jonoTXMusic

I have to say, the vinyl re-issue is awesome. haven't heard digi versions..

She is truly amazing. At the end of the day - hi-rez, lo-rez or whatever - it's about the performance, no?

One more question, if you all would be so kind relating to speed of downloads. Do you find varying download performance characteristics from the hi-res sites? And if so, how important is that (relative speed) to you? I'm just trying to figure out what the best hosting strategy is here... Thanks, Jon

thanks for the input. I did reach out to Blue Coast, but no response. I'll put a little site up, I think - and see what happens. Best regards, Jon

sorry - if you go to the site to hear stuff, go to artist pages, not store...

Hi, joined the forum today. I've been kicking this around for some time, and I thought y'all may give me a little input. If this post is in any way inappropriate, please let me know and I'll nuke it immediately. A little background: I, along with 2 others, are partners in Texas Music, which is a family of previously unrelated business that include Texas Music Magazine, Austin Signal (recording studio), Viva Big Bend (festivals, events), and Big Bend Records (a new, itty bitty label). The premise of the business is to provide Texas-based artists a platform to create and promote their work. Magazine has been around for 13 years, the studio for 3, label less than a year. We've recorded quite a few projects here at the studio - everything from big band jazz to a girl-and-a-guitar. Lots of indie-ish stuff, not as much Texas country as you might expect. We track (at least when I'm engineering) at 96/24, and mix down to either DSD 5.6 or 96/24. Mastering is usually to 44.1/16, but we've done a couple to 96/24. None to DSD as of yet. However, it's very easy to master to 96/24 - not as easy to DSD as not many mastering houses utilize DSD as the end product. So here's my question(s): 1. is there any market for relatively unknown indie artists in native high res format? 96/24 and/or DSD? What I mean is, do you think marketing and promotion in the hi-fi arena would open up a new market for these artists? Would the fact that the material is available in high res cause you to check it out? 2. as part of a high res package, would UNMASTERED, high res mixes be of interest to this market? So, you buy the album, you get final high res masters, and high res MIXES. I do know that at least from my perspective (and others I've worked with), there are times when I actually prefer the final mix to the mastered product. There is nothing quite like the sound of the stereo-out from the console captured in DSD, for instance. It many times seems to never sound that good again (I guess since the music's fate is usually being dumbed down to 44.1/16). Either way, it does provide an interesting provenance-orientation to an album...one could go even further if documentation were provided as to how the material was recorded...tube pre-amps, transformers engaged in channels recording drums, or whatever. Probably a kettle of fish not interesting to anyone but recording engineers, but I thought I'd ask. Rough mixes, stems, and instrumentals are bits of content that may be interesting - although maybe not to the hi-fi enthusiast. 3. The last idea involved digging up old master tapes, and transferring them to DSD or high res PCM. We have a lot of long-standing relationships with our artists through the magazine - and I thought that perhaps re-releasing the stuff on a great sounding, modern, durable format might be cool. Dunno. Now, the music that we're pursuing here at TXM isn't super-hi-fi classical, most-beautiful-silence-you've-ever-heard, purity of sound kind of stuff. There are amps humming, bracelets rattling, beers being spilled (probably), etc. But generally speaking it has a vibe that is enhanced by the gear and methods we use to record it, and I've always wondered if that could translate into a market for our relatively unknown artists. We're just looking for a way to put a little air under their wings, so any new channel would help. If you want to hear a bit of the material I'm referring to, you can hit Big Bend Records to check it out, although there's a lot more that's not on the label that we potentially have access to. We have high res mixes for all of the projects on the site (some DSD), and one project was mastered at 96/24 at Abbey Road. Thanks for listening, and if this has already been hashed out elsewhere, apologies.... Jon