Yarlung's First Surround Sound DSD 256 Recording: Coming Soon

[bmoura]

This should be very interesting!

 

"Coming next week: the first Surround Sound recording from Yarlung Artists to Native DSD Music in DSD 256! Fans of Yarlung's fine albums are going to really love this one.

 

Bob Attiyeh from Yarling tells us "Jared and Floor asked that I write about our Yarlung release next week, our first recording of music by composer James Matheson.

 

NativeDSD is intimately involved with this recording, not just as our DSD distributor, but also because my friend (and our NativeDSD mastering engineer) Tom Caulfield joined us at Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Southern California for this recording. As a result, Tom engineered Yarlung's first 5.0 surround sound album.

 

Tom had been enticing me about surround sound recordings for months, and while I have not yet had the luxury of hearing music on his fabulous 5 channel system in Boston, Massachusetts, I have experienced the glory of well-recorded 5 channel music thanks to him."

 

 

Native DSD Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield (aka "Tailspn") monitoring the Matheson recording session (photo by Cooper Bates)

[Kal Rubinson]

Indeed. An outstanding recording.

Tom Caulfield, a Grammy-winning recording engineer who has worked for Channel Classics and other labels, recently sent me a multichannel DSD256 file from a session with Color Field, a group comprising musicians of the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Chicago Symphony, for a recording of James Matheson's String Quartet, to be released this year on Yarlung Records. The opening notes were startling—I had the disturbing but exhilarating feeling that music was actually being made in my room, not merely reproduced. The sound was no more "multichannel" than it was "stereo"—the four players seemed almost within reach, and my room seemed to expand around me. Caulfield had included a few photos of the session, held at the Segerstrom Center, in Costa Mesa, California. When I looked at them—by George, that's exactly what I'd heard. Not only was I completely transfixed: I kept thinking, If others could only hear this, hi-rez multichannel music would take off.

Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/music-round-77-page-2#GGHYmAJ08g3yK1DS.99

[Iain]

This should be very interesting!

 

 

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]27110[/ATTACH]

 

Native DSD Mastering Engineer Tom Caulfield (aka "Tailspn") monitoring the Matheson recording session (photo by Cooper Bates)

 

"Coming next week: the first Surround Sound recording from Yarlung Artists to Native DSD Music in DSD 256! Fans of Yarlung's fine albums are going to really love this one.

 

..."

 

That's amazing if true. What's the quote source?

[tailspn]

That's amazing if true. What's the quote source?

 

The Matheson Yarlung recordings are of two different sessions; The Segerstrom Center for the Recording Arts Matheson String Quartet and Time Alone, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall concert recording of the Matheson Violin Concerto. These three pieces will be offered in three different albums, each containing the same three piece content; Stereo (recorded in DSD256 by Bob Attiyeh using the AKG C24 stereo microphone), multichannel (recorded in DSD256 by myself using five DPA 4006A microphones in an ITU alignment), and SonoruS Holographic (recorded to tape by Arian Jansen using the C24 and two Schoeps surround mics, presented in 2 channel). While the Segerstrom recorded content for each album type is of different recording hardware, the CSO Matheson Violin Concerto is for each from the same 32 track master CSO concert recording, mixed to either stereo, multichannel, or Holographic.

 

I've no idea who the quote source is, but it is true. The music itself is highly recommended, by me. Sample it at nativedsd.com

 

Both the stereo and multichannel albums are being offered in DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 and DXD converted from the original DSD256 edited masters. The SonoruS Holographic is also offered in the three DSD bit rates and DXD from the original DXD edited master from the tape transfer.

[Yarlung Records]

This is an exciting week for us at Yarlung Records. My friend the engineer Tom Caulfield lighted a fire under us when he recommended we expand to include 5.0 surround sound, and I'm delighted that we have. These November sessions capturing the String Quartet and song cycle for the Matheson project went so well that Tom returned to work with us again last March (same beautiful concert hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts) for three more albums, scheduled to come out later this year.

