BIG Blu-Ray Audio drive from Universal Music in 2013

[keenly]

Hi Adam, it seems strange that some already have an opinion before we have been able to listen to these BD anyway.

On a positive note, the prices have come done a little bit, the pre orders are now €19,99, instead of €21,99. Perhaps I dd not noticed this before, but the descriptions alsomentikn that buyers can also download an mp3 or flac version of the album. No mention of number of bits of hertz though.

Its easy to have an opinion when you know the facts.

The Songs in the key BD can not be remastered from the original tapes: FACT. Therefore it will come from a previous issue. That makes the whole campaign bogus. What is the point of sticking a previous master on BD and upscaling to 24/96? 24/96 stereo is a waste anyway : might as well just be DVD and half the price!

 

[Dixie4]

I had a reply from the ebay seller ( Mylene Farmer BDA ) will be in 3 audio formats, PCM, DTS & Dolby True HD, all in 2.0

 

[fredblue]

Its easy to have an opinion when you know the facts.

The Songs in the key BD can not be remastered from the original tapes: FACT. Therefore it will come from a previous issue. That makes the whole campaign bogus. What is the point of sticking a previous master on BD and upscaling to 24/96? 24/96 stereo is a waste anyway : might as well just be DVD and half the price!

you can successfully remaster a stereo copy tape with improved results (a la Audio Fidelity/MFSL etc).

for this release UMG would only need the original multitrack masters from Stevie Wonder for remixing (either a new stereo mix or 5.1 remix).

UMG could have still run the analogue stereo master mixdown through 96/24 resolution ADC's and it's worthwhile putting it on BDA in Hi-Res.

 

[fredblue]

I had a reply from the ebay seller ( Mylene Farmer BDA ) will be in 3 audio formats, PCM, DTS & Dolby True HD, all in 2.0

the CD + BD set is stereo on the BD so no big surprise (plus I read on the SHF that its compressed to hell..).

next..!!

 

[keenly]

you can successfully remaster a stereo copy tape with improved results (a la Audio Fidelity/MFSL etc).

for this release UMG would only need the original multitrack masters from Stevie Wonder for remixing (either a new stereo mix or 5.1 remix).

UMG could have still run the analogue stereo master mixdown through 96/24 resolution ADC's and it's worthwhile putting it on BDA in Hi-Res.

Stevie will not let them touch his tapes.

 

[0tto]

Stevie will not let them touch his tapes.

why is that? i think as any artist, he would be glad to re-release at least some if not all of his works in best possible
quality, based on newest tech. most likely publisher (UMG in this case) haven't approached him with such offer,
because that's will involve extra cost of negotiation process and to hire mixing/mastering engineers of his choice.

thank you Robert, yours is a voice of reason I greatly appreciate, particularly in the face of condemnation, suspicion and a pervading dismissive attitude to these releases before they've even got off the ground.

hey Adam. no one condemns you. in fact everyone on this board would love to own these titles in the best possible
surround and fidelity quality, no lesser than you. it's just so far nothing from available info + previous history of an
approach to HiRez by big labels, to have any hopes on the decency of upcoming BD-A releases.

 

[bmoura]

why is that? i think as any artist, he would be glad to re-release at least some if not all of his works in best possible
quality, based on newest tech. most likely publisher (UMG in this case) haven't approached him with such offer,
because that's will involve extra cost of negotiation process and to hire mixing/mastering engineers of his choice.


hey Adam. no one condemns you. in fact everyone on this board would love to own these titles in the best possible
surround and fidelity quality, no lesser than you. it's just so far nothing from available info + previous history of an
approach to HiRez by big labels, to have any hopes on the decency of upcoming BD-A releases.

I suspect it will vary. Some of the SHM-SACD releases, especially the later ones, did indeed come from flat analog master tapes.
The BD-A series could also feature flat master tape transfers. We'll see.

 

[Dixie4]

I just received e mail from cdjapan, they are still waiting for info updates from the suppliers, delay likely due to being imports.

 

[Dixie4]

Received this e mail today, from cdjapan :

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE : Specifications

Hi Robert,

We just received a reply from the supplier, regarding the specs of the product below.

