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| Digidesign Pro Tools at the 114th AES Convention in Amsterdam |
There are always great lessons to be learned when revisiting history. And this week we are going back just 12 years!
The year was 2003. The 114th Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in Amsterdam was one of the last AES European exhibitions to feature a large number of radio exhibitors and the talk of the show was SACD/DSD production. That same year, the 115th AES convention in New York was also one of the best ever.
Following the years of the Internet "meltdown," this was the year of the software "gold race." Apple acquired German company Emagic (makers of Logic) and Pinnacle Systems acquired Steinberg in 2002 (Pinnacle would be sold to Avid in 2005, Steinberg was previously sold to Yamaha in 2004 and Pinnacle's consumer division was later sold to Corel). Sony Pictures Digital acquired Sonic Foundry (Sound Forge, CD Architect, and Acid), and Adobe acquired Syntrillium Software, the creators of popular audio editor Cool Edit Pro, subsequently reintroduced as Adobe Audition.
Digidesign had recently introduced its Pro Tools HD system, generating a strong impact in the recording studio market and establishing 24-bit at up to 192 kHz DAW production. Yamaha was promoting its 01X mLAN Music Production System, creating an alternative to traditional MIDI systems in music production and creating the first serious hardware/software music production link. Digigram introduced the full range of EtherSound audio solutions that year, paving the way to bidirectional audio network distribution. Bruce Jackson and Lake Technology were showing the Lake Contour system, the most sophisticated EQ solution for live sound reinforcement, allowing for multiple independent "graphic layers" of digital processing using asymmetric filters and the Mesa Filter algorithm.
Multichannel audio was the topic at the show, with consumer audio focused on promotional efforts by Sony and Philips around Super Audio CD (SACD) while the discussion between pulse code modulation (PCM) and direct stream digital (DSD) production reached its pinnacle. At the 114th AES in Amsterdam, there were a total of 13 workshops focusing on multichannel recording and mixing, in anticipation of the promotional rollout of the SACD format and the introduction of the first DVD-Video/SACD compatible players. In a dedicated SACD press event, it was announced that until the end of 2003, there would be nearly 2,000 available SACD titles from 107 record labels and 2 million SACD players sold. 24% of the SACD editions included surround-sound material and half of the records released were Hybrid CD/SACD. For the first time, availability of new industrial replication equipment enabled providers to lower the cost of SACDs to less than $1 per disc.
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| Genex GX9000 8-channel DSD recording system |
Manufacturers were racing to introduce better and less expensive DSD recording solutions. AMS Neve introduced its new MMC production console focusing on SACD production, in cooperation with Philips and Sony. British company SADiE introduced a full set of mastering tools for SACD, following the introduction in 2002 of the first multichannel DSD recorder, also featuring full Red-Book CD production support. DTS promoted its compression tools for multichannel SACD, while Merging Technologies introduced its Pyramix v4.1 DAW featuring a full set of mastering tools for CD and SACD (DSD), integrating tools from Sony, Sonic Solutions and Prosoniq. Merging was also cooperating with Genex Research to introduce a new dedicated DSD master recorder. Genex was a British company dedicated to DSD recording and offered 8- and 48-channel hard-disc recording systems for DSD audio or 24-bit/192 kHz PCM with bidirectional conversion.
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| Philips' Super Audio CD Creator software startup screen |
At the AES show, we could also find Sony's range of
DSD Modular Audio Processing Modules (D-Map), designed by Sony in Oxford UK, together with the Mytek Digital D-Master DSD stereo master recorder. There was also Sonic Studio (former Sonic Solutions) with a SACD/DSD option for the SonicStudioHD DAW. Finally, Prism Sound announced a new eight-channel DSD converter with optional interface for Pro Tools HD.
On Dolby's side, the focus continued to be the promotion of DVD-Audio's merits - the rival technology to Super Audio CD. Dolby promoted the merits of multichannel recording for DVD-Audio, using Meridian's MLP lossless compression to compete with Sony/Philips' Direct Stream Digital. Dolby joined Warner, Pioneer and Meridian in a demonstration of some of the nearly 400 DVD-Audio titles already available.
Fast-forward to 2015 and the upcoming 139th convention in New York. How many of these companies are still around? High Resolution Audio, Immersive Audio, and the upcoming Ultra-HD Blu-ray format (the last physical media format?) are the focus at many of the sessions. Meridian has introduced its Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) lossless compression technology to enable high-resolution audio streaming and Internet distribution.
