The latest album by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Mojo, will be released on June 29 on audio Blu-ray, two weeks after the CD. The BD will contain all 15 tracks from Mojo in high-resolution stereo LPCM (at 24 bits and 48kHz), and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround. It is an audio-only disc, with basic navigation and song information displayed on screen; a screensaver switches to non-static images of the cover art 30 seconds after each song begins.
Note that the Amazon page erroneously lists this title as DVD-Audio, but the logo on the cover denotes that this is actually a BD.
The track listing is as follows:
Jefferson Jericho Blues
First Flash Of Freedom
Running Man's Bible
The Trip To Pirate's Cove
Candy
No Reason To Cry
I Should Have Known It
U.S. 41
Takin' My Time
Let Yourself Go
Don't Pull Me Over
Lover's Touch
High In The Morning
Something Good Coming
Good Enough
It must be noted that Tom Petty is an ardent supporter of Blu-ray for music. In an interview with Sound and Vision Magazine, he said that Blu-ray is "the closest you can get to sitting in the control room. I don't know how many people it will immediately appeal to, but more and more people are going to come this way." He considered that "to disregard the hi-fi end of what we do is wrong."
From the album production notes
Some time in the last few years Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers took a left turn. Maybe it was when Petty woke up in the night with the idea of reuniting his first band, Mudcrutch, to cut the album they never got a chance to make back in the early 70's. Maybe it was when the Heartbreakers assembled the mammoth multi-disc The Live Anthology, which detailed thirty years of concerts. Maybe it was when they gave all their home movies, outtakes and live footage to director Peter Bogdanovich to create the Grammy-winning four-hour career documentary Runnin Down A Dream. There have been side projects and experiments since the band last went into the studio to cut a new Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album.
With Mojo, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have taken their recent freedom and experimentation to heart. They have gone off the reservation and all signs indicate they aren't coming back.
The first thing that hits you about Mojo is that the spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions has carried on with the Heartbreakers. This is the sound of a band playing together in a room, not a studio - facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time.
Tom Petty says, "With this album, I want to show other people what I hear with the band. Mojo is where the band lives when it's playing for itself."
As for the songs, Mojo showcases a wide variety of American music from rock 'n' roll to country and both electric and acoustic blues. And then there are the images in Petty's lyrics which slip in on the melodies and set up a home in your head: The barefoot girl in the high grass chewing on a stick of sugar cane, the run-in with the law that begins when a carload of buddies decide to party with the motel maids, and the hilariously audacious idea of opening an album with an electric blues rocker about Thomas Jefferson's love affair with Sally Hemings. Petty would probably chuck a rock at anyone who called him a poet, but he sure is a southern writer of humor and sensitivity.
Mojo has juice and guts but it also has some sweet balladry for the slow dancers and even a wacked-out reggae number that is unlike anything that the Heartbreakers have done before. It's the kind of album nobody's supposed to be able to make anymore. It got here just in time.
The producer's note informs that the 48K, 24-bit audio on this disc has 256 times more resolution than a CD, providing greater detail and reproducing the music's full dynamic range, from the softest to the loudest sounds. To achieve full dynamic range it's necessary to master with less overall level, so this disc might not sound as "loud" as a standard CD or film soundtrack. The note concludes: "To compensate for this, turn up the volume!"
Update
You can listen to the whole album online on the ESPN website until June 15, which is the release date of the CD.
At last, music is slowly coming to blue ray, I can't wait for other artists to put there albums on BD audio only discs..this is the way music is supposed to be heard!!!!
I think it will be 24/96..no point in going down to 48k.
Just noticed that it's only Region A, hope it comes out as Region B soon!
This is probably my favourite piece of news since Warner went Blu.
I hope the dts-ma track will be 24/96 like the live anthology track and the 24/48 will be for the PCM, but either way 24-bit surround of a new album from a major label is awesome...hopefully Universal Music Group, Sony Music, EMI and Reprise parent Warner are taking note, this is the future of music and Blu-ray+CD combos with added content can save the physical market.
