[Leon Dota]

First off, here's the IndieGoGo to the AfterMaster Pro.
 
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/aftermaster-pro-make-your-audio-sound-incredible#/
 
Upon seeing the page and watching the video regarding it, about 20,000 red flags went off in my head and I went spiraling in a chain of 'what the f's loud enough to wake my neighbors. This thing is a load of USDA certified bullsh*t.

The first telltale sign is the total saturation of buzzwords and 'expert' touting. They claim over and over that it simply fixes audio and absolutely no where does it explain why or how it achieves this miracle feat. They endless spout how the team behind it is full of experts who all worked on -extremely popular- albums (slightly true, but also irrelevant).
 
The second red flag is in the video discussing the product. It showcases 'original' audio, and then the 'superb' audio, as 'fixed' by the AfterMaster. There's absolutely no way of telling what the audio files are that they are using. The 'originals' could very well be something like 120kbps and hyper-compressed. If you have a crapty audio file, news flash, it sounds like crap.

One of the biggest warning signs is closer to the bottom of the IndieGoGo page, where it shows the soundwaves of audio 'improved' by AfterMaster.
 

 
So literally, all it does is increase volume. It's a god damn amplifier.

On top of this, my guess is that it also cuts out a lot of the mids and ups the bass and treble; a very V shaped signature, pleasing to the general public's ears. The Meme Frequences, we could call them.


 
Of course, the absolute worst and scariest part of all this is how much money it's making. I'm no idiot, and I know that businessmen know how to market these sorts of things and that people generally flock to buzzwords like flies on crap, but come on. Come ON. This is just next-level amounts of lazy tech being sold at a ludicrous price.

 

[Kamakahah]

My BS meter was spiking as well. I'm sure there is some form of digital amplification and EQing happening. Doesn't matter. The masses will gobble it up. I'll pass.

 

[VNandor]

Hey, at least it actually alters the sound, and not in the four digit price range. Just with that it is already better than a lot of stuff in the audiophile market these days.

 

[valleynomad]

I believe that it increases the volume of center channel or give the channel a boost for the mid of its frequency spectrum to brighten up the dialogue and vocal components of most audio contents carried by multi-channel based platforms such as Dolby and DTS. So it is not completely a fraud . But of course it doesn't work very well for stereo and mono contents. And it is not necessary at all if your audio system already has the center channel, such as 3.1 soundbar or 5.1 receiver. In addition, this function in fact also has been implemented by some TV sets internally. In the future it will even be a standard TV feature.
 

 

[Aftermaster]

We couldn't help but respond to your scathing post wherein you refer to our product, Aftermaster Pro as "bulls@*t". Since you've never actually heard Aftermaster Pro in real life, don't have a clue what we're doing or how we're doing it, we wanted to pass on a few of our thoughts for those who may read your posting. 
 
First off, Aftermaster Pro is based on the award-winning (our three latest awards were won at CES 2016), patented, Aftermaster technology which is the ONLY audio enhancement technology that improves audio throughout the entire frequency range WITHOUT compromise. If you visit our home website you will find substantially more information about Aftermaster technology (www.aftermaster.com).
 
Aftermaster is not an exciter, widener or spacial effects product. Your guess "that it also cuts out a lot of the mids and ups the bass and treble; a very V shaped signature" is completely wrong and without merit. Indeed, our technology is groundbreaking and unique as it does not "rob from Peter to pay Paul" like every other process and that's why it is the only such audio process that is used for professional music mastering. To our ears, it is a true breakthrough in the audio, as it makes virtually all audio sound deeper, fuller, clearer and more exciting.
 
As noted, the Aftermaster Team has produced, engineered and mastered more hit music for more top artists than any other audio technology company in history (www.aftermaster.com/discography). You say that such accomplishments are "irrelevant" but we think that they are very relevant. It takes real experience, knowledge and talent to build the discography that we have and it allows us to confidently say that we think we know what sounds right. Not everyone will agree but it certainly can't be argued that we don't have a qualified opinion. We would be interested to know about your qualifications in audio, as you so easily dismissed us and the product that we have dedicated so much time, money and efffort on.
 
