Intrada Soundtrack Forum

Having bought some 96kHz/24-bit album downloads that Intrada mastered (Matinee sounds especially marvelous), I was wondering at what sample rate and resolution the label commonly works at for its releases from transferring to mastering.

I have no insight into Intrada's workflow for their "hi-res" releases, but I would generally attribute the improved quality to new transfers and/or the remastering process and less so on the "hi-res" nature of the files. In some cases, including Matinee, the "hi-res" files are not truly hi-res (i.e., 16-bit data simply up-quantized to 24-bit data).

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"He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once." - Robert Browning

"As long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning." - Aaron Copland

Yeah, that gets into why I asked. Digital recordings of Matinee’s era were not 24-bit as far as I know, so I was wondering if Intrada expands the resolution for mastering so as to achieve headroom or if everything is simply upsampled after the fact by whomever is offering the downloads. The latter scenario would make paying extra for the high resolution files a total waste of money.

Knowing how high-quality analog recordings are transferred and mastered would make things even more interesting.

_________________
"He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once." - Robert Browning

"As long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning." - Aaron Copland

Well, it's usually the labels that provide the files. Places like HD Tracks, Qobuz, Tidal etc. don't resample or upscale the files. When they get 16bit/44.1kHz files, that's what they offer, if they get 24bit/192kHz files, that's what they offer. That's why the files are usually the same across vendors.

I suppose (that is my guess) that Intrada sometimes upsamples from earlier digital recordings for processing, editing, noise floor etc., and then decides to release those files.