Music quality - Low Dynamic range?

It seems to me that the sound quality you get from the music store generally is way way below what you'd get from ripping the CD locally. Especially the dynamic range seems quite compressed.
Is this related to the format Apple stores the music on their servers, ie. is the 128Kbps AAC in fact transcoded from another format before being downloaded through the music store?
I just compared a 'Madonna - Live to Tell' I ripped locally with the one that came with 'The Immaculate Collection', downloaded from the store, and the difference is immence
And it's not just dynamic range issue, -it also seems to me that the downloaded music is 'confusing'. Not easy to explain, but the way it works out is like the music (compression?) 'changes' throughout the track, and you get the feeling that something is not the way it's supposed to be..
Am I going crazy here, or do some of you out there have the same experiences??
Thanks, cheers
S
(I should probably mention that I'm not listening to this at a $200 stereo, I spent quite an effort setting up my system, -even put in a parametric eq. (Behringer dsp-1124) to do bass management etc. etc.. I also always rip my music in 256k AAC, having encountered a couple of cases where I could hear the difference from 128 vs 256..)

Don,
You bring up some points that I've been wondering about as well. I would love to know exactly what type of media is used to import the songs into the iTMS. It's quite likely that they just use the final CD.
However, one of the interesting things I've discovered about iTunes is that it can read 24-bit files! So it is possible that the record company could use the original 24-bit master for importing into the iTMS. I strongly doubt that this is happening, but it would be great if Apple would come forward and let the consumers know how this transfer is taking place.
For my own, original music and other projects that I work on, I import the original 24-bit WAV or AIFF file(s) into iTunes. From that file, I convert it into an AAC file, for playing on my iPod, etc. It's a really cool bonus that iTunes will let you do this!!

Similar Messages

Dynamic range: NEED SOME HELP (any help i can g

here's the reason i am here:so lately i've decided to dump the idea of playing movies on my xbox360 and started using my hometheater PC to play it. since it has a X-fi extreme Music on it. and i do like it better because the xbox360's decoder down samples everything to 640kb Dolby Digital 5.. i want to experience the full quality (if not as high as i can get) of Dolby Digital Plus, and DOlby True HD (both lossless soundstream), and the only way to do that these days are through HDMI or analogue output, since SPDIF nor Optical toslink can provide enough bandwidth required by both DD+ and TrueHD soundstream. so now you know the reason i am here. i do understand Xfi currently does not offically support DD+ nor TrueHD, but at least through the analogue output i believe i can get a better fidelity than my 360. here's my problem:like i said, the sound quality is MUCH better through the Xfi than the Xbox360's internal decoder. but i do havve one problem. because the dynamic range is so high, i find myself regulary adjusting the volume several times through the whole movie. so i started playing with the "Smart Volume" setting, since it alters the dynamic range by compressing it. the result is a HEAVILY compressed dynamic range which is not very ideal. because i can hear the level shifts when there's a high volume element followed by a low bolume element, i can hear a very unatural alteration. is there anyway to adjust the level of the dynamic range? because smart Volume only allows for "on" or "off", i wish there's a level slider. another side problem i just found out with my card is that, apparently, my card is a Dell's Xfi Extrmem Music card, that means i am missing the DOlby Digital EX audio console control, and the DTS ES audio console control panel. i understand that both supposely would allow me to adjust the dynamic range levels. i only found this out when i tried to look up the dynamic range option in Xfi on google and there're?A LOT of angry people who are missing those two features in their Extreme Music card. apparently it has to do with Dell's cost cutting strategy in which all their Xfi cards audio decoder are license from Sonic instead of creative, so hardware wise, there's no differnce. but at a software decoding level, there're som features missing. and the people who bought these cards from Dell are real pissed off because they speficied on their page that's it's an Xfi Extreme Music card just like the retail, what they shoud've done is putting the "Dell's" logo next to it stating it's a Dell's Xfi Extreme Music card, meaning some features might not be the same. anywho, i realize it's a lot to read, but i searched the forum and googled the net, can't find any solution. would it be possible for the next driver update to include a slider option for adjusting different levels of Smart Volume?thank you.Message Edited by howzz854 on 04-08-200704:50 AM

and i forgot to list my hardware specs:?Athlon64 3200+ @2.6ghzGskill PC4000 2XGB ramGeforce7800GTXFI Extreme Music (Dell's crap_ missing some features that's suppose to be there in the retail versions)DFI NF4 Ultra-D moboDual 0,000 RPM (2 X 74GB)?WD raptors, 0 array, + 2 Maxtor 200GB (for storage)Enermax 600watt PSUNEC 6X DVD romToshiba external HD-DVD dri've?WinXP SP2?Message Edited by howzz854 on 04-08-200704:28 AM

