Audiophiles... ???

[Rayek]

Are there any other audiophiles or producers/DJs in the house?

I saw a few threads on the GP32X forums asking about the quality of the sound output on the Pandora, so I know I'm not alone

I personally don't care about how good the speakers or line sound is on the Pandora... When I'm on the go, I expect the sound to be crappy.

One thing I was hoping to do was to supplement my vinyl collection with some MP3 playlists on the Pandora whenever I'm spinning records, and if the occasion ever presented itself, use the Pandora to project something interesting on a screen.

Just disjointedly thinking aloud, anyone else thinking similar things?

-R

 

[PoisonedV]

i might use it for small amounts of interfacing. i produce various music and can always use another peripheral.

 

[sinoth]

At the very least, I want to be able to run a tracker and control my Micron through a USB MIDI out. Shouldn't be too hard

 

[PoisonedV]

At the very least, I want to be able to run a tracker and control my Micron through a USB MIDI out. Shouldn't be too hard

ahhh, the micron and the microkorg... my two favorite mini synths

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I used to run a recording studio and did a lot of mixes, tracks etc for local groups and DJs, and my boyfriend used to be an audio engineer at Old Dairy Studios in York so between us we have a fair old knowledge . Between us I would class my boyfriend as more the audiophile though, he's a stickler for perfection and he's a keen vinyl enthusiast.

I still have Cakewalk pro studio software on my main machine and still love to be active in the music creation scene. I might be writing music for a few games soon to be appearing on the Wiz and GP2X.

 

[Shikaku]

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/

Slightly Offtopic. Vinyl.

 

[Rayek]

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/

Slightly Offtopic. Vinyl.

That's really cool, actually. I was digging through my parents' garage the other day and found a ton of 78s and 45s that survived the Nisqually flood in 1995. They were caked with silt and river-flow junk, but I cleaned some of the 45s up and found out that I had quite a few interesting tracks from the 50s and 60s.

I'm definitely a vinyl enthusiast... As an example, I've been listening to the Sugarcubes for years on a digital format, and the first time I played Life's Too Good and Here Today Tomorrow Next Week on vinyl, I understood like 40% more of what the lyrics were just because it was an analog recording and not some muddled digital wave.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

http://78records.cdbpdx.com/

Slightly Offtopic. Vinyl.

That's really cool, actually. I was digging through my parents' garage the other day and found a ton of 78s and 45s that survived the Nisqually flood in 1995. They were caked with silt and river-flow junk, but I cleaned some of the 45s up and found out that I had quite a few interesting tracks from the 50s and 60s.

I'm definitely a vinyl enthusiast... I've been listening to the Sugarcubes for years on a digital format, and the first time I played Life's Too Good and Here Today Tomorrow Next Week, I understood like 40% more of what the lyrics were just because it was an analog recording and not some muddled digital wave.

Phil (My Fella) has perfected a cleaning process for Vinyl, it's amazing how much he can clean up an old record you thought was totally ruined. Also the stylus he uses is thinner than a normal one so it sits deeper in the groove avoiding a surface scratches. Some of the Vinyl he plays sound better than good CDs (Note I said GOOD CDs, not crappy harsh digital recordings)! It's also better at reducing inner groove distortions. Vinyl is kewl, it's an art form in its own right!

 

[PoisonedV]

i think vinyl is entirely overrated and just held on to for no reason other than sentimental value, much like 'family values' and 'daytime television'. audio quality sucks compared to mastered version. of course you hear people ranting about the 'experience' of it- bah. shame i have to get half of richard d james music on vinyl

 

[Rayek]

You know what? I thought it was a load of bullocks too, but I've actually been a part of mastering sound from analog tapes to a digital format, and the tapes sound so much better and clearer than the digital output. Same is true for vinyl, I mean, the sound is physically there, not a series of digits on an optical disc.

And, as I said, I could hear a song a thousand times on a CD or an MP3 or WAV and not know what Einar's saying amidst everything else that goes on in a Sugarcubes track, but every time I play the vinyl I hear something new.

Vinyl's also cool because you can use it creatively, scratching, mixing, juggling....

I'm way too excited to get RDJ's new stuff, by the by.

 

[Username]

Complete audiophile here, just to say that I have about 20 something vinyl records. Don't get me wrong, I love the grittier sound of vinyl, but the digital format always sounds clearer to me. Vinyl has a much more classic sound - but never better quality.

 

[torpor]

I'm a musician, still have my full-blown MIDI studio with a 19" rack full of gear, a couple laptops crammed with all the audio DAW apps you could imagine .. and I'm very much looking forward to getting the Pandora so I can use it to develop music software.

