Patricia Barber's "Higher" - Now in Stereo & 5.1 Surround Sound DSD & DXD

[bmoura]

Patricia Barber's album "Higher" is now available for download in DSD and DXD Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound.

 

 

https://www.nativedsd.com/albums/IMP7001D-higher

 

[JoeWhip]

Have the CD and it sounds great as one would expect with Jim Anderson. I get that the DXD will not be cheap as that is the master. But DSD 512 priced $10 more? I would rather have the master or a PCM derivative of it.

[ray-dude]

I was very disappointed when Native DSD jacked their prices when they had their store wide sale. I buy a LOT of music, but hard to justify this kind of premium.  I hope they reconsider their pricing strategy. 

[JoeWhip]

I agree. I got the new Scott Hamilton Fone release last week. Sounds great but expensive for DSD64 which I convert to PCM anyway for playback.

[tailspn]

Hi Guys,

 

I'm only the mastering engineer at NativeDSD, so please don't shoot the messenger. I thought it may be useful to give some background on the production of the DSD512 of Higher. I received from Anderson Audio the stereo and surround MTFF files (Merging Technologies File Format) of this album as a 32 bit DXD (358.2KHz PCM) file. From it, in addition to producing the DXD FLAC and DSD64, 128, and 256 deliverables, I also had to make a 32 bit WAV file. This was required so as not to reduce the bit resolution when inputting into HQPlayer Pro, because the FLAC is limited to 24 bits by specification. All of this was performed in Merging's Album Publishing (AP), and took about four hours, including metadata tagging created by Ted Brady.

 

The 32 bit WAV was then used as a source file for HQPlayer Pro, to produce the DSD512 using the Jussi recommended poly-sync-xtr-lp filter and ASDM7EC type modulator. Due to several less than 0.5dB over-modulation hits, not seen in the AP logs due to as Jussi explains:

 

"When you start with PCM that is close or at 0 dB peak, the lower the source
rate and higher the output rate (conversion factor), the higher the
inter-sample overs are also. Many PCM productions have a problem that
they are normalized to 0 dBFS peak. But the problem with this is that
the peak sample sitting at 0 dBFS rarely happens to coincide to the
actual highest signal peak. When this is then reconstructed at higher
precision the actual waveform can reach +3 dB higher than highest sample
value. And this is already before any digital clipping is involved! This
to some extent also applies to lower DSD rates like DSD64 for example." 

 

Because of those overmodulation hits, not discovered until the DSD512 production process is completed,  the DSD512 production took three passes, and about nine hours.

 

Based on previous DSD512 production sales, and considering the popularity of this album, we're forecasting about twenty-five DSD512 sales, or about twice the average. I'm certain knowing this, you can do the math.

 

Thanks,

Tom

[flkin]

Thanks @tailspn for the detailed explanation of the mastering process with HQPlayer Pro. During playback is HQP the best option for decoding the DSD512 file and would it be best with the ploy-sinc-xtr-lp and ASDM7EC settings? Or should playback avoid any further filtering? Since the file already has HQP filtering, I’m concerned that playback with the filters will end up filtering the music twice. Or is my understanding incorrect?

[tailspn]

Hi flkin, filters and modulators are only employed when converting from one format to another, or within a format, one rate to another.The DSD512 recording of Higher has already been converted from its 352.8KHz 32 bit PCM edited master to .dsf DSD512 files, so no decoding is required. The recording will play like any other DSD .dsf file in a DAC capable of playing DSD512.

 

[ted_b]

On 8/21/2020 at 5:44 PM, ray-dude said:

I was very disappointed when Native DSD jacked their prices when they had their store wide sale. I buy a LOT of music, but hard to justify this kind of premium.  I hope they reconsider their pricing strategy. 

??  NativeDSD lowered the pricing for DSD64 almost a year ago (Nov 2019).  Any "jacking" is due to exchange rates, not the site.  As with any other music site, the higher rates cost more.

[danadam]

On 8/22/2020 at 3:15 AM, tailspn said:

From it, in addition to producing the DXD FLAC and DSD64, 128, and 256 deliverables, I also had to make a 32 bit WAV file. [...] All of this was performed in Merging's Album Publishing (AP), and took about four hours, including metadata tagging created by Ted Brady.

 

The 32 bit WAV was then used as a source file for HQPlayer Pro, to produce the DSD512 [...]