 

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy James Matheson. It is exciting superbly composed music, well performed. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts violin soloist Baird Dodge and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Matheson's violin concerto, Color Field Quartet performs Matheson's first string quartet, and soprano Laura Strickling and pianist Thomas Sauer perform the enchanting and very beautiful song cycle Times Alone.

 

All of this comes to you thanks to our tireless team at Yarlung Records, including Tom Caulfield our surround sound recording engineer, Arian Jansen who created our first SonoruS Holographic Imaging version of an album, our family at NativeDSD and our valiant executive producers J and Helen Schlichting, who not only underwrote this recording but commissioned the Matheson string quartet. I look forward to hearing what you think!

 

https://yarlungrecords.nativedsd.com/albums/YAR25670DSD-james-matheson

[chrille]

This is an exciting week for us at Yarlung Records. My friend the engineer Tom Caulfield lighted a fire under us when he recommended we expand to include 5.0 surround sound, and I'm delighted that we have. These November sessions capturing the String Quartet and song cycle for the Matheson project went so well that Tom returned to work with us again last March (same beautiful concert hall at Segerstrom Center for the Arts) for three more albums, scheduled to come out later this year.

 

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy James Matheson. It is exciting superbly composed music, well performed. Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts violin soloist Baird Dodge and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Matheson's violin concerto, Color Field Quartet performs Matheson's first string quartet, and soprano Laura Strickling and pianist Thomas Sauer perform the enchanting and very beautiful song cycle Times Alone.

 

All of this comes to you thanks to our tireless team at Yarlung Records, including Tom Caulfield our surround sound recording engineer, Arian Jansen who created our first SonoruS Holographic Imaging version of an album, our family at NativeDSD and our valiant executive producers J and Helen Schlichting, who not only underwrote this recording but commissioned the Matheson string quartet. I look forward to hearing what you think!

 

https://yarlungrecords.nativedsd.com/albums/YAR25670DSD-james-matheson

 

I tried your Sonorus test downloads and found them interesting enough to try the full album in its Sonorus form since I don't have a mch system.

But although clearly different and freer more 3D sounding than the stereo samples I also noted that levels had not been set between the two.

Via my electrostatic speakers based system the stereo sample of the Sibelius trio sounded louder in stereo than the Sonorus sample. And one was 24/96 and the other 24/88.2.

As expected I suppose from a demo of this kind,the stereo sounded flatter and lacking in depth and air compared to the Sonorus which seemed to be better released from the flat image of the stereo.

'How was the stereo version mic´d?

I have both Blumlein and DECCA tree, mic´d stereo recordings with more depth than this one.

And why were the full orchestra samples so very short?

Over 8 minutes of red winged blackbirds and insects but only about 30s of orchestral music.

But it was interesting too to hear the solo violin with a "helicopter circling around" via only two speakers.

Is the Bach available as Sonorus download without the " circling helicopter"?

It sounded like an interesting interpretation of very good music indeed.

I had to turn off my system during a thunderstorm today.

But tonight I hope to hear what this "Sonorus Holographic "thing is all about with a full orchestra.

It did a reasonably good job of separating the three instruments in the Sibelius Trio with fewer masking effects than the stereo. But will it really be able to do that with all the complexity and density of an orchestra and a solo violin?

[Yarlung Records]

I tried your Sonorus test downloads and found them interesting enough to try the full album in its Sonorus form since I don't have a mch system.

But although clearly different and freer more 3D sounding than the stereo samples I also noted that levels had not been set between the two.

Via my electrostatic speakers based system the stereo sample of the Sibelius trio sounded louder in stereo than the Sonorus sample. And one was 24/96 and the other 24/88.2.

As expected I suppose from a demo of this kind,the stereo sounded flatter and lacking in depth and air compared to the Sonorus which seemed to be better released from the flat image of the stereo.

'How was the stereo version mic´d?

I have both Blumlein and DECCA tree, mic´d stereo recordings with more depth than this one.

And why were the full orchestra samples so very short?

Over 8 minutes of red winged blackbirds and insects but only about 30s of orchestral music.

But it was interesting too to hear the solo violin with a "helicopter circling around" via only two speakers.

