Quote:
bdiament,the soundclips on mp3 really sound superb.I can't image how the cd sounds like.Congrats !

Hi Yiangos,

Thank you for taking the time to listen and for your very kind words.

If you like the sound of the mp3 samples, I'm sure the CD would please you even more (and the 24/96 DVD-R version still more.)

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Quote:
Hi Barry - Welcome to the forums (it's nice to see you here -- I enjoy your posts over at Steve Hoffman's forums.) I liked the samples and dig the approach. It'll be interesting to hear the final disc.

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for your kind feedback and your support.

Quote:
Does the pressed disc sound a lot different than what you handed in? You seem to be one of the few people willing to go out on a limb and actually discuss differences that some people contend are "impossible".

Thanks again.

To answer your question, I spent the last several months speaking with a few dozen replication plants and ultimately found one I decided to give this job to. When the CDs came back, I did my usual comparison with a fresh pressing vs. a CD-R ref I made for myself when mastering the album.

As you know, I've repeatedly said that ever since the first CD I mastered back in 1983, I've never heard a pressed CD that is indistinguishable from the master it was made from. I must say this is still the case but with "Lift", for the very first time in my experience, I couldn't simply play one disc, swap discs and easily identify the differences. In the end, I had to use two players so I could switch between the two discs more quickly than swapping them in a single player.

Of course the players, used only as transports, sounded different from each other. Once I had a fix on what I believed to be the sonic difference between discs, I swapped players. The individual discs' character still remained evident "behind" the sound of each transport.

So, I wouldn't say the pressed CDs sound "a lot different" from what I handed in. They are subtly different, with a bit less "focus" and fine detail than the original (which went to the plant as a data file, not an audio CD-R). Overall, I am quite pleasantly surprised at how close they *do* sound to each other but the difference remains. (The 24/96 DVD-R is the best though.)

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Hi everyone,

Just a word to let you know there are now new samples for the rest of the songs from "Lift", on the Soundkeeper Recordings website.

I hope you enjoy both the music and the sound.

Happy Holidays to all and Happy Listening!
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

SoundStage has a new editorial for February 1, about the Soundkeeper Recordings release of Work of Art's "Lift".

Read the editorial at:
http://www.soundstage.com/editorial.shtml

Hear samples on the Soundkeeper Recordings website.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Work of Art is in the new issue of TONE Audio!
http://www.tonepublications.com/toneAudio.htm
Click on "Download PDF issues of TONE Magazine" at the top of the page and see issue 8.

The Soundkeeper Recordings release of "Lift" as well as the band's previous album "Simplicity" (which is on Art's Sword In The Stone Records label) are both in the Audiophile Recordings section of the magazine.

To clarify one point, "Lift" is available as a (pressed) CD, a CD-R and a DVD-R (not the DVD-A format mentioned in the review). It is a DVD for Audio but the format is plain old DVD-V, with no video content outside of the menus, so it can be played on almost any DVD-V player.

****

Work of Art will also be on the radio (air and internet) this Friday, February 9 around 10pm.
In the Westchester area of New York, tune into WHUD 100.7 FM.
On the web, visit http://www.whud.com/ and click on the "Listen Live" section of the home page.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Last week's broadcast of the Art Halperin interview was postponed until this coming Friday, February 16 around 10pm.

In the Westchester area of New York, tune into WHUD 100.7 FM.

On the web, visit http://www.whud.com/ and click on the "Listen Live" section of the home page.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Hear "Beautiful Dreamer" from "Lift" along with an interview with Art Halperin of Work of Art on the radio tonight (Friday, February 16) at 10 pm.

In the Westchester area of New York, tune into WHUD 100.7 FM.

On the web, visit http://www.whud.com/ and click on the "Listen Live" section of the home page.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Hey, we're in Stereophile too!
http://www.stereophile.com/news/021907soundkeeper/

And we're honored to be.

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Hi everyone,

TNT-Audio has just added a review of "Lift".

Read it at:
http://www.tnt-audio.com/topics/lift_e.html

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let everyone know we finally got to sit down with Work of Art's very busy Art Halperin and the interview is now up on the website at:

http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com/interviewah.htm

Also, for those in the Northeast, Work of Art will be appearing live at the Dockside Pub in Mahopac, NY on Friday, April 27th at 9pm. This is a great chance to hear the band live and to meet the man behind their great music.

The Dockside is right on the water at 825 South Lake Blvd. in Mahopac, NY.
Phone: 845-621-0057
On the web at http://www.docksidepub.com

The set will mix electric and acoustic material from the band

Hi everyone,

For those interested in what is involved in making records, I will be giving presentations on the subject.

On Friday, May 18, I'll speak at a meeting of The Audiophile Society. The meeting will be held on City Island in New York.

Topics of discussion will include recording in stereo, mastering, Soundkeeper Recordings and

Hi everyone,

A new review of "Lift" just came out today, by John Crossett over at SoundStage!, the same nice folks who wrote a very kind editorial about Soundkeeper a few months ago.

You can read John's review at:
http://www.soundstage.com/music/reviews/rev930.htm

If you missed the editorial, see:
http://www.soundstage.com/editorial.shtml
and scroll down to "An Artisan Recording".

Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

The new September web pages for Stereo Times include a wonderful review of the album which can be read here:
http://www.stereotimes.com/MR090707.shtml
(scroll down when you get there)

Hi struts,

Quote:

Quote:
If you like the sound of the mp3 samples, I'm sure the CD would please you even more (and the 24/96 DVD-R version still more.)

Many thanks for posting this Barry. I just wanted to do a plug for your format comparison (of 16/44.1 and 24/96) which I didn't see you mention in any of your posts and which I think would be of great interest to some of the regulars over on the Computer Audio board.

Looking forward to a quiet hour or so when I can do some serious comparitive listening! As you suggest, this will also be a great way to more objectively assess the Secret Rabbit Code resampler of which I have (subjectively) become a fan.

Glad you like the Format Comparison page.

You might be interested in two other (temporary) pages on the site.
In the process of mastering for CD, two of the most important tools I use are a sample rate conversion algorithm and a dithering/noise shaping algorithm.

One of the pages compares my previous favorite sample rate converter with my new one, along with the original, unconverted file.
See: http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com/zwsrc.htm

The other page compares my previous favorite dithering/noise shaping alrorithm with more than a dozen others, including a truncated (undithered) version, along with the original 24 bit file.
See: http://www.soundkeeperrecordings.com/zpdither.htm

Listeners can audition all the samples "blind" if they choose. Each page has a link to a "key" page that identifies which sample is which.

One warning: In order to hear these for real, one must be sure their playback system is not performing any defacto sample rate conversion or dithering of its own. The files should be listened to natively.

Best regards,
Barry
www.soundkeeperrecordings.com
www.barrydiamentaudio.com

P.S. Look for two new Soundkeeper releases (both jazz) in the new year.

Hi everyone,

The latest issue of The Audiophile Voice (Volume 12, Issue 5) contains a wonderful new review of the first Soundkeeper Recordings release, Work of Art