24bit 乐趣 [复制链接]

一个乐团，两位作曲家的作品，三个指挥，四套录音。

以点见面，当今的艺术家们对古典作品的理解诠释，大概粗略了解。

作为爱乐者，总希望听到新颖的解读；作为音响工作者，也想知道现代录音技术到底去到哪一境界。

故去的大师们留下精彩录音给世人，在世艺术家们又何尝不想呢？

历史的车轮滚滚向前，谁都阻挡不了......

顶一下除了E版之外的一群保守落后大烧友！！！

PC HI-FI很快将会崭露头脚，全面取代烧友家中的CD机就是这一、二年的事。

靠老外是没门的，好点的都要一两万，只有靠中国人。

呵呵，只顶一帖，不再鸹噪，呵呵呵-----------

楼上的老哥继续您的春秋大梦吧。

5．Stravinsky Apollon musageete & Pulcinella Suite，Alexander Janiczek，Chamber Orchestra of Europe，24bit ／192kHz

6．Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5，Artur Pizarro，Sir Charles Mackerras，Scottish Chamber Orchestra，24bit ／ 192kHz

两套24bit ／ 192kHz Studio Master ，可充分体验现代数码录音的精妙，作品诠释水平就见人见智了。

Artur Pizarro 09年来过星海演出，媒体报道说Artur Pizarro乃当今的贝多芬代言人......

听过Artur Pizarro这套Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5后，“贝多芬代言人”这称号相当可笑。

比较差不多同时期的Richard Goode Beethoven The Complete Piano Concertos，Artur Pizarro这套Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5唉......

这些东西哪里去买啊/。。。

原帖由 jwm 于 2010-1-4 10:08:00 发表 这些东西哪里去买啊/。。。

http://www.linnrecords.com/

7．Handel Messiah (Dublin Version, 1742)，John Butt，Dunedin Consort & Players，24bit ／88.2kHz










极之精彩的Messiah，Dunedin Consort & Players高水平的解读悦耳赏心。

这套录音有出180g LP，USD100，LP粉不容错过。

看不出高规格音乐的商业潜力，所以对高规格音乐不看好。

什么商业潜力之类的事，那是唱片公司考虑的，与偶无关。

happy，happy me就行了。

按图索骥， LINN RECORDS 的DSD Mixing & Mastering应该是SONY的......

接下去，Acousence......


From Acousence


METHODS

Even if musical recording in the digital age appears to be more straightforward and more readily available than ever before, musical recordings that deliver the same plastic, realistic, richly coloured sound as an intense musical experience still require special know-how, in terms both of their conception and of the methods and technology used.

In conceptual terms, this starts of course not only in the choice of performers, but also in the choice of production type – live, for example. But equally all decisions in the production process are systematically based on our own product philosophy. These conceal some things that have long ceased to be taken for granted, such as the systematic optimisation of the acoustic situation in front of the microphone, or the positioning of the microphone itself, instead of always looking first for technical solutions. This is equally apparent in the aspiration to record music in the longest possible coherent passages, as this is the only way the performers are able to achieve a high level of musical performance. No editing of the music is undertaken simply out of a desire to achieve perfection if this then reduces the musical effect: there is no compensation for lack of ability by frequent editing. For perfection and expert interpretation alone are not ultimately the goal; they are only means to an end.

  
TECHNOLOGY

Talking about technology in a musical context often seems superfluous or insulting to musicians and music lovers. However, recording of music is indeed in the first instance a technical process. However, this process must be highly complex if it is to do full justice to the highly complex capacities of human auditory perception and convey the entirety of the content perceived when we hear music directly. To retain not just the notes on the sheet, but also the sound structures, the atmosphere and the effect of the performance does indeed also require some very ingenious technical equipment.

