More on Metropolis HERE, HEREHERE, HERE

More Fritz Lang info HERE

 

President's Message
April 2004

1.  Checks for $13.86 were mailed to 3.5 million music fans as a result of a class action suit about price fixing. (I got mine)

2.  For many years I have used the Pierre Verany Test CD (PV784031, sold by DB Systems) with one third octave warble tones for testing loudspeakers in a room. It has constant amplitude sine waves randomly varied in frequency within the space of a third octave center from 16 Hz to 20 kHz. The advantage over pink noise is that the averaging time is less -- it is practical to measure down to very low frequencies. Although it is all one track, there are voice announcements in French and English for all the frequencies so it is easy to use. Recently I decided to make a more friendly version for my own use, adding tracks for all the frequencies, removing the French announcements and shortening the time for the higher frequencies. When I loaded it into the computer for editing, I discovered immediately that the two lowest frequencies were 2 dB higher than all the rest! I played the disc directly into a voltmeter to confirm this. I corrected the amplitude errors on my cdr copy. I wrote Pierre Verany about this but they didn't respond, not too surprising since it was mastered 20 years ago.

3.  A customer of mine, an electrical engineeering student, was looking for a test disc for SACD players (with test tones). I spent about 40 minutes on the phone going through various menus with Sony and was finally informed that that part was only available to Sony service centers and not for sale to anyone else. If anyone knows where I could obtain a test disc for SACD players, I would very much appreciate knowing about it.

4.  The Vienna Symphonic Library is an ambitious project to recreate the sound of a symphonic orchestra from samples. Conceived by Herb Tucmandl, a cellest who played with the Vienna Philharmonic, the recordings are made in a specially constructed "Silent Stage" outside Vienna with 90 dB of isolation from the outside world. It is designed for .7 seconds of reverb. Special attention is paid to connections, slurs, and legato connections, the transitions between notes. It takes 260 GB of space for the 16 bit version and a 24 bit version is on the way. The reviewer finds it so realistic that only the finest ears could be able to tell the difference between it and a live orchestra. www.vsl.co.at EQ Ja04

David Hadaway

President, Boston Audio Society

email: dhad000@yahoo.com


 

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updated 11/11/04