Morning Phase by Beck and Quality Control

Beck’s New Album Morning Phase

Beck Hansen’s new album is said to be a sequel to Sea Change (2002). Released at the end of February 2014, Morning Phase brings the confessional and  slowly building song style that first appeared on the Sea Change album.

It certainly follows in the same instrumentation and song writing style of Sea Change, but I also noticed a bit more Country or Americana influences on Beck’s latest offering. Pulling you in slowly but steadily, this gentle album is masterfully constructed and begs to be listened to from start to end.

I would like to tip my hat to Michael Lavorgna over at Audiostream for investigating the HD Tracks 24/96 version of Morning Phase. You can read more about it here.

This brings up a couple of points. Firstly, releasing an album in 24 bits with heavy limiting and compression just doesn’t make much sense. This is mainly because the available dynamic range is not being used. Also noted was that many of the tracks were upsampled from 48Khz to 96Khz SR.

I understand that Beck and other artists presumably choose to release their albums with the sonic signature that they feel represents the style and sound they want. It just makes me wonder if the artists, producers, and engineers enjoy the distorted artifacts that heavy limiting produces.

There is a device called a Distressor (Emperical Labs) that is used to produce a compressed and harmonically related sound while mixing drums and other instruments. This type of sonic coloring is a choice and can be used in a very musical way. On the other hand, artifacts introduced by digital limiting are harsh and in my opinion sonically unrelated to the fundamental note.

While I have yet to hear the vinyl, consensus is that it is the superior format. Records must be mastered differently and for physical limitations of the medium (Vinyl) cannot be compressed or limited like a digital format. Anyone heard the vinyl of this yet?

Always Listening,

-HiFiQC

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Benchmark’s ADC-1 Still Going Strong

Benchmark ADC 1 analog to digital converter

I’ve been encountering Benchmark Media systems for years. From the earlier days of the modular System 1000 (distributed audio, mic preamps and AD/DA converters) to more recent products like the ADC 1 and DAC1/DAC 2. The DAC 1 made huge impact on the Pro Audio and computer audiophile scene, and now the DAC 2 is providing DSD conversion over USB for even greater file compatibility.

Not quite as popular, but equally impressive is the ADC 1 analog-to-digital converter. And Guess what? The editor over at Stereophile recently revisited the Benchmark unit and sang its praise. He compared it to an Ayre QA-9, and you can read the details here. I’m unsure why he did not compare the two units with the same sample rate, but overall you get the impression that he has appreciated the ADC-1’s  clarity and accuracy.

In my experience, the ADC 1 provided a solid and clear image of my stereo ORTF mics and Omni Flank mics. When paired with a clean mic preamp (Grace, Crane Song Flamingo) you can rest assured that what you hear is what you get.  From Orchestral Recording to Sound Effects, the Benchmark Media ADC 1 provides a sure fire way to get a jitter-free recording, not to mention a great dynamic range.

-HIFIQC