Great comments by Tom Petty on the hi-fi end of what musicians do...why do so few of them get it? This wasn't Reprise's idea it was Petty's, clearly, and more musicians need to understand the dynamics of music are what makes music exciting and stop futzing around with brickwalled, clipped-to-death, dynamically-challenged 2-channel CD's.
Pre-ordered already, great price! Thanks Tom, you're awesome.
Not a big petty fan in recent years, but will buy it to show support!!!! BANDWAGON time people!!! There hasn't been an opportunity to buy stuff you didn't really want since the "Let's buy Warner Stuff To Get Them to Go Blu" days...
Quote:It must be noted that Tom Petty is an ardent supporter of Blu-ray for music. In an interview with Sound and Vision Magazine, he said that Blu-ray is "the closest you can get to sitting in the control room. I don't know how many people it will immediately appeal to, but more and more people are going to come this way." He considered that "to disregard the hi-fi end of what we do is wrong."
Thank you Tom & The Heatrbreakers for breaking new ground! Finally my prayers are being answered! Now I hope all musicians and studio's follow the "new leader" in audio! Blu-ray leading the way!
Most impressive... I am by no means an expert on this, but I am fairly certain, does this finally make digital media sound better than vinyl recordings?
Artist fandom aside, as a home theater enthusiast and music lover, this is such a breath of fresh air! I applaud Neil Young, Trent Reznor, and Tom Petty & company for pushing music production in the right direction! Now, I love having my entire collection on an iPod classic... gives me easy access on the go. However, when I'm at home, I love to get the full resolution & dynamics of the recording. I can't imagine just being content with compressed audio like most have on their mp3 players after hearing the real deal. Keep it up, Neil, Trent & Tom! Hope many others follow suit soon, and +1 on the Joshua Tree comment, Jebbarr!
I, for one, am very encouraged by this particularly from the dynamic range standpoint. I'd much rather have to turn up the volume than have a 'loud' mastering, which is why I applaud turnmeup.org.
Just wanted to jump in here. I engineered and co produced Mojo with Tom Petty & Mike Campbell. It was recorded through a Digidesign Venue monitor console directly to Pro Tools. The highest sampling rate that is supported with the Venue is 48K, so that's why we went with 24/48 not 24/96. 24/48 is the native format it was recorded in, so there was nothing to be gained by upsampling to 96k. Hope this clarifies things. BTW, the vinyl was mastered from the 24/48 digital files. Vinyl adds it's own sound which is very pleasant, but the digital files are what we were listening to when we mixed the album.
From the posts i've read here, I'm glad you are excited about Mojo on Blu-ray. I am too, and I'm doing everything I can to promote it (including this post). This is Warner's first "stand alone" audio-only Blu-ray release. If it does well, I'm sure they will consider putting more of their catalog out. So, in the words of doctorsteve "BANDWAGON time people!!!"
Ryan! Thank you for posting, and a HUGE THANKS to yourself and to whoever else is responsible for this album coming out in 24bit Blu-Ray. I was a huge supporter of DVD-Audio when it was being produced and had hoped that the Blu-Ray format would carry forth hi-res audio releases.
I cannot wait to listen to this album in 24bit audio! Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is my all-time favorite band!!
Davidthenikonuser Blu-Ray has way more then one audio source it has Dolby Digital True HD, Dolby Digital and HD DTS Master Audio and also normal DTS. The thing is most blu-rays only have one audio format making hard for the consumer to watch bloody damn movie with sound. Personally I think all Blu-Rays should come with all audio formats making it so viewer will be able to experience sound no matter what sound system they have.
Blu-Ray has something going for it DVD-Audio never did. First, any Blu-Ray player will be able to play the hi-res tracks, unlike DVD-Audio. On a conventional, non DVD-Audio capable DVD player, you only got he Dolby Digital tracks. Yuck. Who knows. It will catch on if the industry supports it and publicizes it and releases albums on it. The industry never gave a rip about DVD-Audio, and the public in general had no knowledge about it.
