https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/

--
Cheers ... Mark

On 17/05/2021 19:04, Mark wrote:
> https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/
>

"Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to
our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin,
Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd,"

Take a look at the more commercial bunch of these artists, you'll find
their recordings dynamically compressed and their voices synthesised (as
well as some of the instruments).

Will it really make a difference to be lossless after all that?

Think Apple Music is struggling ... How much did they pay for Beats?

What happened to Beats by Dre?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w

--
Adrian C

Adrian Caspersz <email@here.invalid> wrote:

> Think Apple Music is struggling ... How much did they pay for Beats?
>
> What happened to Beats by Dre?
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w

Dr Dre wasn't actually a doctor, I think that was the problem.

Daniele

On 18 May 2021, Adrian Caspersz wrote
(in article <igh24sFpq1tU1@mid.individual.net>):

> Take a look at the more commercial bunch of these artists, you'll find
> their recordings dynamically compressed and their voices synthesised (as
> well as some of the instruments).

-All- recordings do dynamic compression, even the classical ones with high
dynamic range. Vocal synthesis or what have you doesn’t affect quality of
sound either, it may or may not be to taste but it certainly isn’t anything
to do with literal audio quality.

> Will it really make a difference to be lossless after all that?

Maybe/maybe not. Likely not after about 320kpbs. It really isn’t anything
to do with dynamic compression though.

> Think Apple Music is struggling ... How much did they pay for Beats?

I don’t know if it is or isn’t, but this is more a reaction to hype than
to figures. Specifically Tidal.

> What happened to Beats by Dre?
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w

They remained as terrible as they were before they bought them. Heavy bass,
no mids, high treble.

Cheers,
Ian

On 18 May 2021 at 06:37:31 BST, "Adrian Caspersz" <email@here.invalid>
wrote:

> On 17/05/2021 19:04, Mark wrote:
>> https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/
>>
>
> "Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to
> our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin,
> Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd,"
>
> Take a look at the more commercial bunch of these artists, you'll find
> their recordings dynamically compressed and their voices synthesised (as
> well as some of the instruments).

Don't be snobby about the more commercial stuff, they're saying they'll
do lossless of as much of the library as possible.

Dolby for free rather than £15+ for a license on MS platforms is a
nose-tweak to Microsoft too.

Cheers - Jaimie
--
d> It's OK. I'm an atheist catholic.
g> So you just feel guilty for /no readily apparent reason/.
- deKay and Gareth Halfacree, ugvm

On 18/05/2021 06:37, Adrian Caspersz wrote:
> On 17/05/2021 19:04, Mark wrote:
>> https://www.apple.com/uk/newsroom/2021/05/apple-music-announces-spatial-audio-and-lossless-audio/
>>
>>
>
> "Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to
> our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin,
> Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd,"
>
> Take a look at the more commercial bunch of these artists, you'll find
> their recordings dynamically compressed and their voices synthesised (as
> well as some of the instruments).
>
> Will it really make a difference to be lossless after all that?

Probably. Especially to data usage. I hope they will enable a toggle to
turn off lossless when on mobile data.

>
> Think Apple Music is struggling ... How much did they pay for Beats?

Way, way too much. Style over substance. Andre must have been laughing
all the way to the bank.

> What happened to Beats by Dre?
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w
>
>

Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:

> -All- recordings do dynamic compression, even the classical ones with high
> dynamic range.

Oh no they don't. I have issued commercial recordings that were made
without any gain changes at all.

In one outstanding case, an opera singer was overloading the system (By
12 to 15 dB!) on one particular note, so she solved the problem by
wearing thick socks and walking silently backwards away from the mic and
then turning her head sideways. From the fact that she instantly knew
what was needed and had arrived with said pair of socks packed in her
bag, I concluded that this was a practice she had come across in other
studios.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 18 May 2021 at 17:56:18 BST, "Liz Tuddenham" <Liz Tuddenham> wrote:

> Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:
>
>
>> -All- recordings do dynamic compression, even the classical ones with high
>> dynamic range.
>
> Oh no they don't. I have issued commercial recordings that were made
> without any gain changes at all.
>
> In one outstanding case, an opera singer was overloading the system (By
> 12 to 15 dB!) on one particular note, so she solved the problem by
> wearing thick socks and walking silently backwards away from the mic and
> then turning her head sideways. From the fact that she instantly knew
> what was needed and had arrived with said pair of socks packed in her
> bag, I concluded that this was a practice she had come across in other
> studios.

Great story - love it!

--
Billy is silly

On 18/05/2021 09:27, Ian McCall wrote:
> On 18 May 2021, Adrian Caspersz wrote
>> Think Apple Music is struggling ... How much did they pay for Beats?
>
> I don’t know if it is or isn’t, but this is more a reaction to hype than
> to figures. Specifically Tidal.

