Mastering Engineer Brian Lucey's take on MQA.

[mevdinc]

Not sure if this was already shared here but the mastering engineer Brian Lucey seems to have interesting comments and views on MQA.

http://fairhedon.com/2017/11/05/an-interview-with-mastering-engineer-brian-lucey/

 

Best.
Mev

[Samuel T Cogley]

Quote

If I want that distortion in the master I would’ve put it there in the first place. The results of MQA I would call fatal to the source material even as they are very subtle.

 

 

[GUTB]

His statements appear to be mostly political in nature with only a single dismissive claim to have listened to MQA because he's not a cynic.

 

However I do note his huge 845 SET -- no class D for him I see. I suppose his magical link to the audience needs all the help it can get, probably all standard compressed junk.

 

The passionate defense of the "industry" is hard to take seriously when the art of mastering is all but dead in the hands of the illiterate children running it today.

[Rt66indierock]

1 hour ago, GUTB said:

His statements appear to be mostly political in nature with only a single dismissive claim to have listened to MQA because he's not a cynic.

 

However I do note his huge 845 SET -- no class D for him I see. I suppose his magical link to the audience needs all the help it can get, probably all standard compressed junk.

 

The passionate defense of the "industry" is hard to take seriously when the art of mastering is all but dead in the hands of the illiterate children running it today.

 

Probably good to remember MQA approached Brian before it was formally introduced and he rejected it. 

 

You probably don't listen to his work fine but I do. 

 

I would hardly call the "industry " dead. But I've visited studios from coast to coast in the United States this year and my eyes tell me the art of mastering is alive and well. But my focus is on music 90% of people actually buy. 

 

Finally successful millennials are not going to listen. They told the wine industry in the US to jump and the industry said how high? And the wine industry is happy with this arrangement. Millennials drink now more wine than any demographic. They have market power and use it. High end audio will either give them what they want or it will fade away.

[mcgillroy]

2017 has been a PR-desaster for MQA. 

 

It will be very interesting to see how MQA reacts and if other people speak up.

 

I bet even Stereophile notices the tides are turning and will give MQA-sceptics a little space.

 

 

[arcman]

I think that is coming in January issue

[Shadders]

1 hour ago, mcgillroy said:

2017 has been a PR-desaster for MQA. 

 

It will be very interesting to see how MQA reacts and if other people speak up.

 

I bet even Stereophile notices the tides are turning and will give MQA-sceptics a little space.

 

Hi,

 

If as per other comments, the publication is supporting MQA regardless, then any negative aspects will be spun to look like minimal or inconsequential objections and criticisms.

 

I have only seen objections to MQA on Hifi forums. Any other reference, if one can find it, are generally positive repeating marketing speak.

 

Given that the Hifi enthusiasts make up less than 0.001% of the population, then their concerns and criticisms are negligible, compared to the entire population, and so, this can easily be spun into the majority are positive (although consent is not actually given from the population, no objection must mean approval.....).

 

The music industry are now corporations - they only have their own interests to pursue. The customer - the listening public, will effectively be told what is good for them. Given the subjective nature of music enjoyment, and we all know that £2,500 per metre speaker cables are a damn fine engineered product, so must sound good, then there are enough lemons out there that will believe what we are told.

 

Essentially, the influence of audio enthusiasts are negligible, and marketing hype and corporate desire, will prevail if they control the source of music, which may be MQA only for streaming.

 

Regards,

Shadders.

[mav52]

19 hours ago, GUTB said:

His statements appear to be mostly political in nature with only a single dismissive claim to have listened to MQA because he's not a cynic.

 

 

That appears to be the trained MQA team statement when someone comments on MQA in a negative way.

[beetlemania]

3 hours ago, arcman said:

I think that is coming in January issue

My guess is they will come down more in favor of MQA (altho' anti-MQA pressure is building). Here is what John Atkinson wrote in reply to Charles Hansen on AudioAsylum:

Quote

Please note that I have been studying the criticisms you and others have
made about MQA since they were made. I have also been studying the MQA
patents and papers, talking to others as well as you and reading as much
as I can on the work of Turing, Shannon, and others on information theory.
In what I believe is /not/ an uninformed opinion, I think the vast majority
of the criticisms made of MQA are not based on facts; are based on societal
and financial factors that I don't regard as relevant; are commercially
self-serving; are based on circular reasoning; or are nothing more than
uninformed conspiracy theories. In other words, I am not convinced that
you or others have yet made any kind of case that would cause me to
question my own opinions.

