tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.comments2023-10-30T10:45:26.459-05:00AudiamorousRichard Tollertonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-34029909263656865792013-03-14T06:27:44.042-05:002013-03-14T06:27:44.042-05:00You guys out there are performing a great job.
mas...You guys out there are performing a great job.<br /><a href="http://www.premiermastering.com/" rel="nofollow">mastering studio</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-11172351299396245052013-03-05T06:53:08.550-06:002013-03-05T06:53:08.550-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13833762317636945169noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-5132150146584054272013-02-11T00:41:07.789-06:002013-02-11T00:41:07.789-06:00If you are trying to do it yourself though, throw ...If you are trying to do it yourself though, throw away all the pre-conceptions and ideas you have inherited from the recording and mixing process, and start afresh. Be prepared to cut swathes through all the detailed decisions and reasoning you've put into the project <a href="http://www.premiermastering.com" rel="nofollow">music mastering</a><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00181753070857437581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-51187917664701407642010-09-26T21:50:28.893-05:002010-09-26T21:50:28.893-05:00RT, I'm curious if the Feickhart software'...RT, I'm curious if the Feickhart software's wow & flutter analysis incorporates something as exhaustive as your technique discussed here?JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05837619098026265159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-89528293057575538892010-09-14T15:07:59.304-05:002010-09-14T15:07:59.304-05:00He lives! Looks like a great read. Thanks RT.He lives! Looks like a great read. Thanks RT.JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05837619098026265159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-29173971333636972142009-12-04T13:52:39.796-06:002009-12-04T13:52:39.796-06:00Amazing work. Santa will get the paper for me. I&#...Amazing work. Santa will get the paper for me. I'm still offline due to a BNC upgrade on the EMU1616M but will be getting back into this an Jittee's VST 24/96 RIAA filter soon. Happy holidays.JChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05837619098026265159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-83316249205526068952009-06-18T10:39:55.154-05:002009-06-18T10:39:55.154-05:00Very interesting ideas, tests and analysis. I'...Very interesting ideas, tests and analysis. I'm surprised more people and/or software vendors have not included something like this in their tool offerings. Do you have any interest in sharing the LabView file(s)?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06335159530049861850noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-54958969520363818422009-05-01T14:34:00.000-05:002009-05-01T14:34:00.000-05:00Only if these were absolutely flat transfers of th...Only if these were absolutely flat transfers of the recorded content - and if a 2-mic (farfield) recording scheme is used. And not all classical records are that clean. Especially not major label classical!Richard Tollertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-90204326082944266792009-05-01T13:38:00.000-05:002009-05-01T13:38:00.000-05:00Isn't it possible that the clipping occurred durin...Isn't it possible that the clipping occurred during recording rather than during mastering?Pete Bilderbackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04053682243872603532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-84250540435682840742009-03-28T22:15:00.000-05:002009-03-28T22:15:00.000-05:00No, but if you're ok with BS.1770's multichannel w...No, but if you're ok with BS.1770's multichannel weighting scheme, adding it should be easy enough.Richard Tollertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-10184830607858908872009-03-28T17:38:00.000-05:002009-03-28T17:38:00.000-05:00Cool. Does it support multichannel wav files as we...Cool. Does it support multichannel wav files as well?Dr. Sean Olivehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17909033506833141612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-61006923110802546242009-01-15T11:38:00.000-06:002009-01-15T11:38:00.000-06:00I would guess the producer simply didn't want to l...I would guess the producer simply didn't want to lower the overall level by allowing the true peak value of the drum hit -- perhaps because then the consumer might find the CD 'too quiet' during the quiet parts (a complaint sometimes heard about orchestral CDs that employ maximum dynamic range)<BR/><BR/>They could have tried compression, I suppose, as a compromise....Steven Sullivanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01800114865214533118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-33210739200933281502009-01-05T20:01:00.000-06:002009-01-05T20:01:00.000-06:00Hi Richard,Thanks for the blog post and allowing m...Hi Richard,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the blog post and allowing me to pick your brain in researching the article.<BR/><BR/>I've seen so many gushing reviews claiming this-or-that USB turntable is "perfect" for archiving your vinyl collection. I felt there was a serious need for an article that goes beyond the fluff.<BR/><BR/>With help from you and HA at-large, I found a lot to write about:<BR/><BR/> * There are no good turntables for $150 or less, especially when you include a pre-amp and ADC in the package.<BR/><BR/> * DJ turntables are the next step up in USB turntables. However, they must be properly outfitted for hi-fi use for best results.<BR/><BR/> * There is one "introductory-level" audiophile USB turntable, the Pro-Ject Debut III USB, at around $500. However, at that price-point you may find a better analog turntable, which becomes digital with a little effort and hardware that you may already have.