The circuitry is a complete new development that provides an amount of openness and clarity which can hardly be found in present gear. Every single part of signal processing is realized by using single transistors running in constant Class-A mode, and even sidechain and power supply use discrete circuits. All components are of the highest grade available and were exclusively chosen according to their tonal properties.

Check out www.elysia.com for more product information.

However, there is now a simple product that actually controls the sound levels automatically for you. It's called the T.V. Sound Regulator. Check out this website for more information: TV Sound Regulator

JVC, the company well-known for its development of the VHS video standard, is co- hosting a booth at the MIDEM along with Victor Entertainment, and will be demonstrating their K2HD technology. The K2HD mastering is used for high quality CD sound mastering. Mastering engineers have extreme control over the fidelity by using 24-bit high resolution information, and a wide frequency range that extends up to 100kHz based on this K2HD technology.

If you would like more information on the MIDEM check out the link midem.com.

This year's recipient is Tomlinson Holman, an author, a current instructor at the University of Southern California, and once served as chief engineer and technical director at Lucasfilms for over fifteen years. He has several U.S. patents and developed the THX, Home THX, and THX Digital Mastering programs. THX, mainly a quality assurance system, was created so that when a movie is shown in an approved THX theater, the film's soundtrack will sound just as the mastering engineer intended for it to sound.

Holman will receive his award at an upcoming International Consumer Electronics Conference in Las Vegas. More information about the conference can be found at the following link IEEE Conferences.

These K processors will help recover lost ambience, space, and depth, it also provides post-production control of reverb returns, as well as preserving the mix, plus much more.

Traditional backup only allows you to recover data to the point at which backup was taken, which is typically done on or at a specific scheduled time. With CDP there is no need for the nightly "scheduled" backups and you can literally restore data to any point in time. For some interesting information on data storage technology check out Storage Networking.

LOVE is the name of Cirque Du Soleils new musical celebration as well as the name of the Beatles new album that is a remix of some of their classics mastered by not one but two very well known producers. This all came about due to a close personal friendship between the late George Harrison of the Beatles, and Guy Laliberte, founder of Cirque du Soleil.

The really interesting story however is about the father and son team who produced the new album. This is no ordinary duo. It is no other than the legendary George Martin, the Beatles original producer, and his son Giles. They were fortunate enough to be allowed access to the Beatles master tapes from Abbey Road Studios. What they did with those well preserved tapes is quite impressive. I listened to a few tracks on Cirque Du Soleil's website and loved what I heard. For more information about this mastering project check out Rocky Mountain News.

Always keep discs that are not being used in a jewel case or some type of sleeve (paper or plastic). Jewel cases are the preferred method for storage because they are supported at the hub. Never stack discs so that they are touching each other to prevent scratches and to prevent warping due to excess weight. Also store jewel cases vertically (like a book) instead of horizontally which leads to unwanted stacking of CD's.

Lastly if a disc is dirty, dusty or smudged with fingerprints you may be able to clean it before it is permanently damaged. With dust, use a non-abrasive photographic lens tissue, or very soft brush. Fingerprints can possibly be removed by using a DVD/CD cleaning agent or isopropyl alcohol. Use only small quantities and make sure the cleaning motion is from the center of the disc outwards to the edge.

Optical discs are made from a polycarbonate plastic base comprised of 3, 4 or 5 layers which includes a metal layer usually made of aluminum, silver or gold. The data that is stored on the disc is created by making marks or pits using lasers. These pits or marks are then read by a laser through absorbing or reflecting the light. These attributes are most common for the ROM discs. For CD-R's a photosensitive dye layer is added between the polycarbonate and metal layers to capture and store data. The technology for the rewritable discs involves adding a phase-changing film between the polycarbonate and metal layers. This film gets heated by the laser beam which changes its light transmission properties therefore making it possible to erase and rewrite data. Check back in a few days to read part 2 on Optical Discs.

What if I told you there is a new school, located in beautiful South Padre Island, Texas, that offers a three day - comprehensive mastering course? And, the class sizes are relatively small so your training is personal and hands-on? Well the good news is - it does exist! Billy Stull, mastering engineer and pro audio equipment manufacturer, has just started this monthly course called the Masterpiece School of Mastering.

Various and extensive topics will be covered including specific mastering techniques (taught step by step), types of equipment you may find in typical mastering studios, and easy to understand principles of how to be successful. These and other projects will enhance and hone your current basic skills and at the same time bring you up to speed on all the current technology through proper and efficient training by professionals.

The cost of the three day course is $900 and includes daily lunch at the schools headquarters, the beautiful Shearton South Padre Island Beach Hotel. For more infomation about the school and an application form please contact info@legendaryaudio.com

CIRC deals specifically with the issue of error detection and correction. All CD’s are incorporated with CIRC. CIRC is a powerful error detection code that can detect and completely correct all errors on a reasonably good disc.

The first step any good and professional CD mastering company will take once they receive a pre-mastered CD, will be for the CD mastering engineer to run the CD through a high end program that will evaluate the quality of the CD. If a major error occurs and a sample cannot be perfectly reconstructed by the error control circuitry, it may be possible to "guess" the content of the sample; that is, obtain an approximation by interpolating it off the neighboring audio samples. While this concealment will not "fix" the error, it will make it inaudible, offering a graceful degradation of audio quality as clicks and pops are avoided.

This same program will tell them the compatibility between the writer and the media and which type of media works best. In return this allows the mastering engineer to optimize disc quality and avoid problems, especially since media quality varies with each batch. Then the CD mastering engineer can discover bad batches to save them time and save customers money
Keep in mind that all CD's are not made equal and quality will vary, sometimes dramatically. Any errors that occur usually are a result of poor disc quality, type of burner used, or what speed the pre-master was burned at.

In GENERAL terms, the higher the speed you burn at, the more errors you will get. Even the opposite is sometimes true as well. If you burn slower that 4X you create an emulsion of the recording and makes the recording prone to different types of errors.