World's Highest Resolution Recording

[The Computer Audiophile]

I just received this from a colleague. I'm interested in hearing the final release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[TD]World's Highest Resolution Recording

 

Captures Boston Baroque

 

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[TD]Cleveland-based Five/Four Productions captures world's highest resolution audio recording using 11.2 MHz Direct Stream Digital technology.

 

April 26, 2013

 

Cleveland, OH - Locally owned Five/Four Productions, Ltd. announced today that it has successfully captured the world's highest resolution audio recording. Five/Four Recording Producer Thomas Moore, Recording Engineer Robert Friedrich, and Assistant Engineer Ian Dobie travelled to Worcester, Massachusetts to record Joseph Haydn's masterpiece Missa in Angustiis (Nelson Mass) Hob XXII:11, and Symphony No. 102 in B flat major Hob. I/102, with Martin Pearlman and Boston Baroque in the world-renowned acoustic of Mechanics Hall. The recording is tentatively planned for release in October, 2013 on the Linn Records label.

 

Five/Four Productions partnered with Merging Technologies, manufacturers of the Pyramix Digital Audio Workstation, to capture this recording. Merging Technologies developed the technology to capture ultra-high resolution 11.2 MHz 1-bit Direct Stream Digital technology. Product Specialist Dennis Gaines of Independent Audio from Portland, Maine represented Merging Technologies at the recording sessions and provided technical support with the new recording system.

 

Five/Four Productions sees this recording as a quantum leap in high resolution recording technology that promises to deliver to the consumer the most realistic sound reproduction to date. 11.2 MHz Direct Stream Digital technology is a digital platform that utilizes a 1-bit ultra-high sampling frequency that results in a recording that is 256 times the resolution of CD.

 

Recording Producer Thomas Moore commented that "Five/Four always strives to capture sound in the most natural and realistic manner that reproduces pure and true. To be able to merge the sounds of period instruments and singers with this very modern technology is the perfect way for us to deliver the most realistic audio experience, just as if you were standing with the performers among you."

 

Five/Four Recording Engineer Robert Friedrich said "Recording to Direct Stream Digital has always been a must for us to deliver the most revealing and accurate sound. Taking DSD from 2.8 MHz to 11.2 MHz doesn't just step it up to the next level, it catapults it!"

 

"I am excited that Boston Baroque could be part of this landmark recording," remarked Martin Pearlman, Music Director of Boston Baroque. "Capturing the detailed nuances and transparency of our period instruments has always been important to us, and now it is possible on a higher level than ever before."

 

This recording marks Five/Four's dedication to promoting leading edge recording technology to deliver only the highest resolution recordings to their clients.

 

 

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[TD]Boston Baroque Music Director Martin Pearlman and Producer Thomas Moore,

Five/Four Productions

(Photo credit: Julian Bullitt)

 

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About Five/Four Productions, Ltd.:

Five/Four Productions, Ltd., an independent audio production company which was formed in 2009, has won sixteen GRAMMY© Awards to-date for Production, Engineering, and Performance Excellence, plus Japan's Grand Prix Award along with other international industry recognition. More than three decades of critical acclaim by the world's most respected critics, publications, and audio consumers alike have garnered Five/Four the reputation as one of the world's leaders in recording and production excellence. Exclusive Five/Four Reveal-SDM Technology

and innovative production technique brings the famed "Five/Four Sound" to any project large or small.

 

 

 

Five/Four produces audio for Super Audio-Compact Disk (SA-CD), CD, all download formats, high-resolution PCM, DVD, Blu-ray Audio & Video Disks, and HD-TV.

 

An integral and trusted part of hundreds of major music releases by the world's most renowned musicians and performers across multiple genres, Five/Four founders Michael Bishop, Robert Friedrich, and Thomas Moore bring their wealth of expertise and impressive credentials to deliver compelling recordings that allow the performances to take center stage.

 

 

About Boston Baroque:

Boston Baroque is the first permanent Baroque orchestra established in North America, and is widely regarded as "one of the world's premier period-instrument bands." (Fanfare). The ensemble produces lively, emotionally charged, ground-breaking performances of Baroque and Classical works, for today's audiences, performed on instruments and using performance techniques that reflect the eras in which the music was composed.

 

Founded in 1973 by Music Director Martin Pearlman, Boston Baroque's orchestra is made up of some of the finest period-instrument players in the U.S.; they are frequently joined by the ensemble's professional chorus and by instrumental and vocal soloists from around the world. The ensemble presents an annual subscription series consisting of five programs that are performed at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall in Boston, MA, or Harvard University's Sanders Theatre in Cambridge, MA. In 2012-13 the ensemble inaugurates New Directions: a chamber music series mixing music of the baroque and modern eras played on modern and period instruments.

