NO NOISE ON "ASSET ROAD"?
Mr. Ranada mentions in his August "Bits & Pieces" column that Sonic Solutions processed the Beatles Abbey Road CD with its No Noise system. Is this the one EMI released, CDP 46446? If it is, I sure don't hear much of an improvement.
There is a lot of hiss on this disc. I know that the master tapes are probably very noisy, as a friend of mine has a copy of the collector's-grade vinyl LP that he bought in Japan, and it too is quite hissy. Or is there another release of Abbey Road that has been processed with No Noise? If so, I would be very interested in knowing; I was disappointed that EMI's digital remastering didn't get rid of the hiss.
Alex Hrapunov; Goldvein, Va.
Digital remastering can't of itself remove noise that already is present in the original recording; it can only prevent further sonic degradation. Our understanding is that the No Noise process was used on some tracks but not all. Presumably, those tracks were in unusually bad shape. Remember, too, that we don't know how aggressively the system was applied. It could well be that EMI preferred to use the bare minimum of processing necessary to eliminate just the worst noise and not run the risk of altering the desired signal in any way. In any event, there is only one official EMI release of the Abbey Road Compact Disc.
-Ed.
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--- High Fidelity's 1988 ASME interns Michael Mettler and Michelle
Beaulieu.
Good help is hard to find? You really couldn't prove it by us. For the past four summers, HIGH FIDELITY has taken on two journalists-in-training through the American Society of Magazine Editors' (ASME) Magazine Internship Program. This year, ASME selected 63 college students from across the country to be placed as in terns at 56 different magazines.
Our interns were Michelle Beaulieu from Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts, and Michael K. Mettler from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Michelle, from Presque Isle, Maine, is pursuing a dual concentration in English and communications, while Michael, from Homewood, Illinois, is majoring in magazine journal ism and minoring in English. The two seniors are now back at school after a nine-week stint on the job. Their main responsibility was to oversee the production of our magazine TEST REPORTS, which will appear on news stands this month. Supervisor for the pair was our Group Assistant Managing Editor Margaret Schmucker, who was a 1986 ASME intern here.
"The internship program was not only a great opportunity to participate in magazine publishing; it was a chance to live in New York among journalism students from all over the country," said Michelle. "I made some good contacts, but -more important -I made some good friends." She was the editor of last spring's Senior Job Booklet at Simmons and is a journalism teaching assistant this fall.
"The best thing about being at HIGH FIDELITY was that we were responsible for the production work be hind an entire magazine," Michael told us. "We felt much closer to the project because it was pretty much our own baby." Michael, whose interest in music is reflected in a CD collection numbering into the hundreds, is now editor of DM Magazine, the metropolitan magazine of Des Moines, and he also serves as copy editor and columnist for Drake's student newspaper, The Times-Delphic. Michael plans to return to New York next May, after his graduation: "This is where the heart of the magazine business is, and I couldn't imagine being content elsewhere."
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TAPE SQUEAL
Robert Long's recent column on tape squeal ["Tape Tracks," July] prompts me to write about my own experiences. In the mid-1970s, I began buying prerecorded open-reel tapes from Ampex, Barclay Crocker, and the Reel Society. After about five years, the Ampex double-length tapes began to squeal. Now all my Ampex tapes squeal, while the others continue to play without problem.
The squealing occurs when the tape vibrates as it passes over the erase head, and it happens on both my tape decks, so the equipment is not to blame. Cleaning the erase head fixes matters, but only for about five minutes. My theory as to the cause of the vibration is that the tape used by Ampex was defective in some way. The lubrication that is a normal part of tape formulation apparently has dried out pre maturely. The only long-term solution I have found is that on one of my decks I can mis-thread the tape so that it does not con tact the erase head. If anyone knows a better approach, I would appreciate hearing about it.
Richard C. McDonald Lakeland, Fla.
See this month's "Tape Tracks."-Ed.
PROTECTING YOUR HEARING
As you say in your editorial ["Front Lines," July], over-amplification does ex ist, and it is becoming more and more widespread. Musicals that used to rely on the singing capabilities of the actors may now be performed with body mikes on all but the most minor characters. Not only does the voice quality become poorer, but the sense of space from a singer at the back of the stage is lost.
I recently attended the New York City Opera version of Madama Butterfly at SPAC (the Saratoga Performing Arts Center). They didn't use body mikes, but they had several boundary-type micro phones strung along the edge of the stage.
As the singers moved to the front of the stage, where they needed less amplification, they had more. The voice quality be came harsh and pointed, and the sound level was actually too high. To make matters worse, all voices were localized about 40 feet above the center of the stage. Great singing but bad sound.
High sound levels certainly can cause hearing damage, but there is some evidence that the harm is less if the listener is not tense: more danger for the uptight worker than for the happy music listener.
There is some probability that the greater damage is the result of the reduced blood flow that tightened muscles can cause, even in the head.
A mild criticism of the sound-level table in the feature "Unsound Sound" [July] and the related text is that the distances associated with each of the levels are not given: Smaller distances mean higher levels and greater damage. It has been common to call 85 to 90 dBA the threshold for ear damage. The OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) criterion, however, is based on the industrial acceptance of a considerable threshold shift over a 25-year work period. As I have pointed out to many people, the unnoticed threshold shift during youth gets added to that from the aging process: Now you are fifty and can't hear soft conversations or music. Too late! Dr. Karl Kryter has cautioned that all sounds louder than 70 dBA may contribute to raising the hearing threshold.
My own experience is that a lot of people listen to music at maximum levels of as much as 100 dBA or more. The problem is greatest with pop and rock, because the music stays at a high level from beginning to end. A typical classical piece has a great range of levels, allowing the ear to rest at least momentarily, even if the highest levels match those for rock. Because high levels fatigue the hearing mechanism, pop and rock performers tend to keep increasing the volume to maintain the same sensation for themselves. Unfortunately, the probability of hearing damage is increasing at least as fast. Musicians are gradually becoming aware of the problem, but they still judge sound level by ear. I also observe that the listeners (their customers) want the sound very loud.
Howard A. Roberson; Berkshire Sound Laboratory; Pittsfield, Mass.
Thank you for your editorial and special section on hearing preservation in the July issue. The material is interesting and very valuable.
For the dB figures given on page 45 and elsewhere is it correct to assume that the measurements are of rms values and are averaged over some period of time? Since the peak-to-average ratio will vary with the type of music and the dynamic range of the medium, how will this affect the choice of safe listening levels? For example, classical music, especially from a Compact Disc, typically has a high peak-to-average ratio, so an average level of 80 dBA at the ear will include much larger crests. I have been working on a high-quality head phone amplifier and, given the sensitivity specifications of typical phones, would like to be able to calculate the maximum power levels that would be useful and safe.
Julian L. Kurtz; Livingston Manor, N.Y.
Your assumption that the figures represent averages is correct. In most cases, the aver age level is more important than the amplitude of brief peaks.
-Ed.
All letters should be addressed to: The Editor, HIGH FIDELITY, 825 Seventh Ave., New York. N.Y. 10019.
Letters are subject to editing for brevity and clarity.
Also see:
Bits & Pieces -- The real reason to want an 18-bit CD player. (Jan. 1988) DAVID RANADA
Audio Fetishes--True-life tales of strange audio beliefs.
Currents: Carver's solid-state "tube" amp; Video Walkman born.