Hello - I am new to the Hydrogenaudio Forum.
I have been using the Nero Digital Encoder in Foobar2000.
My goal was to listen to music in Windows Media Player using the Orban Coding AAC DirectShow playback filter in Windows XP. I wanted to do so with files that were recorded at 192khz/24-bit and downsampled to 96khz/24-bit. The most important thing to me was audio quality [i.e. "how it sounded to me"]. I noticed that encoding with Nero Digital's documented settings produced bitrates in the 400-500 kbps. After several days of testing, I finally came up with the setting below - which produces bitrates of about 950 kbps [rarely] to about 1100 kbps or higher. I am encoding wav files at 96khz/32-bit, monaural and stereophonic. I have played the Nero 1.5.4.0-encoded MP4's in Windows 2000 & XP [using the Orban Coding plugin] and Windows Vista & 7. There is sometimes a noticeable difference in the music, playing the same Nero-encoded MP4 on the same computer with different players [no replay gain etc. used].
The settings I use:
-br 2048000 -2pass -ignorelength -if %s -of %d
format lossless (or hybrid)
highest bps supported 32
Welcome, but two things.
(1) This thread has been moved as is not specific to foobar2000 and certainly is not related to any third-party plugin.
(2)
The most important thing to me was audio quality [i.e. "how it sounded to me"].…There is sometimes a noticeable difference in the music, playing the same Nero-encoded MP4 on the same computer with different players [no replay gain etc. used].
Please read our Terms of Service (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3974), specifically #8.
OK - thank you for moving this posting to the proper forum. In terms of the Nero Encoder, I was thinking "Foobar2000 specific" as in "Foobar2000 is the only program I use it to encode with,because it will not work in any other program I have tried as an encoder". So, please forgive me.
And about the second point, I understand about the subjective opinions - again, I am sorry. I guess I am just too used to a wav file or a flac file, for example, seeming to be playback-neutral regardless of player selected, or OS selected.
Don't worry, I won't be a bother here; will just probably quietly read posts.
I will be glad to help anyone have fewer problems than I had....I think my email address is available...if that is permitted, and not a violation of the board,s policies
I’m not meaning to scare you off! It’s just that you have put forward assertions that are not backed up with objective evidence—or, at least, in the case of your claimed differences between players, sufficient information for others to test them, e.g. in which players and when; thus, there may not be much potential for discussion. Other people with more experience of AAC encoding than me could perhaps comment on the possibility that the original bitrates would be amply transparent without doubling them.
Then there’s the whole question of whether there’s any benefit to such high sampling rates and bit-depths…but we’ve had that enough times, I think!
There’s no problem with your thread if any useful discussion can emerge from it, but I leave it up to other members whether that’s a possibility.
If size is not an issue then I would start with testing VBR at -q 0.5 and work your way up from there until it (hopefully) reaches transparency.
If audio quality is that important to you then use a lossless format like FLAC or Wavpack.
I guess I am just too used to a wav file or a flac file, for example, seeming to be playback-neutral regardless of player selected, or OS selected.
I think there's an entirely different reason that is actually at play.
You're lucky db1989 has decided to be so charitable.
Sorry again - I could have easily added that the audio players I was using was Windows Media Player 11 [with all updates] using DirectShow AAC filter from Orban Coding; Foobar2000 v1.1.7; and Winamp 5.621 with the Nullsoft MP4 Demuxer V2.4....as to when. 2 nights ago, just after installing Winamp.
I did not enable anything like replay gain, etc. - just playing the song. It was at least 2 AM, so I didn't spend a lot of time trying to analyze anything in depth. I am very used to using Windows Media Player with the Orban Coding AAC DirectShow in Windows 2000 / XP / Vista. I do not usually use Winamp, and have never before with the MP4 Demuxer installed. I didn't notate which songs were "different enough to notice" other than the one that I first noticed" Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers "Anything that's rock & roll". [Flac > Wav > Nero-encoded M4a]. But other songs included J.J. Cale & Eric Clapton "Ride the River", "Who Am I Telling You", "Danger"; Bonnie Raitt - Something to Talk About"; The Beatles - Savoy Truffle;", The Monkees - "Daily Nightly"; [all 3 Flac > Wav > M4a"] & Dulcimer - "Fruit of the Musical Tree" [MP3 > Wav > M4a].
I also thought I'd add - I listen to all of my music through headphones - Sennheiser HD600 - which are connected via a stereo control preamp to the computer. I am well aware that headphones can often make things like noise, channel separation / balance, vocal / instrument placement different - so things I noticed might not be noticeable when listening through speakers.
Before continuing any further, please familiarize yourself with the following:
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....974#entry149481 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3974#entry149481)
http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....showtopic=16295 (http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=16295)
Until you do and until you are prepared to provide objective evidence to support your claims, please refrain from talking about sound quality.