 

Boston Baroque's many career milestones include the American premiere of Rameau's Zoroastre; a Mozart opera series including The Marriage of Figaro, Così fan tutte, and the American period-instrument premieres of Mozart's Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute; and a revelatory exploration of the Beethoven symphonies on period instruments. In 1998-99, the ensemble gave the modern premiere of The Philosopher's Stone, a singspiel newly discovered to include music by Mozart and to shed fresh light on his canon. In recent years, Boston Baroque has presented Boston's first complete cycle of the surviving operas of Monteverdi, with new performing editions of L'incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d'Ulisse by Martin Pearlman; and an internationally acclaimed series of Handel operas including Agrippina,Alcina, Xerxes, Giulio Cesare, Semele, and Amadigi di Gaula. Their performances of Orfeo ed Euridice in May 2012, which included dancers and original choreography, met with outstanding critical acclaim.

 

 

About Merging Technologies:

Merging Technologies SA is a Swiss manufacturer with over 20 years of experience in developing groundbreaking, professional Audio and Video products for a wide range of entertainment and media industries. With a dedicated user base in the elite end of the music, film, television, mastering and performances industries, Merging is committed to developing product ranges with unrivaled quality and flexibility, no matter what the application. Merging builds tools for people who want more from their systems, have an inherent need to push boundaries, and believe that quality always comes first every time.

 

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[TD]Merging Technologies HORUS 11.2 MHz DSD Converter

(Photo credit: Julian Bullitt)

 

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[ted_b]

Nice. they are my neighbors. Michael Bishop is da man (owns part of company).

 

George, get me your Exasound E20 Mark II and I'll write up a review asap.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Nice. they are my neighbors. Michael Bishop is da man (owns part of company).

 

George, get me your Exasound E20 Mark II and I'll write up a review asap.

See if you can get an early pre-release copy for "testing" purposes :~)

 

I thought of George's DAC immediately as well!

[exa]

Hi Ted - No problem... Can I have the recording? I am the first in line to try it.

[souptin]

Always awesome to find people pushing the edge of the envelope.

 

I just hope the recording didn't coincide with Boston Baroques' Curry Night - could give a whole new meaning to "lively, emotionally charged, ground-breaking performances" and "Capturing the detailed nuances and transparency of our period instruments"

 

But seriously - I think it's much healthier for the music and audio industries to focus on new recordings, both for the sake of the people performing / recording the music and to showcase the technology, as opposed to dusting off old master tapes to make yet another re-issue.

[jhwalker]

Cool - I love the Boston Baroque, and the Haydn "Lord Nelson" is one of my all-time favorites Should be killer.

[bleedink]

At that level even a PCM conversion should sound very good I'd think. In terms of distribution would this source make a difference on a regular SACD (DSD 64)? Wouldn't it allow for an even more transparent conversion? Just curiosity. I've not the equipment for DSD 128 let alone this.

[labjr]

This should be the holy grail of digital music. Good to know it's finally arriving. I guess they'll release it in full resolution?

 

Interestingly, I live 10 minutes from Mechanics Hall, but haven't been there since the restoration.

[Bunpei]

I wish I could look at a quantization noise profile of their DSD256 recordings.

[tailspn]

I wish I could look at a quantization noise profile of their DSD256 recordings.

 

There ya go:

 

AS pointed out in the spec, the Audio Precision Analyzer is at its dynamic range limit with a 0dB level single frequency test signal, while measuring the noise floor. Therefore two sweeps were taken, displayed in red and blue. The red is the noise floor that would have been shown if the AP Analyzer had the dynamic range of the Horus.

 

[tailspn]

The below post should say of the Audio Precision Analyzer dynamic range limit within its High Bandwidth mode. I also added the same plot in .png format to allow better zooming.

[labjr]

Is that noise below 1khz?

[tailspn]

Is that noise below 1khz?

 

Yes, for the blue trace either side of the 1KHz skirt. It's artificially elevated by 15dB due to the resolving ability of the analyzer in its High Bandwidth mode of operation, which was necessary to display 130KHz of spectrum. If only 10KHz of frequency spectrum was analyzed, then the shirt would be much narrower, and the noise closer to the red trace, which is no signal present.

[matthias]

The recording is tentatively planned for release in October, 2013 on the Linn Records label.

 

I never heard about a statement from Linn Recods that they prefer DSD to PCM.

Unfortunately, the Linn DS-Players are not able to play DSD-files.

 

matthias

[labjr]

I never heard about a statement from Linn Recods that they prefer DSD to PCM.

Unfortunately, the Linn DS-Players are not able to play DSD-files.

