1992, what a great year it was! R.E.M, a legendary group operating at the peak of their powers, released their eighth album Automatic for the People, which spawned no fewer than six hit singles. The American indie-rock band were formed in Athens, Georgia in 1979, with the iconic Michael Stipe serving as the group’s enigmatic figurehead.
Beyond its obvious commercial success, Automatic for the People was an extremely eclectic record (dealing, amongst other things, with youth suicide and the comic Andy Kaufman). It employs a musical style that stretches from pop to country folk, and then back into R.E.M’s classic brand of indie-rock muscle. It is an album that we know extremely well, having seen it go through vinyl edition, CD edition and then CD remaster. The album is produced beautifully, and is now mastered in 24-bit / 48 kHz quality. Taken on its own, the song Drive is a miniature masterpiece. It opens the album, and its sheer musical scope is well suited to remastering. So, at Qobuz we were eager to test the entire album in ‘the best available technology’, that is to say, in Studio Master 24-bit audio!
The listening procedure undergone at Qobuz is always the same. We ask our technicians to provide us with criticism regarding the audio quality of newly remastered albums, each month, and ask whether these records stand up to repeated plays. Listening is conducted through the Astell & Kern AK120 player, and headphones models such as the Philips Fidelio X1, the B & O H6, the Parrot Zik, and more. We also use PCs that are equipped with Asus Xonar Essence STX soundcards. In short, we possess a powerful artillery of devices that allow us to spend endlessly wonderful hours listening, comparing, and determining musical excellence.
Regained lightness and heightened detail
Each recording, each mastering and remastering, develops a personality of its own. Our role at Qobuz is, in principal, to detect and to ‘compare’ CD quality versions (16 bit) with 24-bit audio files. In the case of Automatic for the People, the sampling frequency has been increased still further to a 48 kHz Studio Master.
If the difference in registering dynamics between the 16-bit version and the 24-bit version was not surprising enough, then the precision of the sound is even more ostentatious. To take one example, the definition on the song Try Not to Breathe is amazing!
In CD quality the intro of the song is confused and messy, whilst the 24-bit version provides far more instrumental definition: the drumming is acute, the guitar more spatial. We were smitten at once. Listen for yourself, in 24-bit, and you are sure to come to the same conclusion!
The same can be said for the guitar intro and the transcription of Michael Stipe’s vocal take on Drive (alongside the awesome drumming, which hits harder in 24-bit). Truthfully, it is simply a more acute listen in 24-bit, this Studio Master better capturing the studio sound of R.E.M. The instruments possess a clarity; they are always detached from each another. The glacial scale of this is felt immediately on the justly famous Everybody Hurts. The song is certainly passable enough in 16-bit, it is a great song, but it is elevated to something still greater in 24-bit. It is more accurate, more balanced and, dare we say it, more ‘pure’ (a word we do not use very often here). The song is miked up with perfection, listen to its crescendos for yourself, and, like us at Qobuz, you will be conquered: no more, no less.
Automatic for the People by R.E.M, in Studio Master, keeps its generous promises: it elevates and restores a masterful recording to the standard in which it deserves to be heard.
PP Garcia for Qobuz
Twitter @ppgarcia75