But it is the very introduction of digital audio technology that has initiated increasing optimisation towards lighter and cheaper equipment. Nevertheless, this has resulted in a disregard for many important characteristics of our auditory perception system. At ACOUSENCE we have always undertaken very extensive "fundamental research" to find out what the parameters are that are responsible for communicating the most subtle musical details and therefore responsible for the desired intensity of musical experience. This has led to a recording system being developed and continually refined over the years consisting of the best components from the analog and digital worlds.

First come the microphones. Anything not picked up here cannot be reconstructed later, however hard you try. For this reason, we have at our disposal microphones from all the leading manufacturers. We have however always used Microtech Gefell (the original NEUMANN company) and NEUMANN microphones in central positions, because these create a marvellously plastic and highly musical pattern of sound. There are many microphones that are outstanding in technical terms, and which often sound nice per se; but here it is important to draw the line between “measure microphones” and “music microphones”.
In our views on microphones, we do not belong to the "super purists" who generally prefer to work with just two microphones – this can never result in a recording that is artistically of a high standard. Equally, however, too many microphones also spoil the sound and the desired effect too easily, because the signals have a negative reciprocal effect and the natural bodies of sound are destroyed.
For us the ideal is a halfway house. The major part of the sound pattern is provided by a “main microphone system”, consisting of 5-7 microphones, where on the one hand the body of sound is very realistically reproduced, and on the other there is enough creative freedom to adapt the performance situation to the sound medium situation. Otherwise, as few spot microphones (additional microphones in the immediate vicinity of individual instruments or instrument groups) as possible are used, but their contribution is kept to a minimum. They generally only serve to top off the sound or adjust the balance, where this cannot be achieved naturally.

Amplification of the microphone signals, a particularly sensitive part of the recording chain, is carried out by an exceedingly intricate own-build amplifier of fully symmetrical class A design, with a dynamic range over 130 dB, audio bandwidth of around 2 MHz and an extremely complex power supply.

Recording is digital, but is never carried out at standard sampling rates. Contrary to the view enshrined in the development of the CD and specification of the industry digital standard of around 25 years ago, we know today that human auditory perception can evaluate many more minute details in the time domain than can be detected within the frequency transmission range of standard digital technology (the smaller the details the higher the frequencies needed). For this reason we always use digital recording formats with a 96 kHz sampling rate for multi-track recording (since 2009 also 192kHz) and 192 kHz as master format. The converters used – APOGEE AD16X and DA16X – have been audiometrically selected specifically for their natural sound quality and musicality. In terms of a digital recording system, PYRAMIX from MERGING TECHNOLOGIES is used, which is well known for the integrity of its sound quality. As an aside: The SACD’s DSD technology is ostensibly superior from a theoretical viewpoint, however this is evidently not the case in actual practice, since the resolution in the time domain for real music signals is poorer that that of conventional PCM technology in 96 kHz and 192 kHz, in particular. This is why we do not use any DSD technology in the production chain. Only one exception because of a highly optimized mastering technique: For SACD production direct transfer from analog mixing desk sum to DSD, please find more information here.

The mix from the individual microphone signals, i.e., the creation of the final sound pattern, is performed with an analog mixing console that has been extensively modified along high-fidelity lines, with fully symmetrical bus cabling and an audio bandwidth of around 750 kHz. It is of AMEK BCIII type. Its equipment levels are pretty spartan, but, due to short signal transfer and a design taken from the heyday of analog audio technology, it provides outstanding signal processing and summation of the minutest details that, in terms of time as well, is so exact as to surpass the potential of any digital mixing console.

The stereo mix created at the mixing console is then generally recorded at 24-bit/192 kHz resolution. This master is used later for generating the templates for manufacture of the audio media.

Our CDs therefore offer a comparative wealth of detail, both in terms of sound quality and musicality, since they are only converted to CD format in the very final instance. The sound quality and musicality of our DVD+FLACs, FLAC downloads, SACDs and classic vinyl records are of the very highest order, delivering a musical experience of breathtaking intensity.

