dex Otaku

Properly recorded and mastered, 16-bit/44.1kHz PCM audio still exceeds the dynamic range, playback resolution, and frequency response that most consumer audio systems are capable of. That's not to mention playback room acoustics, ambient noise levels, and limitations of the listener's hearing. On the other hand, I'm confident that regardless of playback equipment quality or choice of recording [excluding mono material] I'd identify HiLP 64kbps from both 128kbps mp3 and HiSP, as well as MDLP. And yes, id'ing HiSP from PCM requires actual close listening for me. I hear the difference not as flanging but as a metallic graininess, a harshness that overrides certain sounds.

I've done quite a bit of recording with 907s - from dialogue recording to close-mic'ing instruments to ambient field recording to foley/sound effects recording.. and found that compared with the older equipment I was more accustomed to, even with the limits imposed by its performance specs, the results pretty much always outdid my expectations.

Well.. 1) Between the realtime method [which was suggested by someone here more than 2 weeks before HiMD was released] and marcnet's excellent work, it's already basically redundant. 2) Without having the track-trashing issue addressed.. well, you basically still have to run things realtime if you can't afford to lose your recording. You have to back up first anyway. So really. This doesn't change things much.

Fraunhofer IIS v3.3.2 professional which isn't free.

I'm currently most curious about the sound professionals "copy" of the ms907.. better specs. I am a big fan of M/S Stereo mics - they're a good compromise in terms of versatility and sound quality. There's really nothing wrong with the 907, though. You can just do better for the same price, looking at some of the mic sites out there. http://www.reactive.com and http://www.soundprofessionals.com are good places to look.

Hey marc - is there any way to identify if they stole your technique?

I never have problems, even with a mic like the Sony MS907. The recording's dynamic range is usually far higher than ambient noise in a space will even allow. When I started using my revo 7.1 for 24bit recording, I realised that the only real limitations I faced were the quality of the mics, the noise floor/headroom of the preamps [a mackie VLZ board], and how quiet I could make things in my apartment. It's easily possible to turn up a recording I've made of solo acoustic guitar until the computer's fan, about 15' away behind baffling, can be heard clear as a bell. Eve the lowest-end standard MD equipment I've used still exceeded limit imposed by the inherent ambient noise level of the recording location.

There is a wavdiff program out somewhere.. .wav files are not all identical, having different-length headers for the same audio. It's the same reason that some codecs report errors about "invalid chunks" which are probably metadata [like markers and regions saved from Sound Forge]. Anyway. Try searching for wavdiff. Assuming that beginning/end sample accurady is maintained between each conversion, you should be able to compare them.

The program has literally no accessible settings whatsoever.

I don't think your prog is obsolete in the least, marcnet. If anything, I'm willing to bet that the pool of users who have come from here and t-board will stay using what you've made. And yes, adding the others output formats would clinch that, likely.

This doesn't explain why mine measured flat, though.

If you record live on a HiMD in MD mode, you get true SP [of the newest generation encoding/decoding when on the unit itself]. True SP is not available from SonicStage or Simple Burner.

What mp3 codecs are installed on your system? i.e. if you open windows media player, what mp3 codec is it using? You can also find this out in the sounds and multimedia things in your control panel, under the tab 'hardware' I believe, there should be an entry for 'codecs'. It will tell you what codecs are installed. Perhaps you need to install a better codec. I have had SS refuse to encode a couple of files in total so far, never had the VBR problem people talk about, only problems with really old encoded stuff.

I've had tracks trashed on both formats.

I tend to be somewhat more moderate than bhangraman, having mostly done sound for tiny concerts in tiny venues. The sound systems in those situations tend to be well-mated equipment but not of the highest quality. Compromise in how I hear is practically a daily requerement. I think that my natural self is likely the audiophile snob who hears the difference between a diamond and sapphire stylus, notices that one of your tweeters is wired out of phase, &c. However - I am most accustomed to having to deal with people for whom the only criterion that make up "sound quality" is basically "can I hear it? If I can hear it, does it hurt?" Which honestly.. because of my hearing damage tends to force me to be far more moderate in amplifying things on stage, for instance, than most others are. I am known for leaving the master slider of a mixer that is otherwise all set with channels to peak between 0 and +6dB at -10db.. meaning I'm running the PA about 2.5X quieter than anyone else who runs it.. and yet, the guy that owns the equipment pats me on the shoulder and tells me it sounds great, and laughs his ass off when he notices the mains at -10. Um. Yeah. I have many pairs of shoes for audio. The one constant between all of them is trying to avoid two things: pain [since I have a low pain-threshod of hearing] and overstimulation [since I can actually self-induce hallucinations, synaesthesia, when exposed to loud music].

