PR Project] Listening to ani-songs in the rumored "MQA" music format!　Part 1: What is MQA?

Navigator：Kenji Nomura

Kenji Nomura is an AV writer active in a wide range of genres, including headphones. He has a deep knowledge of high-resolution sound sources, and is a supervisor for an ani-song label. He also appears regularly as an advisor in the "KAIUN Hi-Res" corner of TBS TV's Kaiun Ongakudo.

Interviewer: Takeshi Kamata

Chief editor of Akiba Research Institute. He is also the editor-in-chief of the sister site "Price.com". He has a deep knowledge of PCs, home appliances, and AV devices, but for some reason he is also an anime fan, watching more than 100 anime titles a year.

Anime songs have been the driving force behind high-resolution music.

Kamada: Mr. Nomura, thank you for joining us today. Before we talk about "MQA," could you tell us about the current situation surrounding music distribution in the anisong world?

Nomura: Actually, anime songs are still mainly CD-based. The video format of anime works is changing from DVD to Blu-ray, but the music is still mainly on CDs. On the other hand, online distribution through music distribution services is growing. In this context, a new high-quality sound format called "high-resolution" is gaining momentum, especially for anime songs.

Kamada Regarding the high-resolution format, you have contributed to the shift to high-resolution animation songs in various ways, haven't you, Mr. Nomura?

Nomura That's right. With CDs, if the sound source is a bit old, you have no choice but to look for it in second-hand stores. I thought it would be better if there was a system whereby new sound sources could be downloaded at any time, and the money would go to the artists. I would have been happy to distribute not high-resolution music but the native sound source of CDs, but the current music distribution system is based on compressed sound sources. I wonder if that is necessary in this day and age, and I would welcome it if CD-class sound sources were distributed as they are.

Kamata It is true that in a world where broadband is so advanced, there is little need to compress data.

Nomura Another reason I wanted to do high-resolution distribution was that I thought it would be interesting to distribute master recordings and other special sound sources in a special way, rather than through a subscription service. With these master recordings, if they are not very good, you can hear parts of the music that are not the intention of the creator, and we listeners want to hear that kind of music. For example, in Eric Clapton's live recordings, there is the sound of his foot stomping, but on a pressed CD, the sound is different in each country's version. But with the high-resolution master version, you can tell what kind of board the footsteps were actually stamping on and in what tone. That's something that makes fans happy. I think anime song fans would also be happy to hear the voices of the artists and voice actors in a voice that is close to their real voices.

Kamata Thanks to your efforts, it is no exaggeration to say that ani-songs are now the driving force when it comes to high-resolution music, isn't it?

Nomura I believe that pop songs are the driving force in music. I think that popular songs drive music in any country. In that sense, ani-songs are very pop, and at one time "Love Live! was once the world's best-selling high-res audio source, and it was no surprise at all. Nowadays, J-pop music such as Hikaru Utada's is also a hit, but it is still pop songs that are selling well, not difficult classical music or jazz. I think it is basically the same as when the Beatles were the biggest sellers in the 60s.

Kamada: One of the reasons why anime songs were the first to become popular in high-resolution format was the problem of devices that could play them. The environment for high-resolution playback was a bit difficult or expensive, so it was difficult for ordinary listeners to get used to it. However, anime fans, who often listen to anime songs, were familiar with such devices, and I think they were more willing to adopt them.

Nomura: I have had several opportunities to meet and talk with these anime fans, and at first they didn't know about them. However, if an anime work is released on DVD and Blu-ray, people usually buy the Blu-ray. When I explained to them that the same thing applies to music, they really understood. Moreover, many anime fans are inquisitive and are willing to try out various devices on their own. And although they spend a certain amount of money, I feel that many of them have a positive attitude that they want to enjoy what they spend. I think this is the reason why ani-song fans have become the driving force behind high-resolution music.

Kamata And now it is gradually spreading to the general public, isn't it?

Nomura That's right. High-resolution music is now becoming popular among people who like idols. I also think that girls who like anime will also become more interested in it. Girls are overwhelmingly more responsive to high-quality voices. I think it will definitely come.

Kamata How are the labels doing?

Nomura: At the moment, my impression is that the approach to high-resolution sound sources differs greatly from label to label. Even the labels that have been actively working on Hi-Res have had quite a difficult time in the beginning. For labels, CDs are still the main source of revenue, so it is not easy. However, retaining high-quality sound sources will ultimately be a great benefit to the labels, and since they are gradually realizing that there is a need for high-resolution music, the shift to high-resolution music will continue to progress rapidly in the future. It is gratifying to know that one of the major reasons for this trend was anime songs.

A codec that delivers high sound quality but with an overwhelmingly small amount of data. That is "MQA.

Kamata The world of music distribution is becoming increasingly popular for high-resolution audio, but what kind of codec is "MQA" that has emerged in this context?

Nomura One of the current mainstream codecs for high-resolution music is "FLAC," a lossless compression codec that does not degrade sound quality and is popular because it is easy to handle, but one of its major advantages is the ability to add tags. This makes it possible to display jacket photos and titles on the screens of smartphones and dedicated players, and in fact, I think this is probably the biggest advantage of the spread of FLAC. On the other hand, although FLAC has a smaller data volume than WAV, it has a large file size, and since decoding is performed during playback, it is prone to noise depending on the playback environment.
In contrast, MQA was not originally conceived as a format for Internet distribution only, but was created with the idea of adding high-resolution to ordinary music CDs as well, which is a fundamentally different concept, However, when the MQA-CD is output using a dedicated DAC, it can be played back in high-resolution format. MQA, which originated from these origins, is a "highly compressed format with no degradation in sound quality" from the start. MQA-CD actually came out recently, but this format was introduced first because if it is highly compressed and has good sound quality, it can also be used for online distribution.

