM's Out Of Time 24/96 is a completely different master (and even mix on more than one song) to the CD.

That's what you're hearing. Nothing to do with the hi-res gumph.

 

[bigboss]

It's not a real-life listening scenario though, you know, one with an audience, no audience is ever going to be surrounded by the musicians (other than a Mariachi band in a Tex-Mex restaurant perhaps) in that manner, so what is it trying to achieve?

I'm more interested in an interesting sensory experience than it necessarily being true to life.

+1

 

[bigboss]

People will always be resistant to change, and these negative comments are understandable. I would suggest to have a listen first, before rubbishing it.

 

[hammill]

...Most apparent on Brothers in Arms 20th aniversary which is night and day from the original CD....

Really? So the fact that BIA was TRACKED, as in RECORDED in 16/44.1 doesn't make you stop and think that any differences you hear are purely in the mastering, or in your mind?

This is proof-plenty that all this hi-res nonesence is a gimmick purely to suck the audiophool into buying their music all over again.

Athough you are correct about the 16/44, if I can get a better master of one of my favourite albums and I have an SACD player anyway, why would I be a fool to buy it? However, for me that is not the main point. The vast majority of my SACDs and DVD-As are 5:1, a format which makes the best use of my system and which I find adds a great deal to the listening experience.

 

[mr malarky]

People will always be resistant to change, and these negative comments are understandable. I would suggest to have a listen first, before rubbishing it.

Indeed.

We can be reasonably sure that those who likes 5.1 music had heard music in stereo, and so are able to form a comparative opinion (albeit a subjective one, as all opinions must be, so that in itself doesn't make them 'right').

Have all those who are anti-5.1 music actually heard it?

 

[ReValveiT]

People will always be resistant to change, and these negative comments are understandable. I would suggest to have a listen first, before rubbishing it.

I've a fair collection of hi-res material myself as I really wanted the format to be the great improvement it was cracked up to be. It took me a while to notice the different master con. Out Of Time was the big giveaway for me.

Hi-res is great in the studio. All that extra headroom is required in an environment where you're futsin' around with levels, eq's, effects and so on, but it simply isn't required in the finished product.