Example: You wish to align your Rosetta such that a +4dBu / 0VU input equals a digital level of –16dBFS.
Reading the 12-segment bar graphs in Cal Mode tells us that –16dBFS equals the sixth bar from the left. Adjust
the ‘Level Trim’ pots. As soon as the sixth bar illuminates, turn slowly until the ‘OVER’ LED illuminates. You are
now calibrated to –16dBFS ±0.1 dB. If the ‘OVER’ LED came on and then went off, you have passed the ±0.1
dB threshold; turn SLOWLY in the opposite direction until the “OVER” LED comes on.
Press and hold SOFT LIMIT for two seconds to exit CAL mode. The Soft Limit LED will stop flashing.
About UV22HR Super CD Encoding
Squeezing more performance from a digital recording is not a new idea. It began with adding white noise, called
dither, to the digital audio. Plain dither was followed by different flavors of dither noise, then a process called
‘noise shaping’, and various forms of so-called ‘bit mapping’. Systems have been introduced that store control
information in the least-significant bits and use a special decoder to recover the data on playback.
Independent listening tests confirm that these systems either color the recordings we are trying to pre-
serve, or compromise the audible noise floor. Encode/decode systems may sound good if they are decoded,
but almost nobody owns a decoder!
Apogee UV22HR Encoding – the latest and most powerful development of Apogee’s original UV22 process
– is an entirely different approach. UV22HR does its job without sonic compromise, and without adding a sound
of its own, preserving the sound stage and tonal balance of the original high-resolution source. The effects are
even audible on original 16-bit recordings.
UV22HR Encoding adds an inaudible, algorithmically-generated concentration of energy around 22 kHz.
Much as the bias on an analog tape recorder smooths out magnetic tape recording non-linearities, UV22HR
silently captures resolution beyond 20-bits on a standard, 16-bit CD. In addition, this inaudible carrier smooths
the rough edges of even the most inexpensive CD player or external converter. UV22HR makes your recordings
sound better on all listening systems. Running already-mastered 16-bit sources through a UV22HR processor
delivers sonic improvements that any user can realize on equipment they already own.
UV22HR is a very special information carrier: it is not a new flavor of dither noise. The truly unique statisti-
cal properties of UV22HR guarantee a constant white noise floor, very similar in character to analog tape noise,
no matter what the input source. If you listen to a UV22HR encoded recording, you can hear a stable, accurate
sound stage and faithful tonal balance more than 24dB into the noise – just as you do on analog tape.
Yet the UV22HR’s low audible noise floor sits at the theoretical limit for a 16-bit system. Nothing is lost –
but a great deal is gained. In listening test after listening test, engineers and reviewers alike choose UV22 over
all other systems. Many thousands of CD titles have already been mastered using Apogee UV1000 Super CD
Encoders, the AD-1000, and the industry-standard AD-8000 and PSX-100. Apogee’s UV22 is today in use in the
vast majority of US mastering houses, and it is estimated that as many as 80% of the hit records mastered in
the United States today utilize UV22.
UV22HR Process Application
UV22HR Encoding is best applied as the final step in the signal chain before the actual mastering device. For
example, if you are mastering a conventional 16-bit CD, but you have the ability to employ higher-resolution
devices earlier in the chain, you should keep your signal at the highest resolution possible until the creation of
the final master tape, and at that point apply UV22HR to reduce the word-length from high-resolution to the
final 16-bit for Compact Disc. If you are recording at high density (long word-lengths, and 88.2/96 kHz or higher sample rates) and need to generate a 44.1 kHz 16-bit CD master or a 48 kHz 20-bit DVD-Video master,
first
handle the sample rate conversion at the maximum word length available; then use UV22HR to reduce the
word-length when you have a 44.1/48 kHz signal. Sample-rate conversion is a tricky business at best, and you
need the maximum resolution available when you do it. This is why we do not provide UV22HR at high sample
rates.
Because of the addition of the UV22HR signal, we do not recommend that you use the UV22HR process
more than once or twice on a signal. Multiple passes through the UV22HR process could degrade the noise floor
of the system at the upper frequencies and produce artifacts.
Recordings to be used in a sample or sound effects disc can be UV22HR encoded if pitch shifting is not like-
ly to be employed, or if pitch shifting upward only is to be used. Pitch shifting downward on processed signals
risks making the normally ultrasonic UV22HR energy concentration audible.
Rosetta AD User’s Guide
Page 19