Beggars Archive

audio HD manifesto

I haven’t done a ‘Sound Matters’ post for a while but big developments are around the corner and it would be great to have any feedback on your views about quality sound.

There’s a new format for high definition (HD) audio. Actually it’s not new at all – but the way it’s used could be the answer for quality sound in your home. It’s audio Blu-ray – yes exactly the same Blu-ray that brings you sound and vision in HD – but you don’t have to turn on a TV screen to select the music you want. Otherwise the discs will work in any Blu-ray player, with or without the screen. A further advantage is that people who invest in Blu-ray are also interested in having good cinema sound, so they probably already have a reasonable amplifier / speaker system.

WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT AUDIO HD?
Music is an abused medium these days – It’s heard as background in public spaces and there are so many other types of home entertainment that very few people actually find time to LISTEN. Probably the most popular way for people to hear recorded music is through headphones on a portable player or in the car. Conventional wisdom tells that most people don’t care about sound quality and that’s probably right – most people don’t care about food quality either. That’s not the congregation I’m preaching to.

Ever since CD appeared with its digital sound, the high-end users compared it unfavorably to the analogue vinyl experience. Thirty years later and digital technology has improved tremendously and, while I’d say these days that a well recorded and mastered CD can sound pretty damn good, we can now have much better.
What was ‘better’ about vinyl? The words ‘warmth’ and ‘presence’ are often mentioned – they’re not sonic terms but describes a feeling and, for me, that’s what’s been missing from digital sound. In order to compromise with the storage and delivery demands the sound waves have been compressed and manipulated so the notes and basic sounds are still there but the bits that the senses can feel – not necessarily hear – have been removed. Quality sound draws the listener in – it can breathe in your ears or deliver a sonic punch to the solar plexus or send a shiver up your spine – it’s physical.

WHY AUDIO BLU-RAY COULD MATTER
There hasn’t been a successful launch of a high end audio format since CD in 1980. This isn’t the place to discuss why various new formats failed to gain acceptance in the past (though there are many lessons there), here’s why audio Blu-ray may catch on.
• The suitability of the disc – it’s a 5 inch silver disc, just like CD, just like DVD but it has a far greater memory capacity so can hold WAY more information.
• This time it’s not being promoted as a purely audio format. With the memory to carry full HD picture and multiple channels of HD surround sound the movie companies are selling it as the high end, home entertainment system. They have far greater resources to market the format than audio software manufacturers.
• The players are backwards compatible – this means you can play your old music CD’s and your movie DVD’s. When the time comes to replace a CD or DVD player the natural choice should be a Blu-ray – the prices are dropping into the affordable zone and they can also deliver much more than previous hardware.

ADVANTAGES OF AUDIO BLU-RAY
Digital sound has grown up – the quality that is achievable is way superior to when CD was launched, even to 10 years ago. I’d argue that we’ll look back on the last 25 years as a dark age for sound. There’s a convergence of technology happening that makes it easy to include all the participants.

• Digital recording interfaces like pro-tools can handle HD sound – it’s available as regular studio technology.

• There’s an upside for the music industry – these are very large files and it’s inconvenient for most people to download and store them.

• Apart from audio HD there is enormous potential for further information on the disc. Not just one album but 3 or 4, Video, BD-live, or other future developments to enhance the value. All on one disc.

• It really sounds better.

A WAY TO SUCCEED
I do know this is probably the last chance to engage the public with an audio HD format in my career – it would be such a shame to see it thrown away. I won’t detail anything here but there are many lessons to be learnt from past failures – sadly both hardware and software companies don’t seem to learn them since many have been repeated over the last 40 years. Basically don’t confuse the public, don’t make exaggerated claims and don’t try to rip them off and treat them like idiots (*). Simple, hey? Clear labeling, good packaging, fair pricing – value. Let the format grow naturally at first – don’t try to force it / hype it (especially by sales people who don’t appreciate it).
There are many interested parties – musicians, studios, hardware manufacturers, hi-fi sellers, software manufacturers, copyright owners, media and audiophiles wherever they reside – these are people who can do something about establishing audio HD and they have viewpoints worth considering. Listen to them and include them.

