Here's What You Don’t Hear When Music is Compressed

[Cupe]

The emergence of “high-quality” media players in recent months, like the PonoPlayer, has sparked a debate about whether we notice the difference between compressed formats like mp3 vs uncompressed ones like WAV. While MP3 and other compressed audio files formats have made it possible to more easily download, share and store and take more music with us on our portable devices, there are elements and often frequency bands that are lost during the compression process.

While the quality of compressed vs uncompressed music could be viewed as a subjective part of our listening experience, Ryan Maguire, a Ph.D. student in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia Center for Computer Music, was interested in investigating exactly what parts of a song get excluded during the compression process. And he’s found a way to allow us to hear what we’re not hearing!

In this fascinating video from his website, Ryan has created an audio file of all the sounds that were discarded once the song “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega was digitally compressed:

https://www.vimeo.com/107845118

In an interview with difuser.fm, Ryan explains more about these “lost” sounds: “What are these lost sounds? Are they sounds which human ears can not hear in their original context due to universal perceptual limitations or are they simply encoding detritus,” he asks. “It is commonly accepted that MP3s create audible artifacts such as pre-echo, but what does the music which this codec deletes sound like? In the work presented here, techniques are considered and developed to recover these lost sounds, the ghosts in the MP3, and reformulate these sounds as art.”

As many professional producers and musicians will probably agree, it’s as interesting to hear what is left out than what is actually transmitted through a song. But, questions remain on how seriously compressed formats have affected/ruined our listening experience, and whether being able to listen to a song as the producer meant it to be heard is applicable when the audio file format is just one element that affects sound quality… yes, iPod/iPhone headphones I’m staring straight at you…

Source

[LabRat]

Cool read. This discussion pops up everywhere on the internet. It's obvious mp3 or m4a or whatever squish it up a bit but it's fairly unnoticeable unless you're a sound nazi and you get the spek out and listen to it with a magnifying glass

[BeatLeSS]

Cool read. This discussion pops up everywhere on the internet. It's obvious mp3 or m4a or whatever squish it up a bit but it's fairly unnoticeable unless you're a sound nazi and you get the spek out and listen to it with a magnifying glass

Not true. Play an mp3 vs a wav on a funktion one rig and tell me you need a magnifying glass to hear the difference. I know festival organisers that won't let you use mp3's on their rigs.

[LabRat]

Cool read. This discussion pops up everywhere on the internet. It's obvious mp3 or m4a or whatever squish it up a bit but it's fairly unnoticeable unless you're a sound nazi and you get the spek out and listen to it with a magnifying glass

Not true. Play an mp3 vs a wav on a funktion one rig and tell me you need a magnifying glass to hear the difference. I know festival organisers that won't let you use mp3's on their rigs.

Nah nah that's not what I'm comparing too. Obviously there's a massive difference there. I'm referring to smaller, home style systems and what not. Small bars and clubs too…

[Tomy]

i play everything in MP3 320 and i play in a fairly big club here in brissy and never had any issues at all.

anyways my point of view is that the benefits of mp3 greatly out way .wav. i don't really need to explain them cause we all know. The only thing I've got against MP3's is it's pretty much the driving force for music becoming disposable which has had huge repercussions across the music industry

[BeatLeSS]

anyways my point of view is that the benefits of mp3 greatly out way .wav. i don't really need to explain them cause we all know. The only thing I've got against MP3's is it's pretty much the driving force for music becoming disposable which has had huge repercussions across the music industry

The only benefit I can possibly see with mp3 over wav is the surcharge applied by the content deliverers not applying to mp3.

Size is certainly not an issue with current internet and computer infrastructure available to us. Sure, a decade ago that would be a valid point, but I can download and store a wav no problem thanks to data and storage technology now days.

I would also wonder if you actually would notice a difference yourself if you did play wavs instead of 320's, and what kind of audible experience that might give your punters. Chalking it up to them being retarded and not 'knowing' the difference is, in my opinion, a complete hack. You should be aiming to give your listeners the best possible experience, regardless if they can tell or not, and that begins at the source of audio.

