Meanwhile, on November 20, all the albums released from the label "T5 Jazz Records" are made by DSD. It is delivered by DSD / FLAC in e-onkyo music at a live album "4 AM" of a trumpeter named Shihei. Mr. Koji Suzuki, Recording & Mastering Engineer at Sony Music Communications (SMC) who worked on recordings from this album recording to Mixing and Mastering, and Mr. Tadashi Shimizu, the representative of the label, was able to talk about production. (Honorifics)
Use dedicated customized Sonoma
- How was the DSD album of this time planned?
Shimizu: I was originally in the production department of Jazz at Sony Music and I became independent from it. Since
the sister who had a relationship since the Sony Music era started
activities in solo, I thought that I wanted to get out of our place. Moreover,
if you give out the sense of energies of the class, I thought that it
would be live from the studio, and while studying how to make it, I
found that it was possible to use a very small live house named Velvet
Saint Ogikubo, consult with Ms. Suzuki That was the start.
- Did it mean that it was with DSD from the beginning?
Shimizu: It's usually a place to record with PCM, but I also wanted to record with the best sound as expected, so I decided to go with DSD. Also, when you record to a high sound quality with a complete DSD, you can actually create only with Sony Music. Mr.
Suzuki was working on the recording from the era of the class, Urban
era, and Suzuki himself is also a trumpeter, so it has become such a
plan.
- Mr. Suzuki, how often do you record with DSD?
Suzuki: Not so frequently, is it about three times a year? Sometimes we record classics in halls, and sometimes we record jazz here in the studio. In the past you recorded Katsumi Watanabe's acoustic guitar in 5.1 ch surround.
- What do you use for recording DSD?
Suzuki: It's Sonoma. Sonoma was originally developed by Sony, and I used it from the beginning as well. Currently,
Sonoma is something sold by an American company, but in Sachi is Sonoma
before going to the USA, customized for Sony Music only.
- Sonoma is the first equipment to record DSD and produce SACD!
Suzuki: That's right. I was recording at the early stage where Sonoma was made, so it may be the first recording engineer in DSD (laugh).
- As a system
that DSD can record, there is Pyramix besides Sonoma, and there are
products such as KORG MR series and TASCAM as being more affordable. Also, I have not heard much about it recently, but there are things like SADiE. When
it comes to Sonoma in the Sony era, it will be said that it will be
equipment more than 10 years ago, is it still different from other
equipment?
Suzuki: In my
position, I would like to avoid comparing with other companies'
products, but at the time of development, Sonoma, which was thoroughly
sticking to the sound quality, was developed at the present time with
accuracy and quality of A / D and D / A , I think that it is very
excellent in terms of resolution.
- So, I still use Sonoma at that time. How much is this in terms of size?
Suzuki: There are one 24ch Sonoma and four 8ch ones in Uchi. The
system size will be different for each, but since the one used for this
recording is the one of 24 ch, one 19-inch big rack containing the DAW
Sonoma body and one 8 ch A / D It is a rack with optical I / O as a set,
and three racks with 3 D / A of 8 ch and optical I / O set. I brought this to the live house. Of
course, these are only Sonoma, so we brought in microphones at the
mixer desk as well as a big transformer to stabilize the power supply,
so we brought in with 2 ton trucks.
24ch recording, analog conversion to EQ / comp, mastering
- Sonoma body is running on PC, is not it?
Suzuki: You 're right. I use a stuffed card that can input and output light into the desktop PC. In
this rack, in addition to the PC itself, ULTRIUM of the magnetic tape
device for backup and above, the hard disk are lined up below. When recording, because it becomes quite capacitive, we are moving eight HDDs at the same time. Meanwhile, OS is at that time, so Windows XP will be deprecated soon (laugh). However, since it has been confirmed that it will work on Windows 7, I plan to replace it to Windows 7 soon.
- It is said that you brought a 24ch system, but what kind of channel configuration will it take?
Shimizu: There
are five drummers, basses, guitars, pianos, and five other members of
the live performances in addition to the trademark of the trumpet, so
they are separately recorded.
Suzuki: Because the piano was playing with the keyboard, it is six pieces as an instrument. 9
to 10 ch in the drum, the base is 2 ch with the line and the amp
microphone, the guitar is only the amplifier microphone so it was 1 ch. The trumpet also has a contact microphone attached for selection and it is for 2 ch. On
the piano we have built two microphones, the keyboard is a line, two
other ambience microphones are built, and it is stored in 24 chips.
- Although I was told that I was bringing in a mixer console, did Sonoma record the sound through this mixer console?
Suzuki: No, the desk is for monitor and confirmation, and the recording itself enters Sonoma directly from the microphone amplifier. As it is still possible, it means recording with a good sound and pure sound, so I am recording it directly. Actually, when recording starts, it is still turning. Although it was divided into the first half and the second half in terms of time, it is about 2 hours in total.
