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Remastering (Improving) your own Audio Albums as Big F.Y. to corporate Loudness War trend.

Jim B

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That one guy seemingly knows a lot more than you. In this forum, we go by what we can prove, not what we can shout as being right. If you have some evidence of changing an amp changes the sound based on controlled testing, then say it and everyone would appreciate it. If you are unwilling, then, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Wherever you hang out, make sure you bring common sense with you that this is a hobby and not a reason for an outburst like I am responding to.

WELL YOU”RE A REAL CUNT!
 

digicidal

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LOOOOOOOL! Or maybe it's not! Check out the big brain on Jim :D Popcorn achieved... downloading enjoyment.
 

BDWoody

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As I said, lack of common sense.....

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time...
Have you ever been called that before? That would be a new one for me.
 

digicidal

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As I said, lack of common sense.....
He makes up for it in eloquence and evidence however. Sorry, couldn't help it. It's been a hard day and though childish and ridiculous... this thread has given me some much needed levity. :facepalm: Now I need to clean some coffee off my monitor... wasn't expecting escalation to this level. :D
 

VintageFlanker

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Mod note: Last few personal posts deleted. Guys, you really want me to babysit you? Ignore each other's posts if bothersome.
WELL YOU”RE A REAL CUNT!
Noboby will miss you here. What you brought here in 24H: "DSD sounds much better", "reel to reel tape sounds much better" "You can't even afford a decent stereo system" (how the fuck would you know that?) "Are you from a socialist country?" and "go masturbate".

RIP, I let you be permanently banned with my blessing.
 

digicidal

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Noboby will miss you here. What you bring here in 24H: "DSD sounds much better", "reel to reel tape sounds much better" "You can't even afford a decent stereo system" (how the fuck would you know that?) "Are you from a socialist country?" and "go masturbate".

RIP, I let you be permanently banned with my blessing.
On the one hand I agree, on the other hand - with all of the extremely intelligent people on this forum, it's easy to be blinded by selection bias and begin thinking that everyone is that smart. Sometimes you need a few samples far outside the mean just to keep you honest. ;)
 

BDWoody

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On the one hand I agree, on the other hand - with all of the extremely intelligent people on this forum, it's easy to be blinded by selection bias and begin thinking that everyone is that smart. Sometimes you need a few samples far outside the mean just to keep you honest. ;)

It's like herpes...just gotta deal with it where it pops up...
 

solderdude

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Too bad I totally missed this pearle of practical wisdom.

But what I have been doing as a hobby, is I take the poor sounding digital music and re-record it on 10” reel to reel. And then the dynamic range is expanded (DBX) and the bass boosted as well. It’s really been fun and enjoyable!

You seem to lack complete understanding what dbx does. It is a noise suppressor (compander). Not only in the higher frequency band (like dolby B) but the entire frequency range. The signal though dbX is comporessed before it went on tape and de-compressed (expanded) again when 'read' from tape.
It does not 'expand' the input signal. When it does it is faulty or has incorrect operation.
Unfortunately this isn't fully linear process (with music) and the end result depends on bias level, and tape speed as well as the accuracy of the used EQ and the actual type of tape used as well as on drop-outs and timing of the compressor/expander.
With some music you can hear a 'pumping' action in the noise level.

You know it took more than 10 years after the introduction of cd before they could even come close to the resolution of the reel to reel master tapes.

I didn't know that. Who made the claim and why ? What is so special about the first 10 years ?

The amount of magnetic particals is in no way related to DSD or other digital system.
Analog particals are not bits nor streams.
Resolution is not determined by the amount of magnetic particles but by the gap width in the recording/playback head, tape material, bias frequency and above all amplitude and the used EQ. Smaller particles only means less tape noise.

You can make fun of it, but it is the highest quality.

I am not making fun of it. It isn't the highest quality at all. You (and perhaps a few others) feel/think it is the highest quality.
If it were the highest quality it would still be used in all major studios, not only the happy few that 'like' what tape does.
Also objectively speaking where are the measurements that prove tape is superior ?

I do like the looks of tape machines and the rotating reels.. owned several of them back when it was still king.
Now tape is only king on the waist pile or appreciated in the homes of some enthusiasts.
There may be some studios around that like/prefer what it did but ultimately those recordings are distributed on digital formats mostly.



What followed seemed to be nasty behavior... not worth reacting to.
 
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Joachim Herbert

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No need to buy expensive reel-to-reel equipment for that special sound: There are plugins for that. Some can be configured to generate exactly that kind of distortion that pleases you most.
 

LF78

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Guermantes

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Declipping functions try to reconstruct the missing waveform interpolating it with some algorithm:

Audacity:
https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/clip_fix.html

Audition:
https://helpx.adobe.com/audition/us...s-waveform-editor-only.html#declipper_options
Yes, I'm aware of the use of interpolation. I was interested in what Audacity (sorry, not Audition) was doing as the peaks in the screenshot you posted showed much less high frequency content than the surrounding waveform.

From the Audition link you supplied, it appears it has some different levels of sophistication in its interpolation algorithms. I wonder if Audacity is also using the simpler "Cubic" approach which uses spline curves which would result in the "clean" peaks I'm seeing.

But, whether simple interpolation or not, it is a big improvement over the sound of clipping!
 

LF78

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I wonder if Audacity is also using the simpler "Cubic" approach which uses spline curves which would result in the "clean" peaks I'm seeing.

So I checked in the actual code, and found this comment:

Code:
;; Algorithm by Benjamin Schwartz
;; Clip Fix is a simple, stupid (but not blind) digital-clipping-corrector
;; The algorithm is fairly simple:
;; 1. Find all clipped regions
;; 2. Get the slope immediately on either side of the region
;; 3. Do a cubic spline interpolation.
;; 4. Go to next region
 

eliash

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I need to redo the above.
Thinking over and looking at the DR table above shows some tracks where the DR hasn´t changed much. These are tracks (4, 6, 8) which are not clipped at 0dB before and after the HPF.
Unfortunately I cannot do it (with 6dB attenuation before filtering) in the next 2 weeks.
On the other hand I do not doubt the general effect, as can be observed in track 1...and the following vinyl and unaltered CD P/L measurements are fine as well.

As promised, I have completed the HighPassFilter comparison from above with and without the -6dB attenuation before filtering. The result makes some things clear to me:

1569391441568.png


When looking at the individual tracks one can see the influence of the a. m. "clipping tilt" on the DR clearly.
-Track 2 is heavily clipped, when HP-filtered, there is some 4dB gain (pls compare peak values w and w/o -6dB), probably generated by tilting the formerly flat clipped areas into slopes w higher amplitude.
-Track 1 wasn´t severly clipped and peak values prove that. The previously mentioned effect of the bass filtering on the DR seems to be validated with this. No DR change with -6dB gain...
- Track 6 shows the opposite effect of HP-filtering on the DR. Looks like as this track is not heavily clipped, but the bass content seems to be more dynamic than the rather constant volume trumpet play. When filtered, the DR drops by a point.
- Track 8 shows a no change, even if the dominant bass seems to play no role for the DR in this undistorted case.
- The other tracks seem somewhat in between the above extremes...


My take after this is that one should really avoid heavily clipped masters as a source for vinyl cutting, since so much dynamic range is lost (4dB from above track 2, where 6dB should be the theoretical maximum from "clipping tilt"). Probably this was the reason why ECM did so in the above.
On the other hand it seems probable that bass filtering increases the DR in many cases, but not in general. Non-bass-focused tracks (track 6) may have more dynamics in the bass itself than in the the rest of the instrumentation...
 
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