Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions Remaster

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just received an interesting mass email from Michael Timmons of the Cowboy Junkies.

 

"It’s taken us a couple of years to untangle all of the bureaucratic red tape but it’s finally here; a re-mastered Trinity Session on vinyl and SACD. Peter Moore went back to the original session tapes (it was recorded on an extremely primitive early digital format) and did his voodoo thang, cleaning, eqing and re-clocking and giving a whole new life to that magical day. The highly respected audio-file label Analogue Productions then got involved and the result is a pristine, 2 disc release on 200 gm vinyl with a gatefold sleeve and liner notes by Jason Schneider. It’s an expensive item, but it’s a quality item…and it makes a great Christmas/Holiday present….especially if you are buying for yourself. You can check out all the details by clicking the "Buy Now" button.

 

The Super Audio CD (which is also compatible with a regular CD player) won’t be available for another month or so and we are hoping to also get approval for an HD download. We will let you know when they are available.

 

Enjoy."

 

 

I'll wait for the HD download. The vinyl is available here - The Trinity Session Reissued

[semente]

Thanks for the heads up.

 

It was quite a shock to learn that Margot's voice had been PA'd in that recording (conceptually or philosophically speaking) but that doesn't change my appreciation for the album.

 

Musically (and even sonically) I prefer The Caution Horses.

 

R

[One and a half]

Pre-ordered the SACD.

[Musicophile]

Love this album, although I wonder how much remastering of a DAT source really makes sense.

 

Is there any source of a download for us who don't use physical media any more?

[One and a half]

Love this album, although I wonder how much remastering of a DAT source really makes sense.

 

Is there any source of a download for us who don't use physical media any more?

 

The old DAT recorders were 48kHz coax out and full of jitter. That signal can be cleaned up very nicely using re-clockers, here's an example from a Mutec review. At the bottom of the page, there's an output of a DAT machine and put through a re-clocker.

 

As for the download, it might a 48/24?

[Musicophile]

The old DAT recorders were 48kHz coax out and full of jitter. That signal can be cleaned up very nicely using re-clockers, here's an example from a Mutec review. At the bottom of the page, there's an output of a DAT machine and put through a re-clocker.

 

As for the download, it might a 48/24?

 

In any case, I'd be interested in any comparison to the regular CD version.In any case, I'm curious to hear about any comparisons to the regular CD version.

[ericuco]

 

I'll wait for the HD download.

 

+1 - thanks for the heads up, great album. The "revisited" version is also very good.

[esldude]

The old DAT recorders were 48kHz coax out and full of jitter. That signal can be cleaned up very nicely using re-clockers, here's an example from a Mutec review. At the bottom of the page, there's an output of a DAT machine and put through a re-clocker.

 

As for the download, it might a 48/24?

 

I also noticed in the MUTEC review they show that DACs using ASRC aren't cleaned up by a reclocker. Actually looks marginally worse. And the ASRC DAC is already as clean as any of the reclocked results. Better actually. So maybe putting MUTEC money toward a Benchmark is a good idea for the home audiophile.

 

They did show how the jittery Panasonic DAT output was nicely cleaned up by the MUTEC. So using one of those for any remastering would be highly beneficial.

[EdmontonCanuck]

Is an HD Download of the remastered SACD version available anywhere now?

[barrows]

On 11/3/2016 at 3:11 PM, esldude said:

 

I also noticed in the MUTEC review they show that DACs using ASRC aren't cleaned up by a reclocker. Actually looks marginally worse. And the ASRC DAC is already as clean as any of the reclocked results. Better actually. So maybe putting MUTEC money toward a Benchmark is a good idea for the home audiophile.

 

They did show how the jittery Panasonic DAT output was nicely cleaned up by the MUTEC. So using one of those for any remastering would be highly beneficial.

Just noticed this?  Els, I think you know better?  Anyway, most asynchronous sample rate converters found in DACs are quite poor in terms of sound quality, as the processing power is not high enough to avoid a lot of artifacts in the re-sampling process.  While hardware based ASRCs as used in most DACs will show very coal results when it comes to standard jitter tests, what these tests do not show are the artifacts created by a a signal which starts out with a lot of jitter, essentially, the ASRC turns incoming jitter into new, non-jitter related, artifacts.  With most of these types of DACs this can be pretty easy to hear if one compares a highly jittered source with a very low jittered source with the ASRC activated.