Mortonscott people want have option to use any sound source blu-ray discs the fact that most blu-rays dont support that is major downside to that industry. Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital True HD are industrys standard and should be provide on every blu-ray disc along with a DTS track and DTS HD Master Audio track. The reason why more Blu-Ray developers are using less and less sound options is because they wanna make cost less make all I am saying is the people should be provided with a sound source that works with any sound system.
We all need to support Blu Ray music by buying this Disc. Dvd Audio did not catch on for many reasons mainly that most people already had a DVD player and the average user was not going to buy a new player to play DVD Audio or Super Audio CD. The difference now is everyone will be buying a Blu Ray player now or in the new future. So instead of hoping it catches on lets make it catch on. Buy it. If you are not a Tom Petty fan buy it for someone else or just buy it as a way of making a contribution to the future of Hi Fi music but lets not let this chance for for the best available HI-FI to slip away.
I would think you could hear the difference between LPCM 48kHz & DTS-HD MA 48kHz than 192kHz,I would not buy it if it not in 192kHz,It to bad because I like Tom Petty & Heartbreakers,TRIG
I've been telling all my friends to get this album on Blue Ray to promoto BD Audio, but after checking the price (£24.99 on play.com pre-order), don't many of them will be as keen as me to get this. I hope they bring out a version under £15 mark to encourage people to buy this.
I agree with you, Danny21, totally. My only point was that your current Blu-Ray player will play at least one of the hi-res codecs on the disk from the get-go. The average DVD player could not read the MLP tracks on a DVD-Audio.
And Blutrig, the bit rate has more to do with the fidelity of the recording than the sampling rate, so you might want to consider giving it a whirl. Yes, 192khz sampling is superior, but your ear will appreciate the audio difference more so because the recording is 24bit as opposed to the standard Redbook 16bit. It would have been cool had it been in 192khz, however.
PanaPlasma, you will need a screen, but only to select DTS-HD 5.1. (the default audio stream is pcm stereo). We authored to be as simple as possible. Just put the disc in and it will start playing. The index and skip functions will work fine (as they would on a CD remote). Type in 9 and the disc will play song 9. Also, this disc is region free.
BLUTRIG. We didn't record this at 192K so there's no reason to upsample. mortonscott is right, bit depth is far more important than sampling rate. Please give this a try at 48K. Everybody in the band liked it, and they're pretty picky!
Zoraster, yes this is a legitimate 5.1 mix.
Regarding audio formats. The stereo 24 bit 48K pcm stream will play back on every blu ray player. The 5.1 DTS Master HD stream will play back if there is a decoder (either on the player, or on an AV receiver connected to the player) If there is no decoder detected then DTS converts the 5.1 to their old (lossy) format (DTS Digital Surround). This makes it backwards compatible with the long-established audio spec for DVD Video.
Two good options for optimal 5.1 playback are 1) a blu-ray player that decodes DTS Master HD and has 5.1 analog audio outputs, or 2) a blu-ray player connected (via HDMI) to an AV receiver capable of decoding DTS Master HD.
I also have the Anthology and have played the Blu-Ray several times and am absolutely loving it. Thank you for posting Ryan, and please convey our thanks to Mr. Petty and the guys.
I love those guys, and I am especially glad that my favorite Rock and Roll band is supporting hi-res audio releases!
I just got the Mudcrutch vinyl/audiophile CD package (didn't know it existed before 2 days ago...thanks Steve Hoffman Forums ! ), already have the Live Anthology box, LOVE the Blu Ray (IT & Easy Rider are why I bought my Blu Ray player ...seriously ), and now will order the Live Mudcrutch EP (vinyl & audiophile CD). Mojo in Blu Ray is exciting !!! Thanks to both you, and Ryan Ulyate, and Tom, and the greatest guitarist in America, Mr. Mike Campbell. You guys are the BEST !!!! Live Life In 5.1...I do !
