Post by braver February 3, 2009 (1 of 8)
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I see many specialist labels issuing SACDs. I believe that's the future of the format -- audiophile-centric labels, such as Channel Classics and Pentatone, and smaller groups, even chamber orchestras and jazz players, going DIY.
In fact, as a computer engineer with a PhD nearing, I'm thinking of apprenticing in one of the SACD-making companies for a sabbatical!
Are there folks here from the labels who could use a Linux/PC/Mac guru? If there's a device with a programmable API, I can hook it up to a computer and make it work and feed data in. Then I can process those data in any way imaginable and whatever result required. I'd love to learn the specific sound editing and SACD mastering software, and as an undergrad physicist I can also appreciate whatever acoustics and connectivity, balanced/unbalanced/etc., goes there; and as an amateur keyboard player, whatever music, too. Not least, I have 500 SACDs by now and love to compare surround mixes.
This is what's happening -- engineers discovering SACD and just doing it. Look at Jordi Savall's sets -- there's a single guy producing them all! Kudos to him, too! :)
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You could start at home mastering music in DSD Disc Format but unfortunately that only supports stereo, not multichannel.
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Post by channel February 3, 2009 (3 of 8)
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braver said:
I see many specialist labels issuing SACDs. I believe that's the future of the format -- audiophile-centric labels, such as Channel Classics and Pentatone, and smaller groups, even chamber orchestras and jazz players, going DIY.
In fact, as a computer engineer with a PhD nearing, I'm thinking of apprenticing in one of the SACD-making companies for a sabbatical!
Are there folks here from the labels who could use a Linux/PC/Mac guru? If there's a device with a programmable API, I can hook it up to a computer and make it work and feed data in. Then I can process those data in any way imaginable and whatever result required. I'd love to learn the specific sound editing and SACD mastering software, and as an undergrad physicist I can also appreciate whatever acoustics and connectivity, balanced/unbalanced/etc., goes there; and as an amateur keyboard player, whatever music, too. Not least, I have 500 SACDs by now and love to compare surround mixes.
This is what's happening -- engineers discovering SACD and just doing it. Look at Jordi Savall's sets -- there's a single guy producing them all! Kudos to him, too! :)
Dear Braver,
Philips designed a SACD authoring software format to allow us to make the master tapes. We first render the stereo and multichannels into what we call a Edited master DSD file. Then these two files need to be made into 'DST' files which are using a lossless compression logarithms because SACD is a DVD format with the total amount of the files not exceeding 4.75 gb. Philips also made a simple software program for making the meta data that you see on your display. Then the three files are all brought together into one matrix file that is sent to the pressing factory.
Since Sony and Philips do not have any research centers anymore for this technology, we will continue to use these simple programs that do get the work done, but are not being improved upon. That is until maybe someone like yourself sees a niche that could be improved.
It is great to see your enthusiasm for SACD and hope you can at least pass that knowledge around!
Jared Sacks
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Post by braver February 3, 2009 (4 of 8)
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Jared -- so what does it take to become a sound engineer making SACDs for Channel?
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Post by braver February 16, 2009 (5 of 8)
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OK, now this is for Channel, PentaMan, and Bissie. How do you set up your DSD recordings and SACD mastering? How do you educate the engineers involved, how many do you have, and how do you apprentice one? Is there a room for something like summer internship? I am very curious about mastering the techniques to be applied to my friends' music, and/or community productions, from microphone placement/interconnects to DSD recording to SACD production.
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channel said:
Dear Braver,
Philips designed a SACD authoring software format to allow us to make the master tapes. We first render the stereo and multichannels into what we call a Edited master DSD file. Then these two files need to be made into 'DST' files which are using a lossless compression logarithms because SACD is a DVD format with the total amount of the files not exceeding 4.75 gb. Philips also made a simple software program for making the meta data that you see on your display. Then the three files are all brought together into one matrix file that is sent to the pressing factory.
Since Sony and Philips do not have any research centers anymore for this technology, we will continue to use these simple programs that do get the work done, but are not being improved upon. That is until maybe someone like yourself sees a niche that could be improved.
It is great to see your enthusiasm for SACD and hope you can at least pass that knowledge around!
Jared Sacks
Strange, so you guys are stuck with old software in order to produce SACDs?
Are there no 3rd party out there?
I do wonder why they haven’t let the spec out or the source code for this kind of applications public. Especially if Sony and Philips are not interested in developing the technology further.
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Post by braver February 17, 2009 (7 of 8)
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In fact, as a computer scientist and Free Software proponent, I'm very curious exactly about this, too. Sounds like they're stuck pre-cooking SACD contents on a tape through a proprietary program, then send the tapes to a facility. Now imagine there's a problem with the software, or the facility gets old and not repaired; is this a ghost ship driven by dead folks? There should be a clear process of eternalizing SACD production, so to speak -- e.g., opening the specs; having a process to publish the crypto keys after the copyrights expire; explaining how to read SACD data with a DVD reader, etc. I think that studios using SACD, producers, and consumers, must agree on such a process to safeguard their collections and investment. In fact, the users of this forum would be better off setting up an SACD preservation society, similarly to the QuadraphonicQuad's QpS. It then would assemble the DIY archives and specs and whatnots to enable members to use their collections for dozens of years to come.
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braver said:
In fact, as a computer scientist and Free Software proponent, I'm very curious exactly about this, too. Sounds like they're stuck pre-cooking SACD contents on a tape through a proprietary program, then send the tapes to a facility. Now imagine there's a problem with the software, or the facility gets old and not repaired; is this a ghost ship driven by dead folks? There should be a clear process of eternalizing SACD production, so to speak -- e.g., opening the specs; having a process to publish the crypto keys after the copyrights expire; explaining how to read SACD data with a DVD reader, etc. I think that studios using SACD, producers, and consumers, must agree on such a process to safeguard their collections and investment. In fact, the users of this forum would be better off setting up an SACD preservation society, similarly to the QuadraphonicQuad's QpS. It then would assemble the DIY archives and specs and whatnots to enable members to use their collections for dozens of years to come.
Indeed it’s interesting.
It also seems like the DSD format has less overhead then PCM (at competing quality), which I guess in theory, would make it more suitable for streaming applications then PCM.
But since Sony and Philips are holding tight on there patents, I believe that we will never see that kind of usage of DSD…
Maybe one could reverse engineer it and create DSD-Open :)
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