New Studio Tool Expected to Bring More Super Audio Titles!

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/n...number=11278979

This is definitely good news for us hirez fans. This tool will speed up the process of SACD creation. This was rumored to be in the works but the addition officially is pretty exciting.

 

Lee,

The link appears dead...

Bob

 

Here is the text:

Philips Announces ProTools DSD Plug-In & SACD Creation Tools
Philips has announced the availability of a new Plug-In for the popular ProTools Digital Audio Workstation that will enable ProTools users to create multichannel DSD audio files on ProTools workstations and systems. In addition to the new DSD ProTools plug-in, Philips is also offering a standalone software program called SA-CD Creator and an SA-CD Creator Pack which includes both products.

According to officials at Philips, these new DSD production tools are designed to speed the creation of SACD disc images and cutting masters, thereby bringing more Super Audio CD discs to market in the near future. All three of these products will be available through the Philips ProTech group shortly.

New DSD Plug-In for ProTools
The new DSD plug-in developed by Philips ProTech works on the Digidesign Pro Tools LE and TDM systems. At this time, the plug-in is only available for systems running on the Windows platform. The plug-in converts PCM audio (2, 5 or 6 channels) to a Direct Stream Digital (DSD) file. The plug-in also includes a DST compression ratio estimator to estimate the size of the audio file's disc image on an SACD disc. (DST is the lossless packing technology developed by Philips that is used in the SACD production process).

SA-CD Creator Software
Philips is also offering a product named SA-CD creator which takes DSD files (created from the Philips DSD PlugIn for ProTools LE/TD for Windows, the Philips Audio Format Converter software program, a DSD audio workstation or a DSD file from a hardware DSD converter) and enables the user to convert that file to "a complete verified SA-CD disc image". Key features of the SA-CD Creator software include:

Audio Level Metering of the DSD file according to Annex D&E of the Scarlet Book standard for SA-CD

DSD to DST encoding (lossless data compression)

SA-CD authoring

Logical verification of the SA-CD disc image

A playback feature which enables listening to the DSD data or SA-CD disc image, and the display of SA-CD text

Integrated tape writing functionality to allow distribution of the SA-CD disc image on tape

An intuitive user interface

SA-CD text input via an input file or the embedded SA-CD text editor

Playback via a dedicated hardware PCI card with 6-channel SDIF outputs, to enable the user to connect their own preferred D/A converter equipment

Result logging for later reference

The Philips SA-CD Creator Pack
In addition to the SA-CD Creator software for Windows, Philips is also making available a new SA-CD Creator Pack. This product consists of the Philips SA-CD Creator and the Philips DSD ProTools Plug-In in one package. Philips refers to the new Creator Pack as "a complete software solution for the creation of Super Audio CD Disc Images/Cutting Masters for Pro Tools users."

Comments on the New Products
Jos Bruins, Director of Marketing at Philips Intellectual Property & Standards said that "We expect the SA-CD Creator Pack to be welcomed by the many music studios which are currently preparing their titles for release on SA-CD. We have deliberately focused this solution on Digidesign’s Pro Tools workstations because of their leadership and market position. Now, the combination of Pro Tools with our SA-CD Creator gives studios an affordable, end-to-end solution that provides full in-house control of the process of creating SA-CD disc images and cutting masters."

Ed Gray, Digidesign Director of Partnering Programs notd that "We aim to give our customers fully featured audio production solutions with our Pro Tools LE and HD products. With its outstanding sound quality and realism, Super Audio CD is an extremely valuable complement to Pro Tools. The availability of the specific DSD output plug–in shows Philips’ commitment in bringing a powerful SA-CD authoring and mastering capability to the music production studios community where Pro Tools has a large and growing base of creative users."

Availability
According to Philips, the new products will be available on June 1st. Pricing of the new products in Euros, excluding VAT and including shipping costs are as follows:

DSD Plug-in for ProTools for Windows (999 Euro)

SA-CD Creator (8,995 Euro)

SA-CD Creator Pack (DSD Plug-in + SA-CD Creator) (9,799 Euro)

Additional DSD plugins on top of SA-CD Creator Pack (299 Euro)

Additional DSD & SACD Tools from the Philips ProTech Group
To provide DSD & SACD technology and tools to the recording industry, Philips formed the ProTech Group last October headed up by SACD Project veteran Petra Smits. ProTech is made up of members of the Philips Intellectual Property & Standards (IP&S) group that license CD and SACD technologies to the industry as well as staff from the Philips Digital System Labs (PDSL) which handles development for both Philips Consumer Electronics and Philips Semiconductors.

ProTech's mission is to provide assistance and support to hardware companies that want to integrate DSD and SACD technology into their professional recording studio equipment. The ProTech group also provides finished software for use by record labels and recording studios as well. Some of the products the group now makes available to the industry (in addition to the DSD Plug-In, SA-CD Creator and SA-CD Creator Pack) include:

Software Modules

Super Audio Disc Image Reading Component

Super Audio Disc Builder Component

Super Audio Disc Image Verifier Component

Other DSD & SACD Products

Audio Format Converter Application

Super Audio Verifier PCI Card

DST Encoder for Windows

Super Author for Windows

Super Audio CD Verifier for Windows

 

I'm waiting for the catch.

 

The nice thing, at least to me, is the cost. It seems very affordable. I hope this translates into more discs, soon!

