"Music and Audio: A User Guide To Better Sound" by AIX's Mark Waldrep

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barfle

1K Club - QQ Shooting Star
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
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Meridian, ID
I was one of Dr. AIX's Kickstarter investors on the production of this book. It's a lot to get through.

Since I just discovered there's a whole forum for AIX records, I thought this might be a place where we could discuss the book and its associated discs.
 
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I've pretty much read the entire book. There's a lot of good information in it, but a few negatives stand out.

First, he really needed a proofreader. There are typos and other errors on what seems like every other page, and some of them are numerical, so the information is simply incorrect. Second, it's pretty clear he has a serious problem with MQA. For what it's worth, I agree that I don't need MQA, although it does seem like the idea of it providing confidence in the provenance of the file, if done correctly, seems like it's worthwhile. But he even dedicates an entire chapter to slamming it. I'm not able to comment on MQA's technical abilities, but it almost feels like he has a vendetta against MQA. It seems like he doth protest too much.

Now that I've covered the negatives, he does an admirable job of taking a truly complex topic and breaking it down into comprehensible fields. While most of us aren't going to build a studio and buy microphones, mixing consoles, etc., he covers what goes into making a place to lay down tracks that sound as good as the musicians who make them. He also goes into what's necessary for a good listening environment, and references standards whenever they are available.

The book is not cheap, but it could certainly serve to improve just about anyone's system. If you skip the chapter on MQA, you'll probably find it worthwhile.
 
I've pretty much read the entire book. There's a lot of good information in it, but a few negatives stand out.

First, he really needed a proofreader. There are typos and other errors on what seems like every other page, and some of them are numerical, so the information is simply incorrect. Second, it's pretty clear he has a serious problem with MQA. For what it's worth, I agree that I don't need MQA, although it does seem like the idea of it providing confidence in the provenance of the file, if done correctly, seems like it's worthwhile. But he even dedicates an entire chapter to slamming it. I'm not able to comment on MQA's technical abilities, but it almost feels like he has a vendetta against MQA. It seems like he doth protest too much.

Now that I've covered the negatives, he does an admirable job of taking a truly complex topic and breaking it down into comprehensible fields. While most of us aren't going to build a studio and buy microphones, mixing consoles, etc., he covers what goes into making a place to lay down tracks that sound as good as the musicians who make them. He also goes into what's necessary for a good listening environment, and references standards whenever they are available.

The book is not cheap, but it could certainly serve to improve just about anyone's system. If you skip the chapter on MQA, you'll probably find it worthwhile.

Dr. Mark also hates, HATES DSD and much prefers PCM. As far as MQA, a lot of companies have signed on and Universal Japan has even released a slew of MQA encoded RBCDs [actually duplicating what's already been released as SHM~SACDs].

Such much controversy over this format. I'm a Meridian fanatic but even I question its necessity.
 
For those (like me) who did not know, "Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) is an audio codec using lossy compression."
Me no likee lossy.

Meridian has been a bit cagey about the lossy processing in MQA.
It is clearly detailed in the MQA patent filings.

Since MQA is a process to shrink the size of high resolution PCM files from 24/96 and 24/192 to "CD Quality" (aka 16 bit, 44 kHz or below in file size), it's pretty clear that some bits need to be dropped along the way to make it all work.
 
Dr. Mark also hates, HATES DSD and much prefers PCM. As far as MQA, a lot of companies have signed on and Universal Japan has even released a slew of MQA encoded RBCDs [actually duplicating what's already been released as SHM~SACDs].

Such much controversy over this format. I'm a Meridian fanatic but even I question its necessity.
His main beef, from what he said in the book, is that the DSD format does not lend itself to processing. In fact, he says there are no processing tools available that work with the DSD format directly. That may well be the case, but it's not something I work in, so I'll defer to those who do. My personal experience with SACD vs DVD-A is probably based more on the mix than on the data type.

I don't see any need for MQA either, but I have seen downloadable files, on which I have decided to pass.
 
His main beef, from what he said in the book, is that the DSD format does not lend itself to processing. In fact, he says there are no processing tools available that work with the DSD format directly.

Unless you are using the Sonoma DSD Workstation. Which includes DSD Wide processing for post-production work.

Mytek-PhotoWeb.jpg


https://www.superaudiocenter.com/index.htm
 
Just caught up with this thread.

Every day I'm learning more and more about this hobby.
So many learned folk on this forum and clearly still out there.

Has there ever been a definitive history written about surround music and where it's going?
Or is Marks book covering this?
 
Unless you are using the Sonoma DSD Workstation. Which includes DSD Wide processing for post-production work.

I'm curious as to how it actually works, because, as I understand DSD (which is by no means definitive), the one-bit train doesn't lend itself to much beyond storage and playback.
 
Has there ever been a definitive history written about surround music and where it's going?
Or is Marks book covering this?

Anyone who claims to know where the surround music field is going will be proven wrong.
Mark's book does cover a bit of the history, but I felt he gave quadraphonic vinyl short shrift. There's quite a bit of information just in the packaging of the records that he simply did not bother with. That being said, there are plenty of analytical studies I also wish he had cited, instead of wasting so many pages on MQA.
 
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