ACR Defaults and Dynamic Range

The tone curve in ACR has a profound effect on the dynamic range of the rendered image, and often this is not appreciated by users. To demonstrate the effects of the tone curve on DR, I photographed a Stouffer step wedge with the Nikon D3 and rendered the image into a TIFF with various tone curves and determined the resulting dynamic range with Imatest.
Here is the target rendered with the ACR defaults for this camera, which include a black point of 5 (downsampled and shown as a JPEG):
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/422699368_FRdKT-O.jpg
Shown below is the resulting characteristic curve as determined by Imatest along with the DR and other data. The total dynamic range is only 7.64 stops. This low DR results from the default black point of 5, which rolls off the darker tones as shown on the graph.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/422697342_tnUFo-O.png
By setting the black to 0, the total DR is increased to 12.3 stops and the useful photographic DR according to various quality levels is shown.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/422697338_5e8pv-O.png
One can also use a linear tone curve by setting all the basic settings to 0 and the point curve to linear.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/422697332_u59B5-O.png
For convenience, the tone curves are shown together here.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/422697328_26BFV-O.gif
One might wonder why Adobe chose a default black value of 5 for the D3, since it severely limits dynamic range by rolling off the blacks. The probable answer is that the full DR can not be reproduced on screen or in print without using a tone curve that would give the image a flat and unattractive appearance. Note that the darker steps of the Stouffer wedge are not distinguishable on the screen but differences can be noted if one measures the values with the eyedropper in PS. The default setting of 5 rolls of shadows which would not be reproduced and enhances contrast in the remaining image.

>Why? Real World Camera Raw is platform agnosticaside from the fact that most all of the images contained in the book happen to come from cameras Bruce and I had/have and those are Canons. To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing in Camera Raw that is camera model dependent except for the DNG Profiles and the baseline demosiacing and noise reduction which vary camera by camera. Why should I care about the Nikon D3 specifically?
In 35 mm style dSLRs (which I would venture to say are used by the vast majority of ACR users) Nikon and Canon are the two major brands. One thing that is camera specific is the baseline exposure offset that ACR uses for these cameras. For the Nikon D3 (and other recent Nikon cameras), ACR uses a baseline exposure offset of +0.5 EV. If you don't know this and try to expose to the right as much as possible, the histogram will appear overexposed in ACR when in reality the channels are far from clipping.
This is demonstrated in the following screen capture using ACR defaults with an Exposure value of 0. The highlights of the target appear blown.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/423897106_wvzqw-O.png
They also appear blown using the new beta profile, which does not take the baseline exposure offset into account.
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/423897066_xeHoi-O.png
Looking at the raw histogram with Rawnalize, we see that the channels are not blown:
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/423898181_md3kC-O.png
And here are the actual raw values for the red, green and blue channels (highlighted) of Step 1:
http://bjanes.smugmug.com/photos/423901972_MguxL-O.png
The raw headroom in each of the color channels (as shown in the raw histogram) also has something to do with the amount of highlight recovery that is possible. I would think that these considerations would be of inerest to the readers of your Camera Raw book.

