Code for XO∆E: DVD-A? SACD?

An interesting press release crossed my desk (read: popped into my e-mail Inbox) on Friday:

"John Mellencamp's Life, Death, Love, and Freedom, from Hear Music, July 15."

Buried down in the fourth paragraph is this:

"The album will be the first-ever release in the XO∆E (CODE) format. T Bone Burnett [who produced Mellencamp's new album] and his team of engineers developed CODE, a proprietary technology that creates high-definition audio files that are virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes. The resonance, warmth, and presence that has been realized with CODE is unprecedented in the digital era."

"Unprecedented"? Doesn't that sound, um, familiar? Read on . . .

Neil Young Votes for . . . Blu-ray!

Seven years ago, when we launched our coverage of DVD-Audio in the February/March 2001 double issue, we ran an exclusive interview with Neil Young, where the "legendary rocker and CD-hater" sang the praises of the new format.

"There's absolutely no comparison with CD," he said. "DVD-Audio is the best way you can listen to music that you can buy en masse. The mid-level quality of a DVD-Audio disc is where the CD should have been when we went digital. For the last 20 years, I've been forced to put my whole art form through something that's inferior to what I listen to in the studio. DVD-Audio is simply the best format that exists today."

Well, today, Neil has moved further forward. According to Billboard.com, he said the following at the recent Sundance Film Festival, explaining the latest delay in launching his Archives series: "I know it's in technical production now, but it's only coming out on Blu-ray and DVD. There won't be CDs. Technology has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're able to present it."

Neil actually gave up on DVD-Audio some time ago, after using it to release Road Rock Vol. 1 and reissue Harvest in surround and a few other titles in stereo. But thankfully, he remains dedicated to the concept of music in high resolution. After all, as he told me in 2001: "Napster sounds bad. MP3 sounds bad. All of that stuff sounds bad. It's a joke that they're worrying about charging for it; no one should ever sell it, it's so bad." —Ken Richardson

"No Taste for High-Quality Audio"?

Been meaning to post this link for some time now . . .

Fans of DVD-Audio, SACD, surround sound, and so forth are hereby encouraged to check out No Taste for High-Quality Audio, published recently in the British newspaper The Guardian. It's a pretty neat summation by Jack Schofield, who begins: "Today, we live in a world where poor-quality audio is becoming the norm." Required reading, and reflection.

Note that Schofield calls DVD-Audio "extinct."

That got me thinking: Is he right?

Happy 25th Birthday, CD! Now, Get Lost!

Or so the masses seem to be saying.

The Compact Disc is indeed 25 years old today. On August 17, 1982, the first discs were born in Germany. They contained Richard Strauss's Alpine Symphony, but the first commercially available release would be Billy Joel's 52nd Street. CDs and CD players initially went on sale in Europe and Japan; it wouldn't be until 1983 that the format reached America.

Back then, Pieter Kramer was the head of the optical research group at Philips (which co-invented the format with Sony). That's him in the right-hand photo, which was taken on Monday. He's holding a model of the first CD player.

S&V has already tracked the history of the CD and what lies ahead — see The Future of Recorded Music — so I won't bother rehashing anything here. What I will say is that, personally, I was happy to welcome the CD a quarter-century ago — and happy to say goodbye to the LP and its surface noise, user-unfriendliness, and frequent coloration that was often mistaken for "warmth."

Are we now, in turn, saying goodbye to the CD? Well, from 2001 to 2006, CD sales fell from their historical peak of 712 million to 553 million. That's a drop of 22%. Record companies are scrambling, lousy digital files are proliferating, and the perceived "value" of music is withering away. As Kramer told AP writer Toby Sterling on Monday: "The MP3 and all the little things that the boys and girls have in their pockets can replace the CD, absolutely."

But it has been a good ride for the format. I've enjoyed it immensely — although, truth be told, I've been enjoying my journeys with SACD and DVD-A even more. Whither those formats?

"You never know how long a standard will last," Kramer said. "But the CD was a solid, good standard — and still is." —Ken Richardson

Porcupine Tree: DVD-A, EP, Vinyl, Tour

As you may recall, I landed a super-advance copy of Fear of a Blank Planet on DVD-Audio for an exclusive review in the May issue.

Herewith, today's press release.
—Ken Richardson

Porcupine Tree Marks Fall 2007 with Biggest-Ever U.S. Tour and New EP, Nil Recurring, featuring Robert Fripp

Special Audiophile and Collector's Versions of
Fear of a Blank Planet to be Released on DVD-A and Vinyl

8/16/07: This fall, Porcupine Tree will continue a momentous year of activity with its biggest-ever U.S. tour, a new EP, Nil Recurring, and the re-release of its groundbreaking album Fear of a Blank Planet on DVD-A and vinyl. Fear has quickly become the best-selling and best-reviewed album of the band's career, and they have already sold out one major U.S. tour in 2007.

"Because Sound Matters": DVD-Audio?

Perhaps you noticed the phrase that has been touting, among other things, the Neil Young Archives/Performance Series: "Because Sound Matters." It refers to the fact that each CD+DVD title includes 96-kHz/24-bit "high-resolution audio" on DVD-Video (but not DVD-Audio).

