Peter Cook: Audio

Mixing Lord of the Rings Live-Lord of the Rings Live Hits Broadway

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 03:49:50 GMT

The Lord of the Rings musical at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The score for this ambitious production is performed under the capable direction of Chris Nightingale (who is also the orchestrator and musical supervisor), and performed by an ensemble of 15 live musicians and three keyboardists triggering the Vienna Symphonic Library Pro Edition sample sets off of G5 computers running Logic.

Mix has an article on the sound installation for the recently cancelled Lord of the Rings show in Toronto.

Apple Lossless format coming to iTMS?

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:30:52 GMT

A new version of Apple Computer's iTunes Producer software suggest that the company may begin to offer tracks through its iTunes Music Store that are encoded in its higher-quality lossless compression format. [snip] A new version of Apple Computer's iTunes Producer software suggest that the company may begin to offer tracks through its iTunes Music Store that are encoded in its higher-quality lossless compression format.

Link to Story

Many people have been waiting for this. However, the article notes that the ability for record companies to upload lossless file formats does not necessarily mean customers will be able to buy this format. DRM is not currently part of the ALC format.

soundBlade v1.0 Debuts

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 05:04:04 GMT

On May 20th, 2006, Sonic Studio pre-released version 1.0 of soundBlade, our greatly anticipated general purpose LPCM production application for Mac OS. Learn more

[Via SonicStudioNews]

Rotel Debut the RDV-1092 Flagship DVD-Audio Player...

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:25:35 GMT

Rotel are releasing a new flagship DVD-Audio player capable of 1080p video scaling. The RDV-1092 boasts the very latest in video resolution standards and exceptional audio performance.
[Via DVD-Audio and SACD News]

Classé Announce Reference Quality CD/DVD-Audio Player

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:25:10 GMT

Classé have announced the CDP-202, a reference-quality CD player with DVD-Audio capabilities, which follows closely on the heels of the CDP-102, introduced late last year.
[Via DVD-Audio and SACD News]

PreMaster CD v1.1 Released

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:23:25 GMT

On May 17th, 2006, Sonic Studio released version 1.1 of PreMaster CD, our entry level premastering application for Mac OS. Version 1.1 adds significants UI improvements, including completely automatic PQ generation on ingest and very easy drag & drop re-sequencing. Learn more…

[Via SonicStudioNews]

Audiophiles Become IPodiophiles

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:20:08 GMT

Critics agree: A few hardware mods can turn your iPod into an affordable, high-end music source for the most demanding sound systems. Commentary by Leander Kahney.
[Via Wired News]

"Heresy!" you say? Read on.

Stephen St.Croix, 1948-2006

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:10:19 GMT

It is with great sadness that we report on the passing of Stephen St.Croix, a Mix columnist for 18 years and an audio raconteur for most of his life. Stephen died peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, May 6, at the age of 58. Please look to the pages of Mix for a tribute to someone we consider one of our family.
[Via Mix News]

Bjork To Release Career-Spanning Box Set

Fri, 19 May 2006 03:09:40 GMT

Each album will come in the DualDisc format, which includes a CD and a DVD side. The CD side will feature the original version of the album, while the flip will have a remastered version in Dolby 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound.
[Via Feedster Search: DualDisc surround sound]

EMI Says Warner Music Rebuffed $4.2B Offer (AP)

Mon, 08 May 2006 03:41:44 GMT

AP - Warner Music Group Corp. has rejected a $4.2 billion cash-and-stock offer from its larger rival EMI Group PLC — the latest development in a long-running bid to unite the companies.
[Via Yahoo! News - World]

Mix: Where's the MONEY?

Mon, 08 May 2006 03:41:31 GMT

That's what this issue is all about: Re-evaluating the old business paradigms, learning how to look for new opportunities, seeing how our colleagues are dealing with such a challenging fiscal landscape, helping you figure out how you might fit into the ever-shifting scheme of things.

Neil Young goes with download first, CD later

Mon, 08 May 2006 03:40:09 GMT

Company lets you listen to high-fidelity downloads by the rocker that provide the same sound quality as the CD.
[Via CNET News.com]

iTTUSB-Turntable with USB Output

Tue, 02 May 2006 17:15:20 GMT

+	Includes: • Adjustable Pitch Belt Drive Turntable • Vinyl recording software • USB Cable • Cartridge with Stylus • 45 Adapter • CD with Mac/PC recording software
+	33 1/3 and 45 RPM. Software allows for 78 RPM conversion
+	Adjustable Anti-Skating control for increased stereo balancing
+	High speed vinyl recording
+	Line level RCA outputs
+	Adjustable Pitch Control +/- 8%
+	Computer Requirements: • PC running Windows 98, 2000, or XP • Mac running OS9 or greater • One available USB1.1 port

And presumably a built-in phono pre-amp!

