naturerecordists
[Top] [All Lists]

Psychoacoustics at night

Subject: Psychoacoustics at night
From: "Marcus Buick" mbuick
Date: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:04 pm ((PDT))
[I'm eager to learn more about the processes and strategies you have develo=
ped
(and maybe more about what a psychoacoustician does at night). :-)  ~Rob]

My current psychoacoustic pre-occupation/bent lies in the greater understan=
ding
of satisfaction thresholds.  That is, everybody has a satisfaction threshol=
d of
recording quality.  Case in point: MP3=E2=80=99s.


For the longest time I eschewed MP3=E2=80=99s because of their lacking abil=
ity to retain
the subtleties of high-end recordings (analog reels, 24/96, etc.).  Over th=
e
course of time I began to understand why MP3=E2=80=99s are so popular (easy=

transmission, small file size, pretty high quality reproduction).  This led=
 me
to discover a way to present files that retained the majority of recorded
information vs. the difficulty of transmitting linear, uncompressed audio.

Even as good as the internets are now (increased bandwidth, better compress=
ion
algorithms) they still are no match for mono, uncompressed, linear audio, m=
uch
less stereo or multichannel.


My concern is that high-end audio (both recording and reproduction) is begi=
nning
to edge towards the relative unknown.  We are now almost two generations in=
to
the digital age and the younger of us have never heard of cutting vinyl,
splicing reel tape, or understanding the vagaries of mic choice and placeme=
nt.
Everybody believes you can just fix it in ProTools.

The lessening of the satisfaction threshold over time may allow someone in =
power
to say, MP3=E2=80=99s are =E2=80=98good enough=E2=80=99.  MP3=E2=80=99s are=
 the equivalent of FM radio.  If this
=E2=80=98good enough=E2=80=99 satisfaction threshold gathers enough steam, =
not only is every
recording studio going away, but then 16/44.1 will be the standard by which=

everything aural is judged and I personally do not find this acceptable.

The inverse of this is, if the satisfaction threshold rises over time, then=

higher-end studios, better reproduction systems, and higher quality recordi=
ngs
will be the order of the day.

That said, while I don=E2=80=99t loose any sleep over this, I find forums s=
uch as
NatureRecordists an incredibly valuable information dissemination port, and=
 will
do everything in my power and knowledge to help retain high-end recording a=
nd
reproduction information for future generations or anyone who is interested=
.


This is only because I=E2=80=99ve heard incredibly amazing recording that h=
ave brought
me to places I=E2=80=99ll never forget.  Thanks for allowing me to vent
psychoacoustically.









<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the naturerecordists mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU