luketsu
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2016
- Messages
- 68
Hello everybody,
Over the past 15 years Universal Music Company (more precisely Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips together) released over 100 CDs in their Eloquence Series that were remastered using AMSI (Ambient Surround Imaging) technology. Few albums were also released on multichannel SACDs but I'm not talking about that. Briefly speaking the engineers at Emil-Berliner Studios created an artificial 4-channel surround sound into stereo mix that to be possible to reproduce through Dolby Pro Logic II decoder. As far as I know the series has been discontinued now or the newest albums (Bruckner: The 10 Symphonies / Chailly & Brendel plays Mozart) do not utilize this surround sound technology.
Every inlay card contains the following information on AMSI technology: "AMBIENT SURROUND IMAGING - This means: an optimised sensurround sound experience for audio surround systems. But with stereo systems you can also experience greater presence, more brilliance and a stereophonically refined panorama of sound. For a musical experience that's like being there "live". DEVELOPED AT THE EMIL-BERLINER-HAUS, HANOVER". They have also printed the AMSI logo - four lines into different directions - there and to the surface of the disc.
Yesterday I bought my first AMSI CD (Liszt: Les Preludes, Hungarian Rhapsodies & Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes / Karajan) and up to this point I have listened to it once. I discontinued to buy CDs about five years ago when I discovered the advantages of Super Audio CD. But in fact this Liszt CD - and every album in the series - to be understood as more advanced CD. I have not heard the original CD release so I can't compare it to this. But I noticed two (actually three) differences over a regular CD:
1(-2)) Presence and depth: when it comes to realism AMSI CDs offers a significant improvement for listeners. Thanks to the carefully prepared surround mix you're placed in the middle of the orchestra and therefore able to hear previously unheard details. They have not even tried to follow a traditional concert hall listening experience where surround speakers are used only for the ambience. In addition if your subwoofer is switched on it will produce a hidden 5th channel (Low-Frequency Effects) in order to enjoy more extensive soundfield.
2 (3)) Clarity: All analogue recordings have been remastered from the original master tapes for optimal results. And most likely during the final AMSI mix the engineers also utilized the in-house invention "Original-Image Bit-Processing" in order to minimize the disadvantages of tape hiss and other unwanted background noises. I don't have an exact answer to this but perhaps before they started to prepare AMSI mix the high-resolution 48 kHz/16 bit remaster was downsampled to CD quality. Does it work? Was it worth to give so much time and determination for these? Yes, definitely. Even the oldest analogue recordings of the series (recorded in the mid-1960 or even earlier) includes amazingly great amount of accuracy (but perhaps a little bit of harshness due to the effect of the age). To sum up you will hear the best sound what CD can ever offer for you.
I have decided to collect the whole series - or at least the most interesting titles. My wish list already contains the following albums:
View attachment 29958
1) Alban Berg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36 & Arnold Schoenberg: Piano Concerto, Op. 42
- Recorded in September 1971 (Violin Concerto) and in December 1971 (Piano Concerto) at the Residenz, Herkulessaal, Munich, Germany
- Produced by Dr. Rudolf Werner, Klaus Behrens & Hans Weber
- Balance engineer: Heinz Wildhagen
View attachment 29957
2) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op.35 (Joseph Silverstein (solo violin), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (conductor)) & Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi)
- Recorded in April 1977 at the Symphony Hall, Boston, United States (Scheherazade) & in September 1987 at the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg, Sweden (Capriccio)
- Produced by Rainer Brock (Scheherazade) & Lennart Dehn (Capriccio)
- Balance engineer: Klaus Hiemann (Scheherazade) & Michel Bernard (Capriccio)
View attachment 29959
3) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C major, K317 "Coronation", Vesperae solennes de confessore in C, K339, Litaniae Lauretanae BMV in D, K195 & Exsultate jubilate, K165
Ileana Cotrubas, Helen Watts, Robert Tear, John Shirley-Quirk, Schola Cantorum Of Oxford, George Malcolm, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor)
- Recorded in May 1971 (Coronation Mass & Litaniae Lauretanae) at St. John's, Smith Square, United Kingdom & in November 1966 at Kingsway Hall, London, United Kingdom (Exsultate jubilate) & in August 1979 at St. John's College, Cambridge, United Kingdom (Vesperae solennes de confessore)
- Produced by Michael Bremner & Chris Hazell
- Balance engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson, Stanley Goodall & John Dunkerley
View attachment 29961
4) Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink (conductor)
- Recorded in December 1982 at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Produced by Andrew Cornall
- Balance engineer: Colin Moorfoot
View attachment 29962
5) Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel and Gretel (complete recording)
Franz Grundheber, Gwyneth Jones, Ann Murray, Edita Gruberova, Kinderchor Der Staatsoper Dresden, Women's Chorus of the Dresden State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis (conductor)
- Recorded in January 1992 at Lukaskirche, Dresden, Germany
- Produced by Rupert Faustle
Over the past 15 years Universal Music Company (more precisely Deutsche Grammophon, Decca and Philips together) released over 100 CDs in their Eloquence Series that were remastered using AMSI (Ambient Surround Imaging) technology. Few albums were also released on multichannel SACDs but I'm not talking about that. Briefly speaking the engineers at Emil-Berliner Studios created an artificial 4-channel surround sound into stereo mix that to be possible to reproduce through Dolby Pro Logic II decoder. As far as I know the series has been discontinued now or the newest albums (Bruckner: The 10 Symphonies / Chailly & Brendel plays Mozart) do not utilize this surround sound technology.
