[bigshot]

Ah... so it's a killer track. EDIT: I found Aeoga COAV. I guess it wasn't released in the US. I ordered it from France. Thanks.

How does VBR factor in? Does it break up at AAC 192 VBR? And does it play fine at AAC 256 CBR?

 

[Blackwoof]

It breaks at 192k quite a lot of his stuff does, Had no issues at 256k VBR and FHG AAC does better at 192kbps VBR. Brighter death now - Impasse has the same issues under 192k with QAAC, I think It's struggling to tell what is noise and musical sound.

 

[bigshot]

With AAC, you can't judge with VBR on. It allows the codec to go above the setting, even beyond 320 if you have it set for that. I always establish the threshold using CBR first. The other thing is that you have to lower the volume a bit before you encode. Hot mastered tracks that aren't clipping in lossless may go into clipping when they are encoded in AAC. When I get the CD from France, I'll set up some test files and share them.

 

[Blackwoof]

Yeah, I used CVBR/CBR at 224kbps on those samples to see if It was 192k & under being the issue.

 

[Blackwoof]

My thoughts after trying hard sample pack from HA.

Lame MP3 = 4.5/5, Could get away with 190kbps VBR but anything pre echo(eig.wv) would need V0 with 48KHz.

AAC = 4/5, Transparent at 160kbps but struggles hard with industrial ambient.

Vorbis aoTuV = 4.5/5, Holds well at 160kbps but anything with white noise to crunchy noise It needs 384kbps to not sound bad.

MPC = 5/5, Despite being subband based It blows other three out the water at 170kbps.

Opus = 5/5, Same as MPC but has horrid bit rate bloat at 160 ~ 224kbps.

 

[bigshot]

Then it seems you're safe with any codec at 192. I have a killer track that artifacts on a lot of codecs at 192. It isn't totally clean on AAC until 256. I hope Aeoga COAV is good music! It's on a boat to me as we speak.

 

[Blackwoof]

It tribal Dark ambient with a lot acoustic instruments a lot easier to get than the pure electronic style. Yeah, It why I've been using 192 MP3 since if It artifacts I can up to 320 or use Vorbis.

 

[Foulcher]

I do not know if it is considered a "reliable" test but I scored many times 5/6 on the NPR test (after trials because its is asks to tell which file is lossless, i.e. of best quality. Finding différences was not that hard even if they are honestly very subtle, but that does not mean that one sounded better than the other, better is just subjective.). one track have been always impossible to tell aside from "lucky" pull for me.

However, I do not know why, I noticed that I generally set volume a bit higher with AAC tracks than with ALAC ones and that I have more hearing fatigue with AAC. It was not on purpose as I do not that care.

Anyway, from a purely theoritical point of view, I do not see the point of lossy music aside from storage reasons which have been gone for a long time (1 To storage is pretty "small" nowadays and it can hold more lossless music that I might hear for the rest of my life...).

 

[bigshot]

Blackwoof, I got the CD that has a killer track on it... Aeoga COAV. Which track and at what running time does it artifact? I'm going to check it and see where the threshold is.

 

[Blackwoof]

It track 2 at 0:00 to 0:45. I still use TVBR 82 but on albums like this I use V4 ~ V1 LAME, Really surprised how well LAME holds up at V5 ~ V4.

 

[bigshot]

thanks!

 

[sonitus mirus]

thanks!

Let me know if you found another killer track. I'm all lossless at this point, other than Apple Music streaming in my car. The last album you mentioned that challenged your encoder was Sammy Davis, Jr.'s The Decca Years album.

 

[Blackwoof]

Let me know if you found another killer track. I'm all lossless at this point, other than Apple Music streaming in my car. The last album you mentioned that challenged your encoder was Sammy Davis, Jr.'s The Decca Years album.

Never had the same issues at 160kbps VBR with Opus & Musepack?. Youtube uses Opus as there main codec at 96 ~ 160kbps. I sometimes wonder If AAC & Vorbis can be pushed further at 64 ~ 192kbps because both are struggling on music that even 128 ~ 192kbps Lame MP3 is transparent on?.

 

[theaudiologist1]

It breaks at 192k quite a lot of his stuff does, Had no issues at 256k VBR and FHG AAC does better at 192kbps VBR. Brighter death now - Impasse has the same issues under 192k with QAAC, I think It's struggling to tell what is noise and musical sound.

can you please tell me the difference between all the AAC versions mainly exhale fdk and fhg? My ancient nokia phone says it supports "eAAC+" and I want to know if it sounds better than MP3 at lower or equal bitrates. Also is AAC free or proprietary?

 

[SmOgER]

AAC generally sound better than MP3, it is not proprietary (AAC@256 ~= MP3@320 ?). Apple is using this codec to this day to stream audio over BT.