Now Young's parent label has taken that phrase and applied it to a Web site: becausesoundmatters.com. According to the welcoming statement: "Because Sound Matters is an online record store that will sell all kinds of vinyl and DVD-Audio from the Warner Bros. Records family of artists and labels." Well, as you might guess from the logo above, there's already plenty of vinyl available through the site — but no DVD-Audio!

Explains "Team BSM" (which seems to be composed of two Warner staffers): "We appreciate all your feedback on DVD-A and vinyl. We decided to do a soft launch of the site, which meant that DVD-A was not going to be in the first pass. The original list of DVD-A is going to be titles that are already available — but I can tell you, based on your feedback, I have already started to put wheels in motion to discuss more releases. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of expense going in and creating 5.1 mixes. The titles that get 5.1 treatment will need a much bigger overall release plan in order for this to make sense."

Sounds reasonable. Just don't forget us DVD-A lovers, please! And judging from the clamor of comments on the site, we're definitely not alone.

Meanwhile, here's a list of all the Warner-related titles that, over the years, were rumored to be in the works for surround DVD-A. It's likely that at least some of them are already mixed; David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name, for example, was on the list forever, and then it finally appeared in 2006.

The Gray Lady Is Behind the Times

Extra! "The multichannel sound available for homes has arrived for the car." So says a teaser on the front page of the Automobiles section in this Sunday's edition of The New York Times.

This must be news indeed to engineer Elliot Scheiner, for example, whose DVD-Audio-equipped ELS Surround system for Acura has been available for three years. Meanwhile, nowhere in the Times article — "Summer Tunes That Come from Every Direction" by John R. Quain — does it even mention that DVD-Audio discs have always been playable in surround on car DVD-Video units.

It does mention, however — and get ready for this — that "some formats adhere to a so-called 5.1-channel format (the point one referring to a center, or low-frequency, channel often handled by a subwoofer)." As of now, that howler hasn't been corrected on the newspaper's Web site.

Sad to say, I guess we should expect these kinds of things from a paper that still calls its car section (repeat after me, in your best Tony Curtis-in-The Great Race voice): Au-to-mo-biles.

To its credit, the article includes aftermarket options like Sony's SACD-equipped MEX-DV2000 (see post immediately below) and Pioneer's DVD-A-equipped AVH-P7800DVD entertainment system. It also mentions pre-installed systems in cars by Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, and yes, Acura, as well as the only car unit that will play both DVD-A and SACD: the Bose Media System (shown above) in the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti.

But really, these times demand the Times these surround times demand Sound & Vision! —Ken Richardson

Four Words: Led Zep, High Def

Good news, bad news . . .

It's a safe bet that you've heard about this in general already, since the story broke on Friday. (That's what I get for taking the day off! See complete press release below.) But the big news is that Led Zeppelin's concert film, The Song Remains the Same, is finally getting a new restoration, to replace the lousy DVD that was released in December 1999.

What you might not have heard is that, besides the new DVD edition, the film will also be released on Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD. And the sound has been remixed in 5.1 by engineer Kevin Shirley.

How good is that news? Well, reviewing the old DVD (S&V, May 2000), I noted: "The mix here is in Dolby Surround, not 5.1, and it's erratic to the point of being schizophrenic. From song to song, Jimmy Page's guitar either drops down or lunges forward in the sound field. In one single song, 'Dazed and Confused,' the field itself changes three times. And overall, there is precious little suggestion of any hall ambience."

So, yes, it'll be wonderful to have this on Blu-ray and HD DVD — and even on regular DVD, for that matter — all of which are due November 20 from Warner Home Video, along with a restored two-CD soundtrack from Atlantic/Rhino. And the week before, Atlantic/Rhino will release Mothership, a two-CD best-of that has a slightly different lineup than the 2002 sandwiching together of Early Days & Latter Days.

The bad news? Well, lemme see, we're getting Song on four different formats, and we're getting Mothership in four different editions — but still, STILL no studio albums remixed in surround sound for DVD-Audio or (hell, we'll take it!) DVD-Video.

"When it comes to The Song Remains the Same," says Jimmy Page, "the expansion of the DVD and the soundtrack is as good as it gets on the Led Zeppelin wish list."

Oh yeah? Us surround-sound fans beg to differ. Sigh. The vigil continues. —Ken Richardson

(Click below for press release)

P.S. on BJ: SACD and DD

It's the day before Live Earth (actually, it's only 6 hours away from when the global concert starts in Sydney, Australia), so for all of you Bon Jovi fans who will be heading out to see the band at the Giants Stadium finale, here's something I forgot to include in my July 1 post below: The Jersey boys have no fewer than four surround-sound releases. Namely:

Have a Nice Day (DualDisc with DVD-Audio resolution) review
This Left Feels Right (hybrid SACD)
Bounce (non-hybrid SACD) review
Slippery When Wet (DualDisc with DVD-Audio resolution) review

But if you want to track them down, you'd better act fast: Multichannel titles are disappearing completely from many stores. You may have better luck on these Web sites:

www.acousticsounds.com
www.elusivedisc.com
www.musicdirect.com

Alas, since Universal has basically abandoned multichannel music in the U.S., it's unlikely that we'll ever see a surround version of Lost Highway. —Ken Richardson