While I am not against ASRC in general, it requires a lot of processing power to do well, I have heard DACs like the Mola Mola which do it well, in hardware, for example, but of course the Mola Mola uses 3 powerful AD SHARC chips to run its DSP.  Even the ESS 9018 is pretty good in ASRC mode, but when one then tries it in Sync mode it is noticeably more natural and resolved sounding (as long as the source/masterclock is low jitter).

[barrows]

On 5/16/2018 at 9:43 AM, EdmontonCanuck said:

Is an HD Download of the remastered SACD version available anywhere now?

It appears to me that Analogue Productions really ants to sell the physical SACDs of their releases as they often do not offer the DSD files a s a download.  I hope they do offer these as download at some point, although I guess I could add the SACD to my discs in need of being sent out for ripping... 

[esldude]

5 hours ago, barrows said:

Just noticed this?  Els, I think you know better?  Anyway, most asynchronous sample rate converters found in DACs are quite poor in terms of sound quality, as the processing power is not high enough to avoid a lot of artifacts in the re-sampling process.  While hardware based ASRCs as used in most DACs will show very coal results when it comes to standard jitter tests, what these tests do not show are the artifacts created by a a signal which starts out with a lot of jitter, essentially, the ASRC turns incoming jitter into new, non-jitter related, artifacts.  With most of these types of DACs this can be pretty easy to hear if one compares a highly jittered source with a very low jittered source with the ASRC activated.

While I am not against ASRC in general, it requires a lot of processing power to do well, I have heard DACs like the Mola Mola which do it well, in hardware, for example, but of course the Mola Mola uses 3 powerful AD SHARC chips to run its DSP.  Even the ESS 9018 is pretty good in ASRC mode, but when one then tries it in Sync mode it is noticeably more natural and resolved sounding (as long as the source/masterclock is low jitter).

Well I don't think you can argue about what their results show.  You can say they aren't cogent to the sound quality heard I suppose.  I agree about ASRC being a different animal done well vs done for economy.  I would consider the Benchmark use of it to be well done.  As the Mutec costs a significant fraction of the Benchmark that is why I suggested for improving a DAC maybe putting the money for a Mutec toward a Benchmark instead was smarter than cleaning up a lesser DAC.  None of that gets you into Mola Mola territory however. 

[CatManDo]

13 hours ago, barrows said:

It appears to me that Analogue Productions really ants to sell the physical SACDs of their releases as they often do not offer the DSD files a s a download.  I hope they do offer these as download at some point, although I guess I could add the SACD to my discs in need of being sent out for ripping... 

 

This also depends on the licensing agreement with the rights owner.

[firedog]

3 hours ago, CatManDo said:

 

This also depends on the licensing agreement with the rights owner.

Yes, but it seems on their own SACD remasters/productions they don't sell the equivalent  remaster as a DSD download. In other words, they purposely don't get the rights (at least in recent years).

 

I understand why they might do this temporarily, but after 6 months or a year it would seem they'd only make more money by offering their own remasters also as downloads

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, firedog said:

Yes, but it seems on their own SACD remasters/productions they don't sell the equivalent  remaster as a DSD download. In other words, they purposely don't get the rights (at least in recent years).

 

I understand why they might do this temporarily, but after 6 months or a year it would seem they'd only make more money by offering their own remasters also as downloads

There are several non-sensical licensing deals and terms that must be agreed to.

 

I've talked to these guys about doing more remasters and offering them for download, but they say even if they pay for the remaster, they only have a 6 month exclusive on the download. After that they have to make it available to all the other download sites.

[barrows]

Yes, it is a sticky wicket in the world of downloads.  At least we can still get music without having to stream it...

[firedog]

4 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

There are several non-sensical licensing deals and terms that must be agreed to.

 

I've talked to these guys about doing more remasters and offering them for download, but they say even if they pay for the remaster, they only have a 6 month exclusive on the download. After that they have to make it available to all the other download sites.

Okay, still seems to me they would make more money in the 6 month window by offering the download. I don't see what they lose. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

6 minutes ago, firedog said:

Okay, still seems to me they would make more money in the 6 month window by offering the download. I don't see what they lose. 

They are smart businessmen. I'm sure they've run the numbers.