Pure Audio Blu-Ray – music’s next Cinderella?
I was in a FNAC in Paris in October and happened upon a number of titles that had been released on Blu-Ray audio discs – “Pure Audio Blu Ray” (PABR) by Universal Music Group. The only previous audio only blu-rays that I had purchased were “Grrr” by the Rolling Stones and “Celebration Day” by Led Zeppelin. Most music related Blu-Ray discs are mixed content. Pure Audio is an attempt to turn Blu-Ray into high definition CD – you put the disc into a Blu-Ray player and it should play without having to look at at screen menu to navigate – which was a real problem with DVD-Audio discs (I solved this problem with my Oppo BD-95 by attaching a video output to an old portable DVD player – but the whole operation was clunky – eventually I ripped the DVD-As with DVD audio extractor to flac – the flac discs then played perfectly from the drive). Unfortunately the selection of PABR discs available then were Lionel Richie, Velvet Underground (24 bit???? possibly the lowest-fi recording in major label history), Stevie Wonder and Supertramp. So I dropped 20 euro on “Breakfast in America” an promptly forgot about it, until yesterday.
The discs are nicely packaged and “Breakfast” contained instructions, in French, for a free download in MP3 or 16 bit Flac format: plus 1 for the format (remember that SACDs have a hybrid layer that you can rip – but DVD-A gave you no portable option and that is one of the reasons why the format failed). Of course, Universal could be clever and bundle a CD with the PABR disc – just like Disney bundled DVDs with BR discs in the early years of the format. There is nothing worse than a free download that doesn’t work. But work it did (I already had the Deluxe Edition CD in any case!). Anyway, I put the disc in my blu-ray player and it played perfectly well, and sounded – exactly like the CD (more about my current feelings about 24 bit audio tomorrow). A major bonus about Pure Audio is that UMG guarantees provenience: discs must be created from studio master recordings at a minimum of 24bit/96kHz standard, the discs are encoded in three high-quality lossless formats: uncompressed PCM, DTS HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. It would be nice if they would offer said discs in 5.1 surround also. Obviously, like all HD formats, the PABR disc cannot be easily* ripped, but at least, as part of the process, a portable or streamable version is being provided. It is time that UMG and others follow the lead of, arguably the worlds greatest label, 2L – and provide a catch all solution. For 25 euro they will sell you a hybrid CD-SACD plus a Pure Audio Blu Ray of a recording and allow you to download lossless flac files into your computer. I like the idea of high res file downloads, but having being badly burned by hard drive failures in the past (HDTracks will NOT allow you to re-download files that you have already paid for), I like physical product, liner notes etc. Perhaps this is a generational thing – but High Res, which is probably only a marketing ploy (I am seriously beginning to doubt whether or not it makes any difference to recordings that were not made in digital high resolution), is a premium product – and I prefer physical to vapourware.
Hey Universal – how about releasing a few NEW recordings, by CONTEMPORARY artists (most of them work for you) and releasing them in PABD format? Show some spine and confidence in your product. It is hard to believe that in 2014 new releases are coming out in CD (1980s technology), Vinyl (1950s technology), MP3 (1990s technology) and not PABR (21st century technology). It must be significantly less expensive to press up a PABR than a 180g vinyl LP. The masters are already there (they have to downsample to produce a CD). I’m drooling about the sheer ludicrousness of a DVD\PABR\Vin
yl deluxe edition. I suppose you could construct this from The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park releases.
[While writing the last paragraph I had a sudden flashback to the sheer awfulness of Dual Disc: this was a format introduced by the majors in 2004. There was supposed to be a CD layer on one side, and a DVDA (high resolution) layer on the other. I bought several of these believing that I have bought DVDA. However, when I examined the discs with DVD audio extractor, it turned out that virtually all of them were 16bit 48kHz LPCM (not really any different from CD). The exception to this was the Talking Heads Brick boxset – all high resolution and terrific.] 
A few asides:
If UMG really want to know how to do a deluxe edition they need to look at Nick Cave, King Crimson and anything that Steven Wilson touches. If you are going to do a deluxe reissue be aware of what fans want: 1. demos, 2. a contemporaneous live recording (we already have the bootleg), 3. a high res remix with 5.1 surround. The “immersion” edition of “Dark Side of The Moon” provided this and is a model for major record labels.
I think that $25 for a 192kHz download is a complete rip off. 1. 192kHz for analogue recordings makes no sense – the information is not there, 2. it takes up too much space, 3. a lot of DACs cannot decode >96kHz. “USA” by King Crimson comes in CD/DVD format, costs <$20 and provides the listener with Hi-Res stereo versions of the three different album mixes: expanded 30th anniversary edition, Ronan Chris Murphy mix & previously unreleased Robert Fripp/David Singleton mix. And it looks great. Similarly, I bought the majority of the R.E.M. Warner’s catalogue in CD\DVD audio for <$20 per digipack. Why would you pay for a download?
I will not buy SACDs anymore as I cannot rip (the DSD layer) them (and don’t want to have to go scouring ebay to buy and old Playstation 3 to do so). In 20 years you won’t be able to find a player that will play the discs for less than the price of a car (just like cassettes – hard to get a good tape player these days, even used, because nobody makes them). Conversely, I bought lots of DVDAs because I could rip them (I am not confessing to doing so, nonetheless). Wise up music labels, people want to put their music on their servers – so give up on this copy-protection nonsense. Purveyors of DVDA, BDA and SACDS are selling the unprotected product on HDTracks and Acoustic Sounds ($25 for DSD downloads, $30 for multichannel SACD – I know it is Analogue Productions, but come on – you can buy the original CD for most of these for <$5). BD audio is probably the safest bet high res disc format to date – it is the ONLY HD disc format out there, so, like CD, you will be able to play your discs for decades to come. Interesting – SACD was a Sony product (they have given up on it), Blu-Ray is a Sony Product, where are the Sony-Columbia PABDs?
*BD audio discs can be ripped using dvdaudio extractor and Any DVD (I am not giving you the links).
I have been a “deluxe edition” (DE) obsessive for several years – I do think that these, and pre 1990 CDs, will be collectable long term. However, it has been really disappointing how DE discs from major record labels have not included high resolution or surround sound versions. Universal appears to be releasing PABR of many of it’s DE recordings, so I suppose, for completeness, it is worthwhile dropping 15 quid on Derek & the Dominos, Nevermind etc.
audioexchange 