<BR/><BR/>BTW, while this guide is indeed heavily commission-based, Knowzy is an online magazine first and foremost. It's an attempt by one software engineer (me) at journalism in a unique online format.<BR/><BR/>I do write from the perspective of and for the benefit of my readers. Knowzy is bound to <A HREF="http://www.knowzy.com/About_Us/About_Us-Affiliate_Advertising_Policies.htm" REL="nofollow">tough policies</A> to ensure the lure of advertising dollars doesn't get in the way of sound advice.<BR/><BR/>Thanks again for blogging the guide. <BR/><BR/>Happy New Year!<BR/><BR/>JeffKnowzyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02730830679742284383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-32916395747431614782008-11-24T13:30:00.000-06:002008-11-24T13:30:00.000-06:00Interesting. I'm quite surprised to find something...Interesting. I'm quite surprised to find something like this in a classical recording. On the other hand, I probably wouldn't suspect such a small quantity of clipping after a listen.<BR/><BR/>[Also, you've got a "snoking gun" up there, which is something I've never heard of, but something I'd like to witness.. :o) ]tunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12552514918380270715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-83591752048093430922008-11-05T13:58:00.000-06:002008-11-05T13:58:00.000-06:00David:How much literature exists for this preferen...David:<BR/><BR/>How much literature exists for this preference for dynamic music? I'm honestly not aware of any studies on this that aren't purely anecdotal in nature. If there isn't any, me/you/we should write one up. SRSLY. I have some uncompressed masters kicking around that I've been wanting to experiment with.<BR/><BR/><I>"As long as the less compressed version jumps above the hyper compressed version such that it sounds more punchy, rather than less professional (i.e. bits sound louder where it feels like they _should_ sound louder - NOT where it sounds like the musicians were idiot and the compressor was correcting their uneven sound!) then the more dynamic version will be preferred."</I><BR/><BR/>This cuts both ways. If the dynamic source drops below the noise floor in a significant frequency band where the hypercompressed source doesn't, people may associate the dynamic version with worse sound. I've listened to fully uncompressed Beethoven symphonies in a loud car ride on occasion, and to be completely honest, it wasn't that enjoyable.<BR/><BR/>Those two points are the crux of my beef with the way this loudness war thing has been fought. I don't really believe we, as engineers/researchers, actually have an adequate grasp of what's going on in Rick Rubin's ears, or Vlado Meller's ears, when they decide to brickwall something. We have lots of theories and explanations, but few smoking guns. I think that the instincts and experience of many producers and mastering engineers are informing them to hypercompress - not merely out of crass business sense, but out of a realistic evaluation of their own listening experience and the anticipated listener experiences - even though the end result is ultimately still a compromise of artistic expression and of listening value. Overcoming that is not a simple matter of showing a few A/Bs and saying "look at how much better this is!". And until that changes, I fear that the push for more dynamics won't go much farther than it currently has come - lots of education, but no action.<BR/><BR/>Put another way: we ought to have such absolutely ironclad proof of all of this, that I should be able to walk up to any random offending producer/label exec and say, "look, your professional decisions are absolutely full of shit, and I have the studies to prove that your listening evaluations and focus group surveys are worthless". Said studies, um, aren't quite there yet.<BR/><BR/><B>Most specifically: I think we have an astoundingly poor grasp of how low-SNR listening environments affect the perception of music.</B> Explain this - <I>concretely</I>, in psychoacoustical terms, with studies to back up listening evaluations - and the loudness war will be mostly over.Richard Tollertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-71919597064221906052008-11-05T06:07:00.000-06:002008-11-05T06:07:00.000-06:00Richard,You claim there's evidence that people pre...Richard,<BR/><BR/>You claim there's evidence that people prefer hyper compression. I think that's nonsense.<BR/><BR/>People prefer louder - subjectively, that's well known. A/B two identical recordings, making B just a little bit louder than A, and even very clued up people will describe all kinds of ways in which B was better than A.<BR/><BR/>If you loudness match the hyper compressed version to a less compressed version, and A/B, then I think you'll find the situation is really quite complicated and subjective - but I'll bet you that any overwhelming preference by the ignorant masses for the hyper compressed version will vanish if it's loudness matched.<BR/><BR/>As long as the less compressed version jumps above the hyper compressed version such that it sounds more punchy, rather than less professional (i.e. bits sound louder where it feels like they _should_ sound louder - NOT where it sounds like the musicians were idiot and the compressor was correcting their uneven sound!) then the more dynamic version will be preferred.<BR/><BR/><BR/>This has little relevance to real life, because almost no one does loudness match their listening - the hyper compressed version will be louder, and be preferred in A/B.<BR/><BR/>People talk about long term listening fatigue - that is a factor - but an even simpler factor is that people reach for the volume control, and suddenly the hyper compressed version has no advantage at all!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17910946730118562127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-44815298180953761822008-10-11T07:00:00.000-05:002008-10-11T07:00:00.000-05:00The fact that the majority prefers hypercompressio...The fact that the majority prefers hypercompression, is that decided by record sales, or the amount of people that are speaking out about this issue? If so, then what choice do people have than to purchase hypercompressed releases? Whilst there are no releases out there that actually contain dynamics, what else can we buy to prove them wrong.