#1 reason: because religions tell people it's a bad thing to do. Another debate entirely, there.

No.

That's excellent news. Thank you for letting people know that method works.

This is good work, you guys.

Try burning to CD at the slowest speed possible.

The sweeps went from 5Hz-40kHz, and showed gentle sloping at 20hZ and around 20kHz. I don't see that you're doing anything wrong, no. I'd double-check the AVLS but otherwise.. not sure. My tests were done with a standard alkaline battery as power.

The answers to most of your questions are here and have been for some time. Please feel free to use the 'search' box and check the FAQs at minidisc.org. The short answers, though: 1. .oma is the file version of Sony's DRM'd container format for audio tracks. As such, it is basically not usable by anything but Sony's software. But - yes, you can use HiMDRender to make .wav files of them. 2. No. 3. PCM transfers on average between 2-3x realtime. 4. 94 minutes [a full disc] / 2.5 = about 38 minutes to transfer the audio. Rendering it with HiMDRender depends on how fast your computer is, but will likely only take a few minutes.

This sounds extremely odd. I've digitally transferred sweep tests et al to my NH700 and then recorded them back to my computer through the headphone out [with volume at 100%, 30/30] and gotten flat response from bottom to top with no clipping whatsoever [-12dBfs, -6dBfs, and 0dBfs tone suites]. Very odd.

Hope things are okay at your end. And I'm sure we'll not devolve into chaos before you're back.

Syrius: what we were talking about is -modern Christianity's- version of marriage, which is what the lawmakers seem to think they abide over. Which they shouldn't. Religious marriage and civil marriage should be combined if so desired, but need not be. Civil marriage should stand on its own without the meddling of religious authorities. Period. In many countries [such as here in Canada] a man and woman who cohabitate for long enough are considered "common-law married" and are entitled to certain of the same civil distinctions as a legally married couple are, such as certain differences in how taxes are calculated and paid. Yet - two people of the same sex who live together, say, for 40 years [whether they are in a sexual relationship or not is actually irrelevant] and are clearly financially codependent [among other ways] are not afforded the same distinctions. Why not? Other than the two people having sex with each other, sharing a bed, &c. - what's the real difference? In Canada certain parts of common-law cohabitation have been slowly being legally/civilly recognised over the past ten years or so. So why, if those two people -do- happen to be sleeping together, should we deny them the same rights as a man and woman who are together? Because Christians find it offensive? Well.. I'm sorry, but no government should base itself on Christianity, let alone any religion. The church[es] should be thrown out of government altogether, whether municipal, territorial [state[province/department &c.] or federal. Religion has no place in government whatsoever. Period. Unless, of course, 100% of the population subscribe to that religion, which you won't find anywhere on earth. Bush and his cronies like to essentially dictate policy based on their religious fervour, which is just plain wrong - not to mention the fact that it directly contravenes one of the amendments to the US constitution. Using church doctrine as reasoning to potentially endanger the lives of every single woman living in the United States is a crock of sh*t [it spreads much farther than merely the issue of abortion]. Using it to discriminate against people, whether because of skin colour, spoken language, gender, sex [and yes, they are two distinctly different things], sexual preference, and yes - religion - is simply wrong. Using religious beliefs as reasoning for any policy whatsoever is wrong. And yet - they do so on a daily basis and the US population, by and large, sits there and lollygags without saying a word because they're too numbed by television and prozac and years of standing under a two-party system that is utterly ludicrous to stand up and speak for themselves and their neighbours. People have clearly forgotten what democracy is for. I'll say it again, and I wish the entirety of the US could hear me shout it at the top of my lungs at them: WAKE UP.