Bub


Here's a thought ... maybe you can hit the DIFF button, then load up the Noise Removal plugin in Sound Forge, capture the difference, and remove it? 

So if you did that to Rap then all you'd be left with is black noise? 

Ya.

My best music experience ever was playing a 24-bit Gold Master CD of Bach through my bad-ass stereo system (setup like surround sound, but using just stereo in front and back if that makes any sense - in other words, using two, subwoofer with two satelites, speaker systems at once).  Then lying on my bed while colored lasers (which I still own) were playing to the sound - AND I was on mushrooms.

However, the other 99.999% of the time, I listen to 192kbps mp3's and they sound pretty darn good to me.

YMMV.

Mastered for iTunes? That's just market-speak froo-froo for Apple fanbois (there, I said it) that need to feel good about themselves dumping too much cash on yet another pocket toy.


Mastered lossy compression? What's next, mastered nose-hair trimmers?

zungle

Well  said....................


To add..........my Ipod Touch with my Skull Candy's ?


Totally  Rock. 


Sound better than anything I had in my younger days,no hiss,warble,or flub,skips,pops or clicks...........just tight loud and comfortable.


127 CD's in my pocket ready to rock............


What could be so bad about that?


 

Exactly. Always reminds me of the first time I heard the first Sabbath album w/o the clicks and pops - because that's the way I'd heard it the first time I ever listened to it and the gazillion times I've listened to it after that. It actually felt a bit weird. Took a bit of time for me to adjust.


Personally, w/ all the traveling, I'm more than happy w/ iTunes. It just wouldn't be possible for us to carry cds anyway. So whenever I feel like listening to one of those good old records I don't have w/ me (which typically happens on my night off when I had a few beers), I just buy that album on iTunes. I like the simplicity of being able to access my music from anywhere - just download it on any machine registered to me and not worrying about transferring files and burning cds or hunting down that darn USB stick.

Bub


So now we're arguing about A / B listening?

LOL!

Here's a thought ... maybe you can hit the DIFF button, then load up the Noise Removal plugin in Sound Forge, capture the difference, and remove it? I dunno.

I can think of a few dozen reasons why I'd want to hear the difference ...

More options are better?

No no no no no.

The reason it's not good to have the DIFF option is it expressly encourages people to do things that are REALLY REALLY STOOOOOOOOOPID.

As I said before, it COMPLETELY IGNORES the fact that the stuff that is taken out is taken out because of psychoacoustic masking. So it's something that sounds like a smart idea to people who don't see that when you are taking away the stuff that's doing the masking and trying to make decisions based on it, you can't hope to succeed. So it encourages people to screw things up. It's not like other places where maybe you can actually learn things from a DIFF signal - because in most cases any masking is more incidental, not THE VERY BASIS of what is included in the DIFF signal. 

And the fact that they graphing the DIFF signal also encourages dumb behavior. You often find people who want to take DIFF signals and use them to compare codecs, thinking that a codec with a smaller DIFF must be "better". But again, THIS IGNORES ALL OF THE PSYCHOACOUSTICS which is the very basis of how lossy codecs work. A codec that can throw out MORE and still be transparent is the superior one. Seeing what or how much it throws out is irrelevant. It's only the results that matter.

The big problem is it's MUCH easier for people to screw around based on the DIFF signal, because it's all right there and easy to hear, whereas when actually listening to the encoded audio people may well hear no differences. This is especially true at higher bit rates, where people (even the ones who think they are "special") are generally unable to tell encoded audio from the original in double blind or ABX testing, despite what they may believe.

I don't need anything or anyone to encourage me to screw things up...  LOL!

I gotta say...


It would rarely if ever occur to me to use the diff button.

I have a few other plugs that have diff buttons and I don't find myself using or acknowledging them very often.

I'm guessing that, of the few people that buy this tool, very few of them will have much interest in the diff tool either.



On the other hand, I agree with every thing drew says about the unsuitability of listening for difference in this circumstance.




best regards,
mike