[Groove]

Quote:

 
 
I still hold my stance though, everything sounds deliberate and clean over here.
 
 

I just wanted to make something clear, now that I think about it I probably haven't emphasized this enough since my first reply to this thread. On all tracks, I do think that all the distortions (that I hear) were done deliberately...
 
 
Just wanted to throw my two cents on the sharp dressed man too. I don't have the track here, but even if the bass did have a distortion (or maybe overdrive) effect there, that song rocked, and sounded perfectly fine on both hifi and lower class equipment, that's just the difference between music and garbage I guess...

 

[ZorgDK]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deadlylover /img/forum/go_quote.gif
 
That's why I was so confused earlier, these 2 songs aren't from the same CD.
 
It's not the mp3 rip itself that caused those differences, or the ripper him/herself, but the original on the CD is different than the other original the FLAC is sourced from. Which is why I said those compilation CD's are often different, as they wanna mix it up a little because they know some people might already know the original.
 
I usually listen with replaygain on, and once those 2 tracks were matched, the vocals were more or less the same volume level, but there's quite a dramatic difference in the synths (in terms of volume and programming).
 
It certainly sounds like they went to eleven with the synth's on the mp3 version, some of it is reprogrammed and there are indeed extra layers (LAYERS, THANK YOU OHHGOURAMI, THAT'S THE WORD I WAS LOOKING FOR LOL).
 
And about the synth sounding like distortion, it's worthy to note that electrostatics and ortho's are pretty much unbeatable in terms of speed. The HD800 is real quick too, but I guess it's treble happiness messes things up with this type of song, it ain't worth the pain =P. That's pretty much why me and ohhgourami heard it properly as a layer of synth, and not just some grainy distortion.
 
I'm sure the soundcard is fantastic for what it is, but it's incomparable to a proper DAC. The soundcard used the AK4358 with a THD spec of -94db or so, whereas a top of the line Sabre32 chip has a vanishingly low THD of -120db, that's many orders of magnitude lower, and keep in mind the differences in power supplies and analog sections.

 

Quote:

Wow, I can't believe a ripper would go through all this trouble to completely change a song =P. You're right, he must have been a drunk pirate or something ahahah.
 
I still hold my stance though, everything sounds deliberate and clean over here.
 
The resolution you get from the O2's is otherworldy, I wish I can just email them over or something for you to hear for a second, because as it stands, everyone thinks I'm a crazy person ahahah.

 
I think the track is good for testing speed in headphones. I compared both tracks on the HD650 and HE-6, and the latter did much a better job at keeping up with the synthesizer. The mp3 version still sounded crappy, but with the HE-6 the distortion kinda sounds like an extra layer of synth added, like you say.
 
 
 

 

[deadlylover]

Quote:

I just wanted to make something clear, now that I think about it I probably haven't emphasized this enough since my first reply to this thread. On all tracks, I do think that all the distortions (that I hear) were done deliberately...
snip

 
I many people here might not listen to much electronic music at all, especially those with higher end cans. What you think may be distortion is actually one of many 'proper' sounds that a synth makes. That's probably causing a ton of confusion at the moment.
 
edit:clarity

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Well to me the ones he linked to in OP are clearly sounding distorted. I've listened to this track a lot of times before I checked this thread and it didn't sound like that then but even so I can hear the constant clipping and it's not due to it sounding different than I'm used to. I mean he already even provided a "clean" and distorted comparision where it's very apparent... so no need to argue about it...
 
Funny if people couldn't hear the distortion on their high cost setups compared to our lowcost setups though. I've dealt with listening for distortion these last few days where distortion were far more subtle than this though (and not throughout the whole song like in this case) and possibly only apparent in one or two parts of a song when adjusting EQ presets on my Dolby headphone config so I've gotten used to check if it's heard or not I suppose.
 
BTW, good taste in trance songs you got there, I used to listen especially to songs like that. The 2nd song is also a very familar one to me.

 

[kn19h7]

...it sounds more like an extra layer or instrument to me too, other 'sounds' stay unaffected

 

[ohhgourami]

I don't really listen to electronic myself except for maybe Aphex Twin.  I do believe James does use this same distortion effect for some of his music.
 
 
Forgot the mention more about Sharp Dressed Man.  But when I used to listen to that song with my DT880 600 ohm or IEMs, it always sounded like some distortion effect in the background.  Obviously deliberate but never knew what it was until listening with my HE-6 then it was obviously a distorted bass guitar.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Not all other sounds are unaffected in the Ocean Lab - Satellite (Radio Edit).mp3 file in OP already at 00:02 you should hear a very distinct distortion when the bass appears the first time together with the hi-hat (or is that a cymbal?) or whatever it's called. Then at around 00:09 - 00:12 there's very gentle distortion in the vocals in the sentence "My love is like footsteps in the snow" (there's especially a distortion at the end of the "footsteps" with a emphasis on the last 's' letter and the next word "in" and then the word "snow" sounds almost like "sow"). and at 00:26 I hear a very faint distortion at the word "never" at the pronounciation of "v" letter etc and at 01:01 there's a very faint distortion when the bassnotes are rolled like a "drumroll" etc. I hear things like that throughout the song which isn't heard in the "clean" version (FLAC or MP3). There are some very minor distortions in-between those mentioned parts (well there's some very faint distortion going on actually almost the whole time) as well that would probably be flagged as distortion on the peak meter on foobar2000 in case only the gain is adjusted so it would be too hot recording (didn't bother check) but I mentioned some of the more audible examples. It may appear like very little distortion to you but since I've listened critically for distortion the last few days tweaking around some EQ presets on electri-Q those appear like very distinct distortions to me.
 