- The result of this recording is data specific to Sonoma, is not it?
Suzuki: For Sonoma only, DSDIFF files are generated for each channel. So I will take this back to the studio and play it back and do the mixdown work. At this time, playback uses this 24 ch's, analog it, it drops to 2 ch through Neve 's EQ. It is work to record that 2 ch by using another 8ch Sonoma.
- Well, that's why you go through the analog once in here. Is it about Neve 's EQ used?
Suzuki: The work itself is done in a big studio for mix, and it is just a simple balance. Besides Neve's EQ, is there a degree of putting a compressor as an outboard? Also mix ambience microphone sounds here to make the energy feel as much as possible.
- Is this done?
Suzuki: No, this is a mixdown, so I will start mastering work. Mastering is done in this room, but it is the work to control the music one by one by sound from Sonoma of 8 ch. Since
we have 6 bonus tracks and 6 songs, we will create an entrance
penetration and at the same time we will arrange the energy feeling in
the order. In other words, it is volume sense, giving out the presence of trumpets, volume sense of bass and so on.
- Again, is it an adjustment by putting it out analog like a mix?
Suzuki: That's right. I will put it out in analog form, go through EQ and comp, and will record to another track of Sonoma of the same 8ch.
- I
think that DSD can not do effect processing on DAW like PCM, but it is
the same in Sonoma, is it? But can you cut it or fade it?
Suzuki: Yes, even here, cutting, pasting and fading are done on Sonoma. Changing
the size and changing the level are done on PC, and the operation
itself by looking at the waveform itself is the same as PCM. When you mix down, the length of the song is not changed. I dropped the contents recorded for 2 hours to 2 ch as it was. For that reason, I am tinkering with the length at the stage of mastering and only adjusting the sound quality in analog.
Shimizu: We now sell DSD data that we have created on e-onkyo music. DSD's big appeal is that the sound itself made with this studio is available.
PCM conversion in SBM Direct for CD. USB memory version of FLAC / MP3 recorded
- In addition to being released on DSD with this album, e-onkyo music, there are also CDs. How do you make this?
Suzuki: I am doing PCM conversion based on the master I made for DSD. SBM Direct is used for this.
- Is that? SBM = Super Bit Mapping was dither used to drop 24 bit audio data to 16 bit?
Suzuki: Yes, but what I use here is a device that converts DSD to 44.1 kHz PCM. When you send it to SBM Direct with SDIF from Sonoma, it comes out PCM and comes out. There is a switch, it is also possible to set whether to make it 16bit or 24bit by this.
- It is a terribly decky device! I thought that SBM is software ... ....
Suzuki: As SBM Direct is built before Sonoma, I think that it was in the late 1990s. Although it has become quite large, I think that it is very excellent in sound quality. Completing the PCM version after putting the signal from this SBM Direct into the PC workstation.
- Is it done simply by passing this device?
Suzuki: Basically, it is as it is, but in reality it is making corrections. Because
the DSD has a margin of 3 dB, if you simply convert it to PCM, the
sound pressure will drop by 3 dB, so you will feel weak unless you
correct it. Since it is completed on the sound quality side, it is adjusted in a form that leaves the merit of DSD. Depending
on the album, the CD version may have a completely different
atmosphere, so in that case I will start mastering, but in this album I
am finishing the atmosphere as close as possible to the DSD.
- In addition to the CD, you surely had a high res version of USB memory, right?
Shimizu: Yes,
24-bit / 96 kHz FLAC was put out from e-onkyo music, and at the same
time, the same version of FLAC data, 320 kbps MP3, and USB booklet set
with digital booklet are also available.
- How do you make that 24bit / 96kHz version? If it is now SBM Direct, it supports only 16bit / 44.1kHz or 24bit / 44.1kHz?
Suzuki: Since SBM Direct could not respond in a timely manner, we are using other companies' products for 24 bit / 96 kHz. It uses this to convert it to 24 bit / 96 kHz, but basically it is the same flow as SBM Direct, is not it? It is the same as lowering by 3 dB, and we also make corrections for that. This is all done.
Shimizu: I think you can comprehend the CD and DSD by listening to each other, but the feeling of air when breaking is quite different. DSD is overwhelming in the sense that it conveys the feeling of the atmosphere. To
convey the merit of music, there are things such as good melody, song
lyrics good lyrics, good rhythm and good performance, but I think that
there is absolutely nothing else besides that good sound I will. It is that it is not noisy when you put out the sound when you release this album, what everyone says to you. You can enjoy explosive sounds that do not hurt to the ears. I think that a good sound is such a thing. I believe that it is our role to convey the things expressed by artists. I hope you will be able to feel that nuance in this album. It is costly to make DSD, but I would like to do as much as possible in the future.
- Thank you very much.