ANALOGUE VINYL RECORDS
Though it may sound incredible to many, for the true LP connoisseur it is a self-evident truth: The classic vinyl LP can convey details of sound and music that a CD cannot reproduce. For this reason, we have now started to offer vinyl. Our ingenious combination of the best analog and digital technologies from 50 years of audio technology results in analog audio media with extraordinary qualities.

ARTISTIC FIDELITY | REFERENCE RECORDING
The vinyl record as a contemporary medium for culture-conscious music lovers
While some people are actually speaking seriously about the impossibility of hearing the differences between mp3 and CD and the music industry – conforming with the mainstream – is increasingly being deformed into a kind of "constant stream of sound to cover the silence" another community of listeners is forming for whom the sound carrier still represents a piece of culture and for whom listening to music is still seen as a special form of enjoyment. For audiophile hi-fi fans there is absolutely no question which medium represents the measure of all things. It is precisely these people who are currently causing a real renaissance for the good old vinyl record; just as much for its acoustic advantages as for its external appearance and the particular attraction of the apparatus on which it is played.
The CD marched to victory 25 years ago because it had some very tempting advantages from a superficial point of view. Some people always knew it but others – also including the younger generation who grew up only with CDs – are now re-discovering it: canned music can transport much more than we are accustomed to from the CD. This is true both for musical, artistic aspects and for matters of sound technology. The LP can transfer many more of the finest details of an artistic performance at the microphone and can therefore give the listener a far more intensive listening experience than a CD ever could. We must also never forget the lure that is emitted by the apparatus used to play the music, which is usually very aesthetically pleasing, the ‘celebration’ involved in placing a record on the turntable and, most importantly, the value that is expressed by the size and the design of a well-made record sleeve. The vinyl record in its entirety is simply a medium that awakens the emotions.
A development process
From around 1998 onwards ACOUSENCE was one of the companies at the forefront when digital technology finally entered into a stage of development with the introduction of 96 kHz technology in which it could be a real alternative to the best, professional, analogue recording technology. In the meantime, almost a decade later, there is no longer any question that the latest digital recording technology with double or quadruple sampling rate of 96kHz or 192kHz is superior to even the best analogue studio technology in every way and the achievable master quality has thus increased enormously.
Time, however, seems to have been at a standstill for 25 years with regard to consumer sound carriers. At ACOUSENCE it is, therefore, an everyday occurrence to observe how a substantial portion of the quality in the High Definition Master is lost on the sound carrier CD. Because we only convert to CD format at the very end of the production process our CDs do profit clearly from the high resolution studio technology – this is how these CDs display a really impressive spectrum of colour and high artistic and emotional potential – but we still have the desire to also transport the remaining facets of the master to our clients. Recent attempts by the industry to establish high resolution sound carriers such as SACD and DVD-Audio have not been widely accepted for various reasons: SACD is very problematic because of its sound in comparison to the analogue standard and DVD-Audio is rather the victim of a marketing error in the shadow of DVD-Video.
The situation today
Today there still remains a seemingly not so small group of people, the size of which appears to be increasing steadily, who are not willing to accept high-speed mass consumption via the ‘super-practical’ mp3 download as the future for all music consumers. These, obviously still particularly culture-conscious music fans are now looking more and more to the classic vinyl record. The largest group manifests itself – at least in the classical music sector – in strong demand for productions from the golden age of analogue recording technology from the end of the 1950s until the late 1970s, both second hand and as a current pressing. The direction that this demand is taking is surely partly related to a certain nostalgia but it is also partly inspired by the fantastic artistic quality of these old recordings. Since the introduction of digital technology and the CD this quality has been achieved increasingly rarely, approximately to the extent to which the budgets and the perceived value of the production process are diminishing.
Technical development versus music
An important aspect in technical terms is that CDs, including those with industry standard digital technology involving a 48 kHz sampling rate, disregard important capacities of the human auditory perception system (see next side). The technology was introduced in the 1980s primarily for reasons relating to the politics of the market. It has its own undoubted advantages and has indeed so far also acquired many satisfied customers. However it was not a true enhancement compared to analog technology and the LP, but – if we disregard for a moment the handier design and lower background noise – rather the opposite. Particularly in terms of musical potential proper it has even been a retrograde step.
The real evolution: ARTISTIC FIDELITY | REFERENCE RECORDING
As already stated there is, on the other hand, also a real evolution in audio technology and today’s digital technology is far better than its reputation in audiophile circles. In the end the real, future-oriented solution for LP fans cannot be to always be forced to fall back on older recordings.
At ACOUSENCE we therefore came up with the idea of manufacturing real, new productions of the good old LP using the very latest technical developments. In doing this there were to be no ideologically initiated prohibitions on thinking or purism at any price. Beyond the nostalgia of old recordings, which really is sometimes a bit romantically glorified, the LP should prove that it has the potential to become one of the most modern sound carriers in the best possible sense. Only the LP can transport the master quality that we are able to achieve with a sophisticated combination of the best technologies from the past 50 years of audio technology to the listener; seasoned with all the popular characteristics of a good, old, analogue record. A plea for a real future for the LP, which continues to be the best sound carrier, and also a plea for the sound carrier as a cultural artefact in its own right.
At the end of a process of approximately one year of preparation and optimisation we now have our first sample. The record will be released as part of our LIVING CONCERT SERIES, which is already established on CD but it will have the additional designation ARTISTIC FIDELITY | REFERENCE RECORDING, and it now really opens up whole new dimensions of music enjoyment: with a distinctly sonorous sound, majestic dynamics and rousing musical intensity.
Its content offers symphonic music of the highest quality: Dmitri Shostakovich’s 15th symphony in a recording with the Duisburg Philharmonic under Jonathan Darlington. The production was carried out, as with all the recordings in the LIVING CONCERT SERIES, under live conditions. This guarantees the highest possible level of genuineness, spontaneity and emotional expression. The performers prove their international class both artistically and technically.

