Posted today on stevehoffman.tv by Alan Silverman, who remastered this album to SACD....not to mention the Kinks' SACD on Koch Records
This EP has a long and winding story and more than its fair share of controversy since it was recorded before Ms. Jones received the phenomenal success that she rightly deserves. Other than to say that the project gives a rare glimpse into a chance musical encounter and offers very fine performances by Norah, Peter, and the band, I’ll confine my comments to the technical side of things. The recording did originate in a multi-track 16-bit/44.1k session tracked and mixed by Ducky Carlisle who is well versed in old-school analog gear and technique, and this is reflected in the warm, round sound of his work. As with audio in general, it’s the implementation and the skill of the engineer that determine the sound – not the format. I’ll try to explain what is different about the SACD. I had originally mastered this set for a Koch CD release. Some time later the order came in for an SACD master. Rather than upsample the CD version I suggested going back to the original mixes for slightly different approach and, to their credit, Koch agreed. The SACD is less peak-limited and uses a slightly warmer EQ. Conversion to DSD was done with softDSD which has its own euphonic character thanks to the mathematical genius of its creator Mariusz Pawlicki. I also find that DSD yields a better recovery on the consumer’s end than most PCM, even with lower-cost SACD players. Don’t ask me why, it’s just what I hear. Much of the bad rap on 16/44 is the fault of poorly implemented consumer DACs. With the SACD, more of the quality of the mix makes it to the end-listener’s ear, and this was a good sounding set of mixes. The CD layer of the High-Note SACD was derived from the new DSD master and it does retain some of the euphonic effect of the softDSD modulation. I made every effort to create an SACD master that would be of value to those who love the format and leave it up to the listener to decide if I was successful in that endeavor.
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