Everything I Need to Know I Learned From the Hubble Telescope

Should a recording document reality as faithfully as possible, or should it improve upon or somehow transcend the music it records? Both, actually.

[Image Credit NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: B. Whitmore ( Space Telescope Science Institute) and James Long (ESA/Hubble).]

The topic is very much in the news. Organizations like Harvard University and public radio station WDET-FM Detroit have publicized plans to digitize their vast archives of interviews and live performances, both for preservation and for cloud accessibility. The Harvard archives include rarities like the first appearances of Joan Baez at Club 47 in Boston, so it is important to do right by the material. But what exactly constitutes a high-quality digital audio preservation process?

Consider the image from the Hubble Space Telescope above, showing the slow collision of two galaxies producing super star clusters. It's spellbinding, dramatic, but it isn't real. Space doesn't look like this.

Hubble images are triumphs of sensor fusion. They are made, not born. Images must be woven together using the incoming data from cameras in many different spectral bands, cleaned up and given colors that bring out features that eyes would otherwise miss. The images illustrate the wonders of the universe rather than documenting them.

[I wonder if the sound subjectivists who believe that lossy compressed audio is “just fine” also dismiss space exploration with sophisticated instruments, because they can see stars “just fine” with the naked eye.]

It may seem quite a leap, but a strong analogy exists between the production process for a Hubble image and a high-quality digital restoration process for analog source material. There are three fundamental steps in both:

• Data Collection. The dramatic Hubble images have their source in high-resolution instrument data; do no less with your source audio.
• Sensor Fusion. Use software tools to analyse the audio from multiple perpectives to execute operations to improve audio quality.
• Presentation. Render the results in formats accessible to the intended audience(s).

When the process is complete, two products have been created. First, there is an archival recording that faithfully transfers the original analog recording, in all its flaws, to digital form. Also, there is a restored image of that recording as processed sound files that transcend the moment to reveal what may not have been originally apparent to the naked ear.

But how do you design these steps to achieve a high-quality result? There are five fundamentals:

• Accuracy, with regard to the source material
• Appropriateness and Adequacy, with regard to your processes
• Consistency and Explicitness, with regard to your execution

In an upcoming three-part series, we’ll examine how to stay true to the five fundamentals in your project. Stay tuned.

[Originally published 2-February-2012. Revised and expanded.]

            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #15            



Artist: Pink Floyd
Title: The Dark Side of the Moon
Genre: Rock
Year: 1973



What other title could be more appropriate to discuss? DSotM presents a presentation challenge due to the extensive use of crossfades between tracks, making it hard to identify the instant where one track ends and the next one begins. They slowly collide with each other in passing. As with live albums, you'll be glad to have accurate high resolution sound data when confronted with a crossfade to zoom way in to make a precise cut at your decision point.

© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.


An 11th Simple Truth For a Delusional Music Industry

It seems like a week doesn't go by without new proposals for streaming music services — some real, some imagined. Most services position themselves to be more convenient than digital downloads. Few promise better quality than CD audio. Therein lies the problem with listener-paid business models, a simple truth from the software industry that should be heeded.

When I got into the commercial software business, titles were delivered in boxes containing install discs accompanied by paper user manuals. From there it became commonplace to purchase a license key to download software and soft-copy documentation. It remains to be seen whether full-feature software can be now be accessed solely through the cloud.

The analogy to music is obvious. The industry has progressed from physical media to digital downloads to the promise of streaming services that make music ownership irrelevant.

A concept the (3D design) software industry embraced, that the music industry still struggles with, is that there is a difference between modeling and having read-only online access to a model. Modeling is scarce and high-value; access is infinite and low-value. Model creation requires full-feature software; access requires only reader/viewer apps. The latter provide low-res representations where complex curved surfaces are approximated by triangular facets suitable for cloud streaming. These so-called tessellated models may look OK for casual viewing (so you can tell you are looking at the right model) but aren't nearly accurate enough for even simple measurements.

Again, the analogy to music is obvious. Low-resolution streaming services are fine for social interaction and music discovery, but not nearly accurate enough for full-fidelity listening enjoyment.

So, if streaming services are the equivalent of reader/viewer apps, here's the 11th simple truth for a delusional music industry, courtesy of the software industry. There is no sustainable business model based on payment for low-res read-only online access. The reader app is always free.

            Vinyl-to-Digital Restoration #40            

Artist: Pink Floyd

Title: Wish You Were Here
Genre: Rock
Year: 1975



On its release in 1975, Wish You Were Here topped the album charts in both the UK and the USA. Reflecting the band’s thoughts of the time on the music business, and exploring themes of absence, WYWH contains the classic cut Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a tribute to founder member Syd Barrett.

© 2012 Thomas G. Dennehy. All rights reserved.