Music Format Comparison

Is It Real Or Is It...Mag

The Guild Holds a Blind Comparison
of Formats for Music Editors

by Sally Boldt

On Saturday March 9, 1996, the Guild held a demonstration for our music editors which involved a blind listening comparison of some of the dominant digital and analog formats currently in use for film music. Mixers and composers joined music editors at Todd A-O's dubbing stage 1 in listening to a blind playback of five different formats; one 20-bit Sonic Solutions system and two 15-bit Pro Tools systems with various configurations of A-D and D-A converters, DA-88, and 6-track Dolby SR mag. Prior to the date, a selection of various pieces of music, chosen to offer a range of color and texture, was transferred to the different systems and tape formats at the Todd A-O scoring stage (all originated as Dolby SR analog 24-track film mixes).

At the playback, listeners were able to individually select at the console among the different formats. After an initial blind listening, one learned the actual correspondence between faders and systems, and had the opportunity to listen again, after knowing the answers.

The question of whether we are trading off sonic quality in exchange for the time-saving tools offered us by the new digital editing systems has been the subject of great interest and debate in the music editing community. A widely held opinion is that analog Dolby SR formats (24-track and mag) represent a high standard of audio quality in music recording, compared to which some of the new digital editing systems and tape formats are inferior. There is a lot of concern that it would be irresponsible of the film music community to allow that the ease afforded by these new tools dictate that we take a backward step in the standard of sonic quality.

The intention of this demonstration was to provide the foundation of an education and to create a starting point for an ongoing dialogue in this area, by giving our music editors the opportunity to do something no-one had been able to do before: to actually listen to these systems and formats in one place at one time and compare them. We had also sought to get the serious attention of the various companies involved in developing these new technologies, in an effort to make them more responsive to the needs of the community of professionals working in the area of film music. We represent a very small percentage of their users, and were very gratified by the level of interest and support in this event on the part of Apogee, DigiDesign and Sonic Solutions.

Opinions and preferences in the overall comparison varied; perhaps the most universally held conclusion was that the blind listening was as much a demonstration of psycho-acoustics as anything else. Upon relistening, after knowing the identity of the various formats, the consensus seemed to be - mag rules!

When this article was written,
Sally Boldt was music editor on "Multiplicy" for composer
George Fenton and director Harold Ramis.

Reprinted from
The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter
Vol. 17, No. 3 - MayJune 1996

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Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776


Is It Real Or Is It...Mag The Guild Holds a Blind Comparison of Formats for Music Editors by Sally Boldt
	On Saturday March 9, 1996, the Guild held a demonstration for our music editors which involved a blind listening comparison of some of the dominant digital and analog formats currently in use for film music. Mixers and composers joined music editors at Todd A-O's dubbing stage 1 in listening to a blind playback of five different formats; one 20-bit Sonic Solutions system and two 15-bit Pro Tools systems with various configurations of A-D and D-A converters, DA-88, and 6-track Dolby SR mag. Prior to the date, a selection of various pieces of music, chosen to offer a range of color and texture, was transferred to the different systems and tape formats at the Todd A-O scoring stage (all originated as Dolby SR analog 24-track film mixes). At the playback, listeners were able to individually select at the console among the different formats. After an initial blind listening, one learned the actual correspondence between faders and systems, and had the opportunity to listen again, after knowing the answers. The question of whether we are trading off sonic quality in exchange for the time-saving tools offered us by the new digital editing systems has been the subject of great interest and debate in the music editing community. A widely held opinion is that analog Dolby SR formats (24-track and mag) represent a high standard of audio quality in music recording, compared to which some of the new digital editing systems and tape formats are inferior. There is a lot of concern that it would be irresponsible of the film music community to allow that the ease afforded by these new tools dictate that we take a backward step in the standard of sonic quality. The intention of this demonstration was to provide the foundation of an education and to create a starting point for an ongoing dialogue in this area, by giving our music editors the opportunity to do something no-one had been able to do before: to actually listen to these systems and formats in one place at one time and compare them. We had also sought to get the serious attention of the various companies involved in developing these new technologies, in an effort to make them more responsive to the needs of the community of professionals working in the area of film music. We represent a very small percentage of their users, and were very gratified by the level of interest and support in this event on the part of Apogee, DigiDesign and Sonic Solutions. Opinions and preferences in the overall comparison varied; perhaps the most universally held conclusion was that the blind listening was as much a demonstration of psycho-acoustics as anything else. Upon relistening, after knowing the identity of the various formats, the consensus seemed to be - mag rules!
When this article was written, Sally Boldt was music editor on "Multiplicy" for composer George Fenton and director Harold Ramis.
Reprinted from The Motion Picture Editors Guild Newsletter Vol. 17, No. 3 - MayJune 1996 Guild Home \| Newsletter Home \| Top of Page Copyright © 1996, All Rights Reserved by The Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 776