Apple iTunes - Mastered for iTunes Options

[RobertoDomenico]

Mastered for iTunes: Rolling out on a worldwide basis, Apple is now featuring songs and albums that have been specifically mastered for the iTunes Store to provide the best sound quality for the format.

More info http://www.apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes/

An interesting read http://images.apple.com/itunes/mastered-fo..._for_itunes.pdf

Your thoughts?

This post has been edited by RobertoDomenico: Feb 22 2012, 18:24

[greynol]

The idea that people responsible for producing music think they need to pre-color masters so that high-bitrate lossy encodes sound more like CDs of the non-pre-colored masters is scary.

Having these people perform simple ABX tests would go a long way in bringing this latest round of insanity to an end.

[C.R.Helmrich]

The idea that people responsible for producing music think they need to pre-color masters so that high-bitrate lossy encodes sound more like CDs of the non-pre-colored masters is scary.

Having these people perform simple ABX tests would go a long way in bringing this latest round of insanity to an end.

That's what I thought... until a colleague of mine told me that he made some pro-audio guys ABX a file and its lossless encoding. As expected, they got like 5 out of 10 on average. My colleague: "Doesn't this show that the lossless encoding is indistinguishable from the original?" They: "Not really, because..."

Some of these people brought you award-winning audio productions!

Chris

P.S.: I'd buy music online if it were 44.1/16 lossless. Preferably HD-AAC

This post has been edited by C.R.Helmrich: Mar 6 2012, 21:21

[mudlord]

P.S.: I'd buy music online if it were 44.1/16 lossless. Preferably HD-AAC

Corporate shill. >_>

[C.R.Helmrich]

That's your opinion. To me it's just reflecting my personal preference, which probably coincides with a certain corporate prospect. Unbelievable, isn't it?

But here's some corporate shill: the colleague I was talking about was trying to promote the Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec plug-in, which includes an ABX mode. So ABXing is available directly in a DAW now. Question is: do producers care about such a feature?

Chris

[mudlord]

That's your opinion. To me it's just reflecting my personal preference, which probably coincides with a certain corporate prospect. Unbelievable, isn't it?

But here's some corporate shill: the colleague I was talking about was trying to promote the Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro-Codec plug-in, which includes an ABX mode. So ABXing is available directly in a DAW now. Question is: do producers care about such a feature?

Chris

Somewhat unbelievable as you wouldn't believe how many times I seen company employees try to pimp thier products.
but I suppose I can give you the benefit of the doubt :3

[C.R.Helmrich]

but I suppose I can give you the benefit of the doubt :3

Thank you

... it might be interesting for those who living in Apple world ...

Not only Apple, every recent smartphone I know supports AAC, and those would (hopefully) play HD-AAC without requiring updates.

Y'all might also want to read the same titled thread (modulo a bit) in the mastering forum at Gearslutz.

Done. The insight of producers listening to a well-known codec developer and showing interest in ABX (and the aforementioned plug-in) made up for the torture of having to read UncleBubba repeat his "thoughts". But I'm curious, JJ, where in your opinion do "ridiculous bit-rates" start (let's split it, with vs. without SBR)?

Chris

This post has been edited by C.R.Helmrich: Mar 8 2012, 21:48

[Woodinville]

But I'm curious, JJ, where in your opinion do "ridiculous bit-rates" start (let's split it, with vs. without SBR)?

Chris

160kb/s is where I draw the line. Your milage may vary.

[Kees de Visser]

But I'm curious, JJ, where in your opinion do "ridiculous bit-rates" start (let's split it, with vs. without SBR)?

160kb/s is where I draw the line. Your milage may vary.

In the Gearslutz thread Bob Olhsson reported:

Glenn Meadows did a demo today at the Nashville Recording workshop.
Even at high bit-rates you could hear a loss of depth and even more disturbing from a standpoint of pop music, a loss of "balls" even on a big sound system.

In good Gearslutz tradition no specifications about the test were given but doesn't this seem to conflict with your "ridiculous bit-rates" opinion?
Bob and Glenn are highly respected, award winning engineers and their opinions have a lot of weight in the music production community.

[skamp]

In good Gearslutz tradition no specifications about the test were given but doesn't this seem to conflict with your "ridiculous bit-rates" opinion?

On HA, they would be required to substanciate their claims with ABX results, and the discussion wouldn't go any further until they did…

Bob and Glenn are highly respected, award winning engineers and their opinions have a lot of weight in the music production community.

I doubt anyone is immune to the placebo effect, no matter how competent they otherwise are. And from what I gathered (am I wrong?), double blind tests don't seem to be part of the culture of sound engineers. I'm not in the audio field, but FWIW I would never have learned about such tests if I hadn't be drawn to HA for other reasons (and I would probably be thinking I really need 24/192 FLACs for optimal reproduction of music).