Alicia Keys: did the era of lossy mastering just begin?, Spoiler alert: spectral views included revealing nothing definitive. |
Alicia Keys: did the era of lossy mastering just begin?, Spoiler alert: spectral views included revealing nothing definitive. |
 Nov 28 2012, 20:49
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#1
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Group: Members Posts: 339 Joined: 24-November 08 Member No.: 63072  |
This is snapshot of one of the tracks of accurately ripped original CD with Eac (LOG 100%):
  If I'm right this is 1st album mastered from lossy source. ..more snapshots:  
This post has been edited by Anakunda: Nov 28 2012, 21:03 |
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Nov 28 2012, 21:02
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#2
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 Group: Developer Posts: 2984 Joined: 2-December 07 Member No.: 49183 |
The lowpass at ~20.5 kHz doesn't necessarily mean that this track was lossily compressed.
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Nov 28 2012, 21:04
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#3
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 Group: Super Moderator Posts: 9264 Joined: 1-April 04 Member No.: 13167 |
I don't see anything in those spectral graphs to conclude with any degree of certainty whatsoever that the album was mastered from a lossy source.
Regarding whether this is the first album mastered from a lossy source, there have been reports in the past. -------------------- Everything sounds the same until it is proven otherwise.
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Nov 28 2012, 21:05
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#4
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Group: Members Posts: 339 Joined: 24-November 08 Member No.: 63072 |
I don't get however why the hard cutoff. Never seen that on CD audio.
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Nov 28 2012, 21:07
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#5
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Group: Super Moderator Posts: 9264 Joined: 1-April 04 Member No.: 13167 |
I've seen it plenty. There is no issue here.
-------------------- Everything sounds the same until it is proven otherwise.
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Nov 28 2012, 21:15
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#6
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Group: Members Posts: 339 Joined: 24-November 08 Member No.: 63072 |
I don't see any good reason for doing this on lossless audio format. Curious what's the point of doing this when the space requirements are exactly same.
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Nov 28 2012, 21:54
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#7
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Group: Members Posts: 2116 Joined: 24-August 07 From: Silicon Valley Member No.: 46454 |
As you may know, low-pass filtering is a required part of digitizing (to prevent alaising). And, there are other reasons for filtering during the recording/production process. It's fairly common practice to filter-out the lower frequencies from everything except the bass and kick drum, and to completely filter-out subsonic frequencies. I assume some producers/engineers also like to filter-out supersonic frequencies.
There are no perfect filters so there are trade-offs in filter design. No one can say why a particular filter was used, or why the filter was designed a certain way. The recording/mastering engineer may not know anything about the filters in his ADC or downsampler... He just knows it sounds good or that it has a good reputation. |
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Nov 28 2012, 23:04
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#8
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 Group: Developer Posts: 618 Joined: 6-December 08 From: Erlangen Germany Member No.: 64012 |
QUOTE (Anakunda @ Nov 28 2012, 22:05)  I don't get however why the hard cutoff. Never seen that on CD audio. Check any CD from the 80s. I don't recall any which does not have this 20-kHz lowpass. Which in the 80s was due to a conservative lowpass during A/D conversion. In Alicia's album I'd guess it's because they used some analog processing during mixing or mastering (and then some conservative A/D converter for some reason). What scares me are the lines going to 22 kHz. This is solid gold digital waveform clipping. Chris This post has been edited by C.R.Helmrich: Nov 28 2012, 23:09 -------------------- If I don't reply to your reply, it means I agree with you.
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Nov 29 2012, 01:09
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#9
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 Group: Members Posts: 35 Joined: 3-February 12 Member No.: 96900 |
QUOTE (C.R.Helmrich @ Nov 28 2012, 17:04) What scares me are the lines going to 22 kHz. This is solid gold digital waveform clipping. I've found clipping on Third (Portishead album). It's obvious and shocking. 
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Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 23rd May 2013 - 16:32 |
