A Conversation with David Chesky of
Chesky Records
David Chesky is a musician, record label A&R man,
composer, and audiophile. He’s always in motion -- his hands tap out rhythms, his
eyes roam the room, he twists and turns nervously when talking to you. But he’s not
the hyperkinetic kid he first appears to be. As his music is increasingly showing,
David’s a thinker -- one willing to ponder those big "midnight of the soul"
questions, such as The Agnostic’s central quandary: If there is a god, how
can we reconcile his existence with the apparently cruel and random nature of life? I
caught up with David just as he returned from LA’s AES convention.
Wes Phillips: You just got back from AES where
Chesky had a major press announcement, didn’t you?
David Chesky: Basically, we were demoing our new 6.0
discs, which have six channels of 24/96. I feel that 5.1, which we’ve inherited from
home theater, is like a hand-me-down from our "older brother" -- it’s sort
of like, here, make this fit. It’s not really designed for music.
What we did was keep the front left and right channels, as
well as the side/rear channels. We substituted the center channel and assigned it to 55
degrees left, high in the air, and the subwoofer channel we assigned to 55 degrees right,
high in the air. So what you are looking at, when you face front, is a left and right
loudspeaker about 30 degrees off your axis and then two outriggers about 55 degrees off
axis, and up high -- for height information. So it’s essentially your proscenium
reflection and it makes for a greater sense of envelopment. And all we’re asking you
to do is reposition your speakers.
It’s pretty amazing, given its simplicity.
We have a sampler coming out, taken from material on the
24/96 DADs, and then we’ll release the newest Chuck Mangione disc. We’ll also be
releasing five SACD titles from our 24/96 catalog.
[For more detail on Chesky's 6.0 process, please see below
for the article immediately following this one.]
WP: That’s exciting. Now tell me about life
as a classical composer. Tell me about The Agnostic. (Click Here to Read Review)
DC: Well, that’s the world’s most expensive
coffee coaster right now. You know, I write this stuff and I put it out there, but people
aren’t really interested. Virgil Thomson said, "America requires nothing from
its composers except they be dead." I hate to sound down, but we live in a world
that’s predicated on rewarding mediocrity, instead of a society that tries to get the
best out of people. We actually try to get the worst -- the stupider it is, the trite-er
it is, the grosser it is, the better it sells. Rappers sell ten million records and
classical composers can’t get arrested.
People want to hear stuff they’ve heard before -- they
want to review another Chopin recording. I’m about to release some symphonies and
I’ve got three more psalms I’ve written and want to record -- and I’m
starting a new oratorio. So maybe, by the time I’m ninety, people will notice
I’m out there.
Everybody I know who is a composer has to make their living
teaching, writing movie scores, or something like that. America doesn’t really reward
its composers with wealth and fame.
WP: Choral composers seem to do a little better
-- especially if they can reach that huge market of singers directly, the way John Rutter
did through Collegium Records.
DC: John Rutter is doing well, that’s for
sure. All I can do is send The Agnostic out there to orchestras -- that’s all
I can do. We live in a marketing culture, so I’ll market.
WP: Okay. So how does the market look to you as a
record label executive at a jazz/classical label?
DC: It’s really grim out there. Look at the
big artists -- it’s all crossover now, nobody’s interested in classical any
more.
WP: But jazz is still doing well?
DC: Not like it used to -- from a record
executive’s point of view, today we live in an incredibly polarized environment.
Either you’re Madonna and you sell two million or you’re not, and you sell two.
Either you’re McDonald’s or you’re broke. It’s a marketing culture --
in twenty years you’ll have an artist of the month and they’ll sell ten million
copies, next month it’s someone else’s turn.
Look at all the independents that used to be around -- King
Karol, Music Maze over on Third. They’re gone. The independent record store, the
niche market, doesn’t exist any more -- there’s just a bunch of mega-stores that
nobody can tell apart. Record stores are all like The Gap now. Welcome to the future of
Corporate America -- we’re going to be a nation of fast video-game reflexes and no
intelligence.
WP: That’s pretty grim.