Setting dynamic range?

ok i'm a video editor. how the heck can i set the dynamic range? its a project starting/ending in FCP, i want it to be broadcast safe, ostensibly want to limit the dynamic range to 7db (-12 to -6 or so) i theoretically understand the compressor/limiter can limit the peak here (altho i haven't really made that work) but is there an effect to bring up the bottom too? or another effect where i can do both? i'm stumped. & in dire need... thanks!

ok i'm a video editor
Nothing wrong with that
is there an effect to bring up the bottom too?
Usually that's not a good idea. How would your video look
if you brought up all the blacks to 50%. Yuck.
The idea is to increase your audio "gamma".
There are 3 types of processing for audio:
"Crushing the blacks" In audio terms that would be expanding
or gating out background noise. Room tone is great,
but if it's distracting, an expander with a low threshold (say, -40dB),
will make things sound a little cleaner.
"Boosting gamma" In audio terms that would be a light overall compression.
Set the threshold for, say, -20, and the ratio to about 4, to bring those
details up. Note that this will affect the overall perceived loudness of the track,
so typically TV commercials crank this up to get it "louder" than the show.
"Making luma broadcast safe" In audio terms, this would be limiting your
audio to never go above 0dB. For this you need a limiter, with a high
threshold, e.g. -3dB, a large compression ratio, e.g. 8, and set very fast.
Like the video broadcast safe filter, it shouldn't affect the perceived
loudess (luma) too much. You should already be in the ballpark
before you apply this safety net.
There are plug-ins which will do all three, but you can also just
combine single filters to get the same result.
Keep in mind that an audio level meter is sampling a moving target,
so that you won't see all the peaks. For that reason, it is considered
good practice to set your levels so that speech peaks around -12
(or -6 for commercial rants).
Another thing to remember is your intended audience. Are you
selling cars or telling a sensitive story?
Bottom line: get digital examples of other videos in the same genre.
Take a look at their levels. What sounds good? What fits with the genre?
Hope that helps,
Les

Dynamic Range Compression for Gam

Hi, all, thanks in advance for any help with this.
I've recently acquired an Audigy2 Value card, and the specifications on the website stated that the card could perform Dynamic Range Compression. However, now having it home and looking over the software, it seems that that is only true as long as you're watching a movie. Since my PC game-playing room is loud, I have to keep the volume really high. And since I play first person shooter multiplayer games online with my friends, I have to put up with deafening gunshot sounds in order to have it loud enough to hear my sneaky friends' footstep sounds as they sneak up on me in the games.
The ideal solution would be range compression to either lower the loud noises, or increase the volume of the quieter ones, so I could keep the total volume level more under control.
Does anyone know of a way to do this, either with the help of the Creative Labs software or some third-party software?
Thanks!
e-cheddar

I don't know if this is possible with your card, but the x-fi has an option called Smart Volume Management, which does what you want.Message Edited by the_One on 0-2-2006 08:6 AM

Can someone pls explain what the Dynamic Range setting does?

Hello All,
In the STB's Audio menu there's an option for Dynamic Range. The available settings for Dynamic Range are None, Light, or Heavy. I'm not noticing any difference in the sound regardless of the option chosen. What is this option supposed to do?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range gives you a bit of a winded explantion of what it is. In a nutshell dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest sound.
I beleive the dynamic range setting is designed is to help users that have a certain connections (eg HDMI) deal with fluctationing volume. Heavy compresses the highs and lows to a narrower range, light uses less compression and none of course is no change. If you have trouble hearing some channels and commercials are loud you might want to try heavy. Keep in mind that heavy distorts audio the most and none the least.
My audio system is a Pioneer Amp with a Polk 5.1 speaker system. I've noticed no difference but to be fair I don't think I've tried it under condtions that I would notice it. In addition I'm currently using an optical connection for my audio which apparently doesn't change with dynamic range.
There is a few other threads that discuss this including ....
http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Technical-Assistance/anyone-else-having-problems-with-volume-ou...
http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Technical-Assistance/Intermittent-Audio-Distortion-with-HDMI-ho...

Dynamic Range and Exposure

Hi,
This is slightly off topic, but I'm hoping someone might be able to shed some light on issues that I'm experiencing with noise and and posterisation in the shadow areas of shots taken in dimly lit situations. The effect is most noticeable on indoor portait shots - and is common despite correct exposure information in my Canon 5D. I understand the need to bias exposures towards the right of the historgram to ensure maximum dynamic range, but I'm finding this quite challenging to accomplish in practice, without blowing out the highlights.
I'm using fast and expensive glass (e.g. EF24-70 F/2.8 L), and am lead to belive that the 5D has one of the best low light sensors around.
No amount of tweaking in Aperture seems to help (e.g. Chroma Blur) - so I'm running out of ideas (I've tried a variety of ISO settings etc. on the camera). Is this a case of camera technique ? Should I surrender to the flash - or is there anything else I can try.
Thoughts appreciated.
Paul

