I have done a couple of tests with Helix "-X2 -U2 -V60", it seems to struggle greatly with Metal music.
Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes To Midnightfoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:16:12
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\2 Minutes To Midnight.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\2 Minutes To Midnight.mp3
22:16:12 : Test started.
22:16:36 : 01/01 50.0%
22:16:41 : 02/02 25.0%
22:16:46 : 03/03 12.5%
22:16:58 : 04/04 6.3%
22:17:05 : 05/05 3.1%
22:17:09 : 06/06 1.6%
22:17:15 : 07/07 0.8%
22:17:24 : 08/08 0.4%
22:17:30 : 09/09 0.2%
22:17:34 : 10/10 0.1%
22:17:41 : 11/11 0.0%
22:17:47 : 12/12 0.0%
22:17:48 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Alot of warbling on the guitar and drum smearing.
Iron Maiden - Aces Highfoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:18:34
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\Aces High.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\Aces High.mp3
22:18:34 : Test started.
22:18:56 : 01/01 50.0%
22:19:14 : 02/02 25.0%
22:19:24 : 03/03 12.5%
22:19:29 : 04/04 6.3%
22:19:36 : 05/05 3.1%
22:19:44 : 06/06 1.6%
22:19:52 : 07/07 0.8%
22:20:04 : 08/08 0.4%
22:20:15 : 09/09 0.2%
22:20:22 : 10/10 0.1%
22:20:32 : 11/11 0.0%
22:20:41 : 12/12 0.0%
22:20:42 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Drum smear at the start, and plenty of guitar warbling. Sound like a "a swish splash show"
Fear Factory - Descentfoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:21:32
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\Descent.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\Descent.mp3
22:21:32 : Test started.
22:21:44 : 01/01 50.0%
22:21:50 : 02/02 25.0%
22:21:56 : 03/03 12.5%
22:22:01 : 04/04 6.3%
22:22:08 : 05/05 3.1%
22:22:15 : 06/06 1.6%
22:22:22 : 07/07 0.8%
22:22:27 : 08/08 0.4%
22:22:31 : 09/09 0.2%
22:22:38 : 10/10 0.1%
22:22:44 : 11/11 0.0%
22:22:53 : 12/12 0.0%
22:22:55 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Smearing and warbling, just plain awful. Sounds like a Blade encoding.
Skinny Puppy - Dig Itfoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:24:28
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\Dig It.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\Dig It.mp3
22:24:28 : Test started.
22:24:58 : 01/01 50.0%
22:25:03 : 02/02 25.0%
22:25:09 : 03/03 12.5%
22:25:18 : 04/04 6.3%
22:25:23 : 05/05 3.1%
22:25:29 : 06/06 1.6%
22:25:37 : 07/07 0.8%
22:25:45 : 08/08 0.4%
22:25:56 : 09/09 0.2%
22:26:03 : 10/10 0.1%
22:26:07 : 11/11 0.0%
22:26:15 : 12/12 0.0%
22:26:17 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Smearing all over the place. Even Helix can struggle with Electric music.
Fear Factory - Replicafoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:26:40
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\Replica.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\Replica.mp3
22:26:40 : Test started.
22:26:55 : 01/01 50.0%
22:27:00 : 02/02 25.0%
22:27:06 : 03/03 12.5%
22:27:11 : 04/04 6.3%
22:27:16 : 05/05 3.1%
22:27:25 : 06/06 1.6%
22:27:34 : 07/07 0.8%
22:27:43 : 08/08 0.4%
22:27:47 : 09/09 0.2%
22:27:53 : 10/10 0.1%
22:27:59 : 11/11 0.0%
22:28:05 : 12/12 0.0%
22:28:06 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Sounds like a Blade encoding. Very poor for 128kbps standards.
Metallica - Trapped Under Icefoo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:28:32
File A: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Samples\Trapped Under Ice.flac
File B: C:\Temp\Helix 128 VBR Test\Helix V60\Trapped Under Ice.mp3
22:28:32 : Test started.
22:28:43 : 01/01 50.0%
22:28:47 : 02/02 25.0%
22:28:52 : 03/03 12.5%
22:28:57 : 04/04 6.3%
22:29:01 : 05/05 3.1%
22:29:06 : 06/06 1.6%
22:29:11 : 07/07 0.8%
22:29:18 : 08/08 0.4%
22:29:23 : 09/09 0.2%
22:29:28 : 10/10 0.1%
22:29:33 : 11/11 0.0%
22:29:38 : 12/12 0.0%
22:29:47 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 12/12 (0.0%)
Warbling on the guitar.
I will be still avoiding Helix, since it sounds plain bad with Metal music. IMO i recken theres something wrong with Helix's block usage. Anyway i have uploaded the samples, if anyone wants to try them out aswell.
----------------------------------------
And now for something completely different.
foo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:50:39
File A: C:\Rips\Skinny Puppy - Mind, The Perpetual Intercourse\08. Dig It.flac
File B: C:\Rips\Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine\03. Down In It.flac
22:50:39 : Test started.
22:50:47 : 00/01 100.0%
22:52:03 : 00/02 100.0%
22:52:09 : 00/03 100.0%
22:52:14 : 00/04 100.0%
22:52:19 : 00/05 100.0%
22:52:25 : 00/06 100.0%
22:52:30 : 00/07 100.0%
22:52:37 : 00/08 100.0%
22:52:44 : 00/09 100.0%
22:52:52 : 00/10 100.0%
22:52:59 : 00/11 100.0%
22:53:03 : 00/12 100.0%
22:53:04 : Test finished.
----------
Total: 0/12 (100.0%)
Both tracks sound identicle
EDIT: Have to reupload samples since one of the tracks encoded with 3.98 has a MAJOR replaygain issue.
