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Ultrasone Key To Critical Listening At Zenph Studios

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Franklin, TN (February 14, 2007)--Zenph Studios, creators of the software-based technology that allows classic audio recordings to be "re-performed" and re-recorded at high-resolution, will release a new recording of Glenn Gould's 1955 performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations on Sony BMG Masterworks next month. Sony BMG will release the album as a "hybrid multichannel SACD" disc.

Zenph is able to make a new recording of this classic performance via a ground-breaking technology it's developed that extracts all of the notes and nuances of a recorded piano performance and stores the data in a high-resolution digital file, which are represented in a computer as MIDI files that can then played back, in this case on Yamaha's nine-foot Disklavier Pro, a concert grand outfitted with uniquely-engineered computer hardware. Zenph recorded the "re-performance" in Toronto's Glenn Gould Studio on September 25, 2006. The performance was taped for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) before a live audience and recorded for this new Sony BMG release.

According to Zenph, the "re-performance files" captured from the original audio recordings, contain every detail of how every note in the composition was played, including pedal actions, volume, and articulations--all with millisecond timings. After assessing the character of the piano used in the original 1955 recording, Marc Wienert voiced the Yamaha Disclavier. Richard King, known for his surround-sound expertise, used the latest Sonoma workstation for the DSD recording.

According to Zenph, "We also recorded a binaural version of the playing. In this technique, two microphones are positioned in the ears of a dummy head, so that headphone playback sounds quite immersive. You'll be able to hear what Gould heard as he sat at the piano bench, an amazing experience!" Both the binaural and the surround-sound versions will be on the new hybrid SACD.

Zenph analyst Anatoly Larkin wearing his Ultrasone HFI 700 headphones

At Zenph Studios, engineers reportedly monitored every note through Ultrasone HFI 700 headphones at every stage of the complex process. Zenph president, John Q. Walker, commented, "When pure accuracy is your aim, headphones are essential. We get the best response in all frequency ranges from Ultrasone headphones. The original recordings we're listening to have multiple layers of hiss and other artifacts, but lots of nuances and performance material are slightly buried in there that we can now enable the next generation of listeners to hear. Zenph has found that headphones eliminate any kind of extra reverberation that could come from listening through monitors in a resonating room."

Additionally, thanks to its patented ULE (Ultra Low Emissions) technology, Ultrasone products have lower magnetic field emissions than any other headphones, reducing electromagnetic field radiation--an effect commonly associated with cell phone use, for example--by up to 98 percent. As a result, Ultrasone headphones are certified by the Technical Surveillance Organization and Consumer Advice Centers to have certified low magnetic field emissions.

And, according to Zenph, Ultrasone headphones can help make extended mixing, mastering, reference listening and field recording sessions more comfortable. "Our Ultrasone HFI 700s feel really good, which is important when you spend eight hours a day with them on your head," noted Anatoly Larkin, Performance Analyst, who has presided over re-performances that have transformed old recordings of masters like Alfred Cortot, Art Tatum and Gould, into these 21st Century updates.

Ultrasone headphones are available worldwide and distributed in North America by Franklin, TN-based Ultrasone of America, LLC (www.ultrasoneusa.com) or call 615-599-4719.

Zenph Studios, Inc.
www.zenph.com

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