 

Because of those overmodulation hits, not discovered until the DSD512 production process is completed,  the DSD512 production took three passes, and about nine hours.

Out of curiosity, what is the peak level for some chosen track in each format?

[tailspn]

As I described in my previous post, all NativeDSD deliverables were produced from the label supplied 32 bit 352.8KHz PCM (DXD) edited master(s). There was no modification of the levels of the edited master(s). The full scale peak levels in all the Pyramix Album Publishing produced DSD deliverables were below the maximum +3.1 dB specification. The  max FS peak of the DSD FLAC was +0.02 dB. The HQPlayer Pro produced DSD512 peak FS level was 0dB after three passes.

 

HQPlayer Pro has subsequently been revised, removing the soft limit feature above 0dB for DSD production. In the future, NativeDSD DSD512 deliverables will conform to the DSD 3.1 max peak FS specification.

[tailspn]

12 minutes ago, tailspn said:

 

 

[Joerg D]

Hello
I also think the Higher - Album is very good. But my Dac can not output DSD but PCM up to 192 khz. Can you tell me which settings I have to do in HQplayer 4 to play it. So far it only works when I convert DSD with Roon to PCM. But I would rather do it with Hqplayer than with Roon

Thanks a lot
Joerg

[semente]

4 hours ago, Joerg D said:

Hello
I also think the Higher - Album is very good. But my Dac can not output DSD but PCM up to 192 khz. Can you tell me which settings I have to do in HQplayer 4 to play it. So far it only works when I convert DSD with Roon to PCM. But I would rather do it with Hqplayer than with Roon

Thanks a lot
Joerg

 

Set:

 

DAC Bits -> to Default (or max. admited by your DAC if you know it)

(under PCM Defaults)

Filter -> to whatever you like (f.e. poly-sync-xtr-lp mentioned above)

Dither -> to NS1

Sample Rate -> to 192 khz

Auto Rate Family -> unchecked (?)

Max Volume -> to -3dB (?)

[ericuco]

5 hours ago, Joerg D said:

Hello
I also think the Higher - Album is very good. But my Dac can not output DSD but PCM up to 192 khz. Can you tell me which settings I have to do in HQplayer 4 to play it. So far it only works when I convert DSD with Roon to PCM. But I would rather do it with Hqplayer than with Roon

Thanks a lot
Joerg

Besides the advice above, you need to set “Default Output Mode” to “PCM” in the Settings panel. This will force HQP to ALWAYS output PCM regardless of the source file.

[asdf1000]

On 8/22/2020 at 11:13 PM, tailspn said:

Hi flkin, filters and modulators are only employed when converting from one format to another, or within a format, one rate to another.The DSD512 recording of Higher has already been converted from its 352.8KHz 32 bit PCM edited master to .dsf DSD512 files, so no decoding is required. The recording will play like any other DSD .dsf file in a DAC capable of playing DSD512.

 

Hi @tailspn

 

After you've created the DSD512 files, what DAC are you using to playback these files?

 

Since the Merging gear supports maximum DSD256.

 

Thanks !

 

[bmoura]

17 hours ago, asdf1000 said:

 

Hi @tailspn

 

After you've created the DSD512 files, what DAC are you using to playback these files?

 

Since the Merging gear supports maximum DSD256.

 

Thanks !

 

 

I've used the iDSD Pro and iDSD Micro BL to play "Higher" and some of the NativeDSD Stereo DSD 512 music files.

Works and sounds great!

 

[asdf1000]

1 hour ago, bmoura said:

 

I've used the iDSD Pro and iDSD Micro BL to play "Higher" and some of the NativeDSD Stereo DSD 512 music files.

Works and sounds great!

 

 

Yes I had those 2 DAC/headamps also.

 

I was more curious was tailspn uses himself, to playback DSD512 files for his work (mastering) purposes.

[mwheelerk]

I'm a big Patricia Barber fan.  Her album Modern Cool was the last album I ever bought based on hearing a song on the radio in 1998.  I have nine of her albums each one that I like to varying degrees.  However the album Higher I found no connection with and was disappointed.  But, that's not unusual even for artist that you love.

Quote

 

 

[JoeWhip]

There are a couple of great tunes on this album but it is not my favorite. My go to album for her is and has always been Nightclub. She will be recording a follow up to Nightclub in 2021. Jim Anderson will be addressing our audio group in December and he will be asked about this!

[CJH]

Can we purchase the DXD 32 bit WAV version?

CJH