A) Blu-ray is not a disaster. In fact, what’s happened is that Sony supplies a particular part that’s in such short supply now that player demand is up, there’s a serious bottleneck, but the stats are distorted. Blu-ray will succeed. People will not be downloading their movies in HD any time soon on a regular basis. Even with the broadest band it takes too long and doesn’t include extras and sound choices (etc.)

B) Analog is hardly dead. Forget that I am a cheerleader: I am also way on top of the situation and it’s explosive right now and vital. No, it will not return as it once was, and that’s great but the numbers you will see over the next year or two will surprise even you. Remember: MP3 was nothing for years and grew virally until it dominated. Vinyl will not dominate but will become far more important than you currently believe. Save this email.

C) People didn’t used to "move" when listening to music because they paid attention to the sonic picture. Except for vinyl listening, we’ve lost that but it will come back and people will sit and not move or do other stuff while listening with undivided attention. That will return. Save this email.

D) the labels WILL convert all of their analog material to 192/24 bit files and sell them in an open, downloadable format within the next two years. Directly, with no middleman. that’s my prediction. However, even then vinyl will still sound way superior and more than sound superior, vinyl will still produce an emotional response in the listener high rez digital files WILL NOT. I’ve done the comparisons….I know, I’m hopelessly prejudiced and old but I’m talking to the kids….

The Mucrutch on vinyl is supposed to be INSANELY good…I hope to have one soon….

all the pressing plants around the world are working beyond their capacity to keep up with demand….this press was busy with yet another go round of "In Utero." Who do you think is buying this on vinyl? middle agers who missed the vinyl era but are trying to catch up with their favorite music heard the way it was supposed to be heard…

Sound is too important a sense to suffer the degradation of the last 15 years and have it remain so degraded. It will not stay this way, I guarantee you! The computer geeks will give way to the quality geeks once again….

From: Bob Ludwig
Date: April 24, 2008 4:22:07 PM EDT
To: Michael Fremer
Subject: vinyl madness

Hi Michael,

I just wanted to report that, during the past month, it seems almost EVERY project I do will have a vinyl release. I don’t know how to explain this, it is amazing.

Do my other mastering colleagues report the same thing?

All my best,

Bob

HELL, BOB————

"If you’re reading this, chances are you remember going to the stereo shop and being blown away by half-speed mastered vinyl discs. You lusted after both them and the equipment they were played on. Hell, "Crime Of The Century" is a religious experience on Mobile Fidelity, on MP3 it’s just another album. Music cannot be a second class citizen any longer, it must ascend to its rightful position as the most powerful, most fulfilling art form. Can’t someone LEAD THE CHARGE?"

I’VE BEEN TRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! _I STILL DO ALL MY MASTERING (VINYL) AT HALFSPEED!

CHEERS, _STAN
_www.StanRickerMastering.com

Hi Bob, iTunes already accepts 24 bit 96k files and Apple TV will play them back over the digital output to your stereo, this works today for there is no technology to overcome.
Many mixes, including all of mine, are recorded at 24/96 then down converted at mastering to 16bit 44.1k, all that would have to be done is another pass in mastering at 24/96. Older analog tapes could be re-mastered and then the files can be converted to lossless and sold on iTunes HD. Bandwidth would not be a problem, HD video files are already just as large and are downloaded regularly.
This is easy, a little cooperation between the labels and apple. You could even upgrade your existing catalog that you ripped from CD.

Jay Baumgardner
NRG Recording

Bob:

It seems that high quality is already the big trend in the bittorrent world, especially when you download the complete discography of an artist. Case in point: I was looking for Pink Floyd’s The Wall…downloaded what looked to be a high-quality bit rate download. It came packed in a .rar file. I was expecting 320 kps LAME files, but lo and behold, the download was actual 1411 kps…a direct rip from the CD. Found a similar situation when I downloaded Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green’s Then Play On…great 1411 kps uncompressed files! Insofar as most ISP subscribers have broadband now (I have a cable modem w/ 5 meg per second capability), it would seem pretty easy to set up some high-quality/speed servers and go from there. The future is now!!!

Please withhold my name if you print this!!!

The bandwith in the USA is one TENTH what it is other places, like Japan.

Computer penetration is LOWER than it is in most other "developed" countries, as is cell phone usage.

This is by design of the corporations, who call the shots in the USA.
Right now, The FCC (and Congress) is considering killing net neutrality, and handing the net over to Verizon ATT and Comcast etc.

If you want to DO something, write a piece about this, and get our people to wake up and get active- or all your dreams of broadband will be seriously harmed. In the current situation, bandwith will languish, and freedoms be destroyed.

Please consider this.

Thanks,
David Rubinson