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Serge Smirnoff

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Everything posted by Serge Smirnoff

  1. Experiment successfully finished. ATRAC SP (Type-R) was added to SE rating system.
  2. Yes, Thank you once again. Your recording is the first on Analysis of submitted ATRAC SP (Type-R) recordings page. Another one was submitted by Numinos from MiniDisc Forum. Time warped versions and artifacts signals are available.
  3. Hi All, SoundExpert starts new experiment which needs attention and possible participation of Sony Insider forum members. Hope it will be interesting as well. The experiment has two purposes: To test our new time warping technology.To try preparing of test material outside SoundExpert (including verification and selection procedures). We chose ATRAC SP (Type-R) as an experimental candidate (details are in SE news article) and would like to ask people on this forum who have MD equipment with ATRAC SP (Type-R) capability to record digitally SE test file and then record it back to PCM format digitally as well. This is in short. In detail: Download a single test file - http://rapidshare.co...1351/secd01.rar (WAV, 44100, 16, stereo, duration 5:15, size 29.7 MB). It consists of three identical groups of nine SE test samples (with trailing samples). Three groups are necessary to verify the consistency of recoding. The test file can be played back on computer directly or by mounting virtual Audio CD. Also it can be burnt as real Audio CD and played back on CD/DVD player. CUE-sheet for burning/mounting applications is included.Using S/PDIF, TosLink, AES, USB or other digital interface record the test file to MD (Type-R) as a single track.Playback the recorded MD track through digital interface and record it back to computer or other recording equipment capable of recording PCM 44100. If you record in 32bit format, leave it as is to avoid additional processing.Archive or losslessly compress resulting WAV/AIFF 44100 PCM file and upload it to some file hosting service. As we never did this before we don't know how many such recordings will be sufficient. We'll process all received files with our time warping software to eliminate wow-and-flutter and other time distortions. For every file submitted we'll upload corrected (warped) versions along with difference signals. So the whole experiment will be openly covered on SE site and could be discussed here on the forum. The most consistent and representative recording will then be added to SE rating system as ATRAC SP (Type-R) device under test. Although this format is not developed anymore it is still used for home and semi-professional recording. It will serve as a benchmark for SE rating scale, let alone the possibility to compare it to other audio compression algorithms at various bit rates. Also if this experiment is successful the above scheme could be used for adding other audio equipment to SE rating system. Thank you in advance, Serge.
  4. I’ve noticed that SonicStage 3.4 adds watermarking when decoding .oma files (either converting to .wav or creating Audio CD). Is there any way to avoid this as watermarking slightly decreases perceived quality margin thus lowering overall rating of ATRAC3 (LP2) codec. I suppose MD players don’t alter PCM signal in any way when playing encoded music.
  5. Thank you, kurisu, for the info. I’ve already included LP2 in the forthcoming test.
  6. Hi All, New “128 kbit/s” listening test is scheduled at SoundExpert. Codecs that were already tested there three monthes ago: - aac VBR@134.5 (iTunes 6.0) - mp3 VBR@112.7 (Lame 3.97b2) - ogg VBR@129.9 (OggEnc 2.8) - wma 9.1 pro VBR@108.8 The results of testing are here. Now it’s time to add new contenders to this crew. Some probable ones are: - wma 10 CBR standard (WMP 11, Vista) - wma 10 CBR pro (WMP 11, Vista) - wma 10 VBR (WMP 11, Vista) - aac LC CBR (Winamp 5.2) - aac HE CBR (Winamp 5.2) - aac LC CBR (Nero 7) - aac LC VBR (Nero 7) Would it be interesting for the MD community to include also ATRAC codecs from SonicStage: - ATRAC3plus@128 and may be - ATRAC3@132 (LP2) I’m not sure these encoding modes are used today in real life. Your opinions would be helpful. Thank you.
  7. From Free Download Manager interface: while beeing in Site Explorer you can right click the file already downloaded and choose "Refresh" or "Disconnect". The file will be updated.
  8. NO with high probability. But if you want to compare directly these two formats you may encode some sound excerpt with Lame and SonicStage by yourself and listen them. Well, among two formats and at 256 kbit/s - probably yes Definitely, at 128-192 kbit/s it could outperform ATRAC3plus. We’ll see soon.
  9. Lame 3.97b1 -V 0 is in "224" group of SoundExpert. Bit rate range where mp3 realy shines is 128-192. The higher, the less efficient this format. Agree. But the gap between this two formats at SoundExpert seems to me too big that any other mp3 encoder could shorten it substantialy. Anyway, time and tests will show. I plan to add Lame 320CBR soon. It could be revealing in the sence of highest possible mp3 quality.
  10. Actually, when you download a test file you can get a sample of any codec rotated at SoundExpert (now 67 codecs, as I've sad already). This is not necessarily your fault – my English is not perfect as well. I mean, both ratings in 256 group will change slightly after some time but this change will not be dramatic, superiority of ATRAC3plus (256) over mp3 (CBR,256) will remain for sure.
  11. The ratings will change slightly as new participants will add their grades but the difference between ATRAC3plus (256) and mp3 (256) is too big in order they swap their places in future. Right you are, there is no such access. But I can say that for the last two hours there were no ATRAC3plus(256) samples downloaded No, if you grade "5" it doesn't matter which sample you marked as "degraded". Your mark will be accepted anyway. Well, I will think how to make it more clear in future. Just shortage of time. New testing methodology which allows to test reliably such high bit rates was introduced only this summer (you can look at news on the site). 128 group will be created till the end of this year.
  12. Thank you for the response, guys. I have to beg a pardon for not explaining the essence of SoundExpert project as I see some sort of misunderstanding in the replies. Now I’ll try to correct my mistake. SoundExpert testing engine is completely blind. So when somebody downloads a test file he doesn’t know what codec it belongs to. That is why the resulting ratings are objective and unbiased. If testers know the codec they grade everybody will grade “five” their favorite ones and “one” for others. It’s worth to say that the value of such ratings would be insignificant. Downloading a test file you get randomly one of the samples of some codec. Now there are 67 codecs rotated in the system. After you have graded the sample SoundExpert automatically “unblindes” the codec of that test file and new rating of that codec appears immediately on corresponding page. For testing 9 different short sound samples are used: Bach.J.S, "Oster-Oratorium, BWV 24" Bass (SQAM) Castanets (SQAM) French Male Speech (SQAM) Glockenspiel (SQAM) Harpsichord (SQAM) Lo-Fi Analog Tape Recording Mike Oldfield, "Music From The Balcony" Quartet (SQAM) SQAM means Sound Quality Assessment Material – CD published by European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for sound quality evaluations specially. All samples are hi quality recordings made for the purpose. "Bells" are probably Glockenspiel. So unfortunately it is not a part of some music work - just a sound sample from SQAM. If you have any questions, please, feel free…..
  13. Hi, I've just added ATRAC3plus (Hi-SP) to SoundExpert audio quality testing service (www.soundexpert.info) in “Coders 256 kbit/s” group: ATRAC3plus CBR@256.9 (Hi-SP) - ATRAC3plus (used in Hi-MD and Sony's solid-state and CD walkman products), 256.9 kbit/s FBR CODER: SonicStage 3.3 - 44100 Hz Stereo DECODER: SonicStage 3.3 - "Create an Audio CD" It sounds surprisingly good in comparison with mp3 256. The character of artifacts is quite similar to mp2 one. So it starts with 15.38 points. You are welcome to take part in testing.
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