Now I'm just using the embedded player on that page but I could also hear it on foobar2000.

 

[Kail]

Quote:

Well to me the ones he linked to in OP are clearly sounding distorted. I've listened to this track a lot of times before I checked this thread and it didn't sound like that then but even so I can hear the constant clipping and it's not due to it sounding different than I'm used to. I mean he already even provided a "clean" and distorted comparision where it's very apparent... so no need to argue about it...
 
Funny if people couldn't hear the distortion on their high cost setups compared to our lowcost setups though. I've dealt with listening for distortion these last few days where distortion were far more subtle than this though (and not throughout the whole song like in this case) and possibly only apparent in one or two parts of a song when adjusting EQ presets on my Dolby headphone config so I've gotten used to check if it's heard or not I suppose.
 
BTW, good taste in trance songs you got there, I used to listen especially to songs like that. The 2nd song is also a very familar one to me.

 
  Yeah, thats strange why they don't hear distortion as same as we.
 Thanks, Sattelite is one of my favs. Love this song!
Quote:

...it sounds more like an extra layer or instrument to me too, other 'sounds' stay unaffected

 Vocals are affected too. Check for "S" in main part -  And more bass and treble compared to "clean" version.
 
 I just searched for different rip of DD 31 and found one which sounds even worse. More highs, than previous "crappy" version. Now high frequency response on freq. analyzer look totally flat. Rippers gone insane?
 http://rghost.net/14259371

 Effect they use is very similiar to X-Fi Crystalizer. Sounds like expander + maximizer + some distortion.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi#Crystalizer
 
http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/290315-x-fi-crystalizer-complete-garbage.html

 

[kn19h7]

 
Quote:

Quote:
 
  Yeah, thats strange why they don't hear distortion as same as we.
 Thanks, Sattelite is one of my favs. Love this song!

 Vocals are affected too. Check for "S" in main part -  And more bass and treble compared to "clean" version.
 
 I just searched for different rip of DD 31 and found one which sounds even worse. More highs, than previous "crappy" version. Now high frequency response on freq. analyzer look totally flat. Rippers gone insane?
 http://rghost.net/14259371

 Effect they use is very similiar to X-Fi Crystalizer. Sounds like expander + maximizer + some distortion.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_Blaster_X-Fi#Crystalizer
 
http://www.overclock.net/sound-cards-computer-audio/290315-x-fi-crystalizer-complete-garbage.html

Vocals are completely separated from the extra sound here..
 
I was using creative soundcard before so I'm very clear of what their crystalizer sounds like. Its not something like this, this is like a remix with added sound.
 
....btw I was listening to the one in post #33.

 

[Kail]

Quote:

Its not something like this, this is like a remix with added sound.

 Remix is too big word for this. I can make same sound in a second, just by using X-Fi crystalizer or use expander, maximizer and tube distortion. And for me the "remix" sounds totally horrible. I guess mine and RPGWizard ears are trained more on this style, so we can hear the difference better, than the others. There is a difference between good distortion on a single instrument in mix or horrible distortion on full track.
 
 Btw here's a full name of song in compilation - Ocean Lab - Satellite (Radio Edit). Do you see any remix word in it? I used same first track in post #33, then the one from compilation.

 

[deadlylover]

Quote:

Not all other sounds are unaffected in the Ocean Lab - Satellite (Radio Edit).mp3 file in OP already at 00:02 you should hear a very distinct distortion when the bass appears the first time together with the hi-hat (or is that a cymbal?) or whatever it's called. Then at around 00:09 - 00:12 there's very gentle distortion in the vocals in the sentence "My love is like footsteps in the snow" (there's especially a distortion at the end of the "footsteps" with a emphasis on the last 's' letter and the next word "in" and then the word "snow" sounds almost like "sow").
snip

 
Doesn't sound like distortion to me, the wishy washy sounds are intentional effects, and keep in mind there is a constant low level echo of the vocals bouncing left and right, the more sibilant notes of her voice are more noticeable, so you might only hear the bad bits and not her voice ping ponging from side to side. The extra bounces will only leave the sibilance bits as most of her voice is attenuated from the extra bounces.
 
WE NEED AN SR-009 HERE FOR A SECOND OPINION, STAT!.

 

[ohhgourami]

Quote:

 
Doesn't sound like distortion to me, the wishy washy sounds are intentional effects, and keep in mind there is a constant low level echo of the vocals bouncing left and right, the more sibilant notes of her voice are more noticeable, so you might only hear the bad bits and not her voice ping ponging from side to side. The extra bounces will only leave the sibilance bits as most of her voice is attenuated from the extra bounces.
 
WE NEED AN SR-009 HERE FOR A SECOND OPINION, STAT!.

Agreed, I hear the same thing as you.  Definitely need someone with an SR-009 to give these tracks a listen.
 

 

[Nallows]

I really don't think it matters what headphones you are wearing to hear a difference...you either can hear it or you don't.  One is clean while the other has some effect or "distortion" if you will. 

 

[kn19h7]

Quote:

I really don't think it matters what headphones you are wearing to hear a difference...you either can hear it or you don't.  One is clean while the other has some effect or "distortion" if you will. 

Apparantly there is difference, what discussed here is whether its simply distortion or intended effect...==

 

[Kail]

 Heres the two tracks.
 One is track from OP.
  http://rghost.net/14171331
 
 Another one is processed by me from original with X-Fi Crystalizer + a bit of tube distortion in Cubase 4 + Wave L3 Maximizer.
 http://rghost.net/14275551
 
 Sound similiar, no? Just a bit lesser highs and a lower bass (I don't used equalizer). Compare closely. Mine actually sounds with a more softer distortion.