Ryan thanks very much for posting additional comments. Please convey to Tom and Mike that there are plenty of folks out there looking forward to this release and we hope that they will continue to be concerned about the hifi crowd. The labels won't push the envelope here until they see results, so it's up to the artists. I hope they will consider pushing the label to allow for 5.1 mixes of all the Tom Petty releases to date as there are several I'd definitely pick up, Wallflowers, Southern Accents, Full Moon Fever and Into The Great Wide Open to start - Two Gunslingers in dts-ma 5.1 from the original tapes? That would be awesome.
If 24/48 is the source then people need to realize it's pointless to upsample any further, then it's technically not lossless anymore! I'd rather have a bit-for-bit match myself and I'm really looking forward to this disc.
Regarding the screen, can't you also just use the AUDIO toggle button on your Blu-ray remote to move from the LPCM to the dts-ma and back again?
Big deal about the Hi-Rez. I have been listening to DVD-A and SACD surround in my home AND my cars (DVD-A/DTS/Dolby Digital only) since 2001 and what happened to those formats? Nobody realized or cared that the sound was MUCH superior than anything other audio format on the planet. I have mastered my own surround discs in DVD-A and Dolby Digital, and could also do DTS HD Master on Blu-ray but I won't do this because Blu-ray cannot be played in my car and wouldn't sound any better than DVD-A anyhow.
So I don't understand why anyone would get excited over this.
Now manufacture a Blu-ray player for the car that will also play other HI-rez audio formats and then I will rejoice!
tarkusnj - sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but SACD and DVD-A both failed as formats due to lack of marketing, a format war, requiring a special player, exorbitant prices, lack of additional content, no long-term support from the major labels and requiring several cables, not just because people didn't care about the difference in quality.
Blu-ray can succeed where both failed due to:
1) No format war
2) No double dipping (BD-Live - see Neil Young's Archives, additional content already available for the Blu-ray owners thanks to BD-Live, not available to the CD/DVD purchasers nor would it have been to DVD-A or SACD owners
3) Ability to have 24/192 multi-channel mixes allowing better representation of an analog signal than DVD-A
4) Ability to provide high resolution 1080p24/1080i60 video at the same time as high resolution 24/192 5.1 audio, SACD = no picture and DVD-A = jpegs only.
5) 50GB of space allows far more additional content and Java-enhanced menus and interactivity, such as interviews, performance footage, etc., all in high definition with lossless audio where the source material allows
6) Sony won’t release DVD-A’s and Warner won’t release SACD’s, Blu-ray is the only format that can support high resolution audio that all studios currently support with concert releases.
7) One cable to rule them all - HDMI
How many popular rock/alternative/metal/pop titles have come out on SACD or DVD-Audio over the last 5 years from major labels? 10? 20?
For these reasons it's no wonder people would get excited about another chance to see high rez audio come to market. There are plenty of people here that have both SACD and DVD-A discs, but I don't know any of them who come across as jaded as you are over the failure of both by suggesting that this isn't a big deal or acting like no-one else has ever heard of the other two, for all intents and purposes, now defunct HD formats. This is the future, embracing Blu-ray as an audio format is what will get The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, u2, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Oasis, The Verve, Mike Oldfield, The Cure, Coldplay, etc., etc., etc., releases in high rez with hopefully surround sound. Whether you like any of these artists or not, the point is that currently you have about 0.001% chance of seeing any given artist releasing new material or catalogue material (already released SACD's and DVD-A's notwithstanding) in high resolution or surround sound. If Blu-ray takes off, which I fully believe it can for the previously listed reasons, then the chance of seeing any given artist's material on Blu-ray could eventually see the same % chance of release as a compact disc. If anything, eventually BD+CD could be the ONLY type of physical release, CD for digital copy, BD for everything else.
Well put Dobyblue. I hope Jimmy Page will embrace Blu-Ray releases. He did release a live Led Zeppelin album on DVD-Audio, so maybe he will support Blu.