Unfortuately, just as you assumed, the audio is not 5.1ch surround sound. However, they also said that some of their Blu Rays expected to be released in the near future, will have 5.1ch surround effect.
In said case, they said it will be stated in the product description. Let me know if you have any other questions. Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

:banana::banana::banana:

 

[fredblue]

Received this e mail today, from cdjapan :

SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE : Specifications

Hi Robert,

We just received a reply from the supplier, regarding the specs of the product below.

Unfortuately, just as you assumed, the audio is not 5.1ch surround sound. However, they also said that some of their Blu Rays expected to be released in the near future, will have 5.1ch surround effect.
In said case, they said it will be stated in the product description. Let me know if you have any other questions. Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

:banana::banana::banana:

Thank you for checking it out Rob (or should I say Robert! How formal!).

I'm impressed with their customer service, that's a great response (even if the perfect response would have been a 5.1 SITKOL!) at least I won't shoot the messenger on this occasion!

 

[Dixie4]

Thank you for checking it out Rob (or should I say Robert! How formal!).

I'm impressed with their customer service, that's a great response (even if the perfect response would have been a 5.1 SITKOL!) at least I won't shoot the messenger on this occasion!

I think we all knew deep down that SITKOL would not be in 5.1 ( or any of this first batch of releases ) but it's exciting news that we should have future 5.1. surround releases.

 

[Bleedink]

I think we all knew deep down that SITKOL would not be in 5.1 ( or any of this first batch of releases ) but it's exciting news that we should have future 5.1. surround releases.

I think it's great that this is coming out but I sort of question the provence of these recordings. SITKOL was recently released as a SHM-SACD. That would jibe with previous reports that Universal converted all their old tapes to DSD for archiving (Absolute Sound 2011 article). The SACD seems to be a flat transfer from some analog tape (maybe a safety copy as someone insists the multis aren't available). I've listened to the SACD and it is very good. That said I find the sampling rates a bit weird--for example most HDtracks stuff from DSD comes in 24/88.2 and 24/176.4 flavors and PCM is of course usually 96/192. It would seem that both are coming from the DSD master. I imagine that they are being converted to 24/96 mainly because that's what BD supports. However, it would be better IMHO if they went back and just did a flat transfer of the Master in 96 rather than some strange math to get BD sample rates--SEE BELOW--it could be either. (BD audio doesn't support 88.2 or 176.4) i would imagine the differences are negligible as the math isn't being done in real time. Fact is it's still exciting to see them releasing something in BD. This is pretty much our last shot at a physical format at this juncture in time. Quite frankly I am not as concerned with surround at the moment as getting 'real' high res out there. The difference is so startling that anyone with middling to ok equipment will hear a definite improvement. Actually now that I think of it I just read a thread at CA that was about another master from Universal. It seems at one time their conversion to DSD was done from 24/96 digital files (with some explanation for doing this...apparently it was impossible to do PCM or DSD through the whole chain)--their latter SHM-SACDs did in fact come from flat analog transfers from tape. But some were done at 24/96 THEN converted to DSD. Makes one's head spin with all the math. That would explain the weird math with this particular album being a DSD master. Hard to tell. They changed the way they did their archiving in 2011 I believe according to the article. This brings us back to why the origins of the recording are so important. Warners recent announcement that they had 8000 albums for Pono ready to go at 24/192 leaves me wondering how the hell they get these rates. It's 2013 and most commercial recording is still being done at 24/44.1. There's either something terribly wrong (ie they were once recording at 24/192 and for some reason reverted to 24/44) or we are about to be handed a bunch of upsampled material. If it sounds great well awesome. But it doesn't sound like much of what's coming down the pipe is going to be genuine in the sense we might think.

 

[fredblue]

I think we all knew deep down that SITKOL would not be in 5.1 ( or any of this first batch of releases ) but it's exciting news that we should have future 5.1. surround releases.

I didn't think it would be anything but stereo either.. but I'm encouraged by the suggestion that there will be 5.1 down the line, which has been my best hope for these releases all along.

 

[Dixie4]

I didn't think it would be anything but stereo either.. but I'm encouraged by the suggestion that there will be 5.1 down the line, which has been my best hope for these releases all along.

I hope we don't have to wait too long !

