Jeff Beck/Blow by Blow Original US SBM Ver.

DSD, XRCD, DIGITAL K2, HDCD…numerous high-quality CDs that appeared from the 90s to the early 2000s. The famous album “BLOW BY BLOW”, which has been reborn due to the evolution of technology, has been decided to be released. The true identity of this work is the American SBM CD “BLOW BY BLOW (EK 64407)” released in 1994. As mentioned above, various high-quality CDs have appeared, but SMB (Super Bit Mapping) CD was introduced in 1991 and was a pioneering new technology. At that time, the release of classic analog records into CDs was at its peak, and listeners’ ears were beginning to become more discerning. The blind belief that CDs = high quality in the late 1980s has faded, and we have gone beyond the stage of superstitions such as “Putting it in the freezer will give you high quality sound” and “If you cut a straight line with a cutter, it will become clearer”. People began to talk about the good and bad of transformation itself. Therefore, Sony introduced SBM technology. Although it is a basic CD standard, it achieves a natural sound that is on a different level from conventional CD production. Its success became the beginning of a new technology CD competition among various companies. To avoid any misunderstanding, “SBM CD” is not a remastered product using so-called equalizing processing. To begin with, “SBM” is a technology that reduces loss when converting to CD. Even if you digitize from analog at a high rate of 20 bits or more, the CD standard is still 16 bits. You cannot record unless you drop the audio data. Normally, when converting to a CD, it is digitized in 16 bits from the beginning, or high data is reduced to 16 bits, but this is where “SBM” comes into play. Rather than randomly cutting off data when converting to 16 bits, this technology adjusts the waveform curve to match the characteristics of human hearing. In other words, if analog’s smooth waveform is a “mountain”, digital’s is a “staircase”. With 20 bits or more, each step is fine, but normally with CDs, the steps are uniformly large to create a rough sound. On the other hand, “SBM” selects a waveform that is omitted in line with the human ear, making it sound like a more detailed staircase. This may sound a little obvious, but let’s compare it to an anime. Let’s say that analog’s smooth waveforms are a so-called natural sight, and digital’s are like a flip book. 20-bit has a large number of pictures and moves smoothly, but 16-bit doesn’t have pictures and the motion is choppy. In normal CD production, the number of discs is uniformly reduced, but with “SBM”, the speed of the movement drawn and the colors that tend to leave afterimages on the human eye are selected and omitted, so that it does not feel like the number of discs is decreasing… It’s a feeling (it’s just a metaphor). Moreover, this “SBM” is not a relic of the outdated past. Although it was first put into practical use as a CD in 1991, it became common after that. It has also been applied to video technology and is now included in Blu-ray. The question that arises here is, “So, is it the same as modern CDs?” The key point here is the deterioration of analog over time. Even if the master tape is precisely preserved, it is inevitable that the magnetism will disappear as time passes, and the earlier the tape was recorded, the more the audio from when it was recorded will remain. In other words, CDs that were digitized using “SBM”, which was developed early on, have less deterioration of the master tape and still retain their brilliant sound even today. It has become a long story, but this work is “BLOW BY BLOW” of such early SBM CD. The sound is natural and truly beautiful. Even compared to the early CDs, the sound is overwhelmingly finer and truly glossy. For example, heavy bass such as bass. In contrast to the early CDs where the long notes disappeared quickly at the edges, in this work you can feel the vibration of the vibe up to the very weakest notes that can be heard. Of course, this is just an example. Every note is delicate, from the cutting of the guitar to the three-dimensional feel of the synth, to every single beat of the drums. Of course, unlike later remastered CDs, the sound itself is not manipulated, so the unprocessed balance and sound are extremely natural. It’s already been 25 years since this CD was released. During that time, DigiLima, which processes sound itself, took the world by storm, and an unparalleled sound pressure competition (loudness war) broke out. In modern times, we have passed the era of such processing and have begun to seek the “original sound”, but it is precisely in these times that the true value of the early SBM CDs shines. Early SBM should be re-evaluated now that it has returned to a natural orientation. The famous album “BLOW BY BLOW” is created with its natural sound. Taken from the original US SBM/Super Bit Mapping 24 KT Gold CD (EK 64407), Master Sound Series released in 1994 1. You Know What I Mean 2. She’s A Woman 3. Constipated Duck 4. Air Blower 5. Scatterbrain 6. Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers 7. Thelonius 8. Freeway Jam 9. Diamond Dust