A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform (Steven Page/canada.com)

Tue, 02 May 2006 16:53:32 GMT

A Barenaked guide to music copyright reform' —' The Canadian music scene has been riding a remarkable wave in recent months, with packed clubs, breakout artists, and international acclaim.' While that success has garnered considerable attention, last week a group of well-known Canadian musicians took centre stage for another reason.

Source: ' canada.com
Author: ' Steven Page
Link: ' http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas…

View discussion

[Via tech.memeorandum]

A Touch of Gold to Keep Treasured Discs From Degrading

Tue, 02 May 2006 16:26:40 GMT

New discs from Kodak will keep your favorite movie or sound recording preserved for up to 300 years.
[Via New York Times: Technology]

New DTS tools coming for surround sound mastering

Tue, 02 May 2006 15:16:42 GMT

New DTS surround sound mastering tools are coming later this year, for Mac and PC.
[Via MacCentral]

NAB: SRS brings surround sound to mobile devices

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:10:52 GMT

SRS Labs is bringing surround sound to mobile devices.
[Via MacCentral]

An attempt to move surround sound technology to video iPods.

Essentials for Going Surround

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:10:33 GMT

If you've upgraded your DAW or console lately, then you've probably got surround production on your mind — or at least in your eventual plans. Other than audio for feature films, advanced games or network television programming, the vast majority of the audio we hear is still in stereo. However, surround — real surround; not “rechanneled for 5.1” stuff — is definitely the present (and certainly the future) of music production, whether you're working in LCRS, 5.1, 6.1 or more; and in Dolby Surround, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, DTS, SACD or custom playback systems for special-venue presentations, thrill rides, etc.

Create 5.1 audio with Quicktime and EyeTV

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:09:33 GMT

This tip shows how you can take material recorded with EyeTV (like Tivo) and transfer the resulting sound to 5.1 a.k.a Dolby Digital.' Useful to those who make collages of TV programs and documentary fillmakers who use scenes from TV. It is still a lot of work for the effect but it could be well worth it for those who need it.

[Via DV Guru]

The Man Behind Scrambled Hackz

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:09:23 GMT

Imagine slicing and dicing audio to recreate any sound on the fly by matching bits to a database of every piece of recorded music ever made. Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk.
[Via Wired News]

Fab Four tunes being readied for downloads

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:09:03 GMT

Beatles catalogue is being remastered and the recordings will be made available for downloading
[Via The Globe and Mail - Technology News]

""We're remastering the whole Beatles catalogue, just to make it sound brighter and better and getting proper booklets to go with each of the packages," Aspinall said in the lawsuit witness statement."

Brighter? Argh. I hope he doesn't mean that. How about surround mixes where possible? I gather that for the later years EMI has access to each of the original 2 and 4 tracks before they were bounced down and overdubbed. This allowed them to do a great surround mix on Yellow Submarine.

EBU Conference: Control freakery and Mozart

Sun, 16 Apr 2006 22:14:33 GMT

Things were going quite nicely until with about 300,000 downloads over the first few weeks, and then they saw a spike in traffice. They have 300,000 downloads overnight, three-quarters of them from outside of Denmark. They had been Digged!! From Henrik: “Digg is a little nerdy website about technology and so on.” Suddenly, “we had to talk to the record companies about 1.2 m downloads,” Henrik said. And the files were in the wild even high quality files encoded. surround sound. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in the room with Henrik and the record execs.

POP Sound Mixes 5.1 Spot for Tylenol...

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:45:35 GMT

Sound design, music and voiceover are beautifully woven together in Holes, which promotes the advanced design of Tylenol Rapid Release Gels. A computer-animated product demonstration shows particles escaping through the “laser drilled design” holes in the Tylenol capsule. ...Read'More'»

[Via Digital Pro Sound News]

Australian Government sets start date for digital radio

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 21:10:55 GMT

Australians are set to receive digital radio broadcasts starting January 1, 2009, according to Federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan.

The national digital radio rollout will begin in six capital cities, using the European Eureka 147 system. Trials have been running in Sydney and Melbourne since 2003.

For more on this, check out Digital Radio Australia.

[Via I Love Radio .org]

Eureka. Not quite dead yet!

Working with BWF audio in FCP

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 21:00:06 GMT

An introduction and tutorial.