Lossless is a nice and easy feature to add. Personally I can hear the
difference between a CD I've ripped to ALAC, and "the same" tracks I
listen to via Apple Music on the same speakers - my own rip sounds more
"open". I suspect this might be just due to different mixing between the
CD and Apple Music versions so "the same" tracks really aren't, and not
really ALAC vs AAC.

But I think the spatial audio is going to be VERY interesting, assuming
Apple will deign to play it over non-Apple speakers.

Getting them both for no cost increase is very nice, and makes life
quite interesting for Spotify.

>
>> What happened to Beats by Dre?
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w
>
> They remained as terrible as they were before they bought them. Heavy bass,
> no mids, high treble.

They've apparently improved quite a bit since being bought, less/better
controlled bass for instance.

--
Chris

On 18 May 2021, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <s80usr$o5p$1@dont-email.me>):

> Lossless is a nice and easy feature to add. Personally I can hear the
> difference between a CD I've ripped to ALAC, and "the same" tracks I
> listen to via Apple Music on the same speakers - my own rip sounds more
> "open". I suspect this might be just due to different mixing between the
> CD and Apple Music versions so "the same" tracks really aren't, and not
> really ALAC vs AAC.

This is an interesting point and it’s going to be difficult to compare due
to the possibility the actual mixes are different. But Apple Music is 256kbps
- 320kbps is where you mathematically lose the ability to tell any
difference.

Another wildcard is the encoder itself. You’re quite beholden to whatever
choices the encoder decided to make regardless of bit rate.

Cheers,
Ian

On 18 May 2021, Liz Tuddenham wrote
(in article<1p9dyt5.1ks3a8bzj55yeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>):

> Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:
>
> > -All- recordings do dynamic compression, even the classical ones with high
> > dynamic range.
>
> Oh no they don't. I have issued commercial recordings that were made
> without any gain changes at all.
>
> In one outstanding case, an opera singer was overloading the system (By
> 12 to 15 dB!) on one particular note, so she solved the problem by
> wearing thick socks and walking silently backwards away from the mic and
> then turning her head sideways. From the fact that she instantly knew
> what was needed and had arrived with said pair of socks packed in her
> bag, I concluded that this was a practice she had come across in other
> studios.

Zero mastering on a commercial recording? No limiters, EQ, compressor on any
of the surrounding orchestral mix?

Fantastic story though on the singing though.

Cheers,
Ian

On 18 May 2021, Chris Ridd wrote
(in article <s80usr$o5p$1@dont-email.me>):

>
> >
> > > What happened to Beats by Dre?
> > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5hYvlKz7w
> >
> > They remained as terrible as they were before they bought them. Heavy bass,
> > no mids, high treble.
>
> They've apparently improved quite a bit since being bought, less/better
> controlled bass for instance.

That’s interesting - wonder if target audience actually sees that as
‘improved’. The whole Beats signature sound was overly bassed, mids
scooped out and then high treble. Without that they’re just another
headphone - literally better, but not necessarily subjectively what the
original buyers were after.

Cheers,
Ian

Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:

> On 18 May 2021, Liz Tuddenham wrote
> (in article<1p9dyt5.1ks3a8bzj55yeN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>):
>
> > Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> wrote:
> >
> > > -All- recordings do dynamic compression, even the classical ones with high
> > > dynamic range.
> >
> > Oh no they don't. I have issued commercial recordings that were made
> > without any gain changes at all.
> >
> > In one outstanding case, an opera singer was overloading the system (By
> > 12 to 15 dB!) on one particular note, so she solved the problem by
> > wearing thick socks and walking silently backwards away from the mic and
> > then turning her head sideways. From the fact that she instantly knew
> > what was needed and had arrived with said pair of socks packed in her
> > bag, I concluded that this was a practice she had come across in other
> > studios.
>
> Zero mastering on a commercial recording? No limiters, EQ, compressor on any
> of the surrounding orchestral mix?

Mainly brass band and organ recordings with a single stereo mic. Check
for peak levels and let them get on with it. Some of the brass band
tracks had an extra spot mic for percussion, but that was just faded up
to a pre-set level when needed.

For some of my jazz band single-mic recordings, the overall level did
need to be changed manually to bring up the solos (and there was a lot
of editing to remove bum notes and join different takes). Still, there
was no digital 'fiddling', the sound was exactly what was recorded.

> Fantastic story though on the singing though.

That was the method used for acoustic recordings where there was no way
of controlling the gain; it is still used for some electric recordings
because it gives a more natural effect than fading mics in and out.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk