BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

http://www.universalmusicandbrands.com/news

Please do chip in here with any news or info on..
- announced releases,
- rumoured releases,
- pre-orders,

or just any information you can find on the rollout of the new
"High Fidelity Pure Audio" Blu-ray Audio release program coming from Universal Music Group,
commencing May 13th 2013.

Thank You.

Fingers crossed this is the start we've all been longing for. Hi-Res, MC audio for the masses

hopefully!!

some great posts in the "What's the latest SACD added to your pile?" thread relating to this exciting new development..

Posts #2326 onwards in particular..

(I don't know how you link direct to individual QQ posts, or if you even can..?!?)

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...-DVD-A-added-to-your-pile&p=175531#post175531

Dixie4 said:

Does anyone know the the full list of first releases ? ( 3 titles were posted on the other thread )

Click to expand...

More than 50 in the first wave, as far as I know.

Confirmed:

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend,
Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman,
Diana Krall - Look Of Love,
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis/Ella & Louis Again,
Hélène Grimaud - Resonances,
Lang Lang - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,
Layla - Derek & The Dominos,
Milos Karadaglic - Latino Gold,
Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You,
Oscar Peterson - Night Train,
Quincy Jones - Big Band Bossa Nova,
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto,
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life,
Supertramp - Breakfast In America,
Velvet Underground & Nico

Here's the Milos Karadaglic on Amazon UK..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Latino-Audi...c&ie=UTF8&qid=1365257069&sr=1-11&keywords=Blu

No Pre-Order yet..

Hi Res stereo audio is good - but are they talking surround?

WOW!! Stuff that never made it in domestic Hi-Rez, or Hi-Rez at all..!

Seemingly we can expect releases in this format of these huge artists, among others..

ABBA,
Dire Straits,
U2,
Queen..

http://www.mds-multimedia.fr/blog/actualites/blu-ray-pure-audio-la-musique-en-haute-definition.html

More discussion about the plans for this format drive..

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/universal-japan-prepping-blu-ray-audio-titles.314383/

Scott M4 said:

Hi Res stereo audio is good - but are they talking surround?

Click to expand...

I agree.. it seems there will initially be a mix of Stereo-only releases and releases that contain both 5.1 and Stereo, from the gist of the French-language article I referred to a couple of posts back.

Scott M4 said:

Hi Res stereo audio is good - but are they talking surround?

Click to expand...

I don't think so. The push is on for uncompressed music, leaving it as it was recorded. Surround is an afterthought. I feel that sucks. That it all should be at min. 5.1. No BS excuses because most people have at least a sound bar added to the blu ray player. But a choice would be nice. Been after HD tracks to offer it. I guess there is just not enough interest.

leevitalone1 said:

I don't think so. The push is on for uncompressed music, leaving it as it was recorded. Surround is an afterthought. I feel that sucks. That it all should be at min. 5.1. No BS excuses because most people have at least a sound bar added to the blu ray player. But a choice would be nice. Been after HD tracks to offer it. I guess there is just not enough interest.

Click to expand...

maybe we should wait and see..?

in all fairness its all just very early days in UMG's proper participation in BD-A.

they've dipped their toes in the water, obviously pleased with the results and feedback from the response to the Rolling Stones BD-A (the fellow said as much in that French article..) and now they're sticking one (possibly only stereo for now) foot in at the moment...but details are scant right now.

in just over a month from now, the first wave of releases will be out and we can get a clearer picture of what this is all about and perhaps an indication of where its heading.

I'm very excited by the possibilities, despite the lack of concrete information right now.

I'd say yes the Rolling Stones Grrr Blu ray's worth getting[it's on a par with the sacd's quality wise imho].

Dixie4 said:

I've been thinking of buying this. Is it good / worth buying ?

Click to expand...

of course its worth getting!

it may not have surround on it but neither did the SACDs (well, apart from the SFTD remix EP)..

..and look at it this way, if you were to buy all the SACDs separately you'd need to get the same size tracklist together (technically impossible anyway as there's a couple of previously unreleased things on the blu-ray audio) it would be a whole lot more money than just £12..!!!

the BDA is amazing value for money.

Though this is good news I'd prefer they stick with an established audio format i.e SACD or DVD Audio rather than introduce another niche format for hi-rez audio. And I admit part of my reluctance comes from the fact I'd have to buy another disc spinner to plays these things.