Lastly, as a very disciplined group of audio professionals, we would never put our names on a new kind of "loudness" button or device. The waveform that you posted shows an overall louder end product because EVERYTHING is improved THROUGHOUT the frequency range, making an increase in amplitude a by-product of our processing. We don't and would never make things loud for the sake of loudness. 
 
Aftermaster Pro is only the first on many products and applications that you'll be seeing with Aftermaster technology. We would appreciate hearing your opinion after you have experienced Aftermaster first hand.
 

 

[VNandor]

On a side note most hit music I heard has subpar audio quality IMO and I believe the guy who dismissed the claim you were working on such recorddings had a similiar experience however I don't want to put words in his mouth. Just a thought.

 

[Aftermaster]

VNandor,
 
We certainly respect everyone's opinion and by no means are we suggesting that everyone will like what we think sounds good. 
 
Our point, as it related to the comment about our discography, was that we think we understand what the general population likes because of the music, film and TV projects that we've done, which were popular with the public. But that wasn't the key issue. There were other important elements in Leon Dota's post that were simply wrong and needed to be addressed for the record.
 
BTW, we're curious to know what you meant by "subpar audio" in popular music. Is it engineering, file type, delivery hardware, etc.? We ask in good faith as we're always trying to learn and gather opinions.
 
Aftermaster

 

[VNandor]

 Our point, as it related to the comment about our discography, was that we think we understand what the general population likes because of the music, film and TV projects that we've done, which were popular with the public. But that wasn't the key issue. There were other important elements in Leon Dota's post that were simply wrong and needed to be addressed for the record.

Sure, and actually I respect you because you came here to stand behind your product. Most companies don't even bother with stuff like that.
 

 Since you've never actually heard Aftermaster Pro in real life, don't have a clue what we're doing or how we're doing it, we wanted to pass on a few of our thoughts for those who may read your posting. 

That is spot on. If someone bashes on a product at least listen to it before, or back  it up  with data about why it must be a bad thing. The thing is, there's just isn't any data about what your unit truly does. "Fixing audio" and stuff like that just won't cut it for more skeptical people. I understand why you wouldn't want to make a more detailed webpage about how it works, you developed its technology and if you made a more technical explanation of what it does, others could copy it.
 

 BTW, we're curious to know what you meant by "subpar audio" in popular music.

Just to make it clear, I'm not against your particular records, I don't even recognize like the 90% of artists you are mentioning on your site.
 
The problems I personally have with the popular music I hear (low sample size):
 
-OVERCOMPRESSION. And all the bad things that come with it. I could go ahead and make subjective claims about how it makes the music to sound worse but I hope someone else could do that for me. I'm being bad with words.
 
-Clipping: I'm being serious here. I couldn't believe my ears and later my eyes when I looked at the waveform.
 
-Tonal balance: I never analyzed the spectrum plots of music though, I might turn out to be wrong here.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by delivery hardware. Yes, most of the guys here think that the iPhone earpods and Beats are not Hi-Fi audio. You basically just jumped into a community which is being referred as "a bunch of elitist snobs" by most people.
 
By the way you shouldn't give a crap about MY opinion. So far from what I've gathered, I'm certainly not in your target audience.
I'm not completely sure about that but it seems to me you are selling a DSP. I prefer customizable DSPs which I can tailor to my liking, to my equipment and to my tracks.
 
EDIT: I should also add that none of my points try to validate that it's fair to yell BS instantaneously in case you didn't realize.

 

[xkonfuzed]

I concur with @VNandor 's findings with whats wrong with popular music. Over-compression is a huge caveat especially when listened to through a pair of revealing headphones. 
 
Also, out of genuine curiosity, if your company is so large and popular, then why did you have to start a an IndieGoGo campaign to start production?

