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This is a first for the internet. 24-bit/96kHz remastered tape files available for downloading. This music is a MUST download. Some of these tracks are famous performances that are highly sought after. If you have an Off-Ramp Turbo or Turbo2, Off-Ramp I2S or a Transporter, you can play these native 24-bit/96kHz files. They are encoded in FLAC.The first samples (exerpts) are being offered for download are FREE at this URL:
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=14
Enjoy!
Steve N.
Empirical Audio
(not affiliated with highdeftapetransfers.com)
Follow Ups:
I listened to the tracks on my PC, connected to a Electrocompaniet ECD-1 DAC. The high resolution is clearly noticeable, but I hear a lot of (apparently) tape-related noises and sound variations, that can usually not be heard on professional transfers of vintage master tapes (any CD or SACD reissue of 1950's classical material).Are these typical flaws of open reel tape copies sold to the public, or is it due to the age, handling or playback equipment?
*** The high resolution is clearly noticeable, but I hear a lot of (apparently) tape-related noises and sound variations, that can usually not be heard on professional transfers of vintage master tapes (any CD or SACD reissue of 1950's classical material). ***A lot of so called "straight transfers" involve some sweetening and processing.
Yes, it does sanitize and homogenise the sound, but some of us feel that processing also robs some of the musical content as well.
I've had the opportunity to hear original master tapes, and yes anything that is more than a few years old won't sound perfect. I'll rather hear these imperfections than a cleaned up version though.
I would guess that some of the tape may have oxide reduction due to age or stretch damage etc... Most of the recordings are quite pristine IMO. The tape deck is a very expensive one used for transfers. The hiss will be there in all of the recordings to some extent.
These are from commercial tapes this is why your hearing some variations my website has more info on this, the little variations you hear I think you would agree it is nowhere near vinyl.
My main goal is to bring hard to fine recordings available again and do it in the best sound possible. According to most of the comments I have gotten i think we have accomplished this.
You can also check out the equipment we use in the mastering process this is also at our site.
Thanks for the interest
Bob
HDTT
Converted to .wav and did a spectrum analysis.Everything below 24kHz is nicely imaged between 24-48kHz, so this is a 48kHz recording upped to 96kHz by mere sample replication!
The other recordings are true 96kHz, but have little or no musical information above 20kHz.
bring bac k dynamic range
It appears to my that it is exactly what it is supposed to be.Take the normal CD that is good to 22 kHz. It is digital signal is recorded at 44.1 kHz.
So by comparison for a 96 kHz signal you would see sound information only up to 48 kHz. This is what the charts below show.
Nothing surprising here. Just some miss understanding, right!
Nope.What we see here is the information from 0 to 24kHz mirror-imaged between 24kHz and 48kHz.
bring bac k dynamic range
Tell you what guys I'll remaster it again this weekend it will be a smaller file because I will not be Flac'ed and I'll also Flac the new file then you can check both file's and then you can post your findings and we can get to the bottom of this. In the meantime I'll check the original file on my mastering software later and see what's up.
Bob
HDTT
These are true 24/96 transfers through a Weiss Digital ADC2, other than that I don't know what to tell you.
Bob
HDTT
Your website also mentions that you use Weiss Saracon Sample Rate Conversion Software. Why are these used? Do you convert to 96/24 and then convert to 44.1/16 for CD?Did you manage to figure out why there is a mirror image on the Histoire du Soldat?
All of our releases are transfered from analog to 24bit word length 96khz sample rate then we use the Saracon to SRC to 16/44.1 for the redbook releases.
Mirror image?? are you talking about the 48khz discussion?
Bob
HDTT
Thanks for the info about SRC. Some people here feel that straight conversion to 44.1/16 is better than using SRC. But that would mean you need to have do mastering twice, once for CD and another for DVD.Yes, I am taking about the 48kHz discussion, the image of 0-24 kHz audio being seen from 24-48 kHz. I have linked to my screen shot because I cannot see Werner's screen shot.