(*) have you seen the HP 15 ENVY beats launch? Temporary turd polishing in excelsis…

Comment

1. A really interesting read. Let’s hope that the music industry doesn’t mess things up again as they did with SACD and DVD-audio, betamax and VHS, oh and HD DVD and Bluray – but I’m sure that they will!!! That last battle left a lot of people in the lurch and I’m sure that Bluray is still licking it’s wounded paws. The problem is we keep buying the same thing over and over again. How many editions of Darkside of the Moon do I have or First & Last & Always? The last editions of Unknown Pleasures et al (2007 re-editions and the Heart & Soul box) are worst sound-wise than the first editions – not due to the technology, but because the guys making the discs didn’t know how to use the technology or didn’t care about the end result or about us or they thought that an alright disc was good enough for us! Well they’re not! I’ve just pre-ordered my first Bluray concert (Anaesthetize by Porcupine Tree) because I know that the music will be excellent. It’ll be a good excuse to buy a Bluray player. At last! Then I’ll buy some films on BR that I already saw at the cinema, bought on Cassette and then bought on DVD (twice because the first editions were badly mastered.) And then what – micro chips? The same goes for the music. There’s so much music out there it seems to be a shame to be buying the same thing several times – and at the same time you don’t want to miss out on the extra tracks or the liner notes or the new pristine sound. I’m all for this HD sound. I already have several Audio DVDs (especially by PT.) I have just a video DVD player though so I can’t appreciate the sound to the fullest extent. The problem with DVD audio and SACD was they messed about with the signal output to prevent pirating! Stopped me going that extra mile on that adventure. I hope that they won’t (or haven’t) do(ne) the same thing with Bluray. I’m sure if they had used the words “sound quality” in the fight against illegal downloading it wouldn’t be in the state it’s in now.
   Sorry for the rant.

   — Patrick Grundy · Friday April 16, 2010 · #

2. Lovin’ the rant, Patrick. I think the various companies involved need to know what the public feel. Steven Wilson is one of the good guys – Porcupine Tree releases look and sound excellent. Thanks for posting.

   — Back Cat · Monday April 19, 2010 · #

3. I agree, Blu-ray audio would be good, and by dint of large cumbersome files automatically somewhat piracy-resistant. Of course, I’m sure initially expensive to author and press, but those costs should be coming down.

   The audio companies should take a big page from the movie companies-extras extras extras. Please for heaven’s sake have the main music program auto-play, but then a menu can segregate the extras so they don’t just blindly follow the music unrelatedly. Live clips, and maybe 1-2 songs mixed to surround. The best ones, since budgets won’t always pay for everything, and lets face it not all songs are really enhanced much by multichannel.

   I’m crossing my fingers.

   — Toby Montezuma · Tuesday April 20, 2010 · #

4. Oh and forget the Loudness War too please! We all have volume controls and mine goes up to eleven and a half for when I’m feeling naughty!

   — Patrick Grundy · Wednesday April 21, 2010 · #

5. Totally agree with Patrick (and glad to see a fellow Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson fan here), what with all the remasters, expanded and double cds (don’t get me wrong, I love those and buy as much as I can because of the extra tracks. given the choice, of course I would buy a better sounding cd but not at the expanse of my wallet (for the same price I prefer to buy 2 different cds than one).
   Will the Blue Ray cd be readable by my regular cd player? I hope so, I don’t intend in changing it to, again, bend to the companies that made them, like the video player (from BETAMAX to VHS to DVD to BR….come on!!!!!!!).

   — Michel · Wednesday April 28, 2010 · #

6. No, you need a bluray player. Fortunately all Bluray players are compatible with bluray audio, apparently, unlike DVD-audio whose really HD audio tracks are only accesible on a DVD-audio compatible player. I hadn’t realised that it is already available (albeit only 8 albums are available at the moment.)

   The following link (in French – pour Michel, are you French?) seems to be interesting:
   http://www.hdfever.fr/2010/01/23/pure-audio-blu-ray-musique-hd/.
   There are good links at the end of the article just before the comments for the non French speakers; one of which is:
   http://www.pureaudio-bluray.com/

   Nice to see other fans of PT/SW here too!

   — Patrick Grundy · Thursday April 29, 2010 · #

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