 

Of course, a whole bunch of SACDs are already PCM sourced and sound great (heck, probably the vast majority of 5.1 mixes). So I see this as a good thing.

As long as those who are making the discs don't use the nastier features of ProTools (nonoise, dynamic range squashing, etc)...

 

The catch is they will USE this stuff! Thank God My Generation hit SACD before they were able to muck it up like the redbok!

 

The ability to squash the SACDs is nothing new. Like many other titles, the surround on Dark Side of the Moon was mixed in 24/96 PCM. Guthrie and company could have easily squashed it if they wanted to before converting to DSD...but they didn't. If the goal were to muck up My Generation, it wouldn't have been hard or costly given the resources that the big boys have.

This product just makes the PCM->DSD conversion process much cheaper.

Here's a question. Out of all of the pop/rock SACDs that we already own, how many say 'transferred directly from the original analog tapes to DSD' in the liner notes (or in any interviews or articles about creating the disc)?

 

Quite a bit are but the industry has never been good about identifying recording or mastering practices. The Chesky discs are all done from analog tapes to DSD.

Michael, you are making too big a deal of this whole PCM-DSD thing because we already know that done right a good PCM source like that in the Gaucho SACD can sound wonderful.

The good news is that many engineers prefer the sound of DSD so more native DSD recordings are being done. In fact, Channel Classics is entirely DSD for its hybrids. It actually dropped Red Book production in favor of hybrid.

By the way when you refer to squashing the DSOTM disc you really mean to say you can do it in PCM (before the SACD stage) as at the time that album was done no compression tools readily existed as far as I know.

 

They're making it seem like Pro Tools truly supports DSD - it doesn't and
can't and still doesn't, but most people don't care.

It's just a sample rate converter plug-in that goes up to
2.822mHz. Put this DSD SRC on your 6-channel outputs and record the 1-bit
bitstream coming out of the SRC to disk, thus making a 'edit master' file.
The beauty of this, albeit it's not proper DSD in the truest sense of the
word, is that the guys in the studio can 'mix to DSD' and make a file they
send on to the mastering engineer.

The SA CD Creator software is like SADiE's and Sonic's stand-alone SACD
authoring software that's separate from the audio editor program. It's much
more expensive because less people will actually make the 'cutting masters' (ie
the mastering engineers will, not the guy in the studio). Phillips is
trying to promote SACD UP from down in the trenches instead of the usual
'DOWN from on high' by letting punters make edit masters ready for SACD
release in their studio.

 

I've said that all along. Have never said otherwise.

In fact, I've said this product is a good thing. And I don't think it will have much, if any, effect on big-label releases (as far as mucking around with dynamics and noise goes).

For pop/rock? I'd say a tiny minority tell us anything of how they were produced for SACD (same thing with DVD-As, btw).

Sure I'm talking PCM. If the producers/band wanted the DSotM SACD to be squashed, they would have squashed it. They wouldn't have needed to wait a year for a new ProTools plugin.

 

What resolution does ProTools operate in? I thought I remember hearing 24bit/48 kHz... but are there plugins that allow better resolution and sampling rates?

 

At least there is some movement SOMEWHERE!

I would like to see a SACD package for us commoners. Right now, DVD-A can be done at home for $99 with remarkable results. A few more bucks gets you menus and stuff.

It would be nice to have an SACD option as well. It wouldn't have to be studio class, just hobby-class.

 

PT TDM (the old mix system) and the PT LE (either the 001 unit or the M-Box) will do 24/48

PT LE (002) will do 24/96

PT HD will go up to 24/192 but there's some difficulties with clocking on most days.

 

Lee, I'm not sure where you got your info. I can't speak about every Chesky sacd, but I know for a fact that the first 10 are 24/96 sourced. I know the person who prepped the files and sent them to airshow mastering.

 

Great, now that I know that, they don't sound as good.

 

I wonder if someone will show up with a half speed DSD mastering system, where analogue tapes are converted to DSD at half speed... (MFSL/Steve: hint, hint!) That'd be nice, I guess (if it made any difference...)

 

Gabe, I'm sorry but this wrong. Barry Wolifson did the transfers to DSD from analog master tapes we had running simultaneously in the Chesky sessions in the 90s. I actually ran the tape machine for several tracks of McCoy Tyner New York Reunion.

 

As I said, I know that the first 10 sacds were sourced from the 24/96 hirez files. You can PM and I'll give you the name of the person who prepped and shipped the files to Airshow.

 

Gabe,

I will PM you. I spoke twice about this with Barry who assured me they used the analog tapes. Are you sure you are not thinking about another label? Chesky usually does the mastering inhouse as well.

 

Translate, please, for someone who doesn't know much: isn't this announcement about the (dreaded) creation of tools to compress/noise-reduce/screw-with SACD sound?

 

Those already exist. It's been up to the discretion of the mastering engineer whether or not to use them for some time now. This will just put it in the hands of more users, and it won't even be true DSD, but a bastardized version.

 

So, the direct question is, how soon before ProTools makes SACDs sound like crap?

(If there's any audio "tool" out there that gives me shudders, ProTools is it. )

 

Why Do I get the feeling that all this means is that future SACDS will sound like recent CDS??

 

"We use PCM as well as Analog for our SACD's."

- David Chesky, from his own forum.