Digital recording made in 1988 now available as 24/96

[FIndingit]

I wonder. Some older Harmonia Mundi recordings have been released recently as hires. DDD albums from 1988, how was the recording technology back then?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Do you have a specific example?

[Apollo]

I have 3 SACD albums from Harmonia Mundi, the oldest one releaed in 1992 (recorded in 1980).

I would need to check if these are not just upsampled but I assume not.

 

 

[FIndingit]

This first caught my attention 

https://www.qobuz.com/fi-en/album/bach-advent-cantatas-philippe-herreweghe-la-chapelle-royale-collegium-vocale-gent/x374hzwl1welb

 

Originally released 1988, no leaflet available. Definitely was originally a DDD cd. 

[Kal Rubinson]

I have the Paniagua: La Folia (performed and recorded in 1980) in multichannel DSD!

[FIndingit]

37 minutes ago, FIndingit said:

This first caught my attention 

https://www.qobuz.com/fi-en/album/bach-advent-cantatas-philippe-herreweghe-la-chapelle-royale-collegium-vocale-gent/x374hzwl1welb

 

Originally released 1988, no leaflet available. Definitely was originally a DDD cd. 

This one even has the same dropout in track 8 as the older 16/44 version. Volume level is a little higher. 

[Apollo]

This album in 96kHz/24bit is indeed rather strange.

 

On the Harmonia Mundi website, only the CD-version is mentioned (sold out).

Harmonia Mundi does not sell downloads on its site either.

 

Maybe you can ask Harmonia Mundi about it?

[ecwl]

I don’t understand why any of this is strange.

DDD just means Digitally Recorded, Digitally Mixed and Digital release format on CD

So it’s easily conceivable that this Bach Advent Cantatas “CD” was originally recorded in 24/96, mixed in 24/96 and then down sampled to CD 16/44 and released on CD.

Similarly, or all the DSD/SACD albums, it’s possible the album was recorded on DSD format but it’s also possible that the album was recorded in 24/96 format and then mixed in 24/96 and then converted to DSD/SACD for release.

 

Reading about history of ADC, it sounds like in the 1980s, the first ADCs can only handle 16-18 bits. And by the 1990s, there are more ADCs with higher bit depth. But either way, if the original recording was 18 bits, or 20 bits, it would nowadays be mixed in 24 bits. So the final format would be in 24 bits, rather than 16 bits.

[The Computer Audiophile]

10 minutes ago, ecwl said:

I don’t understand why any of this is strange.

DDD just means Digitally Recorded, Digitally Mixed and Digital release format on CD

So it’s easily conceivable that this Bach Advent Cantatas “CD” was originally recorded in 24/96, mixed in 24/96 and then down sampled to CD 16/44 and released on CD.

Similarly, or all the DSD/SACD albums, it’s possible the album was recorded on DSD format but it’s also possible that the album was recorded in 24/96 format and then mixed in 24/96 and then converted to DSD/SACD for release.

 

Reading about history of ADC, it sounds like in the 1980s, the first ADCs can only handle 16-18 bits. And by the 1990s, there are more ADCs with higher bit depth. But either way, if the original recording was 18 bits, or 20 bits, it would nowadays be mixed in 24 bits. So the final format would be in 24 bits, rather than 16 bits.

This is why we need to talk about specific recordings when we discuss this topic.