 

[UncleGuy]

And -- as a Backer that finally demanded my money back over 2 months ago -- here it is November 13th, and they still have not shipped a single item. Lots of angry Backers there at IndieGoGo. Anyone interested in this should wait until the commercial product arrives. I cannot believe the artists associating their name with this are sleeping comfortably at night. The responses by the campaign owners have been a bit sporadic, with excuse after excuse. They did, however, refund my money.
 
I'm not declaring whether the product, itself, is pure hype.
But, so far, the campaign seems to be!

 

[UncleGuy]

Update!!
 
Here it is, December 18th, nd they still have not started shipping a viable product. Responses from them in the places where they've pushed this are "sporadic". People are getting very pissed.

 

[obobskivich]

Update!!

Here it is, December 18th, nd they still have not started shipping a viable product. Responses from them in the places where they've pushed this are "sporadic". People are getting very pissed.

This is surprising for a crowd-funded product? I thought people, by and large, had figured out the whole idea of paying someone today for the potential of getting a share in a hamburger 9 or 10 months in the future was, to put it lightly, wishful thinking.

Anyways, looking at the marketing speak and Aftermaster's response, this box looks like it could be generalized as a compressor/expander (of course they'll say it isn't, because they don't want it associated with the junk of the 1970s, and I don't blame them), and it apparently has more intelligent attack/release. Listening to their demos seems to confirm this - it brings up the loud bits pretty dramatically (too far imho, in the case of the Gotye track), but it also brings up the noise floor (audible hiss becomes evident). It also appears to be attempting to compensate for equal loudness. If you're interested in such a device, they aren't really that rare - BBE was/is very popular and produces (legitimate) professional-grade versions of their boxes that you can actually buy, there's also plenty of older dynamics processors out there (dbx and Pioneer both were very popular for a time), and some software packages that attempt to provide the same outcome (e.g. Creative Labs' Crystalizer). I'm sure if the Aftermaster folks are still around they'll come in and tell me why their product being featured in various magazines proves me wrong, but I'm simply commenting on what I'm hearing in their demos. Where their gear is arguably "novel" is that it does this via HDMI (if I'm understanding the page right), but I don't see why that's such a big to-do - you can always insert signal processing more downstream.

 

[Presby72]

None of this matters as the product is vaporware, a bunch of people, (including myself), were scammed into giving these clown a ton of money and they took it and ran.  All they seem to do is lie about production and shipping so I am sure what ever claims they made are lies as well.  STAY AWAY from this company!

 

[Presby72]

Liars, they took money and ran, the product doesn't exist just a big time scam.

 

[obobskivich]

Again, this is (sadly) a not uncommon experience for crowd-funded projects. I'm not sure its clear-cut that they're absolute "liars" or "big time scammers" so much as the realities of running a start-up and shipping a product and all that are pretty different than "dude, I have this cool idea!" - look at the Oculus VR experience as a "best case scenario" and even there it ultimately required the intervention of multiple major companies and a nearly endless cashflow, and they're still not shipping products in the mainstream (and will likely be fully eclipsed in coming years as more mainstream manufacturers (like Sony) get into VR mostly riding on the PR that Oculus generated to secure VC money). As far as I understand it, in providing money to the crowd-funding thing, you're signing something that essentially says this is a speculative investment in an unknown and you're gambling with your money, not that you're buying a secured final product (e.g. like shopping on Amazon). Using words like "scam" assumes intent and malice, which would have to be proven - its more likely that they're just a failed start-up, and that's an all too common sight in both the crowd-funded tech/maker industry and the audio world, where newcomers frequently over-extend themselves and then its basically down to burn rate and whoever buys in last, loses. Sorry to hear that it didn't work out for you, and its a good object-lesson for future people to be more skeptical of crowd-funding projects (basically if we stop giving them our money so willingly just because "dude, I have this cool idea!" looks neat on Facebook, it will signal to the market to stop floating these collasal turds).