Analog vs. Digital Processing – Bob Katz’s Choices

Bob Katz will present some technical measurements and aesthetic observations about this disputable topic. Standby for the fireworks!

Join the AESSF for what’s certain to be a rousing discussion.

Included in this meeting:
VIRTUOSO: BINAURAL TRANSLATOR

A discussion and high resolution demonstration, hosted by Bob Katz

Virtuoso is a new, cutting edge binaural technology for virtualizing stereo or immersive audio and a listening room for headphone monitoring, with excellent tonal/spatial fidelity and a highly accurate translation to real loudspeakers.

For example, create a stereo or immersive mix, feed it through Virtuoso and out comes binaural that Bob feels sounds like it’s coming from his Mastering-quality loudspeaker system in his well-treated mastering room. With excellent externalization (out of head impression). Virtuoso can be used on the road or wherever quality loudspeaker monitoring is not available. You can be the judge of that on Tuesday, February 7.

Virtuoso was developed by Dr. Hyunkook Lee of the University of Huddersfield, England.

Bob will be using Streamwire to send high resolution audio. For the very best audio quality, please use a DAW at 48 kHz, internal clock. Use your best DAC, headphones, and headphone amplifier. You can listen to high resolution audio through your browser.

Come by early to get accustomed to Streamwire, Bob will be playing music starting at 5pm.

Here is a link with full information and the link to the Streamwire stream (which does not require any downloads or subscriptions):
https://digido.com/livestream

Log in to this live online presentation at: https://youtu.be/8pLr4dHXlOk with the samples playing on Streamwire.

Bio
With over 50 years as an audio professional, Bob Katz has recorded and mastered three Grammy-winning albums and several nominees. He masters all styles of music as president and mastering engineer at Digital Domain, Orlando, FL.

In 1988, Bob became Technical Supervisor and recording engineer for audiophile label Chesky Records. He produced the world’s first commercial oversampled recordings with his own implementation of the DBX ADC. His recordings for Chesky used one mike or minimalist miking, were acclaimed for their balance, depth, clarity and purity of tone. In 1997, he recorded the first 96 kHz/24-bit audio-only DVD.

He is a life Fellow of the AES. He was workshops Chairman of the AES 74th Convention, Facilities Chair of the 79th, and chaired the 1994 NY Section. Most recently, he has been an active member the subcommittee which produced TD-1008, Recommendations for Loudness of Internet Audio Streaming and In-Demand Distribution, superceding TD-1004. This group took over a year to refine every word in this document.

His book, “Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science”, in its third edition, has been translated to Chinese, German and Spanish. It has sold over 150, 000 copies.

He has created several digital audio products and has invented, patented and licensed the K-stereo and K-Surround Processes.