Kamata If the file size is small enough to be recorded on a CD, it is quite small, isn't it?

Nomura It is quite small. For example, if a 44.1 kHz/16-bit CD sound source is converted to a 96 kHz/24-bit high-resolution sound source, the data volume is nearly three times larger. In contrast, MQA does not increase the data volume much. This overwhelmingly small volume is a major advantage of MQA.

Kamada But how is the sound quality with such a small file size?　Is it properly high-resolution?

Nomura In the case of MQA, here is the interesting part. It is a little different in direction from general high-resolution, and the key point is that "the sound is not unchanged. However, I have the impression that the sound is not made worse by compression, but rather that the vocals and main instruments sound better, or rather, that the sound is "easier to understand.

Kamada In other words, there is less unwanted noise?

Nomura Yes, that's right. When we convert a sound source to MQA format, we move signals in the band that cannot be picked up by microphones and signals in the ultra-high bandwidth portions that have no auditory impact to lower bandwidths below the noise floor. The result is a better signal-to-noise ratio of time-phase information. One of the most common impressions of high-resolution sound sources is that you can "feel the air." This is probably because with high-resolution sound, you can feel something like "air grains" that cannot be captured by the human ear. In the case of MQA, time axis information is accurately reproduced down to the lower limit of human hearing, less than 10 microseconds, so that the music itself can be heard more clearly. MQA is a very powerful technology.
MQA focuses on the signal region that we perceive as music, from the noise floor to the peak level of the music. In other words, the basic idea behind MQA is to efficiently sample the area where the music signal does not exist and store it in a small file. The sound in the bandwidth that has been cut off in conventional compressed sound sources such as MP3 is not audible to the human ear, but it can only be described as a "sense of air" or "expanse of sound," but it is important information for music. Kamata: This is the most important aspect of high-resolution sound.

Kamata Unlike compressed sound sources such as MP3, where the information in the high and low frequency range is cut off, MQA efficiently processes the redundant signal to make it easier to listen to.

Nomura: That's right. Then, advanced algorithms using the "folding method" are used to fold the sound over and over, and finally convert it to 48kHz/24bit or 44kHz/16bit, which can be expanded to the original resolution, up to 384kHz, so that when played back, the original This means that when played back, the original master sound source is played back almost exactly as it was. In a nutshell, MQA is a high-resolution codec that offers "nearly lossless compression. It can be said that MQA is aiming for analog-to-analog lossless compression, since it has less noise on the time axis, which is the fate of digital.

Kamada: I see. So, theoretically, it may not be lossless compression, but in reality, it is a sound source that allows you to enjoy the best of high-resolution with almost lossless compression. Moreover, the file size is quite small.

Nomura That's what I mean. So, I think that once technological breakthroughs are made, it will become quite interesting, depending on how it is used. One way is to use the small file size for streaming distribution. In addition, for example, there is a trend in the music distribution world to distribute master grade and high-resolution grade separately, and I think MQA could be used well for this kind of thing.

Kamada: What about playback devices and playback environments?

Nomura To be honest, there are still only a few products that support MQA, but I hear that the number will gradually increase in the future. In the case of MQA-CD, which I mentioned earlier, if the player has an optical output, you can listen to it as a high-resolution MQA sound source by connecting it to a compatible DAC, and the same goes for a PC. Among digital audio players, the ONKYO DP-X1, its sister model the Pioneer XDP-100R-K, and the GRANBEAT DP-CMX1, also an ONYKO high-resolution smartphone, currently support MQA, and in September, Sony will release a Walkman and LG a smartphone with In September, Sony and LG announced that their Walkman and smartphones will be equipped with MQA decoders. I think we will be able to playback MQA music on a variety of players in the future. (*ONKYO DP-S1 and Pioneer XDP-30R will also support MQA with a firmware update in September.) MQA decoders are provided as software, so I expect that the number of devices that support MQA will increase through software updates on the player side as well.

About the status of MQA distribution

Kamada: What is the status of distribution of MQA format sound sources?

Nomura Currently, e-onkyo music ( # ) is the only distribution site in Japan that handles MQA, but there are plans to add a large number of songs for distribution, and I hear that the number of participating labels will also increase in the future.
Currently, Lantis, 5pb.(MAGES.), and Falcom are providing songs for the service, and famous ones include the soundtracks and character songs for "Girls und Panzer" and "Steins;Gate. I've heard that there are quite a few more. I have heard that many other labels have expressed interest, so I think we can expect further development in the future.

Kamata How about the affinity with ani-songs?

Nomura MQA was originally developed as a format to make acoustic music such as classical music sound beautiful, and I think it is particularly suited for vocals due to its clarity. Therefore, I think it has a good affinity for anime songs with mainly female vocals, such as Sasaki Saka's.

Kamada If that is the case, it seems that more and more users will choose MQA over FLAC and other high-resolution music sources as long as they have a good playback environment.

Nomura The file size is quite small for a high-resolution sound source, so I think the advantages of MQA will become even more apparent when, for example, it becomes available for unlimited subscription streaming, or when it can be downloaded and played directly on a smartphone connection.

Kamada: I have high expectations for the future. Thank you very much for your time today.

*In the next installment of this dialogue, we will discuss the MQA playback environment and actual sound. Please stay tuned!