A few months ago, I received a phone call from Dr. John Q. Walker, the Chairman and founder of Zenph Sound Innovations, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, a company that has developed important, new music technologies and a line of award-winning recordings of classic performances. I had heard of the work that Zenph was doing in the area of "re-performances" of famous pianists and their recordings. I had even heard the Gould recordings and was thrilled at the sonic quality and interpretations of his 1955 Goldberg Variations. Zenph Sound Innovations has received rave reviews of their Glenn Gould and Art Tatum releases on Sony Masterworks and I was well aware of their work.

It was a welcome surprise to find that John was aware of my audiophile label AIX Records and iTrax.com. He wanted to know if I would be interested in releasing the latest project from Zenph, the re-performance of "Rachmaninoff plays Rachmaninoff" in any format other than standard definition compact disc. Sony Masterworks has limited their release to the CD version, which had received rave reviews from Stereophile and The Absolute Sound, but were not going to issue a high definition disc. They had agreed to let Zenph partner with iTrax.com for the HD Surround tracks. Very good news for those of us that are addicted to high definition sound and surround mixes.

Of course, I was thrilled at the chance to partner with Sony Masterworks and Zenph, and become the home of this important recording…in HD Surround!

So what exactly is a re-performance? This is the explanation provided on the Zenph website:

"Author Kevin Bazzana refers to our process as a “live realization of the original interpretation.” Zenph(R) Studios takes audio recordings and turns them back into live performances, precisely replicating what was originally recorded. Our software-based process extracts every musical nuance of a recorded performance, and stores the data in a high-resolution digital file. These re-performance files contain the details of how every note in the composition was played, including pedal actions, volume, and articulations – all with millisecond timings.

These re-performance files can then be played back on real acoustic pianos fitted with sophisticated computers and hardware, letting the listener “sit in the room” as if he or she were there when the original recording was made. Most importantly, the re-performance can be recorded afresh, using the latest microphones and recording techniques, to modernize monophonic or poor-quality recordings of beloved performances.

Important to this process is the use of high-resolution data. Those familiar with the MIDI specification (now more than 25 years old) may know that regular MIDI isn’t really sufficient for capturing and replicating fine nuance. It’s like the difference between regular TV and high-definition TV. The high-resolution specs we’re using vary among instruments, but all offer 10 bits of data to preserve the velocity of each key (compared to 7 bits in regular MIDI), as well as detailed information about the key and pedal positioning.

We feel the word “re-performance” summarizes this technique perfectly."

The ability to convert older recordings with limited fidelity into high-resolution re-performance data, and then to newly record them with state-of-the-art audio equipment AND to deliver them in full HD surround to music consumers is a transformative event in the history of recordings.

I've been fortunate to be able to compare the Rachmaninoff tracks played from the standard-resolution CD and from the HD surround files here in my studio. While the sonic quality of the CD is absolutely first class and up to the full capabilities of that format, the clarity and sense of spaciousness offered by HD surround offers a completely different perspective.

The addition of Zenph Sound Innovations' "Rachmaninoff Plays Rachmaninoff" to iTrax.com is a huge step forward for those seeking REAL HD recordings and for the future of our site. I'm extremely happy to be able to feature this album in our iTrax.com catalog and I look forward to adding new items as they become available. Thanks John for believing in iTrax.com!