Category Archives: Music

Can you even hear SACD/DVD Audio improvements?

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Incidentally, while researching my piece on SACD, I came across a recent study in which double blind tests were conducted to determine whether people could pick between SACDs and DVD Audio discs on the one hand, and the same discs … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Music, Mysticism | 2 Comments

I Hate Direct Stream Digital

Posted on December 20, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

Direct Stream Digital (DSD) is the digital format used by Sony in the Super Audio CD (SACD). But SACD is only one form in which it is used. I seem to remember that back in the day, Sony was promoting … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, Codecs, Music | 8 Comments

Politically correct Bee Gees

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

When I was quite young (about 13) my father sometimes worked at a second job as a security guard. On one occasion he had a job at a concert of the Bee Gees at the local theatre. My sister and … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Rant | 4 Comments

The Loudness Wars

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The previous post, Greg Borrowman made reference to ‘The Loudness Wars’ and gave a small explanation. But he has now drawn my attention to a very useful little video that explains what this means in practice. It is here, and … Continue reading →

Posted in CD, Imperfect perception, Music | 3 Comments

Kitchenvalient

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

… is the name of a four member music group, of which two of my daughters constitute half. They’ve been writing songs for quite a while, and practising pretty assiduously. They have now uploaded to Facebook a couple of their … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Everything online all the time

Posted on January 15, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The Gadget Guy reports that 200,000 pre-WWII recordings have been donated by Universal Music to the US Library of Congress, which will convert them to a digital format and make them available for free online. I reckon this is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Analogue, Audio, Music | Leave a comment

Why we like music remains a mystery

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

In a comment to an earlier post Treblid linked to an interesting article in Discovery News called ‘Why Music Makes You Happy‘. The article relates a study in which the brain function of a number of people was analysed during … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Rant | 3 Comments

Even the best can succumb to the times

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Stephen Dawson

The other night I stumbled across a clip on Rage of Mick Jagger performing his 1985 single ‘Just Another Night’. Even he ended up looking like a 1985 performer, with the plastered-on white face and the heavy eye liner and … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | 1 Comment

Beatles on iTunes

Posted on November 16, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

It seems that at last The Beatles’ catalogue will be online, via iTunes.

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

DVD Audio lives on!

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Because I bought a King Crimson CD from Amazon once, today I got an email from them advising that In the Wake of Poseidon, KC’s second album, is due to be released in mid October. Of course, it was actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Audio, DVD, Music | 4 Comments