Feedback request: Haken in hi-rez

lasercd

lasercd

Man Behind The Curtain
Dec 26, 2002
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www.lasercd.com
I'd like some feedback and will probably post this on a few forums to see if I can get a consensus.

The production of the new Haken disc is phenomenal. I would like to make it available in a hi-rez format if possible.

If I were to sell (at a "normal" price) the album in 24/96 on a USB stick would this be of interest? It seems like the most cost effective way to make this available in a physical format.

Although it will change in the future, I am currently not set up to make hi-rez downloads available.

I'm trying to gauge the size of the market and get a general sense of interest for something like this. Haken is just an example. Going forward (or even looking at our back catalog) other titles could be a possibility.

What do you think?

Ken Golden
 
I'm ashamed to say I am not much of an audiophile. I either rip cds to iTunes or dowload them directly from that source since I do most of my listening at the gym, in my car, or at the hospital. My iPod is the most efficient way for me to keep my musical library with me. I'm assuming hi rez sound's benefits will be lost on my iPod.
 
Probably FLAC. It depends on the cost differential on the USB stick capacity. If there is little difference I might manufacture them as WAV.
 
I'd rather have the CD than a USB... but... I have been thinking more and more about starting to buy via itunes and other download sites. The CDS just take space and the art on the e-booklets is simply beautiful. I know this may be unrelated... but Ken if you start selling FLAC format via download I think my wallet will suffer a lot. For example, I just downloaded a Porcupine Tree FLAC version of a concert in Atlanta and the sound quality is superb. I would buy that from you!
 
Unfortunately we can't make downloads available from other labels.

I'm just thinking out loud of ways that I could make higher resolution (specifically 24 bit) versions of our releases available to the public. A USB stick is one option.
 
lasercd said:
Unfortunately we can't make downloads available from other labels.
Click to expand...

I understand. Still, if you sell the releases from your label in FLAC format with an electronic booklet... I would certainly pick them up. I hope that helps!
 
Personally, I'd be more interested in downloading albums in FLAC, than having it shipped to me on any sort of medium. For me, the advantage of having it in digital form rather than a CD is getting it instantly. Shipping me a USB stick doesn't gain me much, since ripping a CD is pretty trivial.
 
As much as I listen to music, I'd probably want to hear both versions and decide that the hi-rez version is markedly better before I'd be deadset on buying the version with superior quality. Personally, I'm just fine with buying a CD, having it on the shelf to pull out and put in the car, and then uploading the tracks to the ol' iPod for when I need that as well.

Are the hi-rez versions large file sizes? I admit I don't know much about "FLAC" or even what 24/96 means.
 
I would certainly be interesed in this. Would it be a stereo mix? How would it be able to be played? On a blu ray player through analog outputs? I am usually very knowledgable about this this, but if its in FLAC, how could that hi res audio be transferred to media that woiuld keep the resolution? Maybe a DVD?
 
lasercd said:
I'd like some feedback and will probably post this on a few forums to see if I can get a consensus.

The production of the new Haken disc is phenomenal. I would like to make it available in a hi-rez format if possible.

If I were to sell (at a "normal" price) the album in 24/96 on a USB stick would this be of interest? It seems like the most cost effective way to make this available in a physical format.

Although it will change in the future, I am currently not set up to make hi-rez downloads available.

I'm trying to gauge the size of the market and get a general sense of interest for something like this. Haken is just an example. Going forward (or even looking at our back catalog) other titles could be a possibility.

What do you think?

Ken Golden
Click to expand...

I'm kinda confused. How are you going about this? Are you contacting the mastering engineering himself who did the album and getting the 24bit/96khz mixes straight from him or are you taking the CD 16bit/44.1Khz then upping it to 24bit/96Khz? The best way is to go about this is just to sell it as downloadable 16bit/44.1khz WAV. It's the highest quality offered by the CD itself and does indeed takes up a ton of bandwidth and space, most people would just prefer to buy the real cd instead. There's no point in selling it on a usb stick since it fits perfectly on a CD. Unless you really do have the true 24bit/96khz masters, that's a different story.
 
I can't really say anything specifically if I'd want this particular release or not, but for me it would largely depend on the file format of the media and whether there is DRM on the stick or not and what type.

If it's not something I can copy to my hard drive and readily convert to a format that will play in vanilla iTunes, it's pretty much a non-starter for me.

Also, large WAV files are fairly resource-intensive to open and play.
 
Silverlinings said:
I would certainly be interesed in this. Would it be a stereo mix? How would it be able to be played? On a blu ray player through analog outputs? I am usually very knowledgable about this this, but if its in FLAC, how could that hi res audio be transferred to media that woiuld keep the resolution? Maybe a DVD?
Click to expand...

As long as you're going from a lossless format to another lossless format and not changing the bitrate, there should be no noticable difference in quality...no different than the process of it going from being a file to that stuff that comes out of your sound card.

@Ken: it is all-together an interesting proposition though. I'm interested to hear what you come up with and if it works. I haven't really seen much consideration for this idea considering SACD and DVD-A flopped badly and are basically junk unless you're in really niche markets. Backwards-compatible SACDs are kinda nice though.
 
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