I've never claimed to be an "audiophile," but I am fascinated by sound, how it's captured, and how it's presented.
I'm a casual fan of John Mellencamp and generally pay little mind when he releases a new album, but not this time. There's something different about Life, Death, Love, and Freedom and it has nothing to do with the artist himself. Producer T-Bone Burnett worked with Mellencamp on the album, which is an interesting enough pairing considering both have spent years mining Americana sounds. More interesting was the idea this new album would be released in a newly developed high-definition audio format.
I first wrote about this new format in May, and at that time details were a bit scarce. Since that first piece I've been asked by more than one person if I know anything about the particulars. I've done some digging and I'm pleased to say I was able to find additional information that might interest tech geeks and technophobes alike.
Burnett developed the new format, called CODE, and Mellencamp's new record will be the first released using this new standard. Albums encoded using this format are recorded to DVD. HD-audio on a standard DVD? How does that work?
Christopher Herot did a nice breakdown of this, which I'll attempt to paraphrase. The album is presented on DVD with all tracks in 24-bit/96kHz uncompressed audio tracks, which is the resolution used when albums are mixed and mastered. Standard CDs are encoded at 16-bits and 44.1kHz. In other words, the sound is compressed from its original form to "fit" on the CD, as it were.
Are you with me so far? Getting confused? Let's break it down in Q&A format. The voices in my head like talking to themselves.
Q: So if I read that right, I don't need expensive-ass equipment to hear this HD Audio?
A: That's right. Most standard DVD players will play this. I can't vouch for them all, though.
Q: So this new Mellencamp CD isn't a CD, but a DVD? How am I going to listen to that in my car?
A: Easy. The album is being packaged as both a CD and a DVD.
Q: Great, so I'm going to have to pay extra to get some new format I'm not all that sure I give a rat's ass about?
Article comments
1 - Mark Waldrep
First let me state that I'm a recording engineer and label owner that has been capturing and releasing HD Audio content since 2000. I've been very curious about this particular release since the PR hype started over a month ago. I was even interviewed by another journalist who was also curious about the ΧΟΔΕ (CODE) "format" since I've been involved in this area for years.
I also picked up the CD/DVD-Video disc yesterday and have listened to the CD and the DVD in my studio (a very high end listening environment).
While I applaud the efforts the T Bone and John Mellencamp have made in promoting better quality audio with the inclusion of a DVD-Video disc...this is not a new format and it doesn't represent "a resonance, depth, and presence that is unprecedented in the digital era."
96 kHz/24-bit stereo music files have been issued on DVDs since the introduction of DVD-Video discs back in the spring of 1997. I know because I have doing it with my releases for 10 years.
2 - John Shepherd
This is the direction the industry should have gone rather than promoting a format war between SACD and DVD-Audio. Everyone is so concerned about copy protection and market domination of format royalties that they have lost sight of true technology improvement. SACD was inferior to even the CD format and had a higher residual distortion. That was argued at the time of promotion by it's format promoters but is now common knowledge.
To move to 24/96 DVD is a major improvement but may be too late. With Blu Ray upon us, things may move in that direction. I hope that this takes off but with little concern for higher quality by the general public and their overwhelming support for compressed files for their MP3 & Ipod players, there is little hope. The current economics will have an impact as well.