Audio News for September 12, 2006

New Technology Brings Back Historic Piano Recordings in Hi-Res Surround – The remarkable Zenph Studios software extracts every slight nuance of the oldest piano recordings – even scratchy mono 78s – and then stores and reproduces them as 10-bit MIDI files which control a computerized grand piano to recreate legendary performances in modern hi-res surround sound. On September 25th – which would have been the 74th birthday of pianist Glenn Gould – Zenph and Sony Classical will be presenting at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio a complete recorded performance in digital surround sound of Gould’s original 1955 mono taping of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The Yamaha digital grand piano used was voiced and tuned to recreate as accurately as possible the piano on which Gould made the recording over 50 years ago. The process extracts even details of keystrokes and pedal use. The multichannel SACD will be released early next year, and future releases will include selections from the recorded legacy of Rachmaninoff and other classical as well as jazz keyboard legends.

Nonesuch Fundraiser Raises $1 Million for New Homes in New Orleans – The Nonesuch benefit CD “Our New Orleans” – which featured many of the city’s best-known musicians in songs integral to their lives and expressing their feelings about the city and recent events there – raised $1 million, which the parent company, Warner Bros. Records, has donated to Habitat for Humanity International to build new homes there.  The album was made swiftly, over a period of just a month, with one-day recording sessions across the country. Nick Spitzer, who hosts NPR’s American Routes, was one of the producers, along with Ry Cooder, Steve Epstein and Hal Willner. Many involved in the CD donated their time and services.  A plan for a New Orleans Habitat Musicians’ Village was developed by Habitat for Humanity, working with Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr.

CEA Report Predicts 8% Increase in Consumer Electronics Sales for 2006 but 6% Decline 2007 – The Consumer Electronics Association report “U.S. Consumer Electronics Sales & Forecasts 2002-2007” attributes the upcoming decrease in the sales of consumer electronics to a downturn in consumer spending and a failure of new technologies to increase overall prices. Still, the value of such good shipped is expected to reach a respectable $150 billion in 2007. The area know as “digital integrators” is exploding, with customers buying more hi-def TVs, distributed audio, home automation and control, and both wired and wireless IT networking. Home IT is promised to become the largest future sales segment, according to the CEA. Large-screen flat-panel TVs continue as the top-selling item with about $22 billion sales this year. Sinking prices on all such displays is also greasing adoption by the public. You can say goodbye to analog TV in view of the upcoming “tuner mandate.” PC sales were at nearly $18 billion this year, with software at $5.3 billion. VCRs have already been bid goodbye: DVD players/recorders sales were at $2.6 billion, with $3.1 expected next year, and this includes more than a million hi-def players for the two new formats. PVRs and DBS receivers were at $2.2 billion this year, but the market in stand-along recorders is expected to decline as the facility is included in more home entertainment PCs and cable-provided set-top boxes. Separate audio components are flat at $1.3 billion this year and $1.4 next year, but speakers continue to be the big growth area.