Category Archives: Michael Jackson

Quote Posted by Head Fi member: “miceblue”:”Here’s the core problem: Pono wants music for the masses, and they’re telling folks that hi-rez is better, and not talking about mastering quality. In my view, this amounts to a deception and a big chink in their armor. If Pono really wants better quality music for the masses, then a dialog about mastering quality in general and how it’s an order of magnitude more important than bit rates is in order, as is their specific practices in acquiring the best hi-rez files with reasonable dynamic range compression from labels. The appearance of Pono will (crosses fingers) stimulate more conversation about the evils of dynamic range compression in the mainstream press. The question is: Will Pono be a leader in this area of desperate need, or will they become just another marketing organization using “hi-rez files” as a buzzword for “a better quality listening experience?” I think if they stick with the latter without addressing the former they’re just opening themselves up to rantings on the web, which would hurt, or reverse, a grass roots, viral campaign on the web.
…
but what I want to know is if the masters of the music I’ll be listening to are similarly superior”

/End~

I have to admit when I heard about the coming Pono Music Store & it’s all encompassing   “Eco-System” I was equally concerned about it’s future sources of their Hi-res files, on the other hand if the Pono Download Store does quality control on their studio masters and they are superior I will want to buy them as well. I will be using my spectrograph analyzer like all the other geeks to find out, but I am inclined to take them at their word. At first they were silent on the issue understandably as there are a lot of “unknowns” when dealing with the music industry, but if anyone could sort that out it would be Neil Young. I am extremely hopeful that they do not fail where HD Tracks have, where their “Studio Masters” are hit and miss with no lineage or the original Hi-Rez Album Art. Some are excellent and as they should be, others are terrible. Example of good and bad in my experience from HD Tracks:

Excellent: Norah Jones – Come Away With Me (2002) 24Bit/192kHz HD Tracks RAW (Re-Mastered 2012 at Sterling Sound NYC from ) Lossless Flac [HI-RES]\ [STELLAR] Clear as the wind, you can hear the expressions of Norah’s mouth in the ether and alternating piano keys (which are one of the the hardest recorded audio sounds to replicate on analog tape) that don’t all sound mashed together, muddy, and congested.

Bad: Megadeth – Countdown to Extinction (1992) (2004 Digital Remaster) HD Tracks 24Bit/96kHz FLAC [HI-RES]\….[Horrible: Brickwalled and terribly loud, Dave Mustaine did bring the vocals more forward which is the only thing better than the original CD release. Don’t give me the excuse that it’s metal and it should be loud. Yes, but not clipping loud, it’s called peak limiting, dynamic range compression, and de-noising run wild .

So we have no way of knowing how the tracks are until bought and analyzed….We at the major forums will be hyper-vigilant. I don’t mean to sound skeptical as you can see by my posts I love the movement (I’m already there) but the Pono team should know this is more of a concern than bit-depth. ~ Then we got the updated word from the Pono Music team via KFrench’s Question & Answer thread at ponopeople.org. They heard our rallying cry, and loud. (see below)

*****UPDATE #1****

The word from the pono music team about the sourcing Quality of the Studio Masters in the Coming Pono Music Store ….

http://www.ponomusic.com/#home&nbsp

Pono people are not related to Pono Music but they have a friendly dialog continuing with them, obviously a refreshing aspect in this movement. Here is the question posed to the music team and their response.

Question to the Pono Music Team: “@creator”

“3) Are there standards set for music released on here in terms of compression and quality? There are many terrible modern remasters of old releases that originally were amazingly mastered and full sounding. I could imagine them putting up the high res files of the brick walled Nirvana Nevermind, compressed Michael Jackson Off The Wall/Thriller/Bad, and many more instead of the original masters. Would they offer high rez downloads of terrible compressed music or would they tell the labels to go back to the archives?”

Pono Music Response:

“3). Yes. Our promise to provide the highest resolution unadulterated music based on the highest quality master available from the labels. We obtain our masters directly from the labels with no middlemen. We will absolutely have quality standards. In cases where no hi-quality digital master exists, based on community demand we will go back to the analog master and create a hi-res master ourselves.”

*****UPDATE #2****

Question:

Erast Fandorin about 1 hour ago

“@ Creator

I also feel it will be vital that The PonoMusic Store is upfront about the provenance of its recordings, giving year of mastering & mastering engineers, etc., as well as the bit depth / sampling rate. It appears from previous Creator comments that the team are thinking along those lines.

HD Tracks and other sites provide files ‘as supplied to them by the record companies’. Comments on other forums appear to suggest that some of the files that the record companies supply are upsampled and the company have not been clear about their original specifications. Some customers of these sites do their own spectral analysis/dynamic range checks and are not satisfied with the sound of certain albums because of what can appear to be an attempt at pulling the wool over customers’ eyes. No point paying premium prices for 24/96 files if all you’re getting is actually 16/44.1 upsampled.

Pono has to work with the record companies and cannot dictate to them. I hope PonoMusic will be able to offer sufficient persuasion to the record companies to ensure that files true to the source are what is offered for sale.”

Answer:

Creatorthe PonoMusic Team about 1 hour ago

“@Erast Fandorin:

Erast we are indeed putting in safeguards against upsampled music in our content ingestion process. We know well about the complaints about other hi-res stores and have learned from their mistakes.

We may not be able to dictate the labels but we will be able to filter out garbage. Also there are two sides to labels: the business side and the technical side. We know them both and know that the technical side especially are unhappy with some of the decisions made by the business side (such as upsampling) and will be our allies in correcting this trend. They in fact need a movement like ours to give them ammunition to win the internal battle with the business side of labels.”

So there you have it straight from the horses mouth. [Shit Eating Grin!]

To learn more about the project visit the kickstarter.com pono music campaign page and you can head over to the forums which is busy and slow off and on but it’s nice to have, thanks to KFrench, a place for pono people to learn and discuss issues both positive and areas of concern.

http://ponopeople.org/index.php

Enjoy @Pono_People !

****UPDATE #4**** July 22, 2015

The Pono People web board is now just used for archiving. The new address is for the Pono Music Website. You have to sign up and log in, but it’s a great resource for all things Pono! New Link Below

Store:

https://www.ponomusic.com

Community:

https://www.ponomusic.com/login?ec=302&inst=15&startURL=%2F_ui%2Fcore%2Fchatter%2Fui%2FChatterPage

Thanks & Enjoy.

CM ☕

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