Here's one confirmed to to have peak extend - the Ricky Skaggs & Friends "Sing The Songs Of Bill Monroe". You lose about 2db (DR 10 down to DR8) without HDCD decoding. Note I was only able to check the 2002 issue on the Lyric Street Label. It was a re-issue of the first version of the comp from 2000, under the title "Big Mon". Both are listed as HDCD's so the 2000 one is likely identical, but I can't say for sure.
I just checked a Joni Mitchel title that had Peak Extension Enabled, but when I decoded it (+6 off) it was the same as a regular rip. When I decoded it with +6 'on' compression was added changing the DR levels lower
Sure enough, when I open a track from Dreaming Neon Black, "The Fault of the Flesh" in Audition the waveform shows basically a brick wall: But here's what it looks like in Foobar:
Converted that same track using foobar to a new folder. Check it out in Audition now: Why doesn't every CD have this?
The Motley Crue ones are scattershot. They were put out in 1999 as HDCD's (with peak extension on some titles, including this one) and then went out of print and were re-issued in 2003 but not as HDCD's. The 2003 re-issues had the same mastering that you needed HDCD decoding to get from the 1999 issues. I got into the weeds with these Crue remasters a few years back and seem to remember that there were some anomalies, but that's the basic story.
Interesting, thank you. I was pretty surprised that a CD in 2017 had this feature, but it makes sense if it's essentially a repackaged 1999 release. On one hand this is cool and amazing. On the other hand, now I know that they have the technology to offer the best of both worlds - brickwalling because whatever reasons and a dynamic mastering for those who care enough to have the hardware/software to hear it - but they aren't using it.
It allows for slightly more dynamic range compared to not using HDCD at all. The benefit is arguably questionable though.
A number of J-Pop albums and singles and Japanese anime soundtracks do utilize HDCD Peak Extend. * Maaya Sakamoto - Hemisphere single and Yuunagi Loop album * Akino (member of Bless4) - Sousei no Aquarion and Go Tight singles * Yoko Kanno - Sousei no Aquarion Original Soundtrack 1 and 2 Another weird one I noticed is that the Ace Combat Zero soundtrack utilize Peak Extend only on several tracks and even at different passages in the music. Has anyone come across something like that?
It may allow for that, but is there a single HDCD release that utilized this to the extent that the CD had more dynamic range than was possible with standard CD encoding? To even need that kind of room, I imagine it would need to be classical. For the rock or pop titles that the format was mostly used on, it isn't like the potential dynamic range of CD was a bottleneck.
I'm at work so I can't remember the name of it but it's an HDCD plugin for foobar. Should be easy to find.
Yeah I saw a couple of gaps as well. Looks like it was last updated back in April 2018. I would think that it's probably limited to what the person has or has access to.
to the HDCD experts here.... True or False: From @PyroMessiah 's 2 albums posted, only "Girls, Girls, Girls" and "Nona" are worth ripping to 24bit because these are the only 2 tracks which have ( PeakExtension=Enabled ) AND ( a Non-Zero Min Gain value )
Tracks with peak extend need to be decoded. All of the tracks have peak extend so all of the tracks on the album should be decoded. The rule is that if an album has peak extend or gain then you should decode. You should also decode all tracks on the album because decoding will change the level and sound of the track. If you just decode a single track on the album and leave the rest the one track is going to sound different than the rest of the album. You want every track on the album to go through the same decoding so the sound of the whole album holds together. As an experiment, find a HDCD track that has no gain and no peak extend. Listen to that track with decoding and without decoding. You may hear a slight or subtle difference between the decoded and undecoded versions. The HDCD software decoder can alter the sound even if there is nothing to decode. So if any track on an album needs decoding then you should decode the entire album so that the entire album maintains the same processing and sound.
I have this cd by Swedish band Acid House Kings that drove my NAD dvd player nuts. I no longer have that player but it played sacd, dvda and hdcd etc. Whenever I played that cd, it lit up the hdcd light randomly during tracks and I heard volume changes. Funny thing was, that my rotel cd player I had before the NAD just played it as an hdcd troughout. Maybe I should try and play it with the Oppo I have now, see what happens
thank you @Ham Sandwich . that clarifies things. Good point on treating tracks equally for album listening consistency. Also, I did not realize there could be an audible impact of HDCD without a Gain adjustment; good to know it's indeed possible (ie: PeakExtension=Enabled alone, without any Gain adjustment, is enough to warrant 24bit extraction)
