Monday 1 July 2013

Technical stuff

Several people - here and elsewhere - have given their views on the subject of the format of uploads - lossy or lossless -, the bitrate and other technical issues. I have decided to upload recordings in lossless format (flac) if possible.
I will also post files which I have downloaded years ago from various sources - among them usenet newsgroups - and in those cases I obviously am subject to the quality of the original download. I also have some old stuff which I have burnt on CD; in those cases I can't retrieve the original bitrate. Some recordings are even analogue.
In any case I'll try to give as much technical information as possible. In the end downloaders have to decide for themselves whether the technical quality is good enough for them.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy some of the stuff I am going to post.

4 comments:

  1. I would think the most "honest" approach would be to simply write what the original source was, how it was recorded and then processed for the download. Then people will make their own choices as to whether they want the music or not.
    I think the issue of converting mp3 to FLAC or whatever is secondary in this case, as the original broadcast quality is nearly always the bottleneck anyway. (I followed the MIMIC discussion a little).

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  2. Presentation in Flac format is the correct choice. The FM recording is already not only compromised by characteristic FM broadcasting compression, but also by the digital compression (of the codec used) riding on the carrier wave. At best, in most cases a digital FM broadcast will most likely be compressed at MPEG1 - Layer2, 48 kHz, joint stereo, 192 Kbps (which gives an overall 48 kHz/384 Kbps). It will then be decompressed by the digital receiver. To recompress the decompressed source wave would be making an mp3 out of an mp3, compromising the sampling rate even further. Presenting the decompressed source in Flac is the only way to maintain the integrity of the source without further degradation.

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  3. Here is a sample of a proper lineage disclosure:

    Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB audio: MPEG1 - Layer2, 48 kHz, joint stereo, 192 Kbps) Musiq3 (RTBF) august 10th, 2011 => Sony ST-SDB900QS DAB/FM/AM Tuner => RME DIGI96 Broadcast PCI 24/96 sound interface => Apple PowerMac G5 / Dual 1.8 Ghz => Mac OSX 10.5.8 => Amadeus Pro 2.0.3 [1299] (editing & downsampling) => Flac 16 bits 44,100 kHz (compression level 8)

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  4. Surely this is overkill... (although it is hyper-correct in terms of data completeness...)

    I, at least, don't need to know what machine was used to edit the files.
    What is crucial, though, for my archival needs is the broadcast date* (and hour, if available) and whether the recording is live or a re-broadcast of an earlier concert (in which case I like to know both dates - the original concert date and the broadcast date.
    I also like to know details about the occasion of the concert - was it part of a festival, a competition etc.

    *Yes, I see the date in the data path, but it should stand out more. I think the concert date is one of the most important pieces of information for "future generations".

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