Remixing and remastering are not the same thing, so I don't see this as impossible. I'd love to know who signs these of though so if you turn up any info please post it.
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
MQA Sounds Really Good!
- Thread starter watchnerd
- Start date
- Status
600lbs of Sin
Member
I don’t believe I conflated remix and remastering in my post. Tweedy states that yankee hotel foxtrot could not be remixed. He also said it could possibly be remastered if someone had the tapes.
Since Wilco/Tweedy owns the rights to the album and they left Reprise records before the release of the album, then Tweedy or Reprise has the tapes. However Tweedy/Wilco would be the only ones to authorized to sign off on a MQA Studio remaster. The interview was from 11-13-18. Possibly it could have remastered with MQA in less then a year since the interview, but Tweedy mentioned “if someone has the tapes?”
If it can’t be remixed and the guy who owns the rights to the album doesn’t have the tapes, then what is this MQA Studio version?
I’m curious rather than accusatory. What do we get from the MQA Studio version and how was it improved/changed supposedly.
Digital Mastering System
Active Member
MQA sound like pure snake oil to me. When I see situations like this, I try to get on the owners side ASAP; invest in the snake oil business. I want to exploit you financially, 'Listen!'. I like taking money from gullible people, in fact, that includes anybody that reads the Absolute Sound. I'm a firm believer in the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem and virtually no kind of subjective audio. Why should I take audio advise from some uneducated MD (just because he can afford high end audio)? Does he take medical advise from me?
Anyway, FLAC is great because it's open source. MP3 had royalties, from Fraunhofer, but they were reasonable and we worked around them. These MQA guys sound like high tech grifters (so no different from the majority of high end audio).
Up-sampling doesn't do anything so paying somebody for it is stupid - unless you're on the receiving end.
Count me in!
Yea sure - this MQA thing is great!
MQA sounds good to me
Eirikur
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2019
- Messages
- 318
- Likes
- 510
... and so would the FLAC of equal size.
The problem is the unnecessary tax levied by Bob Stuart and friends.
You can't put a price on authenticity.
I have no idea how this MQA is meant to work? If I send my mastering guy an uncompressed 24/96 master mix and he produces an uncompressed 24/96 master. How can an MQA of that file sound more accurate than the original file? A FLAC of that file will sound exactly the same as the uncompressed one (being lossless), in what way will an MQA file differ from the original or FLAC? Can someone explain?
Ok, just tried to find out myself. It seems it’s an alternative to PCM that they claim is better. So assuming they are correct, then there could be some improvement making a new MQA master from the original analogue master tapes. However, what about all the music that has PCM files as their masters, not tape, in other words 75% of music made for the past 2 decades at least. Unless producers such as myself can set my DAW to record and output in MQA rather than PCM, then where is the benefit? I’ve not seen any interfaces or recorders yet that use MQA in place of PCM. Am I missing something?
And they are wrong in their claims it is objectively better. That’s all there is to it.
Exactly. The MQA'd file may sound different, even more pleasing. But it can't be more accurate to the source PCM file that the producer intended. Meridians claims are BS.
A scheme to mine money from people who listen to digital audio.
The more I read about MQA, the more I think that digital streaming music overall is bullshit compared to the physical formats like vinyl where you own the music physically and play it directly through an analog chain.
If you had said "physical formats like CD DVD or BluRay" you'd have a leg to stand on. Vinyl/Analog hasn't offered anything close to SOTA sound since the CD came out.
I just bought a LP base on what the label had proclaim in terms of recording by re-engineering a master recoding with newer eqpt.
“Transferred from ‘80s analog master tapes,
its vivid sound comes alive on this ultimate-quality analog record.
This BEST of ANZENCHITAI includes 10 songs that have been specially selected for listening on high-end audio components, being chosen from the original 14 greatest hits albums ANZENCHITAI has ever released.
The master sources used for this record, excepting one song, are the analog master tapes (1/4-inch 2 track recording, tape speeds of 38cm/sec), all of which had been well-preserved under the supervision by Universal Music Japan. Only one song, Melody, which was selected from ANZENCHITAI VIII used digital master as its production master.
The lacquer discs used as original masters for record pressing have been produced by Shigeru Buzawa, who is the greatest mastering engineer of NIPPON COLUMBIA and has abundant experience in sound productions of numerous Japanese distinguished singers.