Hi Paul
Do you have an sample image uploaded some ware that I could have a look at.
I am making the assumption that you are shooting RAW. I am not studio based but have shot a lot of low light images with the 1D/1D MKII/s and I tested a 5D that I had on loan from Canon, the 5D is probably the best low light camera I have used so far.
One trick you may wish to try is running your image trough Noise Ninja!! This seems to pull detail out of the shadows as well as cleaning the noise.
Powerbook 1.5, PowerMac Quad, MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I am using Bose AE2 headphones. The music quality is far superior when I listed on a PC than on the isphone5. Also, the volume is also considerably less. Is it something that I am doing wrong.

I am using Bose AE2 headphones. The music quality is far superior when I listed on a PC than on the isphone5. Also, the volume is also considerably less. Is it something that I am doing wrong.

There are quite a few possibilities.
The quality difference may simply be the lower volume. Hearing is not linear with volume.
How much power do the headphones require? Possibly your computer can provide greater power output than the iPhone.
Some Bose headphones have a volume compensation switch somewhere. On my QC3 its on the adapter plug at the headphone end. You have to unplug it from the headphones to find it.
Do you have volume limits enabled in the iPhone settings/Music?
Are the equalization settings the same on your computer and your iPhone?
Do you have Sound Check enabled on music that is synced to the iPhone?
Have you checked "Convert higher bit rate songs..." in iTunes on your computer?

AC3 5.1 Dynamic Range Compression

I have the new ATV2, although there is no switch in the menu's I believe Apple have switched on AC3 Dynamic Range Compression. The audio via my decoder sounds compressed missing ' dynamics'.
Has anyone else noticed.
There is a software switch in Apples 'DVD Player'

Hi Hal,
Thanks for the info. I've been doing all as you say:
-always hitting return after entering "-31"
-always setting compression to none
-always leaving RF Overmod unchecked
**Does the "Dyn Rng Comp" affect ONLY ac3 and NOT pcm? I'd assume so...(triggered by code).
I'm running 10.2.8 (for reasons I won't go into) and my version of DVD player (3.2) does not have any preference that I can find for "dynamic range comp" nor does it have the "disc setup" section in the prefs (similar but not there). I've searched high and low but it's just not there. I'd turn it off if I could but am at a loss for a way.
Nor can I find any such preference in DVDSP 2.0 (which has the same problem with my ac3 audio). For kicks I went into os9 and ran its version of DVD player (which also has no pref for dyn rng cmp) and it had the same probs.
Just scratching my head why 3 different programs on 2 platforms would raise the level and mess with the ac3 part of my program (while leaving the pcm alone) and with no way to disable the problem. I figured it was system wide but, searching high and low again, couldn't find a system pref for dyn rng comp in either os9 or 10.
I'd trust that it's nothing to worry about, but this release will be going into thousands of homes and I want to know why this is happening before taking a chance.
Wishing I could find that it's something I'm doing wrong but can't find what and it's holding up the completion of an overdue project.
Thanks

Improve dynamic range

Hi
I was wanting to take a song from a cd, put it into audition and expand the dynamic range without clipping. I noticed that most recordings are compressed to much and was wondering if they is a method/edits that can improve dynamic range
thanks

Well, if you go to Effects/Amplitude and Compression/Dynamics processing, there are a couple of presets there. One is "3:1 Expander" and the other is "Compander". The first leaves the louder passages alone but progressively drops the levels on other parts as they get quieter. The second reduces level on quieter passages and amplifies some of the louder stuff.
Obviously you don't have to stick with the default and can play with the settings--but looking at the graphic display may give you some ideas on the adjustments you want to make.
The problem is, once the dynamic range is totally gone, as it is all too often on commercial recordings, there's not really anything you can do. If every bit of the track is hitting 0dBFS, then telling software to turn down everything lower than -10dB isn't going to do much. Riding levels manually might achieve something (quieter verses, louder choruses or whatever) but it's not really a substitute for genuine dynamic range.

