Katie Melua is back with the acoustic version of his album No. 8 released in 2020. Unlike Album N°8, the orchestration is reduced to a guitar sometimes accompanied by keyboards played by Mark Edwards, an intimate recording.

You can find the measurements of each edition in the different parts and listen to the samples of these albums here.

This album includes 11 tracks :

Joy
English Manner
Leaving The Mountain
Voices In The Night
Maybe I Dreamt It
Heading Home
Your Longing Is Gone
Airtime
Remind Me To Forget
No Better Magic
A Love Like That

We will review 4 editions (CD, Streaming Qobuz, Streaming Tidal and Streaming Amazon) of this album.

First we will analyze each edition in detail (technical and qualitative analysis) then we will compare the successive editions with their dynamics and assign a final score and you will be able to listen some samples.

Review of the editions:

Part 1: Presentation of the editions

Part 2 : Waveform and dynamique comparaison

Parts 3 : Spectrum comparisons

Part 4 : Spectrogram comparaisons

Part 5 : Summary, scoring and Sample

Part 1: presentation of the editions

Ed1 : CD ref 538751522 – 2021

Presentation

It is a very nice CD proposed with 12 page booklet.

Label	BMG
Reference	538751522
Format (speed)	CD
Type	CD 16 bits 44.1 kHz with 12 pages booklet
Master	Digital
Mastering/Pressing	Mixed by Zurab Melua Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis
Original recording	Digital 24-96kHz
State	Austria
Year original	2021
Year production	2021

Ed2 : Streaming Qobuz Hi-Res – 2021

Presentation

This is the Streaming Qobuz proposed in Hi-Res (24 bits 96kHz).

Label	BMG
Reference	Streaming Qobuz Hi-Res
Format (speed)	Streaming Digital
Type	24 bits 96 kHz
Master	Digital
Mastering/Pressing	Mixed by Zurab Melua Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis
Original recording	Digital 24-96kHz
State	Austria
Year original	2021
Year production	2021

Ed3 : Streaming Tidal Master – 2021

Presentation

This is the Streaming Tidal proposed in MASTER MQA (24 bits 96kHz).

Label	BMG
Reference	Streaming Tidal Master
Format (speed)	Streaming Digital MQA
Type	MQA 24 bits 96 kHz (decoded in PCM)
Master	Digital
Mastering/Pressing	Mixed by Zurab Melua Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis
Original recording	Digital 24-96kHz
State	Austria
Year original	2021
Year production	2021

Ed4 : Streaming Amazon UltraHD- 2021

Presentation

The Streaming Amazon is proposed in UltraHD (24 bits 96kHz).

Label	BMG
Reference	Streaming Amazon UltraHD
Format (speed)	Streaming Digital
Type	24 bits 96 kHz
Master	Digital
Mastering/Pressing	Mixed by Zurab Melua Mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis
Original recording	Digital 24-96kHz
State	Austria
Year original	2021
Year production	2021

Part 2 : Waveform and dynamic comparaisons

Waveform

The waveform represents all the tracks of the album.

The comparison of the waveforms is quite simple for the 4 releases, we have the same curves, very dynamic with big variations of levels.

Dynamic

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest.

For our 4 editions we have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR):

	Ed1: CD	Ed2: Qobuz	Ed3: Tidal	Ed4: Amazon
GLOBAL	DR14	DR14	DR14	DR14
*Min*	*DR12*	*DR12*	*DR12*	*DR12*
*Max*	*DR15*	*DR15*	*DR15*	*DR15*
Joy	DR12	DR12	DR12	DR12
English Manner	DR15	DR15	DR15	DR15
Leaving The Mountain	DR14	DR14	DR14	DR14
Voices In The Night	DR14	DR14	DR14	DR14
Maybe I Dreamt It	DR13	DR13	DR13	DR13
Heading Home	DR13	DR13	DR13	DR13
Your Longing Is Gone	DR12	DR12	DR12	DR12
Airtime	DR14	DR14	DR14	DR14
Remind Me To Forget	DR15	DR15	DR15	DR15
No Better Magic	DR15	DR15	DR15	DR15
A Love Like That	DR14	DR14	DR14	DR14

With a DR14 on average, and a variation between DR12 and DR15, the album is very dynamic for the 4 versions. The next measure will confirm it, but these 4 releases are from the same master.

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Part 3 : spectrum comparisons

Spectrum

The Spectrum allows to check the tonal balance of the music (balance between treble, medium and bass sounds) and to detect process that may have been carried out during the recording, the mixing, mastering or manufacturing phases. It is also possible to detect frequency interference issues.

The curve represents the average frequency distribution over the sample “Joy”.

The We find the cut-off at 22 kHz of the CD version which is normal and due to the sampling frequency of the CD at 44.1 kHz.

Spectrum Ed1 CD(white) vs Ed2 Streaming Qobuz (blue)

The curves of the Ed2 Qobuz, the Ed3 Tidal and the Ed4 Amazon are identical, which with the other measurements confirms the use of the same master.

Spectrum Ed3 Streaming Tidal (white) vs Ed2 Streaming Qobuz (blue)

Spectrum Ed4 Streaming Amazon(white) vs Ed2 Streaming Qobuz (blue)

Part 4 : Spectrogram comparaisons

Spectrogram

Spectrogram is another representation of frequency versus time of a track. For each channel (right and left), horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents frequency. The amplitude is represented by the intensity (brightness) of the color of each point in the image.

For the spectrogram of the Ed1 CD, the yellow arrow shows the limit is below 22 kHz (the sampling frequency of the CD). The white arrow shows the black area indicating that there is no signal above 22 kHz.

The spectrogram of the Ed2 Qobuz, Ed3 Tidal and the Ed4 Amazon are almost identical. We find frequencies (white arrow) which go up well above 22 kHz (yellow arrow). It is well a recording in high resolution.