And, I also bought the Doors box set DVD-Audio as well, Perception. I hope they will go Blu also with this, as it was phenomenal. Bruce Botnick and Ray Manzarek, are you reading this???
This is wonderful news… and.. it’s about time! One of the most difficult decisions I had to make when moving to Blu Ray was the fact that I had to regrettably sacrifice my SACD player! Granted, I only had a handful of SACDs but they were not going to be easy to walk away from. I hoped that the lossless audio potential gained via Blu Ray movies and live concert films would outweigh my heavy hearted loss. I’m currently running a Marantz 7004 to a Rotel 1066 processor via the analog outs. (The 1066 doesn’t have HDMI). The Marantz handles all the high-def audio decoding and passes it flawlessly to the Rotel via the analogs. I’m very happy with my decision, but I do miss the clarity and atmosphere of those Roger Waters and Miles Davis SACDs. Now, with Tom’s new album, there truly is reason to look forward to a possible format evolution, rather than a format war. I’ll remain optimistic that the foundation for the Blu Ray audio format is in place via the recent increased saturation of players in the market and that this will have a much greater chance of mass market success than the niches of DVD Audio or SACD ever did. The audiophile gods are smiling.
Ned...man, I feel BAD for you !!! My SACD player is a whole separate unit from my DVD player, and Blu player, etc., and I've never given ANYTHING up !?!?!? To live without even one of the formats I've loved for so long...vinyl, cassettes, reel-to-reel, CDs, DVDs, Blu Rays, SACDs, DVD Audios, Dual Discs, would break my heart !!!
Lol, thanks Mike.. but not to worry, I have the SACD player and discs stored in a safe place. The plan is to upgrade the Rotel to a 1570 and start using HDMI from the Marantz to the Processor. That’ll free up the 5.1 analog ins for my old friend SACD. Until then though... the more Blu Ray audio and concert discs at a clean and pure uncompressed 24 bits… the better!
Glad to hear it ! Gotsta have my surround sound !!! Yes, Mr. Petty & Mr. Ulyate are breaking new ground here, even passing Neil Young who still has some video, and still photos, etc. And all these articles about the forthcoming Blu Ray are just getting me more excited with anticipation.
I don't know, Neil is pretty awesome. I do wish he was a surround freak...but re-mastering his entire catalogue from the analog tapes to 24/192? That's pretty freakin' sweet!
=D
I am grateful that Tom enjoys surround sound though...I would probably buy his entire catalogue if it came in analog > 24/192 5.1 surround. \m/ \m/
I LOVE Neil ! I was just referring to Tom taking that extra step towards audio-only.
Also agree about Neil and surround...I was surprised when I bought up every last surround version of Neil's only to discover he had gone back to stereo !?
Dobyblue: I hope you're correct, but unfortunately, I don't think any hi-res audio format is going to be successful. There simply aren't enough people who care about quality audio, in spite of the growing market for BD video. The market long ago made a decision to endorse convenience (portable MP3) over audio fidelity. Even when listening at home, most people listen over very small table-top systems or computer speakers.
The problem now is that there is a entire generation of people who have no idea how good quality audio is supposed to sound. Even if they attend live music concerts, most live audio is also terrible - over compressed, distorted and with playback levels past the threshold of pain.
While I agree that the industry did not market DVD-Audio or SACD properly, I thought there were a few good decisions made, such as when Columbia released remasters of Bob Dylan in SACD with a conventional Redbook layer for compatibility and when the early Rolling Stones albums got the same treatment. But those releases had absolutely no impact. If you can find them, you can find those Dylan remasters in the discount bin for $7 and I believe those versions of the Stones have been superseded by the latest remasters.
Personally, I will definitely be buying this release.
