#33bowls

[33bowls]

A temporary dry spell of MQA availability

So far, Tidal streaming has managed to piss off everyone. MQA fans who subscribed to Tidal for the superior sonics of MQA are dismayed. Haters are hating that MAX files are actually just munged MQA masters. Artists are annoyed that Tidal is defacing their art.

Here is a modest proposal that would appease much of that anger:

Instead of removing tags, altering metadata, truncating from 24 to 16 bits and down-sampling 48k masters to 44.1k, just remove tags but leave the sample rate and bits intact, relabel as MAX. That way haters who do not have MQA DACs would not know any different, and MQA fans will still be able to enjoy the sonic benefits of full MQA decoding.

That is not likely going to happen, but don’t panic about the new management of Tidal being short-sighted boneheads. There is a new, high resolution, streaming service being built right from the ground up by some of the original Tidal staff, to be announced by Lenbrook, that is going to be really really good, and make the once great Tidal (and Qobuz) irrelevant.

In the interim, you can purchase for your collection, MQA files of 33 Bowls original heavy metal chill music at Bandcamp, with a special offer if you read the fine print.

[scythedelic]

"33bowls_morning" by #33bowls

[enfermagem40graus-blog]

meditação

https://soundcloud.com/33bowls/33bowls-morning?in=33bowls/sets/33bowls

O ser existe por si mesmo é o bem, o mal é a negação ao ser, e só aparece na ausência do bem. não é criação de Deus é criado na mente e no coração humano, G-6-5,Mt,15-19.

[singingbowlsounds]

33bowls Tibetan Singing Bowls

33bowls Tibetan Singing Bowls

[amz_corss_sell asin=”B002R1MRLA”]

[jrwesner]

31 minute track of 33 harmonized antique metal Tibetan Singing Bowls. Live, no overdubbing, no compression, no limiting. Just real stereo. Info and details at http://33bowls.com/ High Resolution Tibetan Singing Bowl recordings for relaxation, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, massage, holotropic states, natural endorphins, and just chilling.

[33bowls]

MQA FAQ

As haters, trolls, and click-baiters seem to be coming out of the wood-works, there are also many MQA supporters debunking the outrageous, chaotic, venomous vernacular of them.

There is nothing inherently controversial about a better way to do things. MQA is designed to co-exist with and enhance existing formats. MQA does not threaten the very existence of existing formats.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/683913015793451008/mqa-is-not-controversial

The spectacular, transparent sonics of MQA can be enjoyed, to varying degrees, by all; as MQA is backwards compatible, can be played on pretty well any currently available DAC, and does not require a specialized decoder to playback MQA encoded music files. Although to enjoy the full benefit, there are numerous MQA DACs available, at many price points.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/683740529310220288/the-spectacular-sonics-of-mqa

Mediocrity is for the mediocre. It’s weird, in audio and music, there are often antagonistic generalizing armchair experts insisting on mediocrity for all.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/704329087634767872/but-can-the-average-listener-hear-the-difference

For the armchair experts who know it all and must have a wall of platinum records and a shelf full of Grammys to show for their self proclaimed expertise about music and audio:

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/698422618395754496/bob-stuart-has-more-street-cred-than-you

It’s about time and space.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/696600979418873856/mqa-timing-and-lucidity

Lossless is not just bit perfect digital representation of sampled bits.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/689186147789881344/mqa-is-a-truly-lossless-audibly-transparent

MQA was developed based on the neuroscience of how we hear.

https://www.tumblr.com/33bowls/684648453109907456/neurobiology-hearing-data-information-and-mqa

Edit addendum 2024:

While Tidal was at one time the choice for music streaming, it is under hew management who are basically, short sighted boneheads, and can no longer be recommended for new accounts.  There is a new, high resolution, streaming service built right from the ground up by some of the original Tidal staff, to be announced by Lenbrook. For now, Apple or even Amazon are choices for redbook CD quality streaming, but be aware the both of them do not really care about the music, as their music streaming services are basically loss leaders to keep customers in the Apple and Amazon ecosystems.

[33bowls]

The spectacular sonics of MQA

If you are young enough to remember the purely analog days of LPs and tapes, you may recall the enjoyment level, the engagement, the sonics. It was and is more than just the cover art on the 12 inch jackets. While indeed flawed, on a decent system those analog mediums provided an emotional connection to the music, the sound was smoother, with a relaxed ease yet more real in ways, it did not bite with a glare or edge or sizzle that we have become accustomed to as “clarity” and “detail” with digital, and often have compensated for in voicing our listening systems, consciously or unconsciously.

MQA brings that same emotionally connected, detailed yet relaxed ease without the flaws of analog. No wow and flutter; no clicks or pops from dust in the grooves, no skipping grooves from footsteps, no scrape flutter or tape hiss.

I was a bit skeptical about MQA at first, but as I researched, and listened ("deep dive" has unfortunately become a meaningless cliche recently), I realized that MQA is not just another format, but a true systemic paradigm shift.