DC: I see it getting worse. We no longer teach
music in the schools -- so why should we expect people to understand complex music? They
can’t and that’s not going to be reversed without a concerted effort that I
don’t see happening.
Hey, I don’t have the answers. All I can do is keep
slugging like a good fighter and hope we can change things through art. But sometimes I
feel like I’m pounding my head against the wall.
WP: So what’s next?
DC: Another group of psalms. Psalm four is
for cello and orchestra; five is for clarinet and orchestra; and six is a tone poem.
They’re called Remembrance for Victims of the Modern Holocaust -- we learned nothing
from WWII. Never again! has turned out to be a meaningless phrase and we’re just
going to continue happening until we learn empathy. That’ll be out in March or April.
Chesky Records Explains Their 6.0
Surround System
What is DVD-Audio?
The advantages of 24/96 Super Audio DVDs can be best
illustrated by comparing them to Compact Discs. CDs consist of two channels of 16-bit PCM
audio sampled at 44,100 times per second. A 16-bit sample can contain 65,536 possible
amplitude (or volume) levels. 24/96 Super Audio DVDs can contain 16-, 20-, or 24-bit PCM
audio sampled 96,000 times per second. In the case of 24-bit audio, the samples can
contain 16,777,216 possible amplitude levels!
You’ll hear more soundstage depth, textures within the
music will be more apparent, greater large and small scale dynamic contrasts will add more
excitement, and thanks to the more than doubling of the sampling rate to 96kHz, you will
experience effortless high-frequency extension and purity.
What are Chesky Super DVD-Audio 6.0 Full Range
Multichannel Recordings?
5.1 surround sound was designed for video.We feel at Chesky
Records that 5.1 is not the right format to extract all the music and information that
multi-channel DVD-Audio has to offer. Chesky 6.0 full-range multi-channel was designed to
put you, the listener, in the performance space.
How do we do this?
 Well, 5.1 DVD-Audio actually
has the capability of delivering six full range channels of music. We reassign the Center
Channel (Channel 5) to the left 55° speaker and the Subwoofer LFE Channel (Channel 6) to
the right 55° speaker (see diagram). In a concert hall, proscenium reflections dominant
hall ambience, and when you take advantage of our 6.0 surround, the 55° speakers will
recreate those spatial cues in your listening room.
We also suggest that the rear speakers be placed 135° to
145° in the rear since most real-world listening rooms cannot fit the 110° rear
placement suggested in 5.1.
Channel assignments:
- Channel 1 left front speaker
- Channel 2 right front speaker
- Channel 3 left rear speaker (135-145 degrees)
- Channel 4 right rear speaker (135-145 degrees)
- Channel 5 left side 55 degree speaker (this was the center
channel)
- Channel 6 right side 55 degree speaker (this was the
subwoofer channel)
For Best Performance:
- All speakers must equidistant from the listener.
- Experiment with raising the side 55° speakers to a height
of 3 to 7 feet.
- You can experiment with the placement of the rear speakers
as well. We recommend 135° to 145°, but 110° to 145° will offer acceptable
results. This is obviously room-dependent, and remember to keep all the speakers an
equal distance from the listener.
6.0 to 5.1 Compatibility
If you wish to play this recording on a 5.1 system, you can
disconnect the Center Channel (Channel 5) and Subwoofer Channel (Channel 6). This will
result in a 4.0 system that will still sound very good. You can also play the recording in
5.1 mode without disconnecting Channel 5 and 6 and still the sound will be acceptable.
Lastly, you can play this recording in 2-Channel stereo by simply playing it in the stereo
mode.
Setting the Channel Playback Levels
At the end of this disc you will find a setup test tone of
filtered pink noise (courtesy of Tom Holman and TMH Labs) that you can use to equalize the
output of all your channels. Some professional recording studios use 85dB "C"
weighted, while many film labs prefer to use 83dB "C" weighted. For home
use, we recommend using a Sound Pressure Meter set to 78dB "C" weighted and
adjust your preamp so all the channels are at the same volume.
Now sit back and enjoy Chesky Records 6.0 Super DVD Audio
concert hall realism!
To learn more about Chesky Records,
visit their website at www.chesky.com.
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