Lee Scoggins
Senior HTF Member
From Stereophile web site...(also mentions new DVDA releases there)
On the SACD front, Columbia Records has revealed that original Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen has been working with an impressive cast of musicians to create his latest disc, Blue Country Heart, due in stores June 11. Colombia describes the collection as rural blues songs from the 1920s and 1930s, including tunes by Jimmie Rodgers, the Delmore Brothers, Larry Hensley, Washington Phillips, Cliff Carlisle, and Jimmie "The Singing Governor" Davis.
The sessions were captured in Direct Stream Digital for their subsequent release on SACD by producer Roger Moutenot at Masterlink studio. "We did 16 songs in four days," says Kaukonen. "The studio has one of those Nashville histories. They had fabulous equipment, the room is real beautiful sounding, and everything we did was completely acoustic. I used my 1936 Advanced Jumbo Gibson and Sam Bush had some mandolin from the '20s. Lord knows what Jerry Douglas had, there was a huge battery of vintage dobros on hand for the sessions. Byron House was playing a standup bass that was over 100 years old and Bela Fleck came in with a banjo from the late '30s. So we had a bunch of vintage acoustic instruments and we just went in and set up, got comfortable in the room, and played. And I never wore headphones once during the session. It was just like sitting and playing at home."
Sony Music's Leslie C. Cohen adds that the disc is one of only a handful of recordings currently on the market originally recorded with DSD technology. "The beauty of DSD is that it enables you to hear the totality of the performance captured during the recording process—the impact is visceral—it brings the listener that much closer to the intent of the artist while rekindling that sense of excitement and wonder you felt hearing your first live performance."
It will be interesting to see what Sony can do in pure DSD recording. Here we should be able to hear all that Super Audio is capable of, although people like Ed Meitner are always improving chips, mastering, and else in the A-to-D and D-to-A processes.
In the new Stereophile, Mike Fremer, analog hero to many, mentions a the Alisson Krauss "New Favorite" album, done in DSDA format, in other words LP from DSD recording chain. Interesting!
Lee
