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No surprise, the first release of Neil Young's archives, Crazy Horse at the Fillmore 1970, is a labelled HDCD. And a damn fine one at that.
Originally Posted by law1979 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Category: Electronics Title: The Symphonic Jean Michel Jarre HDCD is written on the back |
So there is an entire spectrum of creative choices to be made (I won’t tally up all the permutations). The most complete is putting an analog mike preamp output into the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box analog input, electing to use all the processing algorithms, and outputting encoded, re-dithered, 16 bits. My understanding is that this is how Reference Recordings does it...... <snip> Another option, the one we chose for Music for a Glass Bead Game, is to take a hi-bit digital source, such as from a Nagra D, and use the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box only to re-dither it to 16 bits. This use of the Pacific Microsonics box puts the HDCD™ flag in the digital word that triggers the light to go on, on an HDCD-capable player or converter. But the light going on does not necessarily mean that the original recording was made using the Pacific Microsonics HDCD™ box as the analog to digital converter, or that processing was used to try to stretch dynamics beyond conventional 16-bit CDs. |
Version 9 and above of Windows Media Player running on Microsoft Windows XP is capable of decoding HDCD on personal computers with a 24-bit sound card enabled. [1] [2] This is currently the only purely software-based HDCD decoder available. This feature must be enabled by changing a "Properties" setting of the Speakers involving 24-bit audio. The path to this setting is: Tools - Options - Devices - Speakers - Properties - Performance Note that although 24-bit audio output is enabled, decoded HDCD is still a 20-bit standard. Because sound cards are typically set at 16 or 24 bits, it is necessary to "step up" to 24 bits before the 20-bit HDCD output can be used. |