Silvian
Member of the Trade: Silvian
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2014
- Posts
- 40
- Likes
- 32
Hi everyone,
Let me start with an observation:
(there was supposed to be a photo with the forums' threads and views here, but it didn't upload - have a look for yourselves)
We are overpowered by far by those interested in (only) hardware. I realize, of course, that some threads on the other forums will have touched on things which are being discussed in the Science Forum, but there is no doubt that most people, for various reasons, disregard the science. I’ll come back to this.
Like you, I am interested in making the most of software in playback. I believe that while software is extensively used in production, sometimes too much for the sake of what we hear, it is grossly underutilized in playback. And there are many reasons for this:
And so my proposal to any of you interested in taking part, the intention of this thread, is to identify the parameters of the sound and the specific pieces of software which allow for their adjustments. I have a hunch that many of the terms will be mapped to an EQ. But there is a lot more software out there. I don’t know what they do, or better, the terms they influence, but here are some of the words I came across:: compression/decompression, spatializing, stereo widening, envelopes.
There will be parameters which can not be adjusted by software. It would be good to identify those as well. This is where the science of materials, design of the headphones and others will need to evolve.
I believe it is our responsibility, I truly believe this, to come up with a set of easy to explain, easy to demonstrate, parameters and then recommend or even provide easy to use software for appropriate adjustments. Until someone develops that perfect piece of hardware, this is the best compromise. By the way, that perfect hardware will still not be good enough as we hear so differently.
And perhaps we will end up with a lot more clarity, a lot less “snake oil”. And, perhaps again, we will stop unnecessarily measuring things which can be easily adjusted and focus on adjusting them.
No commercial enterprise will do any of this cleansing: their scope is to make money and most benefit from the confusion. The out of control prices are a symptom of this. By the way, if someone really feels that spending a few thousand dollars on a pair of headphones is a good idea, that is, of course, perfectly fine. But I believe that a good modern driver and the right software will be capable of satisfying most of us.
Ideally, this initiative will inspire someone to take it further and develop a unique piece of software for all these adjustments, for all OS platforms, perhaps even built into the audio chips. It would be nice to be open source, of course. Personally I don’t believe in patents, I really don’t, but there could be someone trying to monetize this: so be it. We will be the clients so we will hold some power.
I have been thinking to do it myself, but it will be a big, probably quite complex piece of work, and I also know that even if I would have done it, the hardest parts is the marketing. With many of you participating and influencing as many others as you can, we’ll have a decent market already. Again, market not for making money, but for doing good.
I started putting together some of the preliminary info. It is all in the form of a public Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwtFMdr0W_kuSjdDOW1TLUh2RDQ?usp=sharing
Let me know what other info and how you think we should capture.
Cheers
Let me start with an observation:
(there was supposed to be a photo with the forums' threads and views here, but it didn't upload - have a look for yourselves)
We are overpowered by far by those interested in (only) hardware. I realize, of course, that some threads on the other forums will have touched on things which are being discussed in the Science Forum, but there is no doubt that most people, for various reasons, disregard the science. I’ll come back to this.
Like you, I am interested in making the most of software in playback. I believe that while software is extensively used in production, sometimes too much for the sake of what we hear, it is grossly underutilized in playback. And there are many reasons for this:
- For the most part the existing good software is usually either expensive or free but hard to use,
- For the most part the existing software is not well enough explained: it is either, again, very hard to understand by the most of us, or it is not explained at all,
- The purists and their, hopefully diminishing, influence. Isn’t it funny that all professionals use say EQs to balance what they’re hearing but the purists, and still most of the reviewers, come up with conclusions like “oh, that or the other isn’t good enough because it’s got say recessed mids” instead of advising people to push the mids a little if, and that’s a big if, they feel like it?
- Lack of education.
And so my proposal to any of you interested in taking part, the intention of this thread, is to identify the parameters of the sound and the specific pieces of software which allow for their adjustments. I have a hunch that many of the terms will be mapped to an EQ. But there is a lot more software out there. I don’t know what they do, or better, the terms they influence, but here are some of the words I came across:: compression/decompression, spatializing, stereo widening, envelopes.
There will be parameters which can not be adjusted by software. It would be good to identify those as well. This is where the science of materials, design of the headphones and others will need to evolve.
I believe it is our responsibility, I truly believe this, to come up with a set of easy to explain, easy to demonstrate, parameters and then recommend or even provide easy to use software for appropriate adjustments. Until someone develops that perfect piece of hardware, this is the best compromise. By the way, that perfect hardware will still not be good enough as we hear so differently.
And perhaps we will end up with a lot more clarity, a lot less “snake oil”. And, perhaps again, we will stop unnecessarily measuring things which can be easily adjusted and focus on adjusting them.
No commercial enterprise will do any of this cleansing: their scope is to make money and most benefit from the confusion. The out of control prices are a symptom of this. By the way, if someone really feels that spending a few thousand dollars on a pair of headphones is a good idea, that is, of course, perfectly fine. But I believe that a good modern driver and the right software will be capable of satisfying most of us.
Ideally, this initiative will inspire someone to take it further and develop a unique piece of software for all these adjustments, for all OS platforms, perhaps even built into the audio chips. It would be nice to be open source, of course. Personally I don’t believe in patents, I really don’t, but there could be someone trying to monetize this: so be it. We will be the clients so we will hold some power.
I have been thinking to do it myself, but it will be a big, probably quite complex piece of work, and I also know that even if I would have done it, the hardest parts is the marketing. With many of you participating and influencing as many others as you can, we’ll have a decent market already. Again, market not for making money, but for doing good.
I started putting together some of the preliminary info. It is all in the form of a public Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwtFMdr0W_kuSjdDOW1TLUh2RDQ?usp=sharing
Let me know what other info and how you think we should capture.
Cheers
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