Is the Bach available as Sonorus download without the " circling helicopter"?

It sounded like an interesting interpretation of very good music indeed.

I had to turn off my system during a thunderstorm today.

But tonight I hope to hear what this "Sonorus Holographic "thing is all about with a full orchestra.

It did a reasonably good job of separating the three instruments in the Sibelius Trio with fewer masking effects than the stereo. But will it really be able to do that with all the complexity and density of an orchestra and a solo violin?

 

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, chrille. Let me take a stab at responding to some of these questions and comments. (As a note to other readers, your questions refer to the high res files available on HDTracks in PCM, but this same album is available in 256fs DSD on NativeDSD).

 

The easiest first: Theodore Presser is Jim Matheson's publisher. The company is fantastic, and gave us permission to exceed the standard 30 second rule for music not in the public domain. Normally, copyrighted music is limited to 30 seconds for marketing purposes for demos like this, unless the music is purchased. We wanted you to be able to hear more than 30 seconds, which the publisher graciously permitted in this case.

 

Depending on your system, the effects of hearing a full orchestra in SonoruS Holographic Imaging might be more impressive than listening to chamber music, chrille, not less. The sheer size of the ensemble in front of you enables the analog process within Holographic Imaging to capture and reproduce the width and depth in impressive ways.

 

The levels are indeed different among our three formats for the Matheson recording. The music comes from three different originals, and while they should be relatively adjusted between the three pieces in each format, the levels were chosen and set by three different engineers, me in the case of the stereo recording, Arian Jansen and me in the case of the SonoruS Holographic Imaging version, and Tom Caulfield in the case of the surround sound version.

 

The microphone for the stereo version of the snippet from the Sibelius piano trio on the www.yarlungrecords.com/sonorus webpage is the AKG C-24.

 

Petteri Iivonen is indeed an exceptional violinist, and his performance of the Chaconne from Bach's D Minor Partita remains one of my all-time favorites on recording. We took this piece of the Chaconne from his debut album, titled Art of the Violin:

 

goo.gl/0iME9H

 

On DSD, the full D Minor Partita has not been released yet, but thanks to Gary Koh from Genesis Advanced Technologies, the full Chaconne is available on our second volume of Yarlung's Tenth Anniversary album:

 

goo.gl/Zd7ETd

 

If we see real enthusiasm for SonoruS Holographic Imaging from our initial offering (the James Matheson project) we will continue to release material in this format, including perhaps a version of the entire Art of the Violin at a later date. I enjoy SonoruS Holographic Imaging very much, and for people like you, chrille, who want an immersive 3D music experience from two speakers, there may be nothing better!

 

For people reading this post, you can see and hear what chrille is asking about at www.yarlungrecords.com/sonorus

 

Thanks!

--Bob

[chrille]

Thanks for your thoughtful questions, chrille. Let me take a stab at responding to some of these questions and comments. (As a note to other readers, your questions refer to the high res files available on HDTracks in PCM, but this same album is available in 256fs DSD on NativeDSD).

 

The easiest first: Theodore Presser is Jim Matheson's publisher. The company is fantastic, and gave us permission to exceed the standard 30 second rule for music not in the public domain. Normally, copyrighted music is limited to 30 seconds for marketing purposes for demos like this, unless the music is purchased. We wanted you to be able to hear more than 30 seconds, which the publisher graciously permitted in this case.

 

Depending on your system, the effects of hearing a full orchestra in SonoruS Holographic Imaging might be more impressive than listening to chamber music, chrille, not less. The sheer size of the ensemble in front of you enables the analog process within Holographic Imaging to capture and reproduce the width and depth in impressive ways.

 

The levels are indeed different among our three formats for the Matheson recording. The music comes from three different originals, and while they should be relatively adjusted between the three pieces in each format, the levels were chosen and set by three different engineers, me in the case of the stereo recording, Arian Jansen and me in the case of the SonoruS Holographic Imaging version, and Tom Caulfield in the case of the surround sound version.

 

The microphone for the stereo version of the snippet from the Sibelius piano trio on the www.yarlungrecords.com/sonorus webpage is the AKG C-24.

