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Listening Tests / Re: Great killer sample, easy to ABX on most codecs
Last post by shadowking -I have been running abx tests for the last few days for several hours total. I think I may have a solution or a partial one.
I even encoded some tracks to 8bit with dither and the effect was a bit similar to lullaby. Any way I don't know how that fits into
anything but anyhow - I discovered that at around 5 bit per sample or more is needed. Below its like FM radio - too me not annoying at all but still.. So if one is into 8bit that is the way . It also translates into 16bit robustness - around 6bps maybe less or more is needed for a lossywav like quality. Back to codectest16, I decided on the normal mode since that is the workhorse of WV. Interestingly, to my ears @576k the modes seem to converge more or less like it don't matter if -x or -h -s etc.. I remember many years ago I read a post by dibrom on regards to MP3 -APS behavior . He said its a quality 1st approach - reach bitrate first then try to bring it down if safe. So, Going by that to my ears and test sample set if I take 576 and add some defensive mechanism like -x , smart mid-side stereo and -s , I got down to 500k . Specifically; -b500x4s1. A workhorse setting 'normal' but with big safety net. Then I guess for completion ; a 'high' setting of -b550x4s1 . In bps its 5.67 to 6.24 I guess 6 on average. Anyway now to 320-350k or -b4 ; use -b4x4s.5 for an alternative. To my ears the difference is not annoying if audible at all in normal volume day to day listening. For middle bitrates I found -s.5 safe so far although you lose some of the advantage of not getting a full -s1 or even negative shaping when appropriate though how this actually translates in real life listening is a different matter. I think its a good balance anyway. For high bitrate above 400, abx results tell me a -s1 is the way or somewhere from 70-100% upward tilt ( -s.7 to -s1). I am leaning on -s1 .
Interestingly, On WV manual -s1 if the default for high sample rates > 48 and hi-res as the noise is 'pushed up into in audible range '. So it seems to me the -j1 -s1 simple method is also good for very high bitrate 44-48khz- 16 bit.
Anyhow to make short of the long, Two settings for different goals. Its really simple its almost ridiculous when I write it like:
350k
-b4x4 (-s optional)
500k
-b5.67x4s1 or round to -b6x4s1
Now the space saved on 500k is still considerable IMO at least for non classical. Lacuna coil down to 280mb from 541mb.
For classical a very dynamic title ' Fauré Requiem 235 vs 277 mb or 434k vs 508k flac. Even here 18% would be considered very significant in lossless benchmarks between different codecs.