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DVD-Audio News : April 1, 2004 .            Previous News    Comment Archive


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NEWS
April 1st, 2004
Would you believe it? The first post of 2004 is on April 1st. I could tell you that Sony and the DVD-A
fraternity have agreed on a single format for digital audio. The new format, "The Super Audio Compact
DVD-Audio Disc" (SACDAD for short) takes the best features of both, combining the 2.8MHZ sampling
rate of DSD/SACD with the 24bit resolution of Hi-Rez PCM/DVD-A.
6 channels of uncompressed SACDAD requires a datarate a little over 400 Mbps. This is a about 45
times the data rate for 6 channels of MLP 96/24. The disc uses uses holographic technology to
encode up to 50 layers of data per side. A new digital interface, "Ultrapipe", capable of 1200Mbps has
been developed specifically for SACDAD etc etc
I could tell you this but it would be untrue. (I must admit I was tempted!)

What is true however is the news that has compelled me to break a 5 month silence.
Busy would be an excuse that could easily be used for not posting but though true it's not the whole
story.
While there has not been shedloads of DVD-A news in the past months there has been news, not
least the entry of Universal into the fray. Other than that My DVD-A heros (basically all the non major
labels, AIX, HODIE, TACET, SILVERLINE, MDG etc) have been plugging away while there have been
one or two interesting players.
For me anyway I have been finding consumer DVD-A a bit boring for quite a while. What has certainly
not been boring has been the astounding expansion productwise of the Pro and Semi-Pro Hi-Rez PCM
recording market. Practically all new hardware PCM products of any merit are at least 96/24 with large
numbers of new 192/24 products appearing. 192/24 compatible software products of many types are
readily available from all the major players.
What there is not a lot of though is DVD-A authoring software. Especially the affordable type.
Minnetonka were the mouldbreakers in this area bringing DVD-A to the prosumer (what a great word!?!)
in the form of DiscWelder Steel followed by the the higher end DiscWelder Chrome and soon to be
joined by the eagerly awaited " anyone can do it for $99" DiscWelder Bronze. All good but other than
the "Minnetonka Three" you need to dig a lot deeper to buy one of the few other DVD-A authoring
options that exist.
The big news for me this year was the announcement yesterday(March 31st) by Steinberg on the
opening day of MusikMesse 2004 in Frankfurt of Version 5 of their WaveLab audio editing and
mastering software.
According to one press release:
"WaveLab 5 builds upon Steinberg's award winning editing and mastering software with a complete set
of DVD Audio mastering and authoring tools. The DVD Audio burning capabilities also include video
data, DVD Audio extraction, conversion, and archiving. Also added to version 5 is support for up to
eight audio channels throughout the entire signal chain for surround recording, editing, processing and
mastering, a "Smart" Video Thumbnail Track for editing audio for video, track-based insert effects,
multi-channel metering, and support for Steinberg Surround Edition plug-ins.
Steinberg News Page.
Another says pretty much the same :
Audio Editing and Mastering Suite
"The new version of Steinberg's renowned audio editing and mastering software comes with fantastic
new features including full DVD-A authoring. This includes support for all standard surround formats,
video thumbnail track, graphic and text tools for DVD audio as well as importing and burning function
for DVD video content. WaveLab 5 is a powerful all-in-one-solution for all tasks in professional audio
editing and mastering."
Pinnacle MusikMesse page

No pricing details have been mentioned. The current version Wavelab 4.01 costs $ 599.99 if that's
anything to go by. Wavelab 5 with DVD-A authoring and mastering capability! Big news!

I firmly believe this is an example of why consumer DVD-A has been slow to evolve into a meaningful
format. Sadly DVD-A is still in a "Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg?" scenario.
Hardware exists, people in the know have bought it. Software on the other hand is still relatively
scarce, those people in the know are screaming for it, but it still seems painfully slow in coming.
Every time the trickle of new discs looks like it's going to really pick up something happens.
Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Mike Oldfield, Blah blah blah.
A far more important question is "Where is the new music?" recorded by artists that are aware of
DVD-A and into it's creative possibilities. It would appear that a great many musicians, (just like large
numbers of music consumers) are in the main unaware of Hi-Rez PCM and particularly unaware of
DVD-Audio. This along with the relative rarity of Hi-Rez PCM
recording, mixing, editing, mastering etc hardware and software 'til recently is why there are not
thousands of titles per annum. 'Cause nobody's been recording for 5.1 DVD-A. They are still making CD's.
Thankfully Hi-Rez is now making big inroads at all levels of the recording ladder from the semi-pro
home studio to the state of the art facilities around the Globe. Surround is also getting press lately
particularly with the emphasis placed on it as a primary feature in products such as Nuendo 2,
ProTools and many others. This stuff is of vital importance to DVD-A!!
The only way DVD-A will ever acheive mainstream popularity, which it or any other "Major" audio
format needs to survive, is if large numbers of musicians and producers start wanting to make Hi-Rez
Surround and Stereo products as opposed to "Not Hi-Rez" CD's.
There is so much Re-Mastering we can take in fairness!
The Steinberg Wavelab 5 bit is not because it's April 1st!!!


November 5th, 2003
Two recent posts on the Audio Asylum DVD-Audiobahn by Mathias Myka of M7 Records point to
another pair of DVD-A titles about to arrive in Germany. The oddly titled "Blockbuster!" is from Naxos
and features works for flute and orchestra by W. A. Mozart. The Swedish Chamber Orchestra perform
Flute Concertos Nos 1 & 2 and Concerto for Flute and Harp. Patrick Gallois is the Flautist and Fabrice
Pierre plays the Harp.
The second title will be the first DVD-A release from the Marco Polo label. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's
music for the film "Robin Hood", is performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, conducted by
William Stromberg. Mathias also mentions these titles in the news section on the DVD-A page on the
M7 website. News (in German) is at the bottom of the page. Translation? Altavista BabelFish works.

November 4th, 2003
Mackie recently announced the rather interesting looking "dXb" production console. The console can
operate as a 192k digital mixing console with 36-channel I/O matrix or as a 96k digital mixing console
with 72-channel I/O matrix (with the ability to route any input to any output in both modes)
FireWire I/O cards facilitate streaming audio to a laptop or desktop . Dynamics and EQ processing is
available on every channel. Mixing and monitoring surround material utilizing up to 8 channels (i.e.. 7.1) is facilitated.
The dXb according to a Mackie press release "incorporates functionality from a number of Mackie
products including an onboard UAD-1 Powered Plug-Ins card and the ability to operate as a Mackie
Control Universal to provide tactical control for popular DAWs like Pro Tools™, Logic™, Digital
Performer™, Nuendo™, Cubase™, SONAR™ and more.”Physically, the dXb includes 24 channel
strips with 100mm Penny + Giles optical touch sensitive faders and two integrated 15-inch touch
screens—one for each bank of 12 faders. These screens are the mixer’s primary interface offering
access to important functions like send levels, inserts, routing, dynamics processing, surround
panning, metering, effects and much more. Also included is a tape-style transport with memory
location recall and weighted Jog/Shuttle wheel as well as a padded armrest with built-in mouse pad
and a control room section that allows for A/B monitoring, dual phones mixes and talkback."
The company say they hope for a release date in Q2, 2004 and that "A well-equipped dXb with a reasonable complement of I/O cards will be priced under $20,000 US."
Mackie dXb