Every inlay card contains the following information on AMSI technology: "AMBIENT SURROUND IMAGING - This means: an optimised sensurround sound experience for audio surround systems. But with stereo systems you can also experience greater presence, more brilliance and a stereophonically refined panorama of sound. For a musical experience that's like being there "live". DEVELOPED AT THE EMIL-BERLINER-HAUS, HANOVER". They have also printed the AMSI logo - four lines into different directions - there and to the surface of the disc.
Yesterday I bought my first AMSI CD (Liszt: Les Preludes, Hungarian Rhapsodies & Fantasia on Hungarian Folk Themes / Karajan) and up to this point I have listened to it once. I discontinued to buy CDs about five years ago when I discovered the advantages of Super Audio CD. But in fact this Liszt CD - and every album in the series - to be understood as more advanced CD. I have not heard the original CD release so I can't compare it to this. But I noticed two (actually three) differences over a regular CD:
1(-2)) Presence and depth: when it comes to realism AMSI CDs offers a significant improvement for listeners. Thanks to the carefully prepared surround mix you're placed in the middle of the orchestra and therefore able to hear previously unheard details. They have not even tried to follow a traditional concert hall listening experience where surround speakers are used only for the ambience. In addition if your subwoofer is switched on it will produce a hidden 5th channel (Low-Frequency Effects) in order to enjoy more extensive soundfield.
2 (3)) Clarity: All analogue recordings have been remastered from the original master tapes for optimal results. And most likely during the final AMSI mix the engineers also utilized the in-house invention "Original-Image Bit-Processing" in order to minimize the disadvantages of tape hiss and other unwanted background noises. I don't have an exact answer to this but perhaps before they started to prepare AMSI mix the high-resolution 48 kHz/16 bit remaster was downsampled to CD quality. Does it work? Was it worth to give so much time and determination for these? Yes, definitely. Even the oldest analogue recordings of the series (recorded in the mid-1960 or even earlier) includes amazingly great amount of accuracy (but perhaps a little bit of harshness due to the effect of the age). To sum up you will hear the best sound what CD can ever offer for you.
I have decided to collect the whole series - or at least the most interesting titles. My wish list already contains the following albums:
View attachment 29958
1) Alban Berg: Violin Concerto, Op. 36 & Arnold Schoenberg: Piano Concerto, Op. 42
- Recorded in September 1971 (Violin Concerto) and in December 1971 (Piano Concerto) at the Residenz, Herkulessaal, Munich, Germany
- Produced by Dr. Rudolf Werner, Klaus Behrens & Hans Weber
- Balance engineer: Heinz Wildhagen
View attachment 29957
2) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Op.35 (Joseph Silverstein (solo violin), Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa (conductor)) & Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Neeme Järvi)
- Recorded in April 1977 at the Symphony Hall, Boston, United States (Scheherazade) & in September 1987 at the Gothenburg Concert Hall, Gothenburg, Sweden (Capriccio)
- Produced by Rainer Brock (Scheherazade) & Lennart Dehn (Capriccio)
- Balance engineer: Klaus Hiemann (Scheherazade) & Michel Bernard (Capriccio)
View attachment 29959
3) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mass in C major, K317 "Coronation", Vesperae solennes de confessore in C, K339, Litaniae Lauretanae BMV in D, K195 & Exsultate jubilate, K165
Ileana Cotrubas, Helen Watts, Robert Tear, John Shirley-Quirk, Schola Cantorum Of Oxford, George Malcolm, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Neville Marriner (conductor)
- Recorded in May 1971 (Coronation Mass & Litaniae Lauretanae) at St. John's, Smith Square, United Kingdom & in November 1966 at Kingsway Hall, London, United Kingdom (Exsultate jubilate) & in August 1979 at St. John's College, Cambridge, United Kingdom (Vesperae solennes de confessore)
- Produced by Michael Bremner & Chris Hazell
- Balance engineers: Kenneth Wilkinson, Stanley Goodall & John Dunkerley
View attachment 29961
4) Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Bernard Haitink (conductor)
- Recorded in December 1982 at Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Produced by Andrew Cornall
- Balance engineer: Colin Moorfoot
View attachment 29962
5) Engelbert Humperdinck: Hänsel and Gretel (complete recording)
Franz Grundheber, Gwyneth Jones, Ann Murray, Edita Gruberova, Kinderchor Der Staatsoper Dresden, Women's Chorus of the Dresden State Opera Chorus, Staatskapelle Dresden, Sir Colin Davis (conductor)
- Recorded in January 1992 at Lukaskirche, Dresden, Germany
- Produced by Rupert Faustle