‘The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity‘
attributed to Dorothy Parker .
We live in an ever evolving world where one of the only constants is change.
Change isn’t always welcome, but while history advises us to ‘adapt or perish’, some of us enjoy looking ahead for ways that can improve our lives, improve the quality of the work we do and improve the experience of those around us. We have a desire to do better.
At Mir Creation this desire is manifested in our ambition to create the best quality recordings we can and deliver a compelling and immersive listening experience to those that want it.
While our focus is on the experience rather than the mechanics by which it is produced, this quest inevitably depends in part on the technology we use for capture, production and delivery and so some basic explanation at least needs to be offered listeners to allow them to make informed choices.
Why the present standard isn’t good enough
The present standard for digital music is taken to be the compact disc. The CD offered many real and perceived improvements over the analogue media it replaced in 1983, but it must be remembered that this was the first expression of emerging digital audio technology, and things have moved on a long way since.
The CD is in effect 35 year old technology delivering a 60 year old format – first generation digital delivering stereo sound.
Better quality recording is now readily available, and expanding the number of speaker channels dramatically improves spatial information and the sense of immersion – the sense of being there – compared to stereo. Surround done well is much more musically engaging and convincing.
Many people are dissatisfied with the current standard of music releases and there is a growing and undeniable thirst for quality beyond what CD’s 44.1kHz sample rate and 16bit resolution is capable of.
So where to now?
The Mir Creation approach is to use the best technology available to capture music in high resolution and deliver it in a variety of sample rates and channel formats – both stereo and surround. For economic and environmental reasons, these versions are offered as downloads rather than physical media.
We use Pyramix workstations to record at sample rates up to 352.8kHz (DXD), 8 x the CD sample rate, and work at a minimum resolution of 24bit. We then offer these recordings to listeners in a variety of formats and sample rates to suit their needs.
To explore why we do this, you may well ask:
Why bother with high resolution audio?
Why bother with surround?
Manufacturers and distributors that provide the exceptional equipment that enables Mir to produce the recordings we do
Recording systems
Merging Technologies – www.merging.com – Pyramix, Ravenna-based virtual audio studio software, Horus, Hapi, Anubis and NADAC converters
Microphones
DPA Microphones – www.dpamicrophones.com – Australian distributor, Amber Technology – www.ambertech.com.au – 02 9998 7600
Schoeps Microphones – www.schoeps.de – Australian distributor, Studio Connections – www.studioconnections.com.au – 03 9874 7666
Sennheiser and Neumann – Sennheiser Australia – en-au.sennheiser.com – 02 9910 6700
Monitoring
ATC loudspeakers – www.atcloudspeakers.co.uk – Australian distributor, AVP Imports – www.avpimports.com.au – 0466 120 130
Grace Design – monitor controllers and surround microphone rigging – www.gracedesign.com
Sennheiser – field reference HD800 headphones – Sennheiser Australia – en-au.sennheiser.com – 02 9910 6700
