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Nick2341 MusicFan
Joined: 07 December 2007
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Posted: 24 May 2010 at 7:35am | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
If it helps, I can hear the compression artifacts on almost all of the tracks. I've not yet had time to test out the AAC encoder to see how much better it sounds. |
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What I find interesting is that AAC has less noticeable artifacts vs. MP3 when playing normally, but when you cancel the left or right channel over each other it has more of a "watery" sound. I'm no expert on how the encoding schemes work, but I wonder if the residual noise is fed through an FFT filter of sorts to help it stay out of the way of the main frequencies.
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aaronk Admin Group
Joined: 16 January 2005 Location: United States
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Posted: 24 May 2010 at 7:59am | IP Logged
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Nick, the Now tracks leave behind a very "watery" artifact when canceling the channels with each other, but they do sound better than an mp3 when playing normally. I would have to guess they came from an AAC based on your description.
Not all of the AAC files are guilty of leaving behind heavy artifacts, though. I mentioned in another thread that I purchased "Sharp Dressed Man" (single version) on iTunes, and surprisingly, there are very few artifacts at all.
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Nick2341 MusicFan
Joined: 07 December 2007
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Posted: 24 May 2010 at 9:10am | IP Logged
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That's my experience with most lossy sourced tracks on CDs. Most of them seem to be from AAC files. I guess some people just really love iTunes and hit "Import CD" as soon as the CD is popped in haha.
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KentT MusicFan
Joined: 25 May 2008 Location: United States
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Posted: 06 July 2010 at 8:13pm | IP Logged
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And they are shooting themselves in the foot with radio stations. MP3 doesn't like extra conversions in the audio chain. And when broadcasters take that lossy pile of junk and run it through their digital Optimod and their digital STL there is two conversions already. Guaranteed artifacts in the station audio ensuring crappy FM and AM listening. AAC is better about multiple generations but broadcast audio should be delivered uncompressed as BWF files or as CD Audio resolutions. And we should get the audio with minimal/no dynamic compression as well so we can process it better. Rantmode off!
__________________ I turn up the good and turn down the bad!
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Nick2341 MusicFan
Joined: 07 December 2007
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Posted: 07 July 2010 at 12:36pm | IP Logged
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KentT wrote:
And we should get the audio with minimal/no dynamic compression as well so we can process it better. Rantmode off! |
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That's one thing I haven't understood. Songs are mastered loud (sometimes excessively) for CDs, but once that file gets played on the radio the extra compression is so much more obvious. I've been noticing a trend lately of more and more 24 bit FLAC files. Maybe it's a sign of something to come.
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PopArchivist MusicFan
Joined: 30 June 2018 Location: United States
Online Status: Offline Posts: 1524
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Posted: 18 July 2021 at 2:18pm | IP Logged
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aaronk wrote:
Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I received my Now 31 disc in the mail.
"Boom Boom Pow" (lossy)
"Right Round" (lossy)
"I Know You Want Me" (lossy)
"Blame It" (lossy)
"Day 'N' Nite" (lossy)
"Kiss Me Through The Phone" (lossy)
"Mad" (lossy)
"My Life Would Suck Without You" (lossy)
"That's Not My Name" (lossy)
"You Found Me" (lossy)
"If Today Was Your Last Day" (lossy)
More than half of the disc was mastered from mp3s or other lossy sources! I'm ticked... |
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The good news is that if you throw this particular NOW cd in the garbage and just get the promos/regular CD versions they happen to be available in lossless elsewhere.
__________________ "I'm a pop archivist, not a chart philosopher, I seek to listen, observe and document the chart position of music."
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