Mar 25, 2003 12:00 PM, Editors

At 5.1 Entertainment Group in West Los Angeles, Charlie Watts is currently mastering new and catalog material for an upcoming Norah Jones' DVD-Audio and CD release using digital technology from Z-Systems.

"I pretty much got rid of all my analog stuff," said Watts, whose mastering suite at 5.1 Entertainment is outfitted with the Z-Systems 24-bit/96kHz z-Q6 6-channel digital mastering equalizer and the z-CL6 6-channel digital dynamics processor. "They're really fantastic. I find that these things are really musical. They make EQ'ing natural, and the compressor and dynamics section is just truly awesome on any program material."

Watts, who has been mastering in the surround format since 1995, said that, even compared to 12 months ago, mastering DVD-Audio and DVD-Video is no longer such a time-consuming process. "We're mastering one to two DVD audio discs a day typically. Our mastering bookings currently service 10 to 25 discs per month, on average. We're moving capacity up to 50 a month, due to a huge increase in demand for DVD-Audio discs. We can deliver a mastered DVD-Audio disc within eight hours if we have to, but we try not to do that every day!"

Find out more about 5.1 Entertainment at www.5point1.net. For more on Z-Systems, visit www.z-sys.com.

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