Grahame Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 Just don't ever pay money for an "audiophile" version of Pharrell's album. It won't be any different. Uhuh http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Pharrell%20Williams
nnotis Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 (edited) If people I'm friends with are too broke to pay for mastering, or if I fear they'll pay someone who sucks to brickwall their albums, I offer to do it for free. I have them give me 24 bit bounces at the native sample rate. I master all of my own albums too. But that's a different situation, since I'm already considering the mastering for the last third of the mixing process. I don't have anything to do with a label. Uhuh http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Pharrell%20Williams At least he didn't get any 3s. Edited March 26, 2014 by nnotis
Grahame Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 At least he didn't get any 3s. There you go with your high standards ... Now this is remastering http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/1179
nnotis Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 There you go with your high standards ... Now this is remastering http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/view/1179 Wow! I almost want to hear that now, especially since it's originally from the 70s. And digital limiters from the 90s really struggled with distortion. That CD must be comical.
nnotis Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 I just read this hilarious bit from Wikipedia's Raw Power page. It starts with a quote from Iggy: "In retrospect, I think the little touches Bowie put on the mix helped and I think some of the things MainMan did helped, and more than anything else, what the whole experience did was to get me out of Detroit and onto a world stage. And also I learned a helluva lot being over there in England and I started thinking differently. It led to a very ambitious piece of work, and that's fine. But the fact was that neither Bowie's mix nor my previous mix could do justice to the power of the band or even to the legibility of the vocal…I feel that now I have the wherewithall, the position, and the expertise at my disposal to give this thing its due sonically, and I didn't have that before. So it's kind of like I'm finishing that off. I don't think you can beat David's mix, it's very creative. But this is just a simple, straight band mix of a powerful band. I feel like there's a closure on it and that's a nice thing.[14] On the other hand, some fans – guitarist Robert Quine among them – felt the new remix was as unfaithful to the material as the original 1973 mix, and further criticized the audible digital distortion in the new mix.[18] In the reissued CD's liner notes, however, Pop points out that one of his intentions in doing the new mix was to keep audio levels in the red (which would deliberately cause such distortion) while at the same time making the music more "powerful and listenable". This new version is arguably the loudest album ever, reaching RMS of -4 dB, rare even by today's standards.[19]"
nnotis Posted March 26, 2014 Report Posted March 26, 2014 can you fix 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Trying? I certainly remember that being uber loud. Maybe the source actually had dynamics. I don't know. In the mean time, just listen to Kendrick's "Good Kid Bad City". Such a good album, and surprisingly dynamic for a big commercial release.
Dusty Chalk Posted April 7, 2014 Report Posted April 7, 2014 I think brick walling has actually turned into a team effort. Pop mixes are baked from the ground up to have no dynamics. This has actually been going on for decades. J. Geils Band's Freeze Frame actually looks pretty blinding on a spectrum analyzer. Not only is it compressed all to shit, it's compressed all to shit in all the frequency bands. It actually sounds pretty good, because the compression was done in the analog realm, and wasn't completely brick-walled, but it's still really high up. It can be done well, trust your ears. There is a certain amount of vetting that can be done by looking at the wave form (true square wave decapitations), but ultimately trust your ears.
postjack Posted April 7, 2014 Report Posted April 7, 2014 I certainly remember that being uber loud. Maybe the source actually had dynamics. I don't know. In the mean time, just listen to Kendrick's "Good Kid Bad City". Such a good album, and surprisingly dynamic for a big commercial release. Best hip hop release in years. Dude is a phenomenal talent.
recstar24 Posted April 8, 2014 Report Posted April 8, 2014 Kendrick is the real deal. Could possibly be as big/influential as Pac.
Grahame Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 Meanwhile ... http://www.macrumors.com/2014/04/10/high-definition-itunes-music-downloads/
Rotijon Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 Heres to hoping that if it does take off, apple would turn the current ipods into nice DAP's, the industry sure can use some economy of scale.
