The Digital Domain - A Demonstration (1983)

January 13, 2026

The perfect album to kickstart this channel. Hot on the heels of the first CD players becoming available worldwide in 1983 (they were first released six months earlier in Japan only), this CD of experimental digital audio was released to show off the capabilities of the new format. It is both a demonstration record (in the vein of the old stereo demonstrations from the 50s and 60s) as well as a hi-fi test record. A great listening experience on large speakers, it features early synth sounds from Peter Samson’s “Systems Concept Digital Synthesizer” as well as studio soundstage arranging of various sources. It doesn’t have a SPARS code (as those came to be the next year) but it purports to be recorded and mastered in digital through and through, which would make it a “DDD”. The extensive liner notes are worth hunting for the CD if you’re into audio technology. It’s hard to overstate what a revolution the CD was when it came out, and the digitization of audio (and video) its development brought about created the digital media-rich world we live in today through internet streaming and downloading. For more information on the development of the CD, see this video and others from Technology Connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd_mhBf_FJA

Tracklist –Loren Rush, James A. Moorer, Elliot Mazer, Janis Mattox The Digital Domain 0:00 –Loren Rush Study For Reverie 7:24 –James A. Moorer Lions Are Growing 09:35 –Margaret Fabrizio Hologram 9 12:08 –Bill Schottstaedt Colony V (Excerpt) 16:03 –Elliot Mazer Specific Racquetball 18:39

Selections From “Shaman” (7 Through 9) –Janis Mattox Call To The Spirits (Excerpt) 19:42 –Janis Mattox Song From The Center Of The Earth (Excerpt) 21:57 –Janis Mattox Passage (Excerpt) 24:55

–W. Andrew Schloss Towers Of Hanoi (Excerpt) 27:49 –Elliot Mazer Generic Racquetball 32:42 –Michael McNabb Love In The Asylum (Excerpt) 33:41 –Janis Mattox Venice Beach 37:01 –David Jaffe Silicon Valley Breakdown (Excerpt) 40:55 –Phil Gossett, Elliot Mazer And Loren Rush Foothill Park 46:24 –Mickey Hart And John Meyer Helicopter 47:13

Test Section (17 Through 29) 51:08 Speaker Identification Test Test Section Announcement 1002.273 Hz Square Wave @ -6 dB From Maximum Pink Noise, Left Channel Only Pink Noise, Right Channel Only Pink Noise @ -26 dB With Emphasis Pink Noise @ -26 dB No Emphasis Pink Noise @ -46 dB With Emphasis Pink Noise @ -46 dB With No Emphasis 1 kHz Sine Wave @ -20 dB 1 kHz Sine Wave @ -40 dB 1 kHz Sine Wave @ -60 dB Noise Floor Test, All Bits At “0”

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