My DVD-A Project - Original material

[edisonbaggins]

Hi
You definately need a proper host as the google drive links you posted the other day are very slow for me .....indeed , i gave up on downloading them.
Jc

Sorry about that and thanks for the head's up. I'm researching better hosting now.

 

[JanBakker]

Sorry about that and thanks for the head's up. I'm researching better hosting now.

No problems here Mr. Baggins.

 

[svengaleekie]

Hi
You definately need a proper host as the google drive links you posted the other day are very slow for me .....indeed , i gave up on downloading them.
Jc

Worked OK for me and I'm lovin' the music, right up my street and I'm only half way through listening. Can't wait to get time to listen to the rest :music (Monday)

 

[joechip]

Sorry about that and thanks for the head's up. I'm researching better hosting now.

Yep......bugger seems to be working somewhat faster now.
I,d still use https://surroundmusic.one/ as that other host for your album.
Bandcamp is rather grim for 5.1 flac availability.
Jan is a good lad.
Jc

 

[edisonbaggins]

Yep......bugger seems to be working somewhat faster now.
I,d still use https://surroundmusic.one/ as that other host for your album.
Bandcamp is rather grim for 5.1 flac availability.
Jan is a good lad.
Jc

Oh, wonderful. I'm also uploading to dropbox, as a safety net.
Yes, I'd like to hop on board surroundmusic.one. I'm putting together a lyric and bio pdf now.
Hopefully I can work things out with Jan very soon.

 

[Robert van Diggele]

Nice work Mike. Lets see how this works out with Jan, otherwise I will purchase from bandcamp.

 

[joechip]

Got it all downloaded.
Very nice and nice mix too.
Hope you get lots of buyers for this album .
Jc

 

[LizardKing]

Listening now...

Awesome stuff...

:51banana:

 

[svengaleekie]

Had a chance to listen to all the sample tracks this morning and I love them all, there is some immense bass on the 'skeleton' tracks, the lowest of the low, very good on my system, and the surround treatment is perfect, a lot of so called surround mixers should take lessons. I have to say that your singing is a little flakey at times but I can see past that. Will definitely buy the finished product flac with tags and pics of course.

 

[OdysseyMusik]

Now the album is on
https://surroundmusic.one/album/disturbing-the-universe/

Great package with 5.1, 4.1, 4.0 & 2.0 mixes and great mix by ji eff !!! :banana:

Thread of Surroundmusic.one releases here

 

[edisonbaggins]

As some of you know, from the post above, my finished multichannel album, Disturbing the Universe, is now available for download in 2.0, 4.0. 4.1 & 5.1 48/24 FLAC.

For those with reel to reel setups, it is also available in 4.0 reel to reel from mlrocker's ebay store.

I hope there will be continued interest in and support of independent albums like this, as well as Jan's surroundmusic.one site and Mike's ebay store.
I guarantee there is music and mixing on my album that is as good or better than at least one major label release you've paid good money for. If you buy it and disagree I'll personally refund you. And really, I'm underselling it. There really is some great material, not to pat myself on the back. I had some astonishing help to make it happen.
As a surround fan, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Anyway, that said, at this time I'm researching how to bring this album to disc, which I know is what many surround enthusiasts prefer. My inclination is for Bluray. More and more homes are acquiring BD players, so it is becoming more or less an automatic way to enjoy hi-res. No special DVD-A or SACD player needed.
However, creating a 48/24 DVD could be easier and less expensive. Or maybe AVCHD-DVD. Less financial risk. An ISO could be offered for download or discs could be manufactured, either pressed or burned. Lots of options and decisions.

I welcome any thoughts and advice! And especially, thanks for listening to the album when you get a chance. I hope everybody finds it enjoyable! :music

 

[Q4-Bert]

As some of you know, from the post above, my finished multichannel album, Disturbing the Universe, is now available for download in 2.0, 4.0. 4.1 & 5.1 48/24 FLAC.

For those with reel to reel setups, it is also available in 4.0 reel to reel from mlrocker's ebay store.