Diagrams
These diagrams illustrate the technical superiority of the LP and therefore also provide a good illustration of the audible differences: (please click for a larger view):


x-axis = time axis / y-axis = frequency axis / colour = level (white = loud / black = quiet)
The diagram on the left shows the frequency distribution of the original master at 192kHz/24Bit.


The diagram on the right shows the signal that was re-recorded digitally, played by the LP. It is easy to see that the LP is capable of reproducing even the highest frequencies. Overall the playback on the LP is almost identical to the original!


On the CD the high frequency portions, from which our hearing can deduce the finest detailed information, are totally cut off.

These three diagrams show the grand tutti of the 2nd movement of our Shostakovich recording.

Background information on the production process
ARTISTIC FIDELITY is the name of the transmission system developed by ACOUSENCE that combines the best technologies in 50 years of audio recording, whether analogue or digital, into a pioneering complete product. At the end of the process the classic vinyl LP remains as the ideal medium for sound and musicality. The ARTISTIC FIDELITY LP is a very modern sound carrier in the best sense that sets new standards for high quality enjoyment of music and does this with the all the popular characteristics of the analogue record.

ARTISTIC FIDELITY in detail
The recordings are always made in concert halls with performers of the highest quality and usually in live conditions in order to obtain both artistically high quality results and a degree of intensity and atmosphere in front of the microphone.
The technical transfer chain begins with the best microphones, be they tubes or transistors, with or without transducer, but simply the right one for each purpose. The amplification of the microphone signals is carried out by a microphone amplifier that we have developed ourselves and that has the highest musical precision. The multi-track recording is made digitally in 192kHz/24Bit. Direct Metal Mastering (DMM) is used to cut the LP. This is now clearly the superior technological process with regard to detail resolution, fine dynamics, overall dynamics and signal to noise ratio thanks to the highest copper quality and it therefore transfers the quality of the sound and musicality of the master onto vinyl in the best possible way.