I would also wonder what damage you may be doing to a large system over time by using compressed audio, as the waveform in which a speaker replicates that sound is changed by compression. The larger the speaker the more movement it needs to have in order to recreate the waveform, when parts of that waveform are missing you can certainly expect the speaker to begin behaving in an abnormal fashion.

[eggssell]

burstaball nice article. thats pretty interesting the bits cut off,i actually like the track. nice minimalist shit.

in regards to opinion as a punter (and i know things have changed since my days). when i went out it was to go and dance and have fun. i honestly dont think i would have noticed.

im not sitting there listening for transitions, or im not sitting there hoping they play a particular track, so i most definitely wouldnt have been sitting there judging quality. i think maybe once (at the cauldron in the cross) i thought it may have been a little too bassy because i could occasionally feel my chest collapsing.

basically i would go and when the vibe is right i would start dancing. and if the dj/s was/ were good enuff i would keep goin till it was time to bail. and usually the best dj's were the ones when a few hours had passed and you didnt even notice.

and that was vitamin free.

[eggssell]

also to add, as i remember looking into it when i first bought traktor i.e. wav vs mp3.

and i remember coming across an article which had comments from ztrip, craze and i think klever. and one of them said they buy shit from itunes, and that was 2008/09 itunes which was worse than it is now. and they would be playing at fests no issues.

i guess in a lounge environment, where people are there to listen to the music, then detail and clarity of both the source and the PA system would be key.

but in an everyday night club situation where you want to get your boogie on, i personally think the debate is not that big a deal

[BeatLeSS]

I disagree from a fundamental level. If we want the best experience, we need to start at where that experience begins, the sound. Just because your drunk and your ears can't hear it, doesn't mean you aren't experiencing the effects of music.

Below 95hz will begin resonating with different parts of your body. 92.5hz will make your rib cage rattle. If these sounds aren't being reproduced with the utmost reference to the original design, you're bound to have problems. Whether or not you can hear the difference after a 10 pack doesn't stop it from physically affecting you another way.

Now this gets amplified the bigger and better the sound system you use. What happens when you want to amplify an already incomplete source?

This is essentially to me, personally, the same as seeing a doctor and that doctor telling me things I'm believing as correct when in reality the doctor's fucking dodge and copping some fat pfizer check at the end of each month for his/her bullshit recommendation.

We need to shift the mentality from "who the fuck cares" to "I care" . If I'm aiming to give a crowd the best experience I can possibly give them, you bet your bottom dollar I'm going to do it.

[eggssell]

i was usually not drunk (well not always).

i enjoy music. i enjoy dancing.

i mean note i am talking about top notch mp3s not some 98 kbps rip of a cassette tape.

so to me that extra bit that is lost will not add to my enjoyment/ goal, when i am out to dance.

and as was explained to me when i asked the question here many moons ago, if i was ever to play out the amount of systems where the difference would be significant (i.e. noticeable) would be very few.

so if my goal was to take people on a musical journey then that extra amount of sound loss will not likely add anything to that.

however, highly agree,if resources (cash, space, and all the things) were not an issue then go for gold. i mean in the ultimate universe i would have everything on vinyl.

[eggssell]

i guess one disclaimer from me, it has to be noted i stopped regular clubbing (i.e. 2+ times a week) back in 2003. i mean i still hit clubs between now and then but not often more than once a week.

and i last looked into the mp3 vs wav debate in 2009.

so venue sound systems may have greatly improved. especially as technology has improved.

so the noticibility may have moved since then

[Kodiak]

Pretty much 100% of EDM is compressed to hell at mastering stage anyway so I think the argument is largely moot with regards to this genre. I can't hear any difference between mp3 or wav with dance music. High quality recording and mastering of normal music I can absolutely hear the difference.

[BeatLeSS]

Yeah, I guess what I'm trying to say is that what you hear isn't even half of how you experience sound. Sound is vibration. That vibration is felt not heard when played through bigger systems. I've been in the middle of dance floors at doofs where you can have a conversation with the person next to you, yet you can literally feel the air around you moving with the tune. You're moving, not because you want to, but because you are resonating with those vibrations.

The way in which that sound wave is recreated will absolutely have an affect on your body, not just your hearing. If that sound wave isn't being reproduced properly then you've already lost half the battle.

Also, compression from a production point of view is different to compression from a format point of view I believe.