Producer T Bone Burnett announces new analogue disc format and promises “the first breakthrough in analogue sound reproduction in more than 70 years”

 

I don't think it's snake oil, but I think it does not do anything good.
What special shall it do anyways?

 

So it's just like vinyl... but lacquer?

 

Reads like an April Fool's joke. But there might be something to it, keep an eye on it. The data is too thin.


T Bone Burnett has developed a new analog audio format he’s calling Ionic Originals. Bob Dylan is the first test subject.

Bob Dylan has re-recorded some of his classic songs using the technology, but they’re not available to the public yet. According to the press release, the producer is hoping to “reset the valuation for recorded music.”

The Ionic Originals format features “lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music.” T Bone Burnett’s development is the first major move in analog music reproduction in more than 70 years as vinyl became the standard.

“An Ionic Original is the pinnacle of recorded sound,” the press release asserts. “It is archival quality. It is future-proof and it is one of one. Not only is an Ionic Original the equivalent of a painting, it is a painting. It is lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This painting, however, has the additional quality of containing that music, which can be heard by putting a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.”

“When describing the quality that raises analog sound above digital sound, the word ‘warmth’ is often used. Analog sound has more depth, more harmonic complexity, more resonance, and better imaging. Analog has more feel, more character, more touch. Digital sound is frozen. Analog sound is alive.”

T Bone Burnett is also launching a new company called NeoFidelity, Inc. The company will serve as a new platform for the distribution of Ionic Originals.


While the new technology certainly is interesting, there’s no indication for how the end consumer is supposed to play these recordings. There’s also no mention of how much the Ionic Original will cost at retail.

T Bone Burnett has long been an advocate for analog audio. He supported a high-resolution format called Code in 2008 – suitable for DVD players of the time. John Mellencamp’s Life, Death, Love, and Freedom was released in Code in 2008.

www.digitalmusicnews.com/2022/04/28/t-bone-burnett-ionic-originals-audio-format/

 

$$$ Aluminum disc? Do we need new stylus/cartridges? New turntable? $$$

 

MUSIC
New Analog Disc Music Medium Combining CD + Vinyl Coming Quickly


This week, music producer T Bone Burnett (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Counting Crows, O Brother, The place Are Thou?) introduced a brand new analog disc medium for music he is developed known as “Ionic Originals.”

And he promised the expertise transcends the sound high quality of CDs and vinyl. To not point out digital streaming and different mediums, as Variety reported.

In a photograph supplied to press, a prototype disc held up by Burnett seems to be very like a silvery vinyl document. That is smart as a result of the medium is manufactured by portray lacquer onto an aluminum disc, the music then etched on it in a spiral.

To wit, it seems like the method combines present vinyl manufacturing with the manufacturing of steel stampers for vinyl data. Stampers are often used as “masters” for additional vinyl duplication, and so they do not typically attain the fingers of listeners since they are not made in giant numbers. (Common LPs include PVC [polyvinyl chloride] plastic with no steel parts. Normal compact discs include polycarbonate plastic with a steel layer, often aluminum.)

Burnett positioned Ionic Originals as one-of-a-kind objects. And whereas the concept of a consumer-level steel vinyl disc medium is not new, it might nonetheless be the “first breakthrough in analog sound replica in additional than 70 years” if profitable, Burnett claims.

Producer T Bone Burnett exhibits off his new Iconic Originals music disc expertise in {a photograph} supplied to press in April 2022.

T Bone Burnett with the disc. (Photograph by Jason Myers)
“An Ionic Unique is the top of recorded sound,” he continues. “It’s archival high quality. It’s future-proof. It’s one in all one. Not solely is an Ionic Unique the equal of a portray, it is a portray.”

The producer provides, “This portray, nevertheless, has the extra high quality of containing that music, which may be heard by placing a stylus into the spiral.”

Burnett already has a significant artist onboard for the primary Ionic Originals launch. Based on Pitchfork, the producer just lately labored with Bob Dylan, re-recording a few of his traditional materials to emerge as the primary Ionic Unique. (No launch date has but emerged.)