I continue to be boggled by two things: how spectacularly good by any standard MQA is; and how there could possibly be nay sayers or detractors. While I make no claims to be on the level with the master of the mastering world Bob Ludwig, I whole-heartedly concur with his assessment, appreciation and adoption of MQA. It really does take you there, elegantly and efficiently. My experience is similar to that of recording engineer Peter McGrath, who was blown away when he first heard his "hi-res" recordings rendered, remastered, de-blurred in MQA. So was I.

Having been there playing, recording, and mastering, I do have a clear idea of what antique metal Tibetan Singing Bowls sound like. I was there and you were not.

The 24/96 version sounds better than the downsampled 44.1/16 version for general release. However, the MQA version is just plain WOW. As in, oh wow, that is what the sound and feel of the singing bowls was in the room when I recorded them. The original was good enough to fool casual listeners in the next room, however MQA is on a completely new level. The original is not even close to the MQA re-master. You name it, the music breathes, presence without edge, nuances and textures without fuzz, imaging, soundstaging, a solid visceral "you are there" sense of the musical instruments. So I will say politely to those who claim that CD, or "hi-res" PCM digital is "as good" as MQA:

You have no idea. Not even close. I was there and you were not.

https://33bowls.com/mqa

[scythedelic]

"33bowls_rain" by #33bowls

[scythedelic]

"Tibetan Singing Bowls Breathe" by #33bowls

[33bowls]

Feline Wisdom

The resident Temple Cats show their approval of 33 Bowls heavy metal chill music remastered in stunning MQA.

[33bowls]

Heavy Metal Chill Music

33 Bowls is often categorized as “New Age” music, but really, it goes back way further in time than that.

This all started centuries or even millennia ago, long before the industrial age, when there was no entertainment industry, when everything was 100% organic.

This original heavy metal music was not just background music at ancient temples, nor entertainment for royalty; it appears that brain/mind entrainment into deeper states, and dis-entrainment into the "state of no state" facilitated by the complex, rich, textured harmonics and sub-harmonic beats was intentional. It is quite likely that exploration of the resulting states and non-states was a facet of the spiritual, for lack of better words, training and education; that the sounds acted as guides or stepping stones to making non-ordinary states become more ordinary, at least to those who practiced.

Much, maybe most music is about communicating a message of sorts, usually emotional, the dance of the mating ritual in various permutations, we know the stories. 33 Bowls does not directly do that, the intention is holding the space to facilitate and enhance whatever is present. What it is doing is providing a coherent, yet complex natural “signal” for the ears/ brain/mind/heart/CNS to entrain to and “drop” into a more relaxed, lower stress state of being.

Our ears are not passive; they are active participants in sound, interacting with the environment in a way which leads to brain/mind entrainment with what we hear, whether it is traditional shamanic drumming, pounding deep house mixes at raves and festivals, binaural beats, the slow subharmonics of singing bowls, the liquid quality of piano strings resonating with each other, the nuances of jazz bass, or the breath and heartbeat of someone close to us.

And as we, through our ancestors, have heard sounds of natural, acoustic instruments for centuries or even millennia, there is something innately familiar, even sacred, about the sound of these and other antique musical instruments.

Here and now, the resident temple cats certainly approve.

[33bowls]

What is MQA?

MQA is systemic paradigm shift rather than just incremental evolution in digital audio recording, mastering, archiving, and distribution. MQA is indeed more than just another standard or format for digital audio: it is an efficient, non-brickwall sampling, backwards compatible, end to end verifiable, matching conjugate filtering system with low modulation noise, low time smear, and sufficiently high time and amplitude resolution to be truly transparent.

https://33bowls.com/mqa_what.html

LIsten:

https://tidal.com/browse/track/51462614

[33bowls]

Gratitude

Deep Gratitude to countless generations of Artisans who listened to the Grand Muse; who practiced, even mastered the Art of expressing the resonance and coherence of the Universal Aum; who crafted these and other Singing Bowls.   Your memory lives on.

[33bowls]

If Bunnies were Bowls: a microphone's eye view

Sitting on a wooden floor under a Grand Piano, the Tibetan Bowls "talk" to each other and the Piano; resonate with and throughout the room.

Visit 33bowls for sounds to accompany the visuals.

[33bowls]

100% Organic Heavy Metal: Tibetan Singing Bowls

The recording and editing of the first release, titled "33 Bowls", is complete. Cover Art is being finalized. "33 Bowls" will contain two extended tracks: 1) a 27 minute track titled "Morning" which is "just" Bowls with a few birds chirping in the background for the first few minutes, as the recording was done at the crack of Dawn; and 2) a 45 minute track titled "Rain" which has a somewhat "softer" sound and a gentle background of tropical rain, also a birdsong in the beginning. The Bowls, of course, were inside and did not fill up with tropical rainwater. The recordings were done with custom microphones, cables, preamplifiers, carbon fiber isolation shelves, and high resolution analog to digital converters. There are no electronic tricks or artifices, hence they are not "perfect" but quite "real". There are thirty three Tibetan Singing Bowls in the recordings, just not all played simultaneously. Announcement of the release via iTunes, Amazon, and direct purchase will be forthcoming. In the meantime, enjoy the samples. Comments, feedback, suggestions, requests are all welcomed.

Update for direct visits: mp3 & CD versions are available; links at http://33bowls.com