The music in 24/96 or 24/192 ought to sound the same regardless of format, right (assuming we are talking about identical masterings)?

Or this all about copy protection ?

The Rang said:

Though this is good news I'd prefer they stick with an established audio format i.e SACD or DVD Audio rather than introduce another niche format for hi-rez audio.

The music in 24/96 or 24/192 ought to sound the same regardless of format, right (asumming we are talking about identical masterings)?

Or this all about copy protection?

Click to expand...

I'd rather stick with SACD and DVD-A too.. and I've no idea why this is happening in this way and why right now..

..but I can't help thinking of the perception of the general public..

..and that is that CD and DVD are only "regular quality".. and so SACD and DVD-A are also just "regular" too, as they are just different kinds of regular old CD and DVD (even though we know they're not)..

.. but blu-ray is associated with "High Definition".. and so if there's a format that does higher than DVD quality video, it will automatically be identified with folks as doing higher than CD quality sound, too.

I dunno.. its a simplistic way of looking at it..

..but 'cynical me' says it probably is a copy protection thing as far as Universals' concerned as much as anything else..!?

If anything at least it's uncompressed and that is exciting. Suppse I'll be buying my music all over again? LP/CD/BD/FLAC/ETC. I find it very hard to go backwards after hearing HR to listen to cd's. I will listen to them, but not at the vol. levels I listen to HR stuff. But I do look forward to having the same music in HR. A good example is Sunken Condos, bought the cd-gave it away-bough the HD tracks version, and it was worth every penny.
Now it's worse with that new Denon!! Watched The Dweez last nite on dvd and it really sounded good! ( Zappa does Zappa)

Too bad QQ Member and UMG employee "jimby" got pissed off at some of you guys and left. We really should respect the members here who are in the industry. Those guys are not the ones pulling the rugs out from under themselves.

If they take the initiative to join here, one would think that they were pro-surround, right?

Jimby was a big proponent of HiRez surround, and some of you all really hammered him hard. I hate that kind of stuff.

JonUrban said:

Too bad QQ Member and UMG employee "jimby" got pissed off at some of you guys and left. We really should respect the members here who are in the industry. Those guys are not the ones pulling the rugs out from under themselves.

If they take the initiative to join here, one would think that they were pro-surround, right?

Jimby was a big proponent of HiRez surround, and some of you all really hammered him hard. I hate that kind of stuff.

Click to expand...

totally agree

just in the glimmer of hope that any UMG folks may come to QQ in the near future, we should certainly treat them with decency at the very least, even if we don't entirely agree with everything they say/do/represent..

its especially dumb now to attack Universal as they're the biggest record label around and seemingly to want to continue to release some kind of physical Hi-Rez product (hopefully in surround too!) in the face of overwhelming lossy downloading by the masses, this to me at this point in time is quite a big deal.

what does it mean to me? Domestic releases (no more pricey Japanese SHM-SACD imports!) of Hi-Rez mainstream rock & pop, set to retail at sensible prices, with the potential to raise Hi-Rez/surrounds profile so long as UMG take advantage of Blu-ray's capabilities.

lets face it, these are new releases that should appeal to just the kind of people who visit QQ.. I for one am going all out to support them and I'll buy all those rock & pop titles that appeal (so far there's about half a dozen of those that are confirmed as coming on May 13th that I will definitely get no matter what) and I'll support them all the more so if they feature surround music, of course!

meantime, can I ask what your reaction is to these upcoming UMG BD-A's, Jon?

do you have any more info on them at this time? do you know whether they will indeed have surround mixes on some/or any of them? thanks

fredblue said:

More than 50 in the first wave, as far as I know.

Confirmed:

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend,
Cat Stevens - Tea For The Tillerman,
Diana Krall - Look Of Love,
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella & Louis/Ella & Louis Again,
Hélène Grimaud - Resonances,
Lang Lang - Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini,
Layla - Derek & The Dominos,
Milos Karadaglic - Latino Gold,
Nina Simone - I Put A Spell On You,
Oscar Peterson - Night Train,
Quincy Jones - Big Band Bossa Nova,
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto,
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life,
Supertramp - Breakfast In America,
Velvet Underground & Nico

Click to expand...

So of those what do we think will have surround at least:

Diana Krall - Look Of Love,
Layla - Derek & The Dominos, (hopefully the ES mix in hi-rez at last)
Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto

Any others...

Some ABBA (mixed by SW) and Dire Straits would be nice also....