The mastering works also have been done by Buzawa using the state-of-the- art equipment: the STUDER A80 tape recorder which had been meticulously tuned by an experienced maintenance engineer of NIPPON COLUMBIA, and the bespoke analog console in the studio.
The precious sound of analog master tapes has been awaken by the greatest engineer from 30-year slumber, and evolved into the “reborn” sound, with its fresh grooves being carved into lacquer discs.
We finished the record as a 180gram heavyweight LP, using specially compounded vinyl plastic and the first metal stampers produced from these lacquer discs.
Play it on your audio components and enjoy the authentic high-quality sound of the BEST of ANZENCHITAI.”
From their promo statement, isn’t it possible to improve on the master recoding with new eqpt and experienced sound engineers? Or the above are also snake oil? They charge a premium for it which is also available in SACD.
https://www.stereosound-intlstore.jp/product/113
“Transferred from ‘80s analog master tapes,
its vivid sound comes alive on this ultimate-quality analog record.
This BEST of ANZENCHITAI includes 10 songs that have been specially selected for listening on high-end audio components, being chosen from the original 14 greatest hits albums ANZENCHITAI has ever released.
The master sources used for this record, excepting one song, are the analog master tapes (1/4-inch 2 track recording, tape speeds of 38cm/sec), all of which had been well-preserved under the supervision by Universal Music Japan. Only one song, Melody, which was selected from ANZENCHITAI VIII used digital master as its production master.
The lacquer discs used as original masters for record pressing have been produced by Shigeru Buzawa, who is the greatest mastering engineer of NIPPON COLUMBIA and has abundant experience in sound productions of numerous Japanese distinguished singers.
The mastering works also have been done by Buzawa using the state-of-the- art equipment: the STUDER A80 tape recorder which had been meticulously tuned by an experienced maintenance engineer of NIPPON COLUMBIA, and the bespoke analog console in the studio.
The precious sound of analog master tapes has been awaken by the greatest engineer from 30-year slumber, and evolved into the “reborn” sound, with its fresh grooves being carved into lacquer discs.
We finished the record as a 180gram heavyweight LP, using specially compounded vinyl plastic and the first metal stampers produced from these lacquer discs.
Play it on your audio components and enjoy the authentic high-quality sound of the BEST of ANZENCHITAI.”
From their promo statement, isn’t it possible to improve on the master recoding with new eqpt and experienced sound engineers? Or the above are also snake oil? They charge a premium for it which is also available in SACD.
https://www.stereosound-intlstore.jp/product/113
solderdude
Grand Contributor
That may depend on who you ask and what exactly you mean with 'nothing' and 'wrong'
If you mean 'it sounds good to me and others' then yes, it surely will.
With 40 years of education and improvements it most definitely should be possible to improve over what was done on vinyl in the 80's. Also a keen ear and deft hand at the mastering knobs can make the recording sound just about any way the engineer want's it to. If you really want to hear what the engineer intended get the SACD.
Snake oil? nope, but very good marketing.
it sound glorious and it’s worth every penny. Japs take their work seriously. Bec of that I also ordered a MP200 to pair with my MK 7. Mogami 2803 cables and looking for jap phono amp.
Humm, not only is you opinion of MQA in error, but your lack of a tactful PC language is a bit untasteful.
I think you don't understand how MQA is working... MQA is not an upsampling nor has "better" value than the full master which MQA is created from.
MQA has a lossless part and metadata. The metadata is here to "recover" the full signal of the master. It's obviously inferior than the real master but sometimes better than a simple CD.
Second thing, all MQA hardware has a specifical interpolation filter to allow a better "time domain" decoding from the dac.
The MQA is intendede to bring better quality than a CD but with smaller footerprint than Hi-res files. It's not intended to compete with full hi-res (192Khz and more).
MQA has a lossless part and metadata. The metadata is here to "recover" the full signal of the master. It's obviously inferior than the real master but sometimes better than a simple CD.
Second thing, all MQA hardware has a specifical interpolation filter to allow a better "time domain" decoding from the dac.
The MQA is intendede to bring better quality than a CD but with smaller footerprint than Hi-res files. It's not intended to compete with full hi-res (192Khz and more).
- Status
Similar threads
