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

[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

[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.

 

[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: