Hi all, i have recorded some pandora favourite artists on cassette deck for my background listening in garage in the past. Sounds as good as the media offers. Now i wanted to improve the quality, i started recording digitaly. I am using soundblaster ADC external soundcard and sony soundforge software. Just like i have been doing with lp's or rtr. Done lots of digitizing, so i am quite familiar with levels setup.
No matter what i do, i see signal from pandora compressed, like all the peaks were squished.
No matter what headphone output signal, no matter what record level input signal.
I lowered the headphone output from computer, i tried to record at -5dB, -10dB, even at -20dB, peaks look squished.
My conclusion is, this is how pandora did it.
Anybody else has similar observation?
I got lots waveforms to show, but i am not sure if it make sense, it is what it is.
No matter what i do, i see signal from pandora compressed, like all the peaks were squished.
No matter what headphone output signal, no matter what record level input signal.
I lowered the headphone output from computer, i tried to record at -5dB, -10dB, even at -20dB, peaks look squished.
My conclusion is, this is how pandora did it.
Anybody else has similar observation?
I got lots waveforms to show, but i am not sure if it make sense, it is what it is.
I'd say both of those are destructively compressed.
As far as I'm aware only Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music offer lossless compression. That said, it's been a while since I last took a look. Maybe others have joined as well.
For destructively compressed music, I'd want 256-320 kbit/s.
Tom
As far as I'm aware only Tidal, Qobuz, and Apple Music offer lossless compression. That said, it's been a while since I last took a look. Maybe others have joined as well.
For destructively compressed music, I'd want 256-320 kbit/s.
Tom
Of course Pandora uses dynamic compression, volume leveling and EQ. Just like radio stations do.
When I was regularly streaming Pandora I got pretty good at reverse EQ and decent at finding a dynamic expansion that worked. Not perfect but it did help get things back to close to normal.
And of course they use a good bit of data compression. More of you don’t pay. But I did pay.
When I was regularly streaming Pandora I got pretty good at reverse EQ and decent at finding a dynamic expansion that worked. Not perfect but it did help get things back to close to normal.
And of course they use a good bit of data compression. More of you don’t pay. But I did pay.
Offcourse, it recorded much lower that it should. When i normalize signal to full scale, this is how signal looks like.
With some songs, girl with guitar, at low levels it looks ok.
But when sond is more complex, with more instruments, and louder, you can definitely see compressor hard limit.
With some songs, girl with guitar, at low levels it looks ok.
But when sond is more complex, with more instruments, and louder, you can definitely see compressor hard limit.
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