Analogue signal transfer and digital recording
Analogue technology is used at the decisive nodes in the production process, the conversion of the airborne noise into electrical power using the microphones and the microphone amplifier, the creation of the sound and the final musical result at the mixing desk and the cutting of the LP master because this technology is still superior in these processes.
The recording of the electrical signals, on the other hand, should join these nodes together in the most ideal manner. The recording is ideal if the playback delivers an exact copy of the signal from the recording. The latest digital technology at high sampling rates of 96kHz or even 192kHz allows the achievement of this ideal more perfectly than the best analogue tape recorder ever could, even under optimal working conditions. Conventional sampling rates of 48kHz or even 44,1kHz are, however, absolutely taboo as these rates already mean a first stage of data reduction and would therefore reduce the final LP product to absurdity.
The converters, which convert the analogue vibrations into digital signals, were selected in extensive listening tests and behave ideally in this sense. The format 96kHz/24Bit is sufficient in order to store the information of each individual microphone. At the analogue mixing desk the various individual signals are then combined to a higher information density, which is why the format 192KHz/24Bit is used for the stereo master. In the end this delivers exactly the same initial signal as the analogue mixing desk even with the most complex, highest quality, analogue initial signals.
The cutting machine for the LP thus receives the sum of the initial signal from the microphone almost without recording loss. Analogue tape, on the other hand, could provide interesting sound effects but would substantially falsify the recorded signal.
ACOUSENCE – the acoustic experience
We have now created a sound carrier that is completely faithful to our label philosophy ‘music as an acoustic experience’: the intensity and atmosphere of the best music paired with an unbelievably vivid and natural reproduction of the sound corpus in a space, great dynamics and the particular appeal of the black disk, but above all else the highest level of artistic fidelity.

DIGITAL MEDIA
CD
Today, the CD is the standard among audio media and is likely to remain so for some time. This is why our main production revolves around CDs. As described above, these benefit from our highly intricate production techniques. The latest recordings in particular probe the limits of what is feasible in CDs from a technical and musical point of view.

DVD+FLAC
High Resolution Audio: The DVD+FLAC Disc
DVD+FLAC Disc contains high resolution audio with 24 Bit/96kHz in two different formats: As a directly playable DVD and as FLAC files for the Media Player or Computer.
DVD can be played on all DVD players, wherein it can be run like a normal CD; no menu structures, which need a screen for their display.
Moreover, the disc contains the music in form of files in the widely circulated and popular FLAC format. These files can be read from any DVD ROM drives. FLAC stands for the abbreviation of “Free Lossless Audio Codec”. Corresponding to the concept that the comfort of the playing of music files is linked to the highest playback quality; not only the NO lossy data reduction as in case of MP3 and other similar formats, but also the significantly better audio quality as compared to the CD. These FLAC files can be played on a series of Hifi Media / network players or it can even be directly played from a Software media player on a PC or MAC.
Meanwhile all DVD+FLAC sets contain a second DVD(-ROM) with 24Bit/192kHz FLAC files and are called DVD+FLAC192 (formerly known as "Special Edition"). There are two versions available:
1. DVD+FLAC192
2. DVD+FLAC192 "Comparison Kit" - This version includes the standard audio CD version, too.
Advantages of high resolution audio with 24Bit/96kHz or 24Bit/192kHz


Image 1 – spectral display of a music passage over the time:
24/96 -Version above
CD-Version below

Love for music and the fascination for its efficacy centrally determine the operations at ACOUSENCE. Conventional digital signals cannot reproduce the musical procedures and natural sound structures over the time in a way, as it is felt by humans at the time of direct hearing of the music. A 24 Bit/96kHz digital signals offer significant advantages as a result of double effects. On the one hand, hardly any signals are truncated in higher frequency areas (see image 1), and on the other hand, the digital-technological broadening of impulse-like signals and subsequently the luting and veiling of fine musical and tonal details is almost not existent. (Image 2). In all, this attracts the attention to itself in a natural, musical and richly colored sound pattern. Experience the fascination of music in a new dimension!

