Again: Converting Q-Software to DVD-A

[Quadro-Action]

Also some in Germany has tranfered CD-4, Q4 etc. with DTS to CD software -of course after "cleaning". But till now no one is working with Disc-Welder's Bronce technology for DVD-Audio. By the discussions before it was told, the sound is very well with the Bronce-DVD-Audio. But before a few here (and elswhere) will begin to work with "Bronce", I have also a few asks and I hope, they can answered from those, who have already experiences with "Bronce":
Has one made a comparison between DTS-CD and Bronce-DVD-A from the same title? And sound the DVD-A version audible clear "better" , which means cleaner, more softness etc. ?
And how is the difference between Bronce and Steel - is this the sound-quality or "only" the handling or the art or setting of the (or a)menue? By the way- we here work further on with 4-channel. I will be interested and grateful for answers, because - first learning, then working. Dietrich

 

[JonUrban]

Dietrich,

I am currently transferring a few of my quad reels to DVD-a using discWelder Bronze. I am recording at 24/96 and burning 4.0 DVD-A's. The results, although dependant on the source, are quite remarkable. I made a "Best of the Doobie Brothers" disc. Some tracks sound better than others, as we are talking 4 different reels here, and some of the reels just sound better than the others. However, to my ears, the sounds of "Black Water" are exceptionally clear, and it is well worth converting in this manner as opposed to DTS CD.

Remember, 24/96, or even 24/48, will sound audibly better to most listeners than anything at 16/44.1 or 16/48, then compressed with DTS.

Still, if you have a rotten tape, NOTHING will make it sound good!

 

[winopener]

Has one made a comparison between DTS-CD and Bronce-DVD-A from the same title? And sound the DVD-A version audible clear "better" , which means cleaner, more softness etc. ?
And how is the difference between Bronce and Steel - is this the sound-quality or "only" the handling or the art or setting of the (or a)menue? By the way- we here work further on with 4-channel. I will be interested and grateful for answers, because - first learning, then working. Dietrich

Dietrich,
you can do a test by yourself: Bronze works with Linear PCM files up to 24/96 (what it does it just organize the data stream in a dvd-audio format, there's no elaboration of the audio files at all), so what you need to do for test is to use your multichannel soundcard, record at 24/96, do the cleaning, copy them and then resample the cleaned to 24/44.1 and encode to dts.
You now have two sets of files:
a 44.1 encoded dts
4 24/96 files
load them in two different software players and check out how they sounds.

Going stereo-only, useful for test purposes, so you can use the same player (=same D/A stages) for both sources, you can burn a dvd-a with the digion audio2 software. It's in japanese (www.digion.com) and the demo (30 days) does only stereo, but it's quite straightfoward to use. You can do a compare between stereo sources by burning a dvd-a stereo and a dts stereo with only the front left&right

Of course:
the better the source, the better the results;
the better the hardware, the better the result;
the better the cleaning, the better the result.

In my setup, dvd-a from the same files as the dts as above (tested stereo-only) sound decisely better, and i'm starting from q8 tapes. YMMV. The final processing - dvd-a or dts - it is just the final step; if the others aren't at best, you may not hear the differences between the two system.

A tip: if you're going to do both dvd-a and dts from the same set of files, it's a lot better to use 88.2KHz as original sample rate - the downsampling to 44.1 is better from a x2 freq. than from a x2.something. 88.2 has several advantages:
- it is in the high-resolution area, where
- cleaning works better and leave much less artifacts (up to none) at high resolution
- less problematic for dts-cd downsample at 44.1
- save a bit of space, which can be useful for extra-long albums or other stuff that you may want to insert on the disc.

Of course, everything is done at 24 bit. 16bit nowadays it's just a waste of time.


-

 

[Quadro-Action]

Thanks to Jon Urban and "Winopener" for the reports to me about their experiences with DisWelder "Bronce". May be, I can now inspire my "soundmaster" to work also with DVD-Audio for the (before) restored Q-software. If, I will write also a report of our experiences. Dietrich

 

[neil wilkes]

I definitely agree that DVD-A at 24/44.1 is a serious improvement over anything else so far.
That is one of the joys of this format. You can use whatever sample rate makes you happy, from 44.1 - 48 families both.
Also, in multichannel DVD-A you can mix bitrates too. You can have 24/48 in the front 3 and 16/48 in the surrounds, for example. Many other combinations are possible too.

It is my opinion that this format is the way to go.
We also seem to have to make our own discs due to the lack of "official" releases, well so be it then.
Let's see what we can do.....