Number 51 September 14, 2010

History is not linear.  One step forward, two steps back, as  Lenin wrote.  From the first sound recordings to the phonograph record (some have argued that 78s and 45s sound better than 33 rpm) recordings generally sounded better and better.  With the advent of digital cds and compression, sound quality declined, albeit without the annoying hisses and cracks of phono records.  The MP3 was most likely the nadir of sound quality, and a generation or two don't really know what good sound quality is.  No less a critic of digital sound than Neil Young   has said that sound quality will improve when the sampling rate goes way up. (He's been saying this for over a decade!)  I believe we are finally turning the corner.  The Sonoma System, developed by Gus Skinas and a team of Sony engineers a few years ago, samples at 2.8MHz.  2.8 million bits a second, in contrast to the 44.1kHz of a cd.  Called Direct Stream Digital, it has the warmth and clarity of analogue tape.  Gus graciously brought out a Sonoma System for the solo violin recording of Emily Palen we did at Grace Cathedral. The DSD files can be read by several consumer level products.  Along with the 96kHz downloads that are available from most of the artists that Cookie Marenco records, high resolution music is a revolution long overdue.