Creating Hypnosis Music part 2 surround sound

Digital technology, changing formats and DTS sound

Formats, formats, formats…

In a distant galaxy long, long ago (ok I made that bit up!) cassette tapes first appeared and we got very excited by this new portable format. The first tape player I owned was a mono Sony machine on which I proudly played my copy of Santana 3 pre-recorded cassette! Back then I had no proper conception of tape hiss and true hi-fi sound quality! Later in the 1980s we swapped our old vinyl records for CDs which began to appear in stores as thousands of us bought our first CD which for many, including me ,was “Brothers in Arms” by Dire Straits. The rest is history as now CDs have taken over as the primary listening format for many people, with mini disc also sneaking into the public domain. Interestingly my wife bought me a mini disc player some time ago and I was initially somewhat apprehensive about this new technology until I realised that its flexibility made it a really useful tool in recording. Of course these days Sony makes a tiny portable player, which with a good mic will produce great results.
Of course the more cynical among us will also argue that the development of all these formats is merely a ploy to make the public buy the same products over and over again! Currently we also have the SACD format and other hybrid formats all seeking to captivate our attention! My personal bet is that in forthcoming years we will move to multi sound entertainment systems and for this reason Human Alchemy is now exploring creating surround sound audio products.

Mastering Human Alchemy CDs

All the CDs in the Human Alchemy catalogue are mastered using the latest digital technology. As an avid audio fan I am naturally always exploring even better ways to improve the final sound. Recently I acquired an Apogee Mini Me for use in the studio to produce even better sounding final mixes. This unit is a very high end “AD converter” (as used in the “Matrix Revolutions” movie) and will ensure that the analogue signal is converted to a digital medium before it reaches the recording medium, or, in the language of the layman, it just sounds way better to the human ear! (See www.apogeedigital.com/products/minimp.php) My biggest criticism of NLP and hypnosis audio products that I have purchased over the years, is the often dreadful sound quality and poor mixes. Some tape sets even have great material, but this is spoilt as the listener struggles with dreadful background noise and tape hiss! There really is no excuse for this with today’s technology!

DTS sounds very cool…
Another new innovation in recent times is DTS sound. Chances are you will have heard this sound format while attending many Hollywood blockbuster films. DTS sound is now available in the home audio format and Human Alchemy has begun to explore using a hybrid version of DTS to create surround sound products never previously available! However I hereby issue you with a warning that you will need a DTS decoder in order to play such CD/DVDs, and you may never return to stereo once you hear surround sound (see www.dtstech.com/ for more info on DTS sound) Before you read on - a message for the guys - you may discover that your marriage is in extreme danger as you attempt to convey to your wife the benefits of adding another 2 – 5 speakers in the living room, necessary for this new stage in sound evolution!
In order to produce DTS discs you need the appropriate software. I recommend the excellent software by Surcode (see www.surcode.com) to encode to DTS surround sound. DTS sound is also currently found mostly on DVD soundtracks, but I am convinced that DTS and surround sound formats will find their way into other audio applications, as the listener can become literally “bathed in sound” whilst listening…