I hope there will be continued interest in and support of independent albums like this, as well as Jan's surroundmusic.one site and Mike's ebay store.
I guarantee there is music and mixing on my album that is as good or better than at least one major label release you've paid good money for. If you buy it and disagree I'll personally refund you. And really, I'm underselling it. There really is some great material, not to pat myself on the back. I had some astonishing help to make it happen.
As a surround fan, I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

Anyway, that said, at this time I'm researching how to bring this album to disc, which I know is what many surround enthusiasts prefer. My inclination is for Bluray. More and more homes are acquiring BD players, so it is becoming more or less an automatic way to enjoy hi-res. No special DVD-A or SACD player needed.
However, creating a 48/24 DVD could be easier and less expensive. Or maybe AVCHD-DVD. Less financial risk. An ISO could be offered for download or discs could be manufactured, either pressed or burned. Lots of options and decisions.

I welcome any thoughts and advice! And especially, thanks for listening to the album when you get a chance. I hope everybody finds it enjoyable! :music

My preference would be flac, but if the artist invests in artwork and the blu-ray is an artistic extra value I love that as a ISO download.
For most of these projects I want to buy, but do not want to pay twice the price for postage (most projects come from the USA, I live in Europe).
I have already bought some from Jan and will buy more this year, my experience with bandcamp is that artist offer a download code and after a few years this does not work anymore. Or it takes extra efford to ask for a copy. Love Jan's experiment with Flac/ISO download.
Another advantage is the ISO's do not take a lot of space in my CD/DVD rack(S)..

 

[edisonbaggins]

My preference would be flac, but if the artist invests in artwork and the blu-ray is an artistic extra value I love that as a ISO download.
For most of these projects I want to buy, but do not want to pay twice the price for postage (most projects come from the USA, I live in Europe).
I have already bought some from Jan and will buy more this year, my experience with bandcamp is that artist offer a download code and after a few years this does not work anymore. Or it takes extra efford to ask for a copy. Love Jan's experiment with Flac/ISO download.
Another advantage is the ISO's do not take a lot of space in my CD/DVD rack(S)..

Thank you for your feedback!

For anybody interested in helping me test: I have made a very basic ACVHD-DVD ISO. It is the album cover and 14 tracks in uncompressed hi-res. It burns to a normal 4.7GB DVD. And I understand that some set ups can play an ISO file without even burning to disc.

It is just the 5.1 mix and it autoplays. No screen needed unless you want to see track titles and the album cover.

The main album is tracks 1 - 11 and there are 3 bonus tracks.

PM me for a link.

 

[jimfisheye]

I prefer FLAC downloads here in 2017 of course.

In the interests of making something playable on every system, I provide DVDA and bluray .iso disk images in addition to FLAC. There are these budget home theater systems some people bought that literally have no inputs beyond the optical drive for discrete surround. Some are DVDA only or bluray only. Also, some people want a DVDA copy for their car's surround system which typically is DVDA format.

I don't do anything beyond the front cover artwork image as a splash/menu screen.

tsMuxeR is a freeware bluray authoring app.
Discwelder Chrome is a DVDA authoring app that is now abandonware and traded for free. (A Windows-only app as well so you'll need Wine installed in OSX.)

I avoid the lossy surround formats made for 2 channel containers (dts & dolby) as they alter/mutilate the music to the point that you're getting more true immersion from the stereo mix IMHO. (And the lossless versions are a moot point as they revert to lossy in systems that don't support discreet surround.)


re: Bandcamp externally hosted links going dark after a year.
It's very easy to keep up and avoid that. Use a solid cloud hosting site like Mega.nz that going to be around for a long time. Keep a spreadsheet and check up on things once a year. You can upload a new text file with a new sharing link at any time with Bandcamp. Either because you're changing hosting locations or your own anti-piracy control. If you also sell physical discs, print off new stickers for the download code any time that happens.

 

[sjcorne]

I prefer FLAC downloads here in 2017 of course.

Discwelder Chrome is a DVDA authoring app that is now abandonware and traded for free. (A Windows-only app as well so you'll need Wine installed in OSX.)

Curious as to where you found it free...have seen a lot of trials of bronze floating around but they only last a week or so

 

[jimfisheye]

Curious as to where you found it free...have seen a lot of trials of bronze floating around but they only last a week or so

Sorry, I guess it's been a few years now. (Circe 2010?) Might have run its course. I don't see that DVDAExplorer around anymore either but it's been replaced by DVD Audio Extractor which works better. Maybe there's something newer and/or reasonable priced? Small time me doesn't have the budget for the $1200 authoring suites. I remember at the time that all the affordable apps specifically had the surround and HD features locked out making the full priced suites the only option for surround authoring. I'm still using all this old stuff.