 

[fredblue]

I didn't think it would be anything but stereo either.. but I'm encouraged by the suggestion that there will be 5.1 down the line, which has been my best hope for these releases all along.

oh and I think there may be a few 5.1's in this French trial run too, Rob.

certainly for all the titles that were in 5.1 on SACD it would be a shame not to include the 5.1 mixes on the new BDA's.. and for the French artists (Brel, Hallyday, Barbara, etc) it would be a CRIME seeing as the OOP surround SACDs of those albums now fetch such grotesque sums of money..!!

 

[fredblue]

I hope we don't have to wait too long !

just a couple of weeks now and we'll see what's what.

of those we have pre-order information for, I'm hopeful the Diana Krall, Johnny Hallyday, Jacques Brel, Barbara, Serge Gainsbourg albums will be in 5.1 at the very least.. with some pleasant surprises along the way.

 

[fredblue]

I think it's great that this is coming out but I sort of question the provence of these recordings. SITKOL was recently released as a SHM-SACD. That would jibe with previous reports that Universal converted all their old tapes to DSD for archiving (Absolute Sound 2011 article). The SACD seems to be a flat transfer from some analog tape (maybe a safety copy as someone insists the multis aren't available). I've listened to the SACD and it is very good. That said I find the sampling rates a bit weird--for example most HDtracks stuff from DSD comes in 24/88.2 and 24/176.4 flavors and PCM is of course usually 96/192. It would seem that both are coming from the DSD master. I imagine that they are being converted to 24/96 mainly because that's what BD supports. However, it would be better IMHO if they went back and just did a flat transfer of the Master in 96 rather than some strange math to get BD sample rates--SEE BELOW--it could be either. (BD audio doesn't support 88.2 or 176.4) i would imagine the differences are negligible as the math isn't being done in real time. Fact is it's still exciting to see them releasing something in BD. This is pretty much our last shot at a physical format at this juncture in time. Quite frankly I am not as concerned with surround at the moment as getting 'real' high res out there. The difference is so startling that anyone with middling to ok equipment will hear a definite improvement. Actually now that I think of it I just read a thread at CA that was about another master from Universal. It seems at one time their conversion to DSD was done from 24/96 digital files (with some explanation for doing this...apparently it was impossible to do PCM or DSD through the whole chain)--their latter SHM-SACDs did in fact come from flat analog transfers from tape. But some were done at 24/96 THEN converted to DSD. Makes one's head spin with all the math. That would explain the weird math with this particular album being a DSD master. Hard to tell. They changed the way they did their archiving in 2011 I believe according to the article. This brings us back to why the origins of the recording are so important. Warners recent announcement that they had 8000 albums for Pono ready to go at 24/192 leaves me wondering how the hell they get these rates. It's 2013 and most commercial recording is still being done at 24/44.1. There's either something terribly wrong (ie they were once recording at 24/192 and for some reason reverted to 24/44) or we are about to be handed a bunch of upsampled material. If it sounds great well awesome. But it doesn't sound like much of what's coming down the pipe is going to be genuine in the sense we might think.

great post bleedink, with lots of very good points made.

one instant response would be to Warners' boast of 8000 titles prepped for Pono (or Porno or whatever!?) is that Warner could well have thousands of albums from analogue masters transferred to PCM at high-rez. and all sound gorgeous and reap the benefits of hi-rez etc.. while for digital stuff from mid-late 80's onwards there would be a lot of up-rez'd stuff.. merits of doing so lost on me but I think Neil Wilkes and others on QQ have said there is a point in up-rez-ing 24/44 recordings.

 

[Dixie4]

just a couple of weeks now and we'll see what's what.

of those we have pre-order information for, I'm hopeful the Diana Krall, Johnny Hallyday, Jacques Brel, Barbara, Serge Gainsbourg albums will be in 5.1 at the very least.. with some pleasant surprises along the way.

.....I just might send another e mail, to my friend at cdjapan ! ??

 

[fredblue]

.....I just might send another e mail, to my friend at cdjapan ! ??

Oh Yes!! PLEASE DO..!!

If these BDA's don't have the 5.1 mixes from the OOP SACD's it'll be a criminal waste (imho!).

 

[Dixie4]

Oh Yes!! PLEASE DO..!!

If these BDA's don't have the 5.1 mixes from the OOP SACD's it'll be a criminal waste (imho!).

Just sent !