The thing is, John, that you have it backwards.
Most people have enough understanding of perception to know that it's the peeking and knowing the context that fools you. Blind testing removes this so you cannot be fooled so easily anymore.
jan
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We're all looking forward to your experiment, your posted files, and your report of the results.
Frank, I have the full Waves Diamond production bundle, which I believe is calculated at 64bits. i'll try and find some time this weekend to get something done if there is demand. what specific type of distortion does the crowd think is most suitable? (check the plugins list in the link for details) actually I do need to doublecheck that it still works with Lion, havent used these plugins in a while. regardless I definitely have something of high quality that will work in logic.
actually just checked, wont work in lion, i'm seeing if I can get an 'update'
I do have various other plugins that will suit though, not quite as nice
actually just checked, wont work in lion, i'm seeing if I can get an 'update'
I do have various other plugins that will suit though, not quite as nice
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I meant for the blind testing, not John's perception orientation on the matter BTW
Half wave rectified signal should do nicely. Optional extras would include phase-shifting the distortion or delaying it a few mS, to de-correlate it.
Thanks, qusp. What I've done so far is to grab hold of the EBU SQAM CD -- starting to have a play. There's also the PEQS, etc disk: EBU Technology & Innovation - News - EBU CDs now online. This is at least some known, standard material to work with ... any other thoughts?
this bit is easy
but wondering how to model a rectified signal in an audio program, so we are talking about the diode effect appearing like clipping on a positive, or negative going swing only, ie flat-tops correct? totally flat is no worries, but getting the diode reverse recovery + transformer stored energy effect i'm not sure. i'll check what the various distortions look like
I wasn't thinking of anything fancy like that, just a simple arithmetic operation like abs() to get a perfectly rectified version.
It's not a realistic representation of the sort of distortion you'd get from an amp, but rather a semi-worst case kind of distortion, with a wide spray of HD and IM products. The idea being that if you can't hear that at say -60dB, then you probably can't hear more benign distortions at the same level either.
Most interesting distortions do not have a static transfer function applicable at the output only. One of the most important and simplest is the input pair transfer function. This can not be applied a posteriori in this simple fashion so these tools have limited use.
Hi Scott,
I believe the object is not to exactly reproduce the distortion as it would occur IRL.
Rather, to add in a representative type of distortion and see if we can hear it in comparison with a 'clean' track. A bunch of 2nd, 3rd, maybe a few more and their IMD products would do the trick.
jan
I believe the object is not to exactly reproduce the distortion as it would occur IRL.
Rather, to add in a representative type of distortion and see if we can hear it in comparison with a 'clean' track. A bunch of 2nd, 3rd, maybe a few more and their IMD products would do the trick.
jan
Frank, I have the full Waves Diamond production bundle, which I believe is calculated at 64bits. i'll try and find some time this weekend to get something done if there is demand. what specific type of distortion does the crowd think is most suitable? (check the plugins list in the link for details) actually I do need to doublecheck that it still works with Lion, havent used these plugins in a while. regardless I definitely have something of high quality that will work in logic.
actually just checked, wont work in lion, i'm seeing if I can get an 'update'
WOW! You must be making some good money in music production to justify the price for the whole bundle (well over $2000, for those who don't know).
Lucky you. I can't :-(
You can't really find 2nd or 3rd harmonic distortion apparent, until the distortion on music peaks are about 10% or so. Vinyl or analog recorders would never work, otherwise. You have to go for 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th etc. That is where the action is. We have ALWAYS lived in a world of distortion on reproducing music, yet some of the 'deviant' characteristics of a specific amp or preamp can be noticed, either as 'missing some information' or adding an irritant. This is what hi end audio designers hope to minimize.
Mr Russell,
identical looks and model number under two different brand labels, is not differentiating and positioning a brand for a particular market segment, just adds to the confusion. (e.g. SU-V900 integrated)
Yamaha stuck to one slice of the audio market, merely came up with some special models on occasion, for media attention and pushing sales of the volume items. (e.g. Centennial X10.000 line in '87)
Technics developed some really exciting stuff ; TH400 ribbon tweeter, SL10/15/1200 turntables, a couple of interesting cartridges, the 200lb SU-A2 preamp and Class A+ SE-A1 power amp duo, that even today looks exciting.
For the SOTA stuff, Technics couldn't get production in order and up to speed, eventually pulled the plug.
And in the high volume market, they came up with AA, New Class A, whichever label that might just as well be stuck to a washing machine.
Very confusing marketing, imo, almost as if Technics was the experimental & fck-up division of Matsushita.
(In my street, I've got a couple of neighbors with an itch to copy eachother. If one exchanges car model, the next follows a couple of months later, and the next, think Cayenne, currently Panamera. One may move away and be replaced by someone with a Bybee type spouse. Another is temporarily forced to downgrade to company registration diesel, due to a dip in the economic cycle, but none will pick a Lexus with the looks of a Toyota. Interesting to observe though. Aargh, cars again !)
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