Suggestions are welcome.

 

[GOS]

Sorry, I guess it's been a few years now. (Circe 2010?) Might have run its course. I don't see that DVDAExplorer around anymore either but it's been replaced by DVD Audio Extractor which works better. Maybe there's something newer and/or reasonable priced? Small time me doesn't have the budget for the $1200 authoring suites. I remember at the time that all the affordable apps specifically had the surround and HD features locked out making the full priced suites the only option for surround authoring. I'm still using all this old stuff.

Suggestions are welcome.

DVD Audio Explorer... I just downloaded this program, I'd say, 4-5 months ago. Guess I don't recall how I found it. For sure, it was a download.

 

[sjcorne]

DVD Audio Explorer... I just downloaded this program, I'd say, 4-5 months ago. Guess I don't recall how I found it. For sure, it was a download.

Yep that one's still out there for sure...I have it as well. Haven't used in since I got DVDAE though. Much easier to rip DVD-A straight to FLAC rather than rip the MLP and convert to FLAC and have to add labels. DVDAE is well worth the $35 IMO...it's only flaw is that it doesn't read 4.0 material unless there are empty centre and LFE channels.

 

[edisonbaggins]

Thank you to all who sent PMs yesterday. I look forward to hearing about your experiences.
Please feel free to PM or post.
If there is anybody out there who can test a ACVHD-DVD on a Playstation and/or DVD player, I'm very curious to know if it will work.

I'm also interested in further thoughts on format. It seems to me that a disc that autoplays uncompressed, hi-res 5.1 (at least from bluray players) is going to satisfy the main hope of most surround listeners (I'm aware of the DVD-A in cars concern, but I'm not sure that is really all that many listeners). If that is not the case, I think the other formats to consider would be DVD-AV or Bluray.

It is possible that I'll manage to produce some interesting video content, such as a promo video for one or more of the songs or an interview about the album. If so, it could be a good argument to include such content on a more sophisticated disc. Also, Disturbing the Universe was mixed, discretely, from the multis, in to 2.0, 4.0, 4.1 & 5.1. I don't know for sure, but I think a Bluray could hold all those mixes. Would it be valuable enough to the surround community to have a disc with all those choices? Or again, does the 5.1 satisfy most listeners, while the other mixes would only benefit a few outliers?

Another idea I've been kicking around, even if I stick with ACVHD, is to use a different image for each song, or, if using the album cover for each song, to include lyrics for each song as it plays. Any interest in this?

And, of course, there is the question as to whether the final product will be available only as an ISO download (how many people out there have bluray burners compared to DVD burners and how many set ups can natively play the various ISO file formats?) or replicated or duplicated to disc and shipped. Maybe burning and shipping as orders are placed would be feasible and lower the financial risk. But pressing is probably deemed more legitimate and might produce a longer lasting product.

Anyway, thanks for listening and testing and for all your encouragement and valuable insights! :51banana:

 

[jimfisheye]

OH OK, you want to spoof a bluray using DVD discs. I can't give you a list off the top of my head but some hardware players will read the disc type codes and such machines will not play a spoofed BR on DVD. Some machines will, some wont.

Ironically, BD is much easier to author for now but 9/10 disc requests will be for DVDA vs. BR. DVDA is still more popular and compatible it seems. The other thing to consider is that the odd consumer that bought that Worst Purchase home theater system with a bluray optical drive as the ONLY input for discreet surround program very likely doesn't have a way to burn BR discs! They can download the big iso file (use the rar format and split that up for Windows users with poor internet connections BTW) but have no way to burn a disc.

I've been making them but I don't think any of my clients has had a single BR iso download. There have been a handful of DVDA iso downloads.
Also FWIW, I conducted just about the most unscientific poll here on this QQ forum and got zero votes for wanting a BR iso to burn. I was expecting to see a few requests for BR and none for DVDA anymore and got the opposite. But I'm just this unknown guy in Wisconsin trying to put more surround music into the world so take all that for what it's worth!