Towne Cryer here: This just in!
Another review of Drums & Bells from Positve Feedback Online.
All the best,
Nonose
Another review of Drums & Bells from Positve Feedback Online.
All the best,
Nonose
16 bit is good enough.....
As I type this, I’m listening to a new CD by Tony Minasian titled "Drums & Bells" (Comparing Sticks) and it’s "just" a 16 bit recording, and it blows away the notion that I need hi-rez in my life. There’s a realistic drum set in my living room, right now, with clashes and decays that (to borrow a phrase from John Darko) hang like Gandolph’s fireworks in the air.
Notes come from their solid, respective locations and never waver. Invisible hands move left, right, up and down as notes are played. I’ve timed decays that last from 4- 10 seconds with notes overplaying that decay, only to keep hearing the first ones. Kick drums come right at you and no imagination is needed to tell how wide it is and that it’s facing you. Angles of drums are plain as day, as are cymbals, bells and what have you.
I got this from Elliot Midwood over at Acoustic Image after Tony called me to let me know he has it out. Elliot thinks it’s the finest recording he’s heard. I’ll admit it’s a bit esoteric in nature and quite eclectic when it comes to taste but if you like your system, let this be one of the CDs to show off to your friends.
There are bass notes coming from percussion that originate a good 4 feet off the ground before coming down to the driver’s speaker level placement. Notes emanate naturally, going their intended way. No processing trickery needed. Tracks are simply titled after the tool used: straw brush, muted drums, wood stick, rattle stick, wood metal, plastic brushes, rubber mallets, straw and metal brushes, objects dropped, bells, toys, etc. And each and everyone has it’s own unique and undeniable sound. It’s ear candy in the extreme. Before I read the titles, I could tell if it were wood, metal or something else used to strike different surfaces. With a good, resolving system, it’s painfully easy to discern.
The only credits are to drummer Brad Dutz who goes solo for the first 13 tracks and he’s joined by drummer Chris Wabich for the final 6 tracks. There’s also a mention to Ken and Vinnie Rossi as well. Cover art is by Japanese artist Kaoru Mansour. It was recorded live and mixed by Tony Minasian. Speaking to Tony, he’s always been of the opinion that the source and speakers are the most important links in the audio chain. If done properly, you don’t need all the extra processing. This CD goes a long way to validating that argument.
For quite a while now there’s been a big resurgence in 16 bit NOS and I’d love to hear this CD on something with a TotalDac, MSB or equivalent DAC to do this justice. If only the studios would stop trying different ways to pick our pockets and do a decent job mastering CDs in the first place, our lives could be so much easier.
All the best,
Nonoise
Notes come from their solid, respective locations and never waver. Invisible hands move left, right, up and down as notes are played. I’ve timed decays that last from 4- 10 seconds with notes overplaying that decay, only to keep hearing the first ones. Kick drums come right at you and no imagination is needed to tell how wide it is and that it’s facing you. Angles of drums are plain as day, as are cymbals, bells and what have you.
I got this from Elliot Midwood over at Acoustic Image after Tony called me to let me know he has it out. Elliot thinks it’s the finest recording he’s heard. I’ll admit it’s a bit esoteric in nature and quite eclectic when it comes to taste but if you like your system, let this be one of the CDs to show off to your friends.
There are bass notes coming from percussion that originate a good 4 feet off the ground before coming down to the driver’s speaker level placement. Notes emanate naturally, going their intended way. No processing trickery needed. Tracks are simply titled after the tool used: straw brush, muted drums, wood stick, rattle stick, wood metal, plastic brushes, rubber mallets, straw and metal brushes, objects dropped, bells, toys, etc. And each and everyone has it’s own unique and undeniable sound. It’s ear candy in the extreme. Before I read the titles, I could tell if it were wood, metal or something else used to strike different surfaces. With a good, resolving system, it’s painfully easy to discern.
The only credits are to drummer Brad Dutz who goes solo for the first 13 tracks and he’s joined by drummer Chris Wabich for the final 6 tracks. There’s also a mention to Ken and Vinnie Rossi as well. Cover art is by Japanese artist Kaoru Mansour. It was recorded live and mixed by Tony Minasian. Speaking to Tony, he’s always been of the opinion that the source and speakers are the most important links in the audio chain. If done properly, you don’t need all the extra processing. This CD goes a long way to validating that argument.
For quite a while now there’s been a big resurgence in 16 bit NOS and I’d love to hear this CD on something with a TotalDac, MSB or equivalent DAC to do this justice. If only the studios would stop trying different ways to pick our pockets and do a decent job mastering CDs in the first place, our lives could be so much easier.
All the best,
Nonoise
Showing 10 responses by nonoise
I didn’t think I’d see Drums & Bells formally reviewed but here it is. Tony told me that he shipped 20 CDs to a New York audio dealer and was preparing another shipment for another dealer. Apparently people like it. That, and the response is, they want him to record a proper jazz set. All the best, Nonoise |
What I'd love to see is a CD player with a R2R set up like that of a Holo Spring DAC, or something similar in execution, all in one box. Or, it could be a two box solution with better isolation and an umbilical of the highest order, eliminating the need for another cable. They'd sell out in the first week. We have to remember that we all start with a listening room of about 40db (level of a library), which trashes the noise floor, and cuts off much from even hi-rez, leaving us with about 60-70 db of headroom to play with. Now take that kick drum, which has the greatest dynamic range (75-80db) and just how nicely does that fit into our listening environment? Most rooms cannot accurately reproduce it yet it pounds our chests most convincingly. With 16 bit I'm getting 96db of dynamic range and it satisfies in a most realistic way, with only 56db or so of available resolution that I can hear, in that noisy library-like environment. Even the smaller drums poke me in the chest like fists and fingers, depicting their smaller size. All of this and more from "just 16 bit" recordings, done right. Raising the number to 192 won't increase the resolution (unless you've recorded gunfire which no speaker can reproduce) since the recording was done with a mike that rolls off above 15Khz, from a 16 bit 44.1 master. You can remaster it at a higher rate but where's the improvement coming from? You're reshaping the original signal, changing it for the sake of yet another catalogue of remasters. By the way, I know I'm off on some of these numbers but close enough to augment my thoughts. All the best, Nonoise |
@lowrider57, the test CD that Tony brought over the first time turned out to be a first run of some of the work he’d been doing. He played the same thing at the Newport Audio Show a year earlier that @lancelock referred to. Tony told me he’s working on a more traditional jazz CD now and I"m quite eager to hear it when it comes out. All the best, Nonoise |
The price I paid was $20. It's not so much a drum solo that everyone can relate to and more of an acoustic effects event. Elliot Midwood has been around a few orchestras and couldn't figure out what some of the cymbals and bells were. That might make it a turn off for some but I like it. It's just uncanny how realistic that drum set is. All the best, Nonoise |
Hey Lowrider57, I just got off the phone with Tony and he said you can get it from him at Tonian Labs or from Elliot at Acoustic Image High-End Audio Homepage. Right now, those are the only two places. Tony told me that someone from the Minnesota Audio Society measured his CD and told him it has the highest dynamic range of anything he's ever tested. Also, two audio salons that Tony went to refused to listen to it. It seems they prefer to sell hi-rez equipment and nothing else. 😧 All the best, Nonoise |