- CD's get mastered with HDCD "data tag" but no features used.PB Nightclub, hdcd sounds far better than non hdcd, same session.
- Label gets printed without HDCD because it's not real.
Don't know what I'm getting at here.
Cheers George
HDCD rescue - it's possible, but man...
I spent the better part of today sick, but working on finding a way to decode music I might have that is HDCD encoded.
As a refresher, HDCD was an enhanced CD format. In some ways the predecessor to MQA. HDCD was an engineer's toolbox, allowing the mastering engineer to select a number of features. This would then be decoded by a matching chip on a CD player or DAC. The most famous feature of HDCD was bit-compression. Getting a 24 bit signal encoded in a 16 bit music file.
As an aside, the Pacifics Microsonics AD converters were highly prized by engineers for their sound quality. Anyway, the format got bought by Microsoft and died.
Of the 670 CD's I have ripped only about 11 were HDCD encoded. But man, what a pain. I ripped everything to FLAC, but the HDCD decoder only does WAV. I had to download source, compile it, then write a script to go through every CD and decide if it's HDCD or not. Once found, I have to convert from FLAC (44/16) to WAV, decode the WAV file (now 24 bits) and convert back to FLAC to compress again.
The discovery process was pretty fast. About 10 minutes to go through them all by cheating. :) More time was spent figuring out how to pass apostrophe's in file names than finding the files. Nathalie Merchant was one author who consistently used HDCD by the way.
As a refresher, HDCD was an enhanced CD format. In some ways the predecessor to MQA. HDCD was an engineer's toolbox, allowing the mastering engineer to select a number of features. This would then be decoded by a matching chip on a CD player or DAC. The most famous feature of HDCD was bit-compression. Getting a 24 bit signal encoded in a 16 bit music file.
As an aside, the Pacifics Microsonics AD converters were highly prized by engineers for their sound quality. Anyway, the format got bought by Microsoft and died.
Of the 670 CD's I have ripped only about 11 were HDCD encoded. But man, what a pain. I ripped everything to FLAC, but the HDCD decoder only does WAV. I had to download source, compile it, then write a script to go through every CD and decide if it's HDCD or not. Once found, I have to convert from FLAC (44/16) to WAV, decode the WAV file (now 24 bits) and convert back to FLAC to compress again.
The discovery process was pretty fast. About 10 minutes to go through them all by cheating. :) More time was spent figuring out how to pass apostrophe's in file names than finding the files. Nathalie Merchant was one author who consistently used HDCD by the way.
Showing 13 responses by georgehifi
it appears to be a "gold" CD. These always fetch a little more at auction.Yes it is gold. What perplexes me is that both the HDCD version and the non HDCD version came from the same one off recording session. Not that I'm a recording engineer, but they (the studio) must have done this recording master using two different methods, HDCD and Non HDCD??? Is this correct??? Cheers George |
HDCD PB Nightclub, wow had no idea it was worth that!!!! http://www.ebay.com/itm/Nightclub-by-Patricia-Barber-CD-Sep-2010-Premonition-/141523387053?hash=item20f37382ad:g:u-sAAMXQPatTIJ8B Cheers George |
I sat through and heard a demo with and without MQA and all the spiel that goes with it. " Neuroimaging tests show activity in different parts of the brain; transients trigger activity in Wernicke’s Area (in the boundary between the parietal and temporal lobe), where melody and timbre are associated with activity in the right frontal hemisphere of the brain known as Broca’s Area." ect, ect, ect. All levels were checked, I couldn’t hear anything different all with or without MQA. But I can with and without hdcd with levels checked, as I had a Cary 303/200 cdp that had the PMD200 or your switch on the fly via the remote to a DF1704. And just to prove another way I have a couple pairs of the same CD same but with and without HDCD, don’t ask me how they do that?? One of them being Patricia Barba Nightclub HDCD 90763 G NON HDCD 7243 5 27290 2 9 Cheers George |
I've never heard one, but the owners "say" the Pacific Microsonics Model Two A-D/D-A Converter is the end game for listening to pcm with. And worth a small fortune s/h. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/Pacific%20Microsonics%20Model%20Two%20A-D/D-A%20Converter Cheers George |
Professor Keith Johnson who was the design man behind HDCD in 1996 also founded Pacific Microsonics Developments (PMD). And is now also the Technical Director, Recording Engineer and partner in Reference Recordings. http://www.goodwinshighend.com/music/hdcd/hdcd_development.htm http://referencerecordings.com/about.asp http://www.stereophile.com/content/keith-o-johnson-reference-recordings#sbudxxeHz73RTH26.97 Cheers George |
AFAIK, the HDCD chip, was purely digital domain.Yes I know, I never said they were in the analogue domain, they were magnificent, especially when partnered with with well implemented Multibit d/a converters (I/V stages and buffers that weren’t just text book installed opamps) as many are. Cheers George |
PCM HDCD and DXD/DVD-A rules when converted through a well implemented R2R Multibit converter with either PMD100 or the last to my ears better PMD200 HDCD chip. Especially the 24bit pcm hdcd recordings from "Reference Recordings" done by the hdcd master Keith Johnson. Far better than any DSD crap, unless it’s native then it’s good, but sadly there’s no good music/artists for me on native dsd. Cheers George |