I think there's a slight chance this could take off, but to do so, the industry needs to do extensive marketing. It needs a campaign where artists say, "if you want to hear my music as I intended it, listen to it on Blu-ray." It needs a joint effort by record labels and audio manufacturers to present this music properly in retail showrooms. Tracks can be promoted in movie theatres, played back in full 5.1 with a promo such as "it can sound like this at home!" It needs to be priced the same (or very close) to CD prices. Singles should never be released in this format. And consumers will still need a way to copy 2-channel versions to their computers for use on iPods, etc. (And without support from Apple, which doesn't look like it's gonna' happen, this is going to be tough.)
Conventional wisdom says that illegal downloading has killed the music industry. That's not the case. What has killed the music industry is the return to a singles-based market. A singles-based market (even though rock music before the Beatles was singles based) is not economically sustainable. It was only sustainable in the 1950s and 60s because artists used to record tracks in a few hours - not weeks or months. If the industry can successfully push a Blu-ray format, it can save itself. But...I'm not optimistic. But I hope I'm proven wrong.
Folks we need to get behind this "Mojo" release as best we can--tell all of your friends to "buy" in. Mr Ulyate is a driving force in the Petty camp from what little I know--we have a chance to break some new ground with BD audio only.
One question Ryan--were any of the early videos for "Mojo" included on the BD?
I personally don't believe in the commercial viability of BD-A, which will probably meet the same fate as DVD-A.
However, it's important to note that DVD-A was plagued from the start by its proprietary and expensive Meridian audio codec, which most DVD home decks didn't bother to support. BD-A is certainly more open and accessible, although without the proper audio setup most consumers will rightfully tend to rely on good old stereo CDs (God forbids digital downloads).
cant wait, although i did like this format better the first time it came out, when it was called DVD AUDIO.
MLP is the same as dolby truehd, so the expense was no different. and the same argument would have to made against sacd.
and now we come full circle, sony NEVER wanted to support anything that hinted to dvd audio (dualdisc is a perfect example) and now with bd-audio, they are forced to do just that. i love it!!!! eat poopie sony
amlop71 - I have to disagree with your statement "I did like this format better the first time it came out, when it was called DVD AUDIO"
Can DVD-Audio do 1080p24 or 1080i60 video along with high resolution audio?
Can DVD-Audio high resolution play on any DVD player?
Can DVD-Audio do 24/96 7.1?
Can DVD-Audio do 24/192 5.1?
Can DVD-Audio support downloading of additional content to prevent double dipping?
How could you possibly prefer DVD-AUDIO over Blu-ray Audio? I'm baffled.
Even comparing Sony's decision to not support DVD-Audio is irrelevant, as they simply didn't want to pay DVD royalty fees but rather create their own format with Philips using DSD.
With Blu-ray Audio, they don't lose out in that deparment either.
I'd love to see this really take off to the point where we could install Blu-Ray head units in our cars and have true mutli-channel Hi-Rez audio for on the go listening. That would really be something!
First of all we are talking about AUDIO ONLY BD, so video is irrelevent.
Dvd-audio stereo can play on ALL dvd players at 24/96, 5.1 cannot. so enjoy the moment
7.1 isnt availbale on AUDIO ONLY BD either
If you are claiming to hear an audible difference between 24/48/96 or 192, than that would be your SUBJECTIVE PERSONAL OPINION, you cannot offer scientific studies to back up your claim, so this point too is moot.
and OH-BOY, I can watch static images in hi-def instead of s-def.......WOW!!!!!!
downloading is only relevent if the end user cares, once again....subjective
And the dvd-a didnt want pay sony royalties either....and???, what my point was is now your GOD SONY is supporting audio codecs which are based on MLP which is Dolby True hd and 24 bit 96khz lpcm. its all just rebadged and coded for bd.
not a huge petty fan however i agree offering anything on BR is a push in the right direction. hope blurau audio catches on full tilt, however most likley will stay niche at least for now.
I've pre-ordered my copy of this. About the only downside I can think of is that with the CD I could have copied it to my iPod. If they want BD-audio to catch on, I think that's something that will need to be considered.