I have reuploaded the samples (http://www.sendspace.com/file/f049qh) without the encoded mp3s.
WARNING: Anyone with the original sample set with the 3.98.2 encodes, please avoid the LAME 3.98.2 version of Trapped Under Ice, since a mp3 decoding bug that appears after a heavy use of FLACs (that i have tried to report months ago, but no one belives me) on foobar2000, messed up the ReplayGain that produces a very loaud disortion.
WARNING: Anyone with the original sample set with the 3.98.2 encodes, please avoid the LAME 3.98.2 version of Trapped Under Ice, since a mp3 decoding bug that appears after a heavy use of FLACs (that i have tried to report months ago, but no one belives me) on foobar2000, messed up the ReplayGain that produces a very loaud disortion.
This bug may have been fixed in v0.9.6 beta 5, when a strange and rare MP3 decoder bug was fixed.
please avoid the LAME 3.98.2 version of Trapped Under Ice, since a mp3 decoding bug that appears after a heavy use of FLACs (that i have tried to report months ago, but no one belives me) on foobar2000, ...
What is a heavy use of FLACs?
Looks like I'll be sticking with good ol' LAME for now
I found this out whenever Lame 3.98.2 was released. I always conduct a listening test between every major mp3 encoder (Lame, iTunes, FhG, and Helix) whenever a new version of Lame is released. I conducted a test when 3.98.2 came out comparing bitrates of about 170kbps VBR. My library mainly consists of metal music (from all the metal sub-genres) and some hard rock (AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Seether, etc.).
I was unable to ABX between the source lossless files and Lame at -V 3 for most of the tracks (I tested 12 tracks and only had one incident with Lame during a particular metal song for only a few seconds in the beginning). The iTunes mp3 encoder did pretty good but I could only get it to use up to 166kbps VBR but I passed about half of the ABX tests. The FhG encoder did a little better but I was able to pass a handful of the ABX tests. I passed ALL of the ABX tests with Helix at the 170kbps VBR setting.
I don't know what it was about Helix but it just didn't do a good job with metal and hard rock (10 metal tracks, 2 hard rock). I didn't test any other setting as Lame at -V 3 is perceptual to me so there is no need to use a higher bitrate setting.
I had similar findings for heavy music on that helix encoder a few years ago.
I didn't test any other setting as Lame at -V 3 is perceptual to me so there is no need to use a higher bitrate setting.
I switched to LAME 3.98.2 -V 3 myself as I too was unable to tell the differences between the source FLAC files and these MP3 files. My collection also consists mainly of heavy metal music.
I am sticking with LAME 3.98.2 for now.
foo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:50:39
File A: C:\Rips\Skinny Puppy - Mind, The Perpetual Intercourse\08. Dig It.flac
File B: C:\Rips\Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine\03. Down In It.flac
...
----------
Total: 0/12 (100.0%)
Both tracks sound identicle
Shouldn't you get ~6/12 for that conclusion?
foo_abx 1.3.3 report
foobar2000 v0.9.6 beta 3
2008/11/25 22:50:39
File A: C:\Rips\Skinny Puppy - Mind, The Perpetual Intercourse\08. Dig It.flac
File B: C:\Rips\Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine\03. Down In It.flac
...
----------
Total: 0/12 (100.0%)
Both tracks sound identicle
Shouldn't you get ~6/12 for that conclusion?
Hehe, good catch. 0/12 is in reality the same as 12/12 (when you report the opposite of what you hear). Random answers would give ~6/12.
[quote name='Canar' date='Nov 26 2008, 01:28' post='601318']
[quote name='/mnt' post='601314' date='Nov 25 2008, 16:14']WARNING: Anyone with the original sample set with the 3.98.2 encodes, please avoid the LAME 3.98.2 version of Trapped Under Ice, since a mp3 decoding bug that appears after a heavy use of FLACs (that i have tried to report months ago, but no one belives me) on foobar2000, messed up the ReplayGain that produces a very loaud disortion.[/quote]This bug may have been fixed in v0.9.6 beta 5, when a strange and rare MP3 decoder bug was fixed.
[/quote]
Thanks for the info, i will have try beta 5, am still using beta 3 for some reason . Hopefully its the rare decoding issues with mp3 frames below 128kbps, that appear after i use other codecs such as FLAC.
[quote name='patmcg' date='Nov 26 2008, 06:26' post='601344']
[quote name='/mnt' post='601314' date='Nov 25 2008, 14:14']please avoid the LAME 3.98.2 version of Trapped Under Ice, since a mp3 decoding bug that appears after a heavy use of FLACs (that i have tried to report months ago, but no one belives me) on foobar2000, ...[/quote]
What is a heavy use of FLACs?
[/quote]
Just of a long seesion of playing music, transcoding and replaygaining my FLAC (Lossless) collection.
[quote name='rohangc' date='Nov 26 2008, 06:31' post='601346']
Looks like I'll be sticking with good ol' LAME for now
[/quote]
Same here.
[quote name='Silversight' date='Nov 26 2008, 13:17' post='601391']
[/quote]
Shouldn't you get ~6/12 for that conclusion?
[/quote]
[quote name='tycho' date='Nov 26 2008, 14:57' post='601411']
Hehe, good catch. 0/12 is in reality the same as 12/12 (when you report the opposite of what you hear). Random answers would give ~6/12.
[/quote]
Whoops, i should have done that test random, should've took my time on it aswell . Anyway it was joke about Down In It being a rip off from Dig It.
helix caught my attention in the public listening test...too bad it doesnt do good with metal...since thats what i listen to i'll stick with flac/lame for now
I also found that AVS4YOU has deletrious effects on dbPoweramp during the install. All the icons in the "Converting to" combo box in the context menu for dbPoweramp appear unassociated.