First up, full-blown MIDI sequencing and librarian capabilities - I really want to ditch a couple laptops in my rig and replace it with the Pandora, which I hope will be doing sequencing and general MIDI-style administrative functions for the 19" rack.

Then, the DSP. I think the Pandora has the capability to become a *very* nice general-purpose audio-processing platform, sorta like the Soundart Chameleon once promised (and delivered, but only to those with 19" racks, alas, and the patience to write their own skins..) There will be a lot of attention from me, anyway, towards doing unique, new and interesting things with the Pandora in the sound-processing department, maybe a virtual analog and effects package or so.

And at the very least, of course, the Pandora itself will be integrated, pretty much straight away, in my personal new portable 'pocket studio' rig which right now consists of my iPhone running apps like RjDJ, miniSynth, BtBx, BeatMaker, noise.io and so on .. paired with a little Arduino PocketPiano (gotta add WLAN-MIDI to it first!), a minty-box 3.5mm mixer/patch-bay, a 5g iPod Video, and maybe a Freerunner too, I think I'll have a monster rig full of pocketable devices pretty soon. The Pandora will fit right in with that; I'm definitely going to at least write a sample-playback application that puts the keys and screen to good use.

So, yeah .. there is much hope for Pandora in the audio realm, I would say.

 

[Rayek]

Complete audiophile here, just to say that I have about 20 something vinyl records. Don't get me wrong, I love the grittier sound of vinyl, but the digital format always sounds clearer to me. Vinyl has a much more classic sound - but never better quality.

Hmmm. I tend to disagree. If we're talking just stereo sound and not like the Bjork albums that were released in 5.1 digital surround (which obviously sound better on a digital format), vinyl oozes audio quality.

There are like 4 basic facets to getting good sound out of vinyl,
One is the overall quality of the record itself; two is the quality of the stylus; three is the amplifier; four is the speakers. Five is an optional equalizer. If any of those things are sub-par, the sound is going to be scratchy, 'retro', and perhaps tinny junk. But if everything's in your favor, you get a less muddled sound wave (less muddled than digital...) coming out of your stereo.

CDs and other digital formats sound crisper, but sometimes that just translates to a hollow, terrible mess, and as I've said, hearing something on vinyl is like a new experience, it seems that on a record every track (vocal, drums, guitar, etc.) are nicely separate and very distinct from one another.

 

[Tom`]

Well...

I know there's a lot of disagreement on this subject, but I think a lot of audiophiles are completely deluded ( ) when it comes to a lot of things, and this is probably one of them.

It's been my experience that while vinyl has a different sound than CDs, it's not accuracy in sound reproduction that people like - it's just the sonic characteristics. Well-mastered CDs can sound better than vinyl, it's just that the majority of CDs are poorly-mastered, and most vinyl isn't.
There's also the superior portability, cost, durability, availability of CDs...it's a far superior format IMO than vinyl. I just wish the corporate overlords would leave the recording engineers alone...see this video for an example. Even at Youtube quality, the differences are immediately obvious.

 

[PoisonedV]

Well...

I know there's a lot of disagreement on this subject, but I think a lot of audiophiles are completely deluded ( ) when it comes to a lot of things, and this is probably one of them.

It's been my experience that while vinyl has a different sound than CDs, it's not accuracy in sound reproduction that people like - it's just the sonic characteristics. Well-mastered CDs can sound better than vinyl, it's just that the majority of CDs are poorly-mastered, and most vinyl isn't.
There's also the superior portability, cost, durability, availability of CDs...it's a far superior format IMO than vinyl. I just wish the corporate overlords would leave the recording engineers alone...see this video for an example. Even at Youtube quality, the differences are immediately obvious.

In much of electronic music, the musicians ARE the producers- which is why, to me, a lot of it seems so cohesive and consistent. If i was an artist, I would prefer to do my own mixing.

 

[eksasol]

Complete audiophile here, just to say that I have about 20 something vinyl records.

Just joking, but if you posted that in an audiophile forum they would laugh at you.

Well...

I know there's a lot of disagreement on this subject, but I think a lot of audiophiles are completely deluded ( ) when it comes to a lot of things, and this is probably one of them.

It's been my experience that while vinyl has a different sound than CDs, it's not accuracy in sound reproduction that people like - it's just the sonic characteristics. Well-mastered CDs can sound better than vinyl, it's just that the majority of CDs are poorly-mastered, and most vinyl isn't.
There's also the superior portability, cost, durability, availability of CDs...it's a far superior format IMO than vinyl. I just wish the corporate overlords would leave the recording engineers alone...see this video for an example. Even at Youtube quality, the differences are immediately obvious.