Hi Bob,please see my reply to Christine, link below.
I have the 24/96 version. Maybe they put the wrong file on the website downloads.... I'll ask.
I was told that it is 24/96.
The spectral analysis doesn't lie. Something went wrong with that file.Or they wanted to give people a touch of NONOS sound ;-)
bring bac k dynamic range
..
bring bac k dynamic range
by downloading Goldwave and playing the file having both the spectrogram and waterfall visualizations in Goldwave turned on.Has anybody figured out why this happens? Bob any further ideas?
for those who are interested
Your graph shows content above 25kHz, around -72dB.Yes, there seems to be a notch around 20-30kHz, but there could be many reasons for this.
If your claim that this is an upsampled recording is true, there should be nothing above 24kHz (ie. artefacts should be below the digital noise floor of -144dB, not -72dB).
"so this is a 48kHz recording upped to 96kHz by mere sample replication!"If you go from Fs 48kHz to 96kHz by pairwise replicating samples you fill in the band between 24kHz and 48kHz with the first image, somewhat attenuated by the sinc(f) function. And that closely matches what we are seeing here.
Except that in this file (I checked in an editor) the samples are not pairwise identical, but near-identical (making it all the more mysterious). So obviously something went wrong somewhere with this datastream.
You could argue that the fault lies with my Flac-> Wav conversion (foobar), but I used the same flow on all of the files, and the others came out just fine.
I am not suggesting that HDTT are cheating (why would they?), but rather that there might be something wrong with that particular file.
bring bac k dynamic range
Anything's possible? maybe the Flac had something to do with it? haven't experimented with Flac that much this is the first time, maybe somebody with more knowledge about the program can comment on this situation, even if it is possible??
I can assure you I don't upsample any of my releases there really isn't a need for it, and i never master at 24/48, so all this is very strange to me.
Thanks
Bob
HDTT
I opened the file in Adobe Audition, and applied the "Spectral Frequency Display" view, and you are right - the spectral pattern is curiously symmetrical.And the samples do appear to be valued in pairs.
just a matter of interest. what software did you use to do the spectrum analysis?
is that because of the 24/96kHz encoding?
To infinity and beyond!!!
to convert to 16bits and it would allow me to burn it to cd.
To infinity and beyond!!!
Thanks for the link to these files. It allowed me to confirm that the Slimdevices Squeezebox 3 with the latest firmware can play these files. I was unsure if 96k/24b files were truly compatible. The sound on one of my systems was first rate. I intend to re-listen on my main rig to further evaluate.Since I have Verizon Fios, download size is not an issue. This has me hoping that we may be entering a new era of quality sound that exceeds the the standard 44k/16b CD resolution. With devices such as the Squeezebox we are no longer shackled to these limitations. Maybe more labels will take note and offer these resolutions?
I believe what the Squeezebox is doing is downsampling the 96k to 48k, but preserving the 24 bit width.
Is there a way to verify this? Does anyone have a DAC with sample-rate display, or a Big-Ben?
Direct from the horse's mouth (whatever that means):"Squeezebox 2 and 3 can also play files up to 48kHz sample rate, up to 24 bits. 24bit/96kHz files are downsampled to 48kHz."
This is from the Slimdevices support site:
Okay, I dont want downsampled. I guess it is good that they at least play these files.
This is great news. I was planning a product based on the SB, but I was expecting to have to wait for the SB4 due to 24/96 compatibility. If what you say is true, then I'm off and running....
Glad to be of help! Keep in mind this is limited to just testing these files. But so far so good. One thing I'm not sure about is if there is any downsampling occurring within the SB3? Only the folks at Slimdevices can truly answer this.I was curious as to what type of product would be "based on the SB"? No need to reveal trade secrets just the general idea.
