a classical music and mp3 issue?
Reply #20 – 2002-12-03 11:43:00
I've been pushing the mpc format on my forum since i know it's better audio quality and faster encoding speed. OK, but have you heard it for yourself? For example there is one user here who even can't find any adequat words in his own language to describe how bad MPC sounds to him with his favorite harpsichord music at low bitrates. Hrmm.. but how relevant is this? As far as I can tell, the original poster isn't talking about low bitrates. But twlkwind talked about "pushing MPC" in general on his forum, connotating this to his original question about better suited codecs for classical music where he did not speak about bitrates first. OK, but I don't want to start nitpicking, because I noticed in the new "Monty" thread that you've already read the postings of Case and myself about MPC at low bitrates in the MP3 board, and I used guruboolez's opinion only as an example, like I already mentioned in my answer to twlkwind.Furthermore, who is using MPC at low bitrates? It isn't designed for low bitrates, it isn't tuned for low bitrates, and it's not recommended for low bitrates by the developers who have worked on it. Do you have a link to a thread where Frank Klemm wrote this recently? I got an answer from him yesterday in de.comp.audio (a german newsgroup) where he states that he also plans to improve Musepack at low bitrates having some new ideas that could help in this issue. Furthermore he also repeated the same impression that Case already gave in relation to MP3 at low bitrates.Saying that it may not be good at low bitrates (on harpsichord music or not) doesn't really mean much in this context. That's what guruboolez said, Case and me said the opposite, and that's what I wanted to point out and what does matter in this context: there are no quick all-time truths, even (or maybe especially) if they are repeated over and over again. But I think you would probably agree on that, because you already said that there is no general guideline which codec sounds best on classical music. By the way, guruboolez will send me some samples with classical music encoded at low bitrates where he finds MPC to be inferior to other formats, so I can compare them for myself. But I probably can't comment on them before Thursday, because I have to go on working now... The most important thing is that you should not trust anything someone tells you (especially me), but rather test it for yourself before making generalizing comments. [...] Of course, anything goes on a case by case situation and one should always verify results if they need a precise judgement of quality, but it is also well known (through continuous testing and verification) that certain encoders perform well in certain areas. I don't think there is necessarily a need to disregard all public knowledge, but only to be wise in your application of such. Right, and I did not suggest to "disregard all public knowledge", but rather to trust your own ears after doing the best you can to find an answer to your specific question, i.e. reading comments and making own thorough comparisons with different codecs. And in the end you may even come up with a decision that differs from the one that the favorite guru and/or his zealots praise, because the sensitivity to certain kinds of artifacts is probably even more subjective than to music styles in general.