Tyll Hertsens Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 Even if all Neil manages to do with Pono is to get Apple off their ass, he's won. What with the uptrend in smartphones and headphones in general, iTunes to hi-rez, and a little poke from Neil, I think the balance is beginning to shift. Strong headphone use and quieter cars reduce the need for so much dynamic compression. Increasing awareness of audio quality as a subject in the popular consciousness (regardless of how ill informed it is) will lead to companies bringing focus to, and market on the benefits of better fidelity. And, believe it or not, the strong and now decade deep body of information and experience on Head-Fi is indexed highly, and the consuming public at large is only a Google search away from better information than they've ever had before. Pono itself may or may not be great, but it's already having a lot of catalytic power for better audio. 4
Torpedo Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 I've never understood why Apple wasn't selling 16/44 or higher ALAC or FLAC.
justin Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 Heres to hoping that if it does take off, apple would turn the current ipods into nice DAP's, the industry sure can use some economy of scale. IMO the best DAP is already an Apple product with an external DAC/Amp. not the most compact thing in the world due to Apple's rules about the device having to charge the phone/ipod, making them external battery packs with a DAC/Amp inside
Grahame Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 Care to name names , Justin (IYO obviously) ....
justin Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 nah they all suck. there's yet to be a good combination of people who can work with Apple and people with good design skills. the two don't exactly go hand in hand
Dusty Chalk Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 IMO the best DAP is already an Apple product with an external DAC/Amp. not the most compact thing in the world due to Apple's rules about the device having to charge the phone/ipod, making them external battery packs with a DAC/Amp inside I did not realize this. That's just stupid -- I explicitly do not want to charge my iPod when listening, I like to run my iPod down then charge it back up again. They should at least make it switchable.
nnotis Posted April 11, 2014 Report Posted April 11, 2014 (edited) IMO the best DAP is already an Apple product with an external DAC/Amp. not the most compact thing in the world due to Apple's rules about the device having to charge the phone/ipod, making them external battery packs with a DAC/Amp inside Agreed. I don't want a dedicated player. I want to use my phone or tablet with a quality DAC/Amp. And to that end, I still haven't found a better portable sound than what the 6 year old Pico provides. I can't believe it's that old. My only complaint is that I can't get it to work with my Optimus G Pro anymore. It connected perfectly for about a month, and then mysteriously stopped. Even after wiping and installing a fresh build of Android, it didn't start working again. I'm guessing the power my phone outputs is right on the margin of what the Pico needs. In any case, it works like a charm on my iPad mini 2. It's not the most portable combo. But that screen combined with the sound... Edit: Scratch that. It works again after flashing a CM11 update. The dream is alive. Edited May 9, 2014 by nnotis
justin Posted April 12, 2014 Report Posted April 12, 2014 I did not realize this. That's just stupid -- I explicitly do not want to charge my iPod when listening, I like to run my iPod down then charge it back up again. They should at least make it switchable. I believe they think consumers will be confused if it has a usb port and doesnt charge Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
CarlSeibert Posted April 12, 2014 Report Posted April 12, 2014 And if it's a phone we're talking about -and especially an Apple phone - the last thing anybody needs is as dead phone because they were playing music. I used to think that Apple was being stupid about this. Now I just want a really great-sounding, reasonably priced DAC/amp/ charger thingie for my Android devices.
HeadphoneAddict Posted April 14, 2014 Report Posted April 14, 2014 IMO the best DAP is already an Apple product with an external DAC/Amp. not the most compact thing in the world due to Apple's rules about the device having to charge the phone/ipod, making them external battery packs with a DAC/Amp inside I just posted something similar to this at the other site.
Wmcmanus Posted April 14, 2014 Author Report Posted April 14, 2014 I just posted something similar to this at the other site. It's a tie, then? I'm confused...
HeadphoneAddict Posted April 15, 2014 Report Posted April 15, 2014 It's a tie, then? I'm confused... No, just letting Justin know that I still recommend the iPhone > CCK > Pico DAC + Slim often.
Grahame Posted April 15, 2014 Report Posted April 15, 2014 Meanwhile ... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/14/high_fidelity_pure_audio_launch_event_elton_john_goodbye_yellow_brick_road/
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