Well I agree, that's why I stop wasting my money on audio stuff. I'm leaning more on getting the best sound value at a price point than to be wasting on cables that cost $1000+. When you mentioned "different sound", sorry but I support that aspect, if people love the sound then that's all its matter even if it's imperfect or less accurate. I much prefer the warm analog sound over cold digital. As mentioned from another thread, with the Pandora having BurrBrown opamp, not sure what DAC chip, but along with a strong headphone output I might be in for a treat. People still spent ~$300 for those mp3 players looking for good sound you know.

Only problem now is how can I get foobar2000 running on the Pandora, there is no linux version. I love that software.

 

[PoisonedV]

Complete audiophile here, just to say that I have about 20 something vinyl records.

Just joking, but if you posted that in an audiophile forum they would laugh at you.

and thats why nobody likes audiophiles

 

[Bosbeetle]

I own a lot of vinyl but I just have vinyl for the bigger album art, the authentic feel, and to own a physical object that I can not make myself (i.e. a cd). So basically because it looks cool. Another essential part about vinyl is that you have to flip it so you are not casual listening you are engaged with the process of listening. There is no such thing as playing background music on vinyl. Because it will reach the endgroove and damage your needle (I dont have auto stop on my record player).



vinyl is a nice way to support artists and enjoy a physical music media. On the other hand mp3's are more convenient, dont wear, and soundwise flac can be as good as vinyl (or just rip vinyl to flac) So I choose vinyl for home music playing and mp3 for on the go.

 

[Rayek]

I own a lot of vinyl but I just have vinyl for the bigger album art, the authentic feel, and to own a physical object that I can not make myself (i.e. a cd). So basically because it looks cool. Another essential part about vinyl is that you have to flip it so you are not casual listening you are engaged with the process of listening. There is no such thing as playing background music on vinyl. Because it will reach the endgroove and damage your needle (I dont have auto stop on my record player).

vinyl is a nice way to support artists and enjoy a physical music media. On the other hand mp3's are more convenient, dont wear, and soundwise flac can be as good as vinyl (or just rip vinyl to flac) So I choose vinyl for home music playing and mp3 for on the go.

I listen to vinyl for completely different reasons, though the ones you stated are a plus. My biggest draw to vinyl is that its just as much creative as it is an individual work of art (the music, I mean >_>). The same argument can be made for MP3s and digital music with the inclusion of ipod-DJ or CD-DJ boxes for scratching, but it never sounds the same, and never better than when one is scratching on a record.

I have no problem using mp3s (I don't even really care about lossless digital audio formats) when on the go, and I never have, barring a few extreme examples (Björk's Hunter needs to be heard in lossless... ). Mainly the reason I don't buy CDs anymore is I could supposedly illegally download the same quality and sound I'd be getting if I just bought the CD, so there's a lack of incentive for me to buy the more 'portable' audio format of the two. Really, there's nothing more portable than a bunch of bits on an mp3 player, so why go the in-between?

I plan on filling 8GB of a 16GB SDHC just with music, so I'll be listening to music on the Pandora quite a bit.

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

An interesting bit of trivia about Vinyl is that to create a good sounding record is an art form in itself. Did you realize you cannot just take a piece of music and make a master out of it? The bass section has to be reduced mainly to mono, the reason for that is because if you have a loud low frequency on one side of the stereo image, it can literally jump the stylus out of the groove, plus making sure you don't end up with inner groove distortions are just two of the many factors that come into play when cutting a new lacquer.

Techniques that are used to create Vinyl are no longer required to make a digital recordings as you can now just take the master and copy it. So in essence you should get a more true representation of what the original artist recorded with high quality 24bit digital. Unfortunately the digital recording will also keep any harsh waveforms as the recording and playback devices are not physical but electronic, as opposed to vinyl as the cutting head and read stylus will smooth out the recordings as they have a slower reaction time. This is also true for magnetic tape, it's why if you record something over and over again the recordings degrade each time you copy. This is also why the old analog based recording studios that have 24 track tape mastering were preferable to studios that were 16, the reason is that once you have used up 15 tracks, you then need to combine some tracks together and copy them to a free track, this technique is called bouncing and as stated earlier, you will get a degradation in quality, but it's one thing that gave the smoothness we associate with older recordings when compared to todays digital mastering.

My pet hate with digital recording is the obsession with trying to make a recording as loud as possible by applying a stupid amount of compression with fast attack and decay times resulting in the music being loud and every time a bass drum kicks in the music level lowers and then instantly raises itself again, it's horrible.

P.S. I'm not really the audiophile, but my boyfriend is definitely one, he's the one with the mega expensive turntable, cartridge and stylus etc. He even doesn't trust mains 50hz for the strobe on his turntable, and got me to build a little LED circuit that reacts to an audio source, such as a CD or media player, and he's created wav files with a perfect 50hz and 100Hz sine waves. Quite fun really seeing our little creating in action