Image 2 – area within which energy of an impulse is scattered, depending on the sampling rate (CD=red, 24/96=yellow)

SACD

We have not yet produced any SACDs at ACOUSENCE to date because we were initially far from convinced of the musical result when we performed our own experiments using the DSD (Direct Stream Digital) recording procedure for SACD, not to mention a strange tone colouration and unnaturalness in the timbre and tone structures of individual instruments. External productions that we have heard so far also gave no occasion for us to believe that anything else could be achieved with this medium at all.
As can be read in various professional articles written by ACOUSENCE's label chief, Ralf Koschnicke, temporal resolution plays a very significant role in music transfer, and in this respect, the DSD recording method of SACDs is open to criticism. Although the transmission range in this method is not sharply restricted by filters, as with a CD, the high frequency noise inherent in the system starts at 20 kHz already, so that the signal parts that are so essential to the musical fine structure are easily masked by signal noise, which ultimately leads to a similar result as the one effected by filtering in a CD.  
The concept behind the sound carrier itself, however, continues to be very interesting; it is simply a breeze to operate and presumably the SACD is indeed the last, honest-to-goodness sound carrier that we will get for the foreseeable future - if not for ever. New experiments have now been performed, in particular on the basis of the current theoretical considerations with regard to the relevance of the HF information for musical accuracy, that were aimed at having the signal noise, if it cannot be avoided in the first place, start as high up as possible (with respect to the starting frequency) and thereby having all parts of the useful signal above the signal noise, if possible, at least at CD-level, that is -90dB. We have succeeded in doing so by recording the sum output of the analogue mixer directly via DSD converters by the EMM Labs company in DSD format and by using the dynamic range, which is significantly higher compared to conventional PCM audio, up to the limits of the allowed SACD specifications in the process. Incidentally, it became very clear that the temporal resolution of detail suffers considerably and that the strange tone colouration mentioned above occurs already if the level is only 8db lower, for example.
Now that our first SACD has been mastered, the results are convincing all around. The chosen method in particular - recording in 4fs (24bit/192kHz) multi-track, analogue mixing, then converting it very puristically 1:1 in DSD on the SACD - appears to be the ideal way for this format. Based on the experience made, pre-production in DSD is just as inexpedient – for that, the 64fs DSD of the SACD is simply unsuitable due to the noise problem –  as the commonly used path via PCM digital audio in 48Khz or even 44.1kHz – in that case, the resolution is limited far below the potential of the SACD already.
On the two figures shown below, one can see a passage from our "DER SYMPHONISCHE RING“, digitalised both times for the purpose of graphical representation in 24/192 PCM but sent down the DSD ADDA route first. The measuring range is calibrated to 90dB=Black.

Normal DSD AD converter input level:


DSD AD converter input level that is 8db higher (this is how the SACD is mastered now):


For comparison, here is the version for our DVD+FLAC and FLAC downloads, digitalised in 24/192:


Just as the higher input level now results in the fact that even the high frequency components are largely not affected by noise, the acoustic result is just as impressive! 8dB, which appear to be so insignificant, alter the sound and the temporal accuracy immensely.
The passage displayed here shows the furious battle between Siegfried and the dragon. While the elemental forces can fully unfold in the specially mastered SACD, just like in the high-resolution 24/192 PCM version, the sound does not open up in the conventionally mastered DSD version as the sound level rises, and thus the utter brutality, which is fully intended here, cannot really develop to its full extent. Instead, the sound becomes ever smaller and more washed-out as the complexity of the overtone mix increases (higher volumes create more overtone components). One can literally hear how the fine structure that is found in the high frequency component is "drowned".

Wagner DER SYMPHONISCHE RING，Jonathan Darlington，Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra，24bit ／192kHz

Shostakovich Symphony No.15 and Mozart Haffner，Jonathan Darlington，Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra，24bit ／192kHz