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SoonerCaniac said:
Dead is a forever thing. We are close, but we aren't there yet.
As far as I'm aware, there have been no DVD-Audio releases in 2007 yet, and just one in 2006: 'Love' by The Beatles?
Then again, that must easily have been the best-selling DVD-A ever, arguably selling even more copies than most SACDs...
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Post by TerraEpon September 12, 2007 (12 of 100)
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The Seventh Taylor said:
As far as I'm aware, there have been no DVD-Audio releases in 2007 yet, and just one in 2006: 'Love' by The Beatles?
There was at least one more in 2006 -- The Two Towers Complete Recordings, which is 3CDs and a DVD-A.
Consequently, the upcoming similar set for Return of The King will have DVD-A as well.
-Joshua
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Post by Lance B September 12, 2007 (13 of 100)
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The Seventh Taylor said:
As far as I'm aware, there have been no DVD-Audio releases in 2007 yet, and just one in 2006: 'Love' by The Beatles?
Then again, that must easily have been the best-selling DVD-A ever, arguably selling even more copies than most SACDs...
I would imagine that if they remastered the Beatles collection for SACD, so that it could be played on a normal CD player as well, that the collection would be the biggest selling SACD's ever.
Really, the original release of the Beatles collection was mediocre at best and if they remastered them I believe that they would sell very well. I love the Beatles music, but I refrain form listening to their CD's as my time is valuable and if I am going to spend time listening to music, with the little time I have to do so, then I want it to be as fulfilling as possible. Listening to the Beatles current CD's only fulfills one aspect of the experience, the songs themselves, not the Hi Fi aspect. I suspect that we all feel the same way.
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Post by Cookie September 12, 2007 (14 of 100)
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Lance B said:
Thanks for the welcome to SACD and for info, guys.
It is a sad state of affairs when the mass market have lost the desire for top quality recordings. We are becoming dedicated to mediocrity in all aspects of life due to the mass market mentality and the ever increasing desire to appease shareholders and profits. Quantity not quality seems to be the order of the day, very sad I'm afraid. I understand the rationale, but that still doesn't excuse the record companies from making the top quality recordings available as well as the compressed versions for the mass market.
I won't purchase any of these mediocre recordings as they sound terrible and I have better things to do with my life than to listen to music which sounds flat and lifeless, but I WILL purchase top quality recordings and I am sure there are many out there that feel the same way as I do. Maybe the makers of SACD's and the players really need to do a better job of marketing the system.
Over the last few years, I have not purchased much music due to the poor quality of these recordings and this was part of the reason I decided to go the SACD route. Looks like I will be purchasing more jazz and classical from now on which is not a bad thing anyway.
Hi Lance, your thoughts have prompted me to respond. I have been fortunate to work directly with the people who first developed the technology of SACD from its inception. As well, I am a recording engineer and producer for more than twenty years specializing in acoustic high quality recording.
It's very complicated to explain the machine behind Sony and why they chose not to support SACD, but many of us tied up in the business still believe there is a place for quality in both sound and performance... despite the decline in both these aspects over the years.
My own frustration with the lack of quality led me to begin a record label, Blue Coast Records. I suggest you go to the website, bluecoastrecords.com and checkout what we are doing. If you're looking for something besides jazz and classical, we offer skilled playing of live acoustic music performed in the studio.
Not that I am blatantly trying to promote our brand, but, after making more than 400 titles, including working for Windham Hill during the golden age to being the recording engineer for Liquid Audio responsible for the first paid concert download, Blue Coast was an effort by me and my coproducer, Jean Claude Reynaud, to make the highest quality acoustic recordings possible without regard to expense at the session.
We developed a proprietary recording technique for the label that provides incredible results. Very holographic. Jean Claude is the son of Jean Marie Reynaud, the builder of some of the finest speakers I know of. We believed there would be people, like yourself, who would appreciate the quality we strive for.
The last 5 years, I have made a personal stand to record on 2" tape or DSD, only, mix to 1/2" tape, use less digital efx (if at all) and encourage all my independent labels of quality to release on SACD. Unfortunately, this is more difficult than you can imagine.
