Deutsche Grammophon and Emil Berliner Studios Duplicity

[Darryl R]

As an avid classical music collector, and having spent many thousands on releases of the same music in this era of digital proliferation, I can only express some disgust at the lack of transparency of organizations like Universal Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, and Emil Berliner Studios.  Would that they use clear language, or any language at all, to describe the origin of their hi-res offerings.

 

A recent case in point is Universal Japan's simultaneous release of the DG Karajan/BPO Sibelius Symphonies 4-7/Violin Concerto/tone poems on SACD, DSF 2.8/1, and FLAC 24/192.  When confronted with multiple expensive options, and barriers to purchasing on Japanese websites like e-onkyo.com and tower.jp, I want to know the native format of the master to make my buying decisions.  When DG released a slew of 24/96 downloads in the summer of 2015, and then within months released SACDs of some of the same music boasting new DSD masters from Emil Berliner Studios, I started to be more careful.  I assumed DSD when we saw verbiage to the effect of an new DSD master from Emil Berliner Studios, and with the certainty of spectrum analysis a friend could advise on the origin of a PCM release.  The published release date also helped.  But with the new Karajan Sibelius release, my friend's spectrum analysis suggests a native PCM release, while imprecise verbiage on the Universal Classics Japan website suggests a new DSD master from Berliner Studios.  Could there be two masters?  We doubt it.  In the end, if money and time are no object you could compare every release and keep your favorite, but how many of us fall into that category?

 

Ok, you get the point.  To some extent we bring it on ourselves.  The autonomy of Japanese music divisions has brought us much we wouldn't otherwise have.  If only we had a dependable means of knowing what's going on.

[CatManDo]

1 hour ago, Darryl R said:

But with the new Karajan Sibelius release, my friend's spectrum analysis suggests a native PCM release, while imprecise verbiage on the Universal Classics Japan website suggests a new DSD master from Berliner Studios.  Could there be two masters?  We doubt it.

 

Du you mean this one?

 

http://www.hraudio.net/showmusic.php?title=10367

 

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sibelius-finlandia-valse-triste-tapiola-the-swan-of-tuonela/hnum/6621840

 

The cover, a replica of the first CD release cover, proudly says "Numérique" ("Digital" in french). I don't why the text was in french back then, even for the CDs sold in Germany. The LPs had a yellow "Digital recording" triangle in the corner.

 

The SACD reissue OBI has the "DSD" words, but what do the japanese words mean? Could it be "DSD mastering".

 

With a little research on the original CD (AAD or DDD) or LP release (early digital recordings often have the word "digital" on the cover or on the LP label), it's not difficult to find out which japanese SACD reissues are from a 16/44 PCM recording. I don't know any classical label that recorded in digital and analogue in parallel in the 1980's. So if the 1980's to mid-1990's CD is DDD, the SACD is from a 16/44 master.

 

Concerning other Universal Japan SACD releases, the firs ones starting in 2004 were made from 24/96 transfers of the analogue tapes (used for archival purposes), while in 2011, the Emil Berliner Studios started to make new DSD transfers for the SACD series. For those, "Emil Berliner 2011 DSD" or something similar is indicated on the OBI.

 

[Darryl R]

This one:

 

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UCGG-9105?s_ssid=e46b8559ce527d7c46

 

DSD and PCM downloads were listed on e-onkyo.com.  E-onko.com has had some things of its own, like Tower Japan's Exclusive Universal Vintage SA-CD Collection.  It's not quite so simple now, with DSD and PCM releases on the same date, and notes implying a new DSD master, and spectrum analysis suggesting a new PCM master.

 

I've ordered the discs from Japan and will post findings.

 

PS - I've sampled all of them, and my favorite is a PCM conversion of the DSD with BitPerfect's DSDMaster zero phase filter.

 

 

[CatManDo]

"DSD master newly produced by Emil Berliner Studios, using the original master tapes, in 2017"

 

What does your friend see in the spectrum analysis?

[Darryl R]

Right, we discussed this several times.  Here's a paste of part of his response on the first track of the violin concerto:

 

"The PCM is clearly native (Track 1 of the Violin Concerto) - there is no way they could filter out the DSD noise above ca. 30-35 kHz while leaving the test and tape head azimuth tones ..."

[Darryl R]

And my friend is right.  I just received an email from Rainer Maillard at Berliner Studios and he confirmed it was mastered in PCM 24/192.  I was told they never answered emails, otherwise I wouldn't have created this thread.

 

We have to carefully scrutinize the verbiage associated with a DSD master.  My friend expressed doubt because it wasn't used in connection with a mastering process.

 

So what about CatManDo's quote from Berliner Studios?  Or was it from DG, or a clerical error from CD Japan?  In the end, spectrum analysis was the proof.

 

 

[Darryl R]

Emil Berliner Studios has been very kind to provide additional information:

 

"This statement from Universal Japan is absolutely right. Emil Berliner Studios always use the original analogue master tapes for the Japan releases.

 

The work flow is like this:

1.       Getting the original analogue master from the archive. Depending on the recording year it could be either: 2-track ¼ inch , 4-track ½ inch, 8-track 1 inch or 16-track 2 inch tape. From 1972 Dolby A was used almost mostly. All DGG tapes (later than 1956)  run with 15 ips and ISRC equalization. Emil Berliner Studios spend a lot of time researching and finally finding the right originals tapes in the archive to avoid using old analogue transfers to other tape copies.

2.    Analogue remastering and restauration of the tape (see the photo: cleaning splices)

3.    Analogue to digital transfer

4.    Remixing if needed (needed with 4, 8 or 16 track originals)

5.    Additional processing and restoration in the digital domain.

6.    Creating and archiving new PCM digital master

7.    Creating DSD-Copies or PCM HighBit Copies from this master for commercial products"

[Darryl R]

Postscript - armed with this new workflow from EBS, we downloaded a single track of the new Szeryng Bach Sonatas & Partitas from e-onkyo.com, ran an Audacity spectrogram, and it was ... a DSD conversion!  Same for the new Abbado/Chicago Mahler 5 and 6.  E-onkyo.com has alot of their own DSD conversions.  In all fairness the new Karajan Prokofiev 5th is PCM.  Still seems to be a mixed bag.