L5730
Addicted to Fun and Learning
@bennetng I'm in agreement with where you are going with this.
It's like when essentially the same 24/96 master is used to create the CD and a vinyl release. Then folks come along showing waveforms, DR stats and whatnot trying to demonstrate that the vinyl version is in some way superior.
Now, the distortions imparted by the process of cutting to vinyl and playing that medium back, the effect of pre-amp etc. all may impart pleasant qualities to the sound, but we should pretty much all recognise that the CD is likely much closer to the original master file. Ian Shepherd has a video demonstrating exactly this with something he did.
For better quality audio it's an entire process. Not ballsing up the recording (we'll assume they are at least competent in recording techniques). Mixing with headroom and at floating point export. Mastering with headroom to prevent ISPs in the final output. This should be for each track, making them the sonic best they can be.
As end consumers we only have a limited tool set. There are other threads which discuss the merits of the DR meter and stats. Data from these tools can indicate things, but we really need to get to the nitty gritty of listening to the music to hear whether or not issues arise - at the moment. Perhaps more intelligent algorithms will be developed which may be able to better analyse the quality of a track based on numerous factors. It starts getting into the territory of what is music, what is noise and what was the intended sound?
It's like when essentially the same 24/96 master is used to create the CD and a vinyl release. Then folks come along showing waveforms, DR stats and whatnot trying to demonstrate that the vinyl version is in some way superior.
Now, the distortions imparted by the process of cutting to vinyl and playing that medium back, the effect of pre-amp etc. all may impart pleasant qualities to the sound, but we should pretty much all recognise that the CD is likely much closer to the original master file. Ian Shepherd has a video demonstrating exactly this with something he did.
For better quality audio it's an entire process. Not ballsing up the recording (we'll assume they are at least competent in recording techniques). Mixing with headroom and at floating point export. Mastering with headroom to prevent ISPs in the final output. This should be for each track, making them the sonic best they can be.
As end consumers we only have a limited tool set. There are other threads which discuss the merits of the DR meter and stats. Data from these tools can indicate things, but we really need to get to the nitty gritty of listening to the music to hear whether or not issues arise - at the moment. Perhaps more intelligent algorithms will be developed which may be able to better analyse the quality of a track based on numerous factors. It starts getting into the territory of what is music, what is noise and what was the intended sound?