Studio Monitor

GIANT STEPS: Following the path of DVD Video's "coming of age" (Billboard, Aug. 18), DVD-Audio (a similarly giant leap ahead of compact disc as DVD-Video is to VHS) is increasing in visibility and recognition. Offering 5.1-channel surround sound at 24-bit/96kHz resolution and additional content, DVD-Audio is an experience that, far more often than not, wins new adherents upon first listen. Similarly, the Super Audio CD (SACD), a Sony/Philips-developed format, is offering multichannel mixes from the vast Sony catalog.

Against the backdrop of these emerging formats, one New York City facility is finding that DVD-Video is indeed laying the groundwork for its music-specific counterpart. Sterling Sound, one of the world's best-known mastering facilities, is well into the second phase of a move from its Midtown location to its new, 25,000-square-foot home on the top floor of the Chelsea Market, located in a former factory on Ninth Avenue.

Sterling's new home has been buzzing for more than a year. Mastering engineer Ted Jensen has been at work in his new suite since February 2000. (Phase Two of construction is to be completed in November, and the entire facility relocated from 1790 Broadway by January.) For Jensen, mastering for DVD-Audio has accounted for less of his work schedule than expected, but music projects for DVD-Video have provided an unexpected substitute as the format's audio counterpart and SACD grow in stature.

"DVD-Audio hasn't quite blossomed the way we originally thought," Jensen acknowledges, "but what has stepped in [in its place] is a lot of DVD-Video stuff. A lot of people are mastering for music videos and things like that, so that's caught on. I've done far more of those than I have DVD-Audios."

Among the DVD-Video titles Jensen has worked on are Bon Jovi's The Crush Tour, The Corrs' Live at the Royal Albert Hall, Hootie and the Blowfish's Summer Camp With Trucks, and video collections by Brandy and Tori Amos. Jensen's multichannel projects for DVD-Audio release include Metallica's 1991 eponymous set and Pat Metheny's Imaginary Day, both available now, while Grover Washington Jr.'s Winelight, No Secrets by Carly Simon, and the Eagles' Hotel California are slated for the format. On the multichannel SACD front, Jensen mastered 52nd Street and The Stranger by Billy Joel and James Taylor's Hourglass, all released July 17.

Jensen says that his new suite is better suited for surround monitoring, in part simply because it is larger. "We didn't have room for the full-size speakers in the rear," he recalls, "so we had to step down a model with the B&Ws in the back. When we got here, I could see what everybody was talking about [when they say] it's best to have matched speakers. Every room has its compromises but I think it works quite well. Our design intent was that it would work well for surround and for stereo, and it's done just that."

He further explains that surround projects now account for 20%-25% of his schedule. "I had quite a string for a while, then it died off. Now it seems to be picking up again. Warner is carrying the flag for DVD-Audio, and they're going to have to keep priming the pump. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of that."

Jensen's room is built around Sequoia 24/96 and Sonic Solutions 24/96 HD workstations and a Muth Audio CM 5000 analog console. In addition to the Weiss and Z-Systems digital processing gear brought from 1790 Broadway, he has added a TC Electronic System 6000 multichannel processor and analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters by Prism Sound and dB Technologies.

With hardware and software in place, Jensen reports that the main task now is getting familiar with the multichannel realm itself. "You have no real feedback loop, as it were," he explains. "With a stereo project, you've been doing it for so long you know how the room relates to the outside world. But with the surround stuff, it's very difficult to take it outside and see exactly what you're going to get. We have a little system in the lounge here, which helps a bit, but it is difficult to get a feel for what it is going to do when you put it on a big home theater. So for us, getting the monitor system together and getting a feel for how it is going to relate was a challenge."