RE: HD Tracks

RE: HD Tracks

Posted by PAR on September 2, 2015 at 02:48:03

In Reply to: HD Tracks posted by cohnaudio on August 31, 2015 at 17:00:23:

The plain fact is that most masters that are delivered to the record companies are NOT hi-rez in the first place. They are 16/48 (resampled to 16/44.1 for release). That is going to be the case for most music originating over the past 20 years or longer. Higher sample rate material is usually a digital conversion from this and contains no additional information. However they can sound better to the consumer due to the ability to use digital filters for reproduction in their home equipment that act further outside of the audio band and more gently than the conventional brick wall at 22.5kHz.

More recently some studios are mastering in 24/96 but comparatively few and far between. The existence of higher sample rate mastering is still very limited. Also many pop recordings these days are produced using home studio equipment which may not always deliver optimum results by audiophile standards even if high resolution rates are chosen. Again they will probably be delivered as 16/48 files to the record company.

It is more likely to get true hi-rez copies of older analogue masters where a new digitised copy at, say, 24/96 or higher has been produced specifically for the audiophile market. However it is worth bearing in mind that such old recordings have their own limitations, noise and limited high frequency response being typical.

Most SACDs currently available of modern recordings are also made from lower resolution PCM masters upsampled to DSD. Even those recorded using DSD originally have to be converted to lower resolution PCM for editing and are then resampled to DSD for the SACD release. The best situation is when the PCM conversion has been made to DXD ( 24/352.8)for editing but this remains less frequent currently.

So it doesn't surprise me at all that some HD tracks sound the same as the CD.

http://theproaudiofiles.com/audio-mastering-format-and-deliv (Open in New Window)

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Follow Ups Full Thread

Topic - HD Tracks - cohnaudio 17:00:23 08/31/15 (26)

I don't worry about it - Bill Way 16:33:43 09/15/15 (0)

Paying for downloaded music is HUGE waste of time and money.... - Ivan303 20:38:29 09/04/15 (9)

RE: Paying for downloaded music is HUGE waste of time and money.... - Sprezza Tura 15:55:12 09/15/15 (1)

RE: "who are clueless, and have a compromised network and little understanding of the basics of bandwidth,... - Ivan303 07:40:49 09/19/15 (0)

RE: Paying for downloaded music is HUGE waste of time and money.... - Tony Lauck 18:41:57 09/14/15 (3)

RE: Paying for downloaded music is HUGE waste of time and money.... - Sprezza Tura 15:56:15 09/15/15 (2)

"I have purchased over 2000 downloads, from CD quality to DSD 128" - Chris from Lafayette 09:57:43 09/17/15 (1)

RE: "I have purchased over 2000 downloads, from CD quality to DSD 128" - Sprezza Tura 16:58:56 09/17/15 (0)

RE: Paying for downloaded music is HUGE waste of time and money.... - barondla 05:24:30 09/09/15 (0)

Never had a problem downloading any music file - tcell 10:22:31 09/05/15 (1)

Audite is in Europe.... - Ivan303 11:43:16 09/05/15 (0)

I've downloaded a lot of files from HD Tracks - all classical - Chris from Lafayette 10:42:32 09/02/15 (2)

They seem more interested in headphone listening. (NT) - Kal Rubinson 13:56:19 09/02/15 (1)

Then there's the site that's been PROMISING multi-channel downloads for years - Chris from Lafayette 16:06:45 09/02/15 (0)

Yes, their quality is very inconsistent - Dave_K 09:08:46 09/02/15 (1)

+1 - Awe-d-o-file 05:19:12 09/05/15 (0)

RE: HD Tracks - PAR 02:48:03 09/02/15 (1)

RE: Current state of pop music recording - bean 11:10:13 09/02/15 (0)

RE: HD Tracks - Mr_Steady 16:52:20 09/01/15 (2)

RE: HD Tracks - cohnaudio 18:09:19 09/01/15 (1)

RE: HD Tracks - Mr_Steady 18:20:04 09/01/15 (0)

I bought a really nice Handel Organ concerto CD the other day - mbnx01 14:16:49 09/01/15 (1)

I did something like that. - Dave Pogue 05:26:43 09/16/15 (0)

Yeah, the hires world as it exists right now frustrates me - tcell 08:39:08 09/01/15 (0)

RE: HD Tracks - smart845 08:10:31 09/01/15 (0)

This ought - JeffH 06:51:54 09/01/15 (0)

Follow Ups

RE: HD Tracks - PAR 02:48:03 09/02/15 (1)

RE: Current state of pop music recording - bean 11:10:13 09/02/15 (0)

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