Path: news.cs.columbia.edu!news.nyc.pipeline.com!uunet!panix!not-for-mail
From: gabe@panix.com (Gabe Wiener)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.pro
Subject: Exciting new recording technology
Date: 1 Apr 1995 00:29:26 -0500
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and Unix, NYC
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Message-ID: <3liobm$ab8@panix.com>
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April 1, 1995				      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


	NEW YORK--Creative Audio Recordings, Inc. today announced a
new line of Compact Disc recordings designed to provide, as one CAR
executive put it, "the ultimate concert experience at home."
	"The music world is about to be shaken by a revolution in
concert reproduction," said Newton Oxmyx, Director of Marketing for
CAR.  "Our new line of recordings is designed to provide classical
music lovers with the ideal concert experience, and to reproduce the
sonic signatures of some of the world's finest concert halls."
	The CAR recording project involves a multiple-microphone
technique. Up to ten microphones can be used in the recording process.
And although the CD's will reproduce adequately on any home stereo
system, they are designed for use with Dolby Surround decoders.
"We're riding on the coat-tails of the Dolby Surround craze," Oxmyx
said.  "People are buying surround boxes left and right to watch
Hollywood epics.  Why not use the same technology to reproduce
orchestral music?"
	The CAR recordings, however, differ from previous attempts in
using Surround for music reproduction, because the CAR recordings also
take advantage of Digital Signal Processing to reproduce all the
subtle nuances of the concert experience.  "We're really the first to
use DSP for this sort of thing.  We've been doing acoustical studies
in Boston and New York, and I can really say that we have it down to a
science at this point."
	CAR technicians use specially-developed DSP hardware and
software to create ambient effects in the sound-field of the
recording.  "We really had to program each sound one at a time.  For
instance, it took our technicians about thirteen weeks just to work out
the proper ambient sounds between symphonic movements."
	Oxmyx continued by explaining that the sounds between
movements consist of coughs, program pages being turned, and people
shifting in their seats.  "Getting the coughs right was by far the
hardest.  We had to make sure that they were loud enough, and that
they generated sufficient murmur between pieces.  We also had to
insert coughs into the near-field as well, so that the listener could
experience the emotional trauma when his or her neighbor erupts into
coughing fits in the middle of the movement."
	Oxmyx explained that the rustling effects of page-turns was
also a major obstacle.  For these sounds, CAR contracted with the 
Bertrand Technologies Group to develop a unique DSP module to generate 
these sounds.  The result is the Bertrand Rustler, which will also be
marketed by CAR as a 1U rack-mount AES/EBU-capable module available to
musicians and engineers who wish to make their own recordings with a
"live" feel. The Bertrand Rustler has many unique modes, including
"oratorio" mode, in which the unit accurately re-creates the audible
rustling as an entire audience turns the page of an oratorio libretto
simultaneously.
	CAR also announced that it would be bringing out the CAR-100
Surround Effects Processor at the end of the current year.  This unit,
based on 2 cascaded Motorola DSP 56002 circuits, will feature many of
the standard surround effects (ambiance processing, simulated stereo,
and Pro Logic), as well as a new "Concert Logic" mode which will work
specifically with the new CAR line of CD's.  "Using the CAR-100, the
listener will have ultimate control over the concert-hall experience,"
said Oxmyx.  "Instead of the usual nameless ambiance modes like
'concert hall' and 'cathedral', you'll be able to select precisely
which concert hall's acoustics you wish reproduced."
	Oxmyx also explained that the list of concert halls would
include the current Avery Fisher Hall in New York, as well as its
previous incarnation, Philharmonic Hall, prior to renovation.
According to Oxmyx, it will also be possible to select any of the
intermediate renovations of the mid-1970's. Software options will also
enable the listener to manipulate such variables as the violence of
the coughs between movements, whether or not novice listeners applaud
after any allegro movement, and the frequency offset of wrong notes.
In "Concert Surround" mode, the CAR-100 will also insert these audible
enhancements even when non-CAR discs are played.
	The CAR-100 will also take plug-in ROM cartridges that will
enable to listener to select from various styles of coughs.  Titles in
preparation as of now include Bronchitis, Emphysema, Common Cold, Flu,
and Dry Throat.  A "candy wrapper crackle" module, using interpolated
noise shaping, will be available as a piggyback "daughter board" that
will connect to the main logic board via a multi-pin connector.  The
CTM-100, a highly-accurate quartz clock module, can also be added to
the CAR-100, and a unit so equipped will automatically insert digital
watch beeps on the hour and half-hour.
	The CAR CDs are expected to carry a $24.95 list price.  The
CAR-100 (available 4th quarter 1994) will sell for $3795 list, and the
plug-in cough cartridges will retail for $19.95 each.  

-- 
Gabe Wiener  Dir., Quintessential Sound, Inc. |"I am terrified at the thought
Recording-Mastering-Restoration (212)586-4200 | that so much hideous and bad
PGM Early Music Recordings ---> (800)997-1750 | music may be put on records
gabe@panix.com     http://www.panix.com/~gabe | forever." --Sir Arthur Sullivan

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