Burnett has additionally began an organization known as NeoFidelity Inc. to deal with the distribution of the discs. The producer, who’s been engaged on the undertaking for a number of years, hopes to “reset the valuation for recorded music” that some really feel has slid in the course of the streaming period.

From the Ionic Originals press launch:

An Ionic Unique is the top of recorded sound. It’s archival high quality. It’s future proof. It’s one in all one. Not solely is an Ionic Unique the equal of a portray, it’s a portray. It’s lacquer painted onto an aluminum disc, with a spiral etched into it by music. This portray, nevertheless, has the extra high quality of containing that music, which may be heard by placing a stylus into the spiral and spinning it.

When describing the standard that raises analogue sound above digital sound, the phrase ‘heat’ is usually used. Analogue sound has extra depth, extra harmonic complexity, extra resonance, higher imaging. Analogue has extra really feel, extra character, extra contact. Digital sound is frozen. Analogue sound is alive.

https://cobiki.com/new-analog-disc-music-medium-combining-cd-vinyl-coming-quickly/

 

I was hoping something like this would happen and if it does and delivers on the technical side of things, then this could be big. Will probably cost a lot.
This is tech is what blu rays did for movies, a high quality medium.

 

The car maker Kia created the super synth Movement so why wouldn't they want to incorporate T-Bones thing?

 

Shit, sounds like a sect...

Wow, the music is an extra! Way to go, yaiii

I can't...

 

Now, I'm all for innovation and at least trying new shit out. There have been plenty of bad "innovation" though, like say MQA or Pono. But there are some red flags here.

"Analog sound has more depth, more harmonic complexity, more resonance, and better imaging."

What does "depth" mean here, or "resonance"?

"Imaging" might mean many things but if we're talking about stereo separation then that's bullshieeet. I can add "harmonic complexity" to any signal by just saturating it, right?

What I'm seeing is basically vinyl with a different material, one that might not be compatible with current styli and such.

 

That's the thing. They don't even try to explain why is any good.
This is all-out snob-elitisim so they don't need to.
It's like when they ask the horsepower of a Rolls Royce. They say "enough" (no joke)

OMG, Bob Dylan.... Bobby, the times 'ain changing indeed, this time you changed

 

See, "there's sound all over them"!

 

I have tens of thousands of vinyls, bought them in my entire life, and they occupy whole racks along the walls: it is still shocking to me to think that all that music can be played now just by pressing play on Tidal. I wonder how a physical format could be useful now in 2022, as good as the sound quality, I would find it totally inconvenient to buy, use and store.
I don't know: that aluminum disc doesn't seem like a good idea, but maybe I'm wrong


[... Bob Dylan will be the first to use the new Ionic Originals format ...]

Bob Dylan is 80 years old and his ears have endured thousands of turbosound megawatts concerts, probably his hearing does not perceive more than 5khz

 

If the music is Digitally recorded or processed,
then this cannot represent any improvement..

Just as you cannot improve an mp3,
other than reproducing it through what.. tubes?

Quality in audio means Fidelity,
adding saturation, or harmonic/phase non linearities to a former digital/mp3 signal doesn't mean the underlying Quality of Audio increases.

So unless they also invent a completely new,
non-digital way of capturing and processing audio signals, along with a non digital playback system,
which go beyond of what actual digital Audio, DACs/ADCs and totl amplifier designs are capable of delivering..

I'd say is BS.

We know nothing about it yet ofc,
so there's always room for the extraordinary/impossible to happen..

But as we stand I say this is just fake and misguided, if not a dishonest scam,
just like MQA, Morphic Fields, Synergistic Audio, and golden or oxygen-free wires before..

 

Graphene lacquer?

 

Are they actually going to track directly to this format? Because if not you're still hearing either tape or digital. So, who cares.

 

Who cares? The people who think that a 2m run of cable from turntable to amplifier makes a world of difference, of course!

 

This is how you make money today ...! A copy of the original with a new fresh paint.
So not new under the sun. again a marketing ploy to get to the people money.

 

oh look its a laser d.. vin.. a laser vinyl disk :D