The idea is to create a Wi-Fi product that delivers the quality that I get from USB. It would be a merging of my Pace-Car I2S reclocker and the SB3/4. I would bring I2S out of the SB3 and then reclock it and output low-jitter I2S for delivery to I2S DAC's.
Currently listening to the Berlioz. Nice, but quite grainy. Definitely worth listening to. Isn't the Daphnis and Chloe excerpt also available as a RCA Living Stereo SACD?
The Daphnis is from the 1961 recording, RCA's recent SACD and all other releases have been the 1955 recording the latter is a great recording probably one of the most famous in the classical catalog, but there is a lot of people out there that believe the interpretation of the 1961 version is better.
The Berlioz to me is a great performance you can read Gary Lemco's review of it at Audiophile Audition, it is from a now long gone label Command Classics, they were a little weird with there miking but there dynamics are incredible.
The other exceprt is The Historic' du Soldat which is a incredible recording it's very lifelike, and finally the Saint Saens Sym. 3 excerpt is when the organ arrives in the Symphony with some beautiful string tone in the background anybody familiar with the piece will know which part I'm talking about.
The main goal of HDTT is to bring these rare recordings back, and bring them back in a way the audiophile will enjoy them, also you can ask me more questions if you would like at my new forum audiosymposium.net you will also find the forums of Pure Note Cables, Symposium Acoustics, and Emotive Audio there also.
Thanks
Bob
HDTT
I've listened to all four of them, and the Berlioz and Saint Saëns are particularly good.Do you do any processing, or are they straight transfers? They sound like straight transfers to me, which is good since I find most remasters tend to overly sweeten the sound.
Straight transfers, have tried a lot of different techniques always come back to the purist method "less is more"
Another interesting websight is this Linn one:http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads-what.aspx/
The tracks are all in WMA format though, so they have to be converted to play on decent players like Foobar or jriver.
,,,
try this one:
http://www.linnrecords.com/linn-downloads-what.aspx
The link works better now but the downloads are paid! I assumed you meant that there were free tracks available like High Definition Tape Transfers. Strange their SACDs are $25 but the "Studio Master" WMA files cost $33 for an album!
A badly formatted page loads with links to some clips but I am unable to download any clip. Were you logged in as a paying customer or the trade login when you copied this link? I tried my free login but the links do not work. Or did Linn disable the downloads due to extra traffic?
Thanks for the tip. I tried them. I feel the quality is excellent. The Berlioz sounded a little bright to me. I feel that they are as good or better than most sacd's.The real challenge will be to put together a substantial catalogue. If they were priced at 2 of 3 dollars per movement per download I would be a big customer. Beyond that I might not be interested unless I already knew the qualty of the performers or the performance.
I would be very excited if there were a large catelogue at this quality at a reasonable price.
nt
admin - audioreview.com
Steve,I checked out the website www.highdeftapetransfers.com. It seems very interesting. I'm using a Scott Nixon USB DAC, so I can't listen at 24/96, but I'm curious about the sound quality and performances on the 16/44 CD's. Based on my own experience recording vinyl using an Alesis Masterlink ML-9600, I'll bet the CD's sound great at 16/44. Do you recommend any particular CD's in their catalog?
Thanks,
Mark
I bought 5 of these. The music is not bad; sounds vinyl in my system, but I would not call it 'Great Music' and spend $25 on each. I have better CDs such as Reference Recording when played upsampled to 176.4k on my dCS system
Everyones system sounds different. I've read where several audiophiles cannot hear the hiss in these non-Dolby recordings...it's definitely there, but not distracting. I feel that these are some of the best quality recordings of their day, very lifelike. The disk is not hit as hard as some modern recordings in these particular exerpts, but I have encouraged him to remaster some of these to increase dynamics. I believe he is concerned about clipping, which does happen in some DAC's.
I am just saying that, musically, these are not 'Great' as it has been made out to be. They sound as though they are from analogue sources but many recordings I have are better.
I love the Ravel and the nutcracker suite.
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