a little test re: sound-quality

[monolake]

.. since obviously so many of you are concerned or insecure about the sound quality of their tools I want to invite you to do a little test with me on this grey sunday. ( at least in Berlin).

Here are three soundfiles:

http://www.monolake.de/files_audio/temporary/A.wav
http://www.monolake.de/files_audio/temporary/B.wav
http://www.monolake.de/files_audio/temporary/C.wav

All three files are technically 44.1kHz Stereo, 16 bit.

before I tell you more, I would just be curious to know what you think is the difference between the files.

And, this test has nothing to do with Live, it is really just about perception of sound quality versus technical quality!

Robert


oh, sorry, upload problem.... please throw files away if you already took them and grab them again....

[Komodovaran]

Are there holes in the files? The sound goes on/off.

[monolake]

see edited post. sorry....

[Komodovaran]

SPOILER BELOW









They're identical. Phase inversion nulls them completely.

But quality-wise it sounds great. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say.

[Coupe70]

Ok, I listened to it using my Sennheiser HD-25
and the linear HD-250. I've written down my
results - won't post them yet so nobody will
be influenced...

[monolake]

SPOILER BELOW

They're identical. Phase inversion nulls them completely.

But quality-wise it sounds great. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say.

No, they are not identical bitwise. Please try downloading them again! And try again !

Robert

[monolake]

maybe PM your findings, and I collect them and post them in say 3 days to give people enough time to try.. ?

Robert

[pgmjsd]

SPOILER BELOW

They're identical. Phase inversion nulls them completely.

But quality-wise it sounds great. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say.

No, they are not identical bitwise. Please try downloading them again! And try again !

Robert

(warning: nerd alert)

Yep, they're different (but the same size, so that's good):

Code: Select all

blacmac:Downloads josh$ ls -l *.wav
-rw-r--r--  1 josh  staff  5292044 Jan  8 10:15 A.wav
-rw-r--r--  1 josh  staff  5292044 Jan  8 10:15 B.wav
-rw-r--r--  1 josh  staff  5292044 Jan  8 10:16 C.wav
blacmac:Downloads josh$ diff A.wav B.wav
Binary files A.wav and B.wav differ
blacmac:Downloads josh$ diff B.wav C.wav
Binary files B.wav and C.wav differ
blacmac:Downloads josh$ diff A.wav C.wav
Binary files A.wav and C.wav differ

But... they are very similar sounding. Tried phase inversion and they did cancel out significantly. Hmm... good puzzle!

[pgmjsd]

SPOILER BELOW









They're identical. Phase inversion nulls them completely.

But quality-wise it sounds great. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to say.

I found phase inversion does cancel a lot, but not completely.

[monolake]

of course not, they are not all identical.
the question is: which one sounds 'better' and why so ?

Robert

[Magik_10]

B & C sound identical and with a little more presence and clarity in relation to A

[Komodovaran]

I find them to be so very identical, that the only difference is the one I'm making up in my head from the stream of thoughts that vary every second.

If you had never said they were different, I could be listening to the "same song" for all eternity. Now that I know they're different I will subconsciously come up with different listening results.



Okay, so not completely null, but still I'd call that inaudible unless you're making things up in your head.

[pgmjsd]

B & C sound identical and with a little more presence and clarity in relation to A

Yeah, I heard that _sometimes_, but then I'd listen again and it would evaporate. I even heard it as a slightly 'deeper' low end a few times. Maybe my ears are too old, or maybe my headphones are crap. "A" seemed to sound a teeeny bit more flat most of the time.

Never realized there was so much chorus on the vocal on that track. Haven't listened to that in a long time.

[pgmjsd]

I find them to be so very identical, that the only difference is the one I'm making up in my head from the stream of thoughts that vary every second.

If you had never said they were different, I could be listening to the "same song" for all eternity. Now that I know they're different I will subconsciously come up with different listening results.



Okay, so not completely null, but still I'd call that inaudible unless you're making things up in your head.

Yeah, the difference is there, but its _really_ subtle. Maybe it's dithering or something? There may be some hidden message in there at -120db that will make us all go mad.

[monolake]

I agree the difference is subtle. The question is: which ones do you like more / which versions sound 'better', and if so, what does 'better' mean....

Robert