 

matthias

 

I just hope everyone plans to release material in DSD 256 and not just use it for archival.

[Bunpei]

There ya go:

 

Wow, what a professional job! Thank you very much for your wonderful posting.

 

I understand that the measuring point was at the analog output of DAC without applying any post DAC analog filter and the chart mainly reflects the nature of delta-sigma modulator used in not ADC but DAC module. Is my guess correct?

I feel the delta-sigma modulation involved there is not so aggressive.

 

Anyway, we would be able to remove the quantization noises above 50 kHz easily without any adverse effects on music components below 50 kHz.

[ted_b]

Wow, what a professional job! Thank you very much for your wonderful posting.

 

 

He didn't win two Grammys this year for nothin!

[Bunpei]

... Five/Four Recording Engineer Robert Friedrich said " ... Taking DSD from 2.8 MHz to 11.2 MHz doesn't just step it up to the next level, it catapults it!"

 

I was much impressed with this expression. I sometimes think we could compare the difference to the difference of "Retina or IGZO" quality from those of conventional LCD panels in visual.

[Teresa]

I never heard about a statement from Linn Records that they prefer DSD to PCM.

Unfortunately, the Linn DS-Players are not able to play DSD-files.

 

matthias

 

I don't believe there is yet since in-house Linn recordings are still 24 bit PCM. This recording was made by Five/Four Productions who records in DSD Stereo and Multichannel. Five/Four Productions usually records for Telarc and lately Deutsche Gramaphon, both of which quit releasing SACDs and sell CDs and MP3s.

 

The Five Four Music Store is still under construction, they will be selling DSD downloads, I don't have details but I am hoping that they will be able to sell all the DSD recordings they have made for all recording companies. There are lots of Telarc DSD recordings only released on CD and MP3 and hopefully we will finally get the DSD stereo and multichannel originals.

 

It is nice to see Linn Records, a company that believes in high resolution digital using Five/Four Productions so there my be a SACD version of this recording along with the DSD downloads. Exciting times.

[ted_b]

Teresa, thanks for that. As I said, they are local to me, and I've had Michael over to the home, etc. I think I'll propose that they let me run their download business.

[Bunpei]

For your reference: A quantization noise profile of TI PCM4222 ADC DSD128 output

(Source: ElectrArt blog page ElectrArt (In Japanese)

 

[tailspn]

I understand that the measuring point was at the analog output of DAC without applying any post DAC analog filter and the chart mainly reflects the nature of delta-sigma modulator used in not ADC but DAC module. Is my guess correct?

 

Hi Bunpei,

 

I'm sorry it took me so long to respond. The Horus graph I posted is both the A/D Converter, along with its mic preamp, plus the D/A Converter, all operating at 256fs DSD.

 

Tom

[Bunpei]

Hi, Tom!

 

Thank you very much for your explanation! Oh, the Horus/Pyramix system was regarded as one "analog amplifier" entity at the measurement.

Anyway, I was surprised that the noise shaping function that the system provides seemed rather milder than I expected.

 

Bunpei

[Bunpei]

World famous Los Angeles Philharmonic invests in Merging Technologies Pyramix and Horus combination.

Los Angeles Philharmonic Invest In Horus & Pyramix - eMerging

 

In this article, they say,

" ... In addition, Merging are the only company offering a choice of high end recording formats so we can respond to requests for DSD or DXD delivery as well as 192 or 96 kHz PCM. ..."

 

I wonder if the "DSD" in the comment includes DSD256.

[bmoura]

I don't believe there is yet since in-house Linn recordings are still 24 bit PCM. This recording was made by Five/Four Productions who records in DSD Stereo and Multichannel. Five/Four Productions usually records for Telarc and lately Deutsche Gramaphon, both of which quit releasing SACDs and sell CDs and MP3s.

 

The Five Four Music Store is still under construction, they will be selling DSD downloads, I don't have details but I am hoping that they will be able to sell all the DSD recordings they have made for all recording companies. There are lots of Telarc DSD recordings only released on CD and MP3 and hopefully we will finally get the DSD stereo and multichannel originals.

 

It is nice to see Linn Records, a company that believes in high resolution digital using Five/Four Productions so there my be a SACD version of this recording along with the DSD downloads. Exciting times.

 

The album comes out next month on Linn so an SACD may be part of that. I checked with Linn the other day on the possibility of them selling the DSD64/128/256 Stereo and Surround files from this session made via the Pyramix and Horus. They were pretty firmly not interested - they sell PCM and FLAC online but not DSD.

 

So you are right - this may be an opportunity for one of the DSD stores like Acoustic Sounds or Blue Coast to offer those for sale. I know Acoustic Sounds already sells SACDs from Linn, so the business connection is already in place. Hmm.....