Dan Dugan wrote:
>
> Walter Knapp
>
> >I've quit trying to guess what ATRAC will damage, every time I guess, I
> >find it's not so, or not as I predicted. I know that when you
> >effectively remove 80% of the data something has to happen, it's just a
> >real slippery customer to pin down. Especially as that data magically
> >seems to reappear out the other end. And complicated by the problem of
> >separating the ATRAC effect from that of the surrounding electronics. I
> >have great admiration for the folks who invented and perfected this system.
>
> A couple of years ago I did an A-B comparison between linear and
> ATRAC at the NSS workshop. I used a lovely bit from Gordon Hempton
> that included a subtle background and prominent foreground sounds. I
> couldn't hear any difference, but one rather arrogant person, of many
> years professional experience, said that the difference was obvious.
> After the workshop I made up a "blind" CD with labeled tracks of the
> two versions, followed by a random sequence of ten tracks. Recently I
> gave it to my 22-year-old intern Zach, who has the best hearing
> around here, to try in his studio. He has always said that he can
> hear artifacts in ATRAC. When I corrected his answer sheet, his
> choices were ... random.
This is the normal result. The nature recordists did no better back when
I worked up a little test.
I've found that the arrogant ones usually will also create a great big
fog about why the listening test is no good rather than subject their
supposed good hearing to showing that they can't do it either. And for
nature recording, if caught and made to do the test, will then claim
that somehow other animals are different. You gradually reach arguments
that look really silly against all the other ways that our recording
equipment does not exactly reproduce sound.
It's a way you can have endless hours of amusement if you like that sort
of stuff.
Walt
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