When we first released Blue Coast Collection last May we sold out. Trying to remanufacture the disc became a nightmare. Sony closed its plant in the USA and the only plant in operation is in Austria. It required that we hand test each and every disc for quality control. However, even with all these problems, we still believe in the format and will release on SACD as long as we can manufacture. It will require all of us to be vocal in our support of SACD and high quality recordings in general.
I teach my intern how to listen.. how to hear digital generations. I can tell you that each one becomes very frustrated with their current listening situations as well as the recordings they are offered by the major labels. There is hope.
Education, more publicity and support through purchasing discs will help.
Thanks for inspiring me to respond.
Cookie Marenco
www.cookiemarenco.com
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Post by pgmdir September 12, 2007 (15 of 100)
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WOW, Cookie! Well said, and absolutely true. Even redbook CDs are fighting the trend toward downloading MP3's.
It will be the independents who keep SACD alive. Support Pentatone, Channel Classics, Bis, HM, and ALL the others who are trying to keep good sound alive.
-Bill
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pgmdir said:
WOW, Cookie! Well said, and absolutely true. Even redbook CDs are fighting the trend toward downloading MP3's.
It will be the independents who keep SACD alive. Support Pentatone, Channel Classics, Bis, HM, and ALL the others who are trying to keep good sound alive.
-Bill
That's all very well and indeed well done, but how nice it would be to listen to more popular music in high quality.
The way I see it the only reason you can get SACD machines readily is that the manufacturers probably paid Philips/Sony the license money for x number of years so it's already paid for from their point of view.
It sounds like Sony have abandoned active support of SACD. How sad that the parent of this format has abandoned its beautiful child. :-o
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Post by tommwi September 12, 2007 (17 of 100)
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Cookie said:
Trying to remanufacture the disc became a nightmare. Sony closed its plant in the USA and the only plant in operation is in Austria. It required that we hand test each and every disc for quality control. However, even with all these problems, we still believe in the format and will release on SACD as long as we can manufacture.
Is this true? The only plant in operation is the one and only in Austria? A plant with no quality control?
This part of your post indicates a severe problem very similar to near death of SACD. You really must have a very strong faith in SACD !!
/Tommy
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Post by Claude September 12, 2007 (18 of 100)
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TerraEpon said:
There was at least one more in 2006 -- The Two Towers Complete Recordings, which is 3CDs and a DVD-A.
Consequently, the upcoming similar set for Return of The King will have DVD-A as well.
-Joshua
There were a few more significant ones:
- the Talking Heads CD+DVD-A box set (released early 2006 in Europe only). In the US, it was released as DualDiscs (late 2005)
- The Doors "Perception" box set released this year
The current trend is that vinyl is the most popular "high resolution" format for pop and jazz.
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Post by soundboy September 12, 2007 (19 of 100)
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The Seventh Taylor said:
As far as I'm aware, there have been no DVD-Audio releases in 2007 yet, and just one in 2006: 'Love' by The Beatles?
There was one other DVD-A release in 2006....Hong Kong's Crown Records re-release of its Cantonese Opera classic, "The Floral Princess". It was the software highlight of the 2006 HK High-End Audio Visual Show. Perhaps more significant is that it was previously release on single-layer SACD (featuring remastering by Sony's Vic Anesini and pressed by Sony at its Terre Hautem, IN pressing plant in the US) and this title represents only the second DVD-A release by a Hong Kong music company. Pictured is the 2 disc DVD-A + CD version.
Regarding Sony's SACD plants....within the last 2 months, both Hong Kong Universal Music and Hong Kong Sony Music released new SACD titles, and they were pressed by Japan Sony. A number of recent Hong Kong indie label SACD releases also featured pressings by Japan Sony. I have a couple more new HK SACD titles coming in the mail that I imagine are pressed by Japan Sony.
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I guess the replication plant support, label support, retail uptake and consumer uptake are related on a sort of 'local-for-local' basis: minor but OK in Japan and Europe while almost zero in the US.
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