 

Petteri Iivonen is indeed an exceptional violinist, and his performance of the Chaconne from Bach's D Minor Partita remains one of my all-time favorites on recording. We took this piece of the Chaconne from his debut album, titled Art of the Violin:

 

goo.gl/0iME9H

 

On DSD, the full D Minor Partita has not been released yet, but thanks to Gary Koh from Genesis Advanced Technologies, the full Chaconne is available on our second volume of Yarlung's Tenth Anniversary album:

 

goo.gl/Zd7ETd

 

If we see real enthusiasm for SonoruS Holographic Imaging from our initial offering (the James Matheson project) we will continue to release material in this format, including perhaps a version of the entire Art of the Violin at a later date. I enjoy SonoruS Holographic Imaging very much, and for people like you, chrille, who want an immersive 3D music experience from two speakers, there may be nothing better!

 

For people reading this post, you can see and hear what chrille is asking about at www.yarlungrecords.com/sonorus

 

Thanks!

--Bob

 

Hello Bob and thanks for your response to my questions,although the difference in levels between tracks I referred to, was actually the snippets in stereo and sonorus from the Sibelius test tracks which by the way I did not get via HD tracks but by clicking the link on nativeDSD.com´s download of this album which opened Yarlung´s homesite.

Anyway I have now listened to the whole album ten times in the past four days. And I have to say it is an addictive album with truly great music very well performed and recorded as heard via my system in its Sonorus Holographic form.

I like all three works on the album. But the two chamber works seem to be where Sonorus works absolutely best via my electrostatic speakers where I get a very coherent soundstage that sort of brings me to the acoustic of the concert hall more than the players in my room.

The string quartet is a fascinating work with wonderful string sonorities and full of deep emotions.

The songs are also great and both the solist and the pianist are impressive.

And the recording,especially when listening with closed eyes, again transports me to what sounds like a very clear coherent acoustic indeed.

In the violin concerto ,although also very well recorded, I hear what sounds like multimic artifacts a few times ,particularly around 4 minutes into the last movement where brass and percussion sound a wee bit bit blurred sideways along the back of the hall.

Still a great recording though. And,perhaps more importantly, a stunning work. I just can´t get enough of it.

Equally great to see Esa Pekka Salonen,a very good composer in his own right, supporting a fellow composer in this project.

He has done the same for the Swedish composer Anders Hillborg´s music among others.

All in all then, a great addition to my collection of contemporary music.

I am looking forward to more albums of great music from your enterprising label,hopefully both simply mic´d and available as Sonorus Holographic downloads too.

I don´t understand how you do it. But it really does expand the perceived soundstage, not only width and depth wise but instruments also seem to project better forward as in a real live concert.

PS Nice covershot of Esa Pekka Salonen too.

Cheers Chris

[Yarlung Records]

...I am looking forward to more albums of great music from your enterprising label,hopefully both simply mic´d and available as Sonorus Holographic downloads too.

I don´t understand how you do it. But it really does expand the perceived soundstage, not only width and depth wise but instruments also seem to project better forward as in a real live concert.

PS Nice covershot of Esa Pekka Salonen too.

Cheers Chris

 

Thank you Chris!

 

We do indeed want to release more albums that utilize SonoruS Holographic Imaging.

 

As to "how" the SonoruS system works, I'd like to refer you to an article Arian Jansen wrote for David Robinson in PFO in 2012. Starting under the image, Arian discusses why he created Holographic Imaging, and what it does: goo.gl/hcQEqB (By the way! Note the posters on the wall behind Arian. These are Yarlung album covers hung on the SonoruS room at The Show in Newport, the year SonoruS and Yarlung won the Audio Oasis Award). Here is more from the SonoruS website: goo.gl/i5Kywu

 

Chris, since you enjoy how SonoruS unravels the stereo image so successfully, please spread the word so other record companies can use this technology as well. Yarlung doesn't "own" this. We are just lucky enough to be able to take advantage of what Arian designed.

 

Cheers and happy upcoming Fourth of July,

 

Bob