 

 

[Ajax]

23 hours ago, mevdinc said:

Not sure if this was already shared here but the mastering engineer Brian Lucey seems to have interesting comments and views on MQA.

http://fairhedon.com/2017/11/05/an-interview-with-mastering-engineer-brian-lucey/

 

Best.
Mev

MQA has no future in the world of serious engineers in my view, it’s a corporate money scheme at this point. 

 

Little room for mis-construing what Mr Lucey thinks of MQA.

[Rt66indierock]

4 hours ago, Shadders said:

Hi,

 

If as per other comments, the publication is supporting MQA regardless, then any negative aspects will be spun to look like minimal or inconsequential objections and criticisms.

 

I have only seen objections to MQA on Hifi forums. Any other reference, if one can find it, are generally positive repeating marketing speak.

 

Given that the Hifi enthusiasts make up less than 0.001% of the population, then their concerns and criticisms are negligible, compared to the entire population, and so, this can easily be spun into the majority are positive (although consent is not actually given from the population, no objection must mean approval.....).

 

The music industry are now corporations - they only have their own interests to pursue. The customer - the listening public, will effectively be told what is good for them. Given the subjective nature of music enjoyment, and we all know that £2,500 per metre speaker cables are a damn fine engineered product, so must sound good, then there are enough lemons out there that will believe what we are told.

 

Essentially, the influence of audio enthusiasts are negligible, and marketing hype and corporate desire, will prevail if they control the source of music, which may be MQA only for streaming.

 

Regards,

Shadders.

 

Shadders,

 

The real work debunking MQA is going on behind the scenes. A lot of it economic stuff I touched on earlier in the vaporware thread.

 

Two of the three labels financial information is public. So we can see the increase in subscribers and how it changes the bottom line. I think the meeting where the 2016 were discussed were positive. And I saw nothing in the second quarter reports that would cause anyone in Universal and Warner to do anything other than what they are doing. And what are they doing promoting stars. Just keep streaming Mp3 files. Why change? 

[Nikhil]

Quote

Distortion artifacts are musically incorporated in to all music production, there is no perfection in music.  That way of thinking is bogus and anti music.  Music is flawed and that’s a good thing, it’s the humanity.   Perfection has no place in music production, it’s a dangerous myth.  MQA has no future in the world of serious engineers in my view, it’s a corporate money scheme at this point.  

 

 

This is absolutely spot on ... 

 

[mav52]

2 hours ago, beetlemania said:

My guess is they will come down more in favor of MQA (altho' anti-MQA pressure is building). Here is what John Atkinson wrote in reply to Charles Hansen on AudioAsylum:

 

 

Interesting

[mav52]

Just now, mav52 said:

All I see JA doing like all the other "brotherhood" members of MQA that reside by invitation only in their facebook world, will counter spin any and all negatives regardless if people to include audio engineers with a set of defined skills have analyzed MQA and even its bits and if its negative its written off as "they don't understand or haven't spent enough time with MQA to know any better.  Pretty pitiful.

 

[mrvco]

Quote

When I first heard about MQA I wondered why would anyone bother with such a concept, as streaming the full file is only going to get easier over time, and the reduction of data with MQA is minimal .  Let’s just sell the 24 bit files at the mastering session sample rate, not higher and not lower, and call it a day?

 

 

Quote

MQA has been targeting the weakest players in our world, the audiophiles.

 

 

Quote

A cynical marketing scheme to be kind about it.

 

These three quotes sum it up for me.

[GUTB]

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

[Speed Racer]

Because MQA is not the consumer's friend.....

[Fair Hedon]

14 minutes ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

Is this post a joke?

[Rt66indierock]

5 hours ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

 

Well I've read Bob Stuart's 2014 AES paper foreshadowing MQA and checked the references. It took awhile but ....

[Ralf11]

5 hours ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

 

 

DRM capable...

[kumakuma]

6 hours ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

 

Lossy

[Fokus]

10 hours ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

 

Needlessly creates landfill.

[mansr]

15 hours ago, GUTB said:

Why do you guys seem intent on making MQA the enemy?

We? Bob Stuart is doing a grand job with that all by himself.