Media Reports
Try, Try Again
By Barry Fox
In 1982, right at the end of the golden age of vinyl, Teldec (the company jointly owned by Telefunken and Decca) experimented with a completely different way of cutting hi-fi LPs, called Direct Metal Mastering (DMM). This had spun off from the work done by Teldec, at a semi-secret lab in North London run by Decca’s respected recording engineer Tony Griffiths, on TeD—a floppy video disc. The TeD video disc had a superfine hill-and-dale groove cut in a flimsy plastic disc about the size of an EP. The disc spun at 1500 rpm and played ten minutes of color video when tracked by a mechanical sled-shaped stylus.
Panasonic killed TeD with Visc, a rigid 12″ LP that worked in much the same way as TeD to deliver an hour of color video from each side of the disc. Visc was mind-bogglingly clever but was soon killed by JVC’s VHD, which used a grooveless conductive plastics disc tracked by a capacitive stylus, and by RCA’s CED Selectavision which used a grooved capacitance disc. Both came to market but were soon killed by Philips’ Laservision/Laserdisc, the optical video disc that later spawned CD, DVD, and Blu-ray.
But when TeD died, Teldec adapted the video disc cutting system to audio mastering. The object of DMM was to eliminate the perennial problems with master lacquers, such as faulty blanks and blemishes caused by the first stages of electroplating. With DMM, a diamond stylus cuts the groove directly into an amorphous copper metal coating on a blank stainless steel disc. There is no memory effect—relaxation of the plastic with high frequency loss—and the first stage of electroplating is taken out of the process, which reduces the risk of plating errors. DMM also made it possible to pack grooves tighter, thereby increasing playing time by 15%.
The heads which cut soft lacquer need several hundred watts of driving power, so you can imagine what it takes to cut copper metal. Teldec used a modified Neumann stereo cutting head, and, to help the stylus cut through the metal, superimposed an ultrasonic signal of around 70kHz on the audio signal being recorded. This acted in much the same way as the bias in a tape recorder, which shakes up the magnetic particles. The bias signal used for the DMM process mechanically excited the diamond-cutting stylus.
In July 1982 Teldec offered to license the system to any record company, for a one-off fee. Between 1982 and 1986, Melodiya, Virgin, and PR records each signed to use the system.
By 1985 the hi-fi press was already worrying that the high-frequency bias might cause audible “beat” effects. There was talk of DMM cuts having a certain characteristic “sound.” And by then the record companies were cutting back on LP production, in favor of CDs.
Not daunted, Teldec came up with a modified system for direct cutting Compact Disc masters. DMM CD was unveiled at the Los Angeles Audio Engineering Society Convention in November 1986. But DMM CD also stalled. It proved difficult in practice to cut metal masters with a pit shape that accurately mimics the pits produced by the conventional technique of laser-cutting and etching a glass master coated with photo-sensitive material. The difference in pit shape can confuse the laser optics in some domestic players.
Mechanicaly cutting CD masters would now be a pointless exercise. But perhaps the time is now right for someone to try DMM LP mastering again.
STORAGE RIGHTS
If you’re using a home server to store high-quality audio, spare a thought for a recent court case in the US.
The Hollywood studios have won a $4.5 million punishment payment from RealNetworks—the US company behind RealAudio compression—for selling $30 software called RealDVD that rips copy-protected optical discs to hard disc.
Don’t think this doesn’t matter to you just because you don’t want to rip video. Blu-ray is a very high-quality music disc, but its AACS anti-rip system and regional coding lock sound and vision far tighter than DVD or CD.
Indeed it was the promise of Blu-ray’s allegedly un-hackable protection that appealed to the software industry after DVD’s allegedly un-hackable CSS was hacked by a schoolkid. As we in Europe saw when Nelson Riddle’s classic score for the 1966 Batman movie was released as an audio-only “extra” on a Blu-ray disc only in the US, regional coding for video can tie up audio content as well.
Imerge (www.imerge.co.uk) pretty much invented the hard drive music store product category. “We developed the first audio server in the 1990s and lost our way in 2006-7. But we now have a new team and have now sold over 25,000 servers,” said CEO Cameron Wade earlier this year when Imerge launched its new servers and XiVa online music store, in partnership with 7Digital.
Owners of Imerge server boxes use a computer to access a web page, sign up for the XiVa download service, and enter credit card details. They can then use the server’s remote control to make click purchases from over 8 million music titles. Virtually all recorded music is offered, with only a few notable exceptions such as Beatles tracks and AC/DC, because of industry holdouts. Prices range from between 70 and 90p per track and from £5 to £11 per album.
There is no DRM (digital rights management). Once purchased and downloaded to the server, music can be copied freely to other devices. Users can also download the same tracks three times. The hard disc uses an auto backup system called RAID to prevent content loss, and if the whole server is stolen, the owner can cancel its credit authorization and download the purchased tracks again.
But the music is MP3 at 320kbps (or below), which is CD quality or below. So the option to rip is vital.
“The key difference,” said Imerge about the server, “is the new Blu-ray drive, which also allows users to store and play back content from Blu-ray discs. The integral drive reads content from CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs to store on hard drives for convenient access.”
Is this legal, though?
“We ship the product without the ability to record, as the manufacturer cannot be seen to be actively advocating 3rd party software that can be construed as contentious. We run a comprehensive certification program for our dealers and partners worldwide which runs through the setup and installation of the product. Part of that installation training walks the dealer through adding 3rd party software on behalf of the end user. Once this is complete, the unit is then ready to rip DVDs from the slot loading drive, and also Blu-Ray in the same manner.”
Imerge reckons that Real came unstuck because the company took a CSS license and the ripped copy was still protected. Because the Imerge server does not come with pre-installed rip software, it is legally “clean” as sold. Although dealers and custom installers may advise customers on the installation of ripping software, the final installation step is always done by owners who press the install-confirm button in the privacy of their own homes.
I was waiting and watching to see what the music and movie companies would say about this. But events have overtaken the issue. Imerge has now closed down.
There was no official announcement but an insider tells me:
“Imerge is owned by a US group called Nortek. Nortek filed for Chapter 22 towards the end of last year, and a couple of months ago announced a restructuring/downsizing program that involved separating itself from the businesses it owns outside of the US (that, of course, includes Imerge, which has been based in Cambridge since the company’s formation in the 1990s).
“For the past couple of months, Imerge has been attempting to negotiate a management buyout (MBO), with financial backing from a Saudi group. All concerned fully expected the deal to go through; negotiations were at an advanced stage and we were simply waiting to hear that the deal had been sealed. However, out of the blue, Nortek decided to pull the plug on negotiations and instead enter into an ‘orderly wind-down’ of Imerge.
“Right up until a few days ago, Cameron Wade, Imerge’s CEO, was working very hard trying to resurrect a deal, but it was not to be.
“I will never understand why Nortek decided to pull out of negotiations at the last minute. A strong offer was made and all indications were that it would be accepted, yet Nortek chose to close the company rather than take the deal that was on the table. From Imerge’s point of view, the order books were full, the product lineup was stronger than ever, and there were many more exciting innovations to come through 2010. The issues that have led to this sad state of affairs belong to Nortek, not Imerge; the MBO would have put Imerge’s destiny into its own hands, but it was not to be. It really is such a waste.
“Of course, Nortek may still decide to sell Imerge’s assets at a later date.”
Personally I wonder whether Nortek’s lawyers worried about what the music and movie companies might do about the ripping function on which Imerge’s business model was based. M3
Barry Fox reports on the audio industry as columnist for the British publication Hi-Fi News. His commentary appears in every issue of Multi Media Manufacturer.