#1003454 - 09/05/06 06:59 AM
AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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Neil Wilkes
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See http://www.aes.org/events/31/
Summarized from the main web page, we read that
The 31st International Audio Engineering Society Conference, entitled New Directions in High Resolution Audio, will be held at Queen Mary, University of London, from June 25th-27th, 2007.
This Conference is concerned with the promotion and delivery of high resolution audio, by maintaining quality throughout the recording and playback chain with current and future technologies. It reflects the tremendous recent growth of high resolution audio techniques and products intended for use throughout the audio recording and playback chain. However, issues remain on how to avoid bottlenecks where quality is compromised, and how to maintain and encourage high resolution audio in an everchanging marketplace. These concerns are of interest to the audio engineering, recording and production industries, as well as to education and academia.
We aim to provide a place for the exchange of news, issues and results, by bringing together researchers , developers, educators, students and professional users, working in fields that contribute to high resolution audio, to present original theoretical or practical work. It also serves as a discussion forum, provides introductory and in-depth information in specific domains, and showcases current products
Looks like it should be a great little get-together, and maybe - just maybe - we will see a new usurge in not only High Rez audio, but also our beloved surround.....
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#1003455 - 09/11/06 06:51 PM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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blas
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Registered: 03/06/01
Posts: 517
Loc: St. Louis, MO. USA
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Neil, Just keep the candle burning....it's a matter of sticking with it!!
Keep your chin up Neil, sure seems there's but a handful of us that continue to feed this ghost we believe in.
Joe
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#1003456 - 09/12/06 09:44 AM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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Neil Wilkes
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Posts: 513
Loc: London, UK
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I prefer to (naively?) believe that we are all too busy producing content.
I know I have been so busy this year it's great!
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#1003457 - 10/04/06 12:35 PM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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Plugin Freak
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Registered: 10/04/06
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Loc: L.A. Bitches
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Neil, I have a couple of questions reguarding Hi-Rez audio if you dont mind.
Why do Pro Audio Companies want to push Higher
standards of Quality when everything get's downgraded to Mp3 format anyway? I've worked in
16bit 44k from the ground up with better results
in the end than some of my friends that mix in 24bit 96k. 24bit 48k just give's more dynamic
range and to me is easyier to work with in the
final stages twords mp3 format. Although I can
see new consumer level products comming out
that could utilize higher sample rates. I'm guessing Hi-rez audio has a more Organic feel
like Tape ? Have you heard the Portico 5042 from
Neve designs? What is the main focus behind higher sample rates other than sqeezing money
out of broke record companies?
Thanks for your time Neil 
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#1003458 - 10/05/06 11:36 AM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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Neil Wilkes
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I have to contradict you when you say that
everything get's downgraded to Mp3 format anyway?
The difference between MP3 and 24/96 is like night & day - but the caveat is that you need a couple of things going on.
1 - set up your system properly. The amount of people trying to play back 24/96 5.1 DVD-A using incorrectly set up sub/satellite systems with everything below 250Hz going to a subwoofer is unbelievable it really is.
2 - you need a decent reference point in your mind to understand what uncompressed music actually sounds like. And without this point of reference, it is awfully hard to understand that ultra compressed, although much louder, does not sound better. There has never been so much overcompressed music played as there is threse days, and I for one loathe it with a passion that is almost holy. How many times have you been watching a movie or good quality drama series on TV, only to have the volume take a quantum leap upwards when the commercials come on, with their MPEG audio that is so brutally compressed it is actually physically painful to listen to?
Finally, there is quite simply no way at all you or anyone else can convince me that it is possible to throw away 11/12 of your audio data and still expect it to sound the same in terms of quality.
I do not accept that, and never will.
Look at video for proof of this.
MPEG-2 for SD DVD looks fine on small screens. Yet play the same disc on a large format screen, and you can plainly see the compression artifacts.
MP3 is okay for iPod, but not for serious listening. It's a throwaway format.
However - the main point of this forum isn't so much high resolution, but Surround. Okay, Surround sounds (to me) better at 24/06 but is also perfectly good at 24/48 as long as it is not overcompressed again - and sadly, this is creeping into multichannel as well. I have been given "mastered" files to work with - from well-respected mastering engineers - that look like an aircraft carriers landing deck when imported into my workstation. This means the transients are gone, the lower noise floor is raised, and the dynamics are gone. NOT what the mix engineer intended.
The brutal overcompression in most digital playback systems these days is, I believe, one of the reasons that Vinyl will not go away - it's impossible to raise the volume too high in vinyl mastering, as the grooves cannot be cut by the lathe if you go too far.
I could rant on for hours about this, I really could.
MP3?
No thanks.
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#1003459 - 11/16/06 05:20 AM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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blas
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Posts: 517
Loc: St. Louis, MO. USA
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What HAS to happen is EDUCATE. Educate the most important people involved...US! The Engineers, Producers, Record company exec's, then distrib's, retailers, etc. WE are the business. Next, you need to make a genuine effort to begin to EDUCATE the public. This will take great effort, but it must be done in order to forward the development of BOTH high rez and surround. Once someone, anyone has actually been exposed to listening to a well produced event/concert/in studio recording, they become believes.
This is gospel of our future, and I for ONE, will continue with every fiber to forward this movement. Now you must too!
Blas
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#1003460 - 11/16/06 06:19 AM
Re: AES 31 - High Resolution Audio
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Neil Wilkes
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Originally posted by blas:
What HAS to happen is EDUCATE. Educate the most important people involved...US! The Engineers, Producers, Record company exec's, then distrib's, retailers, etc. WE are the business. Next, you need to make a genuine effort to begin to EDUCATE the public. This will take great effort, but it must be done in order to forward the development of BOTH high rez and surround. Once someone, anyone has actually been exposed to listening to a well produced event/concert/in studio recording, they become believes.
This is gospel of our future, and I for ONE, will continue with every fiber to forward this movement. Now you must too!
Blas
I agree with everything you just wrote, and will always be available to assist in any way I can.
The huge problem with the overcompressed rubbish so prevalent these days is that the people listening to it have no internal "database" of what good audio really sounds like.
It used to be achieved by listening at live shows - but with so many these days being either an outright mime job (oops. Should be more PC and say "Lip-Sync") or else again overly compressed onstage. (When I used to be an FOH engineer, I very rarely used compressors on anything unless I absolutely had to). The other reference point people used to have was Vinyl, as although I for one don't subscribe to the trend that is saying Vinyl is better than CD in terms of quality (It is when the CD is brickwalled to death, but not on a well-made CD) it cannot be denied Vinyl ensured the mastering engineers & mix engineers worked to headroom - usually around 20dB of it.
This allows for transients, attack & dynamics.
All that is sadly lacking these days - and I hate it.
I'm with you on this one Blas.
Just tell me what I can do to help.
The backlash starts here.....
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