Upgraded to 7.0.1 Problems with music quality

I've upgraded to 7.0.1 & my music quality for both imported CD tracks & iTunes downloaded music is now jittery with delays and skips, the quality was fine with previous release,any help would be appreciated
iPod 60gb Windows XP Pro

also try working through the possibilities from the following document:
iTunes and QuickTime for Windows: Songs and other audio don't play correctly

What's the dynamic range of PCI-6289?

Dear Sir:
Could you tell me the dynamic range of PCI-6289?
Is there any difference using PCI-4472 or PCI-6289 when measuring vibration signal?
Thank you!
Regards,

Hello,
The PCI-4472 would be best suited for vibration measurments. It has 24-bit resolution, Simultaneous Sampling, Hardware Time-to-Frequency Domain Conversion, 110 dB Dynamic Range, and hardware filtering. See the following Link for more details on the 4472: http://sine.ni.com/apps/we/nioc.vp?cid=10572〈=US
The 6289 was not built with vibration analysis in mind, the the dynamic range is not spec'd.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Sean C.

How does "High Dynamic Range" Photos work?

I see that I'm getting two photos from each shot. I suppose that's because I tabbed "on" the selection to keep the regular photo.
What's going on with "High Dynamic Range" photos and how can I tell which photo is the regular photo and which is the HDR Photo?
Also, is that something new with iOS 8?

You're welcome. Here's the HDR from the IOS 7 User Guide.
“HDR
HDR (high dynamic range) helps you get great shots, even in high-contrast situations. The best parts of three quick shots, taken at different exposures (long, normal, and short), are blended together into a single photo.
Use HDR. (iSight camera on iPad 3rd generation or later) Tap HDR. For best results, keep both iPad and the subject still.
Keep the normal photo in addition to the HDR version. Go to Settings > Photos and Camera.
HDR versions of photos in your Camera Roll are marked with “HDR” in the corner.”
Excerpt From: Apple Inc. “iPad User Guide For iOS 7.” Apple Inc., 2014. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.
Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itun.es/us/fJctQ.l

How to create high dynamic range image in Photoshop Elements 2.0?

I wonder if it is possible to Photoshop Elements 2.0. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you are talking about the idea of merging exposures IN ELEMENTS 2 and you are shooting RAW, you can do what Barbara suggests: Open the file once with favorable settings for the bright parts of the image and a second time for the shadows and merge. In Elements 2, the images will not open in 16-bit, and will be converted immediately to 8-bit. You will find that registration is right on, but there will be issues with the process if you want to retain higher bit counts (which to me is really the only way to have higher dynamic range in reality). I don't know where these started to be called 'high-dynamic range', and I think it is really a bit of a misnomer--especially in 8-bit. Even Elements 5 will not support 16-bit images with layers, so the opportunity to get true accentuation of dynamic range is...limited.

Dynamic Range in Premiere Pro CS5

Dynamic Range in Premiere Pro CS5
I'm working in Premiere Pro CS5 and I've been asked by the client to ensure that the "Dynamic Range" of the audio does not exceed 7dB. In order to ensure this, should I use an audio filter such as a compressor? If not, what is the best way to achieve this?
Below is a link to the requirements:
http://support.google.com/tvads/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78931&topic=22413&ctx=topic
Thanks,
Mike S
Macbook Pro 15", Intel Core Duo i7 2.2 GHz Quad Core, 8 GB RAM, 24" HP 2509b Monitor, M-Audio Fast Track to Yamaha MSP3 4" Powered Monitor Speakers,

Dynamic Range in Premiere Pro CS5
I'm working in Premiere Pro CS5 and I've been asked by the client to ensure that the "Dynamic Range" of the audio does not exceed 7dB. In order to ensure this, should I use an audio filter such as a compressor? If not, what is the best way to achieve this?
Below is a link to the requirements:
http://support.google.com/tvads/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=78931&topic=22413&ctx=topic
Thanks,
Mike S
Macbook Pro 15", Intel Core Duo i7 2.2 GHz Quad Core, 8 GB RAM, 24" HP 2509b Monitor, M-Audio Fast Track to Yamaha MSP3 4" Powered Monitor Speakers,

Music quality - Low Dynamic range?

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