<BR/><BR/>Many factors prove this argument invalid. As Tung mentioned, after the release of The Day That Never Comes, there was a promise made to fix the obvious production issues. To me, this states that there is a problem that is undesirable. This was not fixed, then Lars made the choice to jump in the fire (sorry, bad pun) and say 'This is how we make records in 2008'.<BR/><BR/>Brickwalling is not an artistic choice, it is a process that pulls the dynamics out of audio, and turns an otherwise great song into mud. 16,000 people so far have spoken their mind about this issue. The rest are either uneducated on what Brickwalling is, dont quite know what that distorting is on their CD, but love the album and dont want to get involved. Simple as that. <BR/><BR/>Brickwalling is ok, if the audio is brickwalled at a lower volume for artistic purposes (eg, Trent Reznor @ NIN), but at higher volumes just for the purpose of being louder than the last record that was released, this is not constructive, it is not creative, it is a form of destruction. Simple.RedTheHathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11044407719797308012noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-74700637852318550482008-10-09T15:26:00.000-05:002008-10-09T15:26:00.000-05:00I've been posting a lot of links to this very blog...I've been posting a lot of links to this very blog post lately. I think you hit the nail on the head with this one!<BR/><BR/>Those of us who are fighting the loudness war need as much info as possible, and I think many are misinformed about the vinyl versions of recent rock albums.<BR/><BR/>Thanks!<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://tungbass.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow">tung</A>tunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12552514918380270715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-4104314768671395992008-10-01T08:51:00.000-05:002008-10-01T08:51:00.000-05:00Well, someone said yesterday at metallicabb that t...Well, someone said yesterday at metallicabb that there was a whining sound in the mp3s and that was an issue that was fixed.<BR/><BR/>However, now we have a situation where the GH3 version sounds very different (much better IMO) than the CD version, which Lars is defending.. so does that make the GH3 version wrong then? One of them must be what was NOT intended.tunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12552514918380270715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-84282002434375794252008-09-30T23:39:00.000-05:002008-09-30T23:39:00.000-05:00It's unclear just what he meant by that. IIRC,...It's unclear just what he meant by that. IIRC, weren't the MP3s just turned down a notch in volume? Maybe they thought the issue was due to >0dbFS peaks in the MP3s or something.Richard Tollertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-30249405693354277922008-09-30T11:48:00.000-05:002008-09-30T11:48:00.000-05:00Interesting point of view.I wonder why this Benjam...Interesting point of view.<BR/><BR/>I wonder why <A HREF="http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=103363" REL="nofollow">this Benjamin dude promised the sound would be fixed</A> after the single was released. It must not have turned out the way they wanted.tunghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12552514918380270715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-25963015613370479472008-09-09T15:53:00.000-05:002008-09-09T15:53:00.000-05:00Thanks as usual for your excellent comments, Bob. ...Thanks as usual for your excellent comments, Bob. It is extremely informative to know that you treat your vinyl masters nicely.<BR/><BR/>Peak to <I>loudness</I> measurement, eh? I didn't catch that the first time I read it. You mean a time-varying adaptation like 50ms blocking with BS.1770? That actually makes a lot of sense. <BR/><BR/>Not sure I want to be in like Larry Flynt though. ;)Richard Tollertonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01090397860437358524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-73725453733212061182008-09-09T12:43:00.000-05:002008-09-09T12:43:00.000-05:00If the waveform plot of the vinyl actually represe...If the waveform plot of the vinyl actually represents a transfer from a less compressed master which did not go through the heavy processing that created the CD, then it could possibly sound better. <BR/><BR/>Whenever I make dual masters for CD and for vinyl, I produce the vinyl master prior to any of the peak limiting or any additional loudness makers other than the ones there for esthetic purposes.<BR/><BR/>The measurement that should work is <BR/>Peak to Loudness ratio, with the loudness using a standard measure like the new BS.1770, which is close enough to perceived loudness to be useful. Adapt this to a K-System-style meter and you're in like flynt.bobkatzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12074473375440326411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-64826865652470399912008-08-10T06:24:00.000-05:002008-08-10T06:24:00.000-05:00Software RIAA for Cooledit (I know you developed y...Software RIAA for Cooledit (I know you developed your own too):<BR/><BR/>http://www.a-reny.com/restauration/avance.html#RiaaJChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05837619098026265159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6134504104737795551.post-83039490277668880952008-08-10T06:12:00.000-05:002008-08-10T06:12:00.000-05:00Richard,This is interesting:http://www.sound-smith...Richard,<BR/><BR/>This is interesting:<BR/><BR/>http://www.sound-smith.com/cartridges/sg.html<BR/><BR/>No RIAA required....<BR/><BR/>JonJChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05837619098026265159noreply@blogger.com