Put All Audio Questions Here

I decided to make a Q&A thread about any audio problems that you might come up with. I or some other resident audiophile will try to answer your question in a timely manner. Anything from gamerips to LAME development will get answerd in one way or another. This thread's purpose is to help people rip/encode audio with the best advice and help them troubleshoot any problem's they're having.

I'll get the ball rolling here:
Q#1: I got a pair of Koss KSC75 headphones after my Sony MDR-Q55SL phones crapped out. They have good bass, but the treble is muted (meaning it's there but it doesn't sound loud). I can use the equalizer and bass/treble settings on Windows, but with my Sony D-NE710 there is no such setting. Is there any cheap ($15 or less) device that I can get that will boost the treble of my CD/Mp3 player?

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Originally Posted by Kairyu

Ok the first part of your question confuses me.
Is it your crapped out Sony MDR-Q55SL or the Koss KSC75 earphone that's giving you sound problems?

Another thing, is the earphone doing this with any source its plugged into? Or only on your computer?

If its just the computer try going to: START > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > under 'volume' tab click 'advance' next to 'speaker settings' > under the 'speaker' tab use the drop-down list and select 'stereo headphones.' and hit ok.

That should fix the problem!

As for boosting treble with a external device, I can't help you there though I'm sure someone else will.

The Sony phones are dead and the Koss one's are currently giving me crap with the treble. Sound on the PC is fine because I can tweak the treble, but my Sony CD/Mp3 player can't.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Kairyu

Hmm well it does appear to have a 60 ohm impedance.. But that's not enough to really make the earphone sound "quiet" in general while unamped.
Personally, it sounds to me like you bought a bad pair. Take them back and get it replaced if you can. I know they're not bad, infact they're very good for their price .

It's actually part of the phones. If you read reviews by websites, most of them say the high notes are muted.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Kairyu

Ohh, I see. Then its more 'preference of sound' than a actual problem with the earphone. You made the problem sound like you could only hear the bass coming out of the earphone =p.

Well yes, the treble is a little weak. But what can you expect for a 15 dollar earphone? Technically the busted sony earphones might've sounded better to you with its louder sound (that had a 24 ohm impedance btw, which can be enough to affect the response of the sound.)

Anyway, the only thing you can do is turn up the volume (which I wouldn't recommend) or get a better earphone. There is also getting a portable amp but it would be silly to buy a 30 to 100 dollar amp for a 15 dollar earphone.

Hoefully I'll be able to buy a digital music player that can boost treble, afterall a CD/Mp3 player can't hold much of my music anyways.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Huh? An MP3/CD player can hold every piece of music ever created. It just gets tiresome carrying CD's everywhere you go.

It can only hold 700MB of music per CD (12 discs with mp3s @ 128kbps). I have well over 10GB of music, so I have to use CD-RWs to listen to music (I don't want to waste my CD-Rs).

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

Gots a prob you audiophiles might be able to help me with.

I recently raided my old hard drice and found a bunch of old Icewind Dale speechfiles for characters. I figured they might be useful (and some are quite funny). and since they were .wav files, opening them seemed like it would be easy.

No such luck. Winamp, Itunes, Quicktime, and Audion all refuse to play the files and don't recognize them as WAVs. Any ideas? I'll post a sample when I get onto my home machine, since each file is quite small.

They could be from a wav format your previous machine's Windows installation supported, but the current does not. It's most likely an ADPCM file or something like that. If you give me one of those samples I could analyze the file and see what format it's in.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

Here's one of the troublesome WAVs. Any info you can wring out of them will be greatly appriciated.

According to Game Audio Player, your file is not a wav file, but a ACM file. Use Game Audio Player to playback and convert your ACM file into a wav file. When you run the program, click on the playlist icon (to the right of the Play, Stop, and Track/seeking buttons). Then press Alt+F to scan an individual file or Alt+X to scan an entire directory.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

An ACM, eh? Figures. I was converting all the Icewind Dale music on my HD from ACM to WAV when I found the files in the first place!

Thanks for the info though. I wonder why it's got the .wav tag (which it had in the game directory) rather than .acm? Oh well.

EDIT: You don't happen to know of an app for OSX that can do the job, do you? It would save me a step and a half or so

Unfortunately I don't, but even having a convoluted long process is better than nothing.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by sofronitsky

I read somewhere that using EAC (esp. the Test + copy function) will wear your drives out much quicker than normal cd ripping programs. Someone said they ripped about 100 cds (on a new drive) then the drive crapped out. My question is, what's the life expectancy for cheap to mid-priced drives that use EAC on a daily basis (I rip about 5 cds a day)? Also will I notice a deterioration in the quality of my rips as the drives begin to wear out. Also, I've noticed in the past (When using other Cd extracting programs like EZCDDAX) that if I rip a large amount of cds in a short period of time they have audible flaws (such as pops/skips). Can this happen while using EAC and the CRC check reports no errors after I've ripped a few Cds. One more question I have is: Do you have any idea why I would tend to get a high number of SYNC. errors during cd extraction for the last track of each CD. It never occurs anywhere else, just the last track. When this happens I re rip the last track using Burst mode... no errors occur. Have any idea why I'm experiencing this problem? Thanks in advance.

EAC could cause wear by the excessive CD-ROM use that bad CDs can cause. The constant re-reading of the same sector can wear out the motors that look at different track position.
Tell me what CD-ROM drive you use and I could tell if your CD drive lacks important DAE related features. EAc tends to have some read errors near the end of a track, but for me that's only caused by Offset Correction. Your CD-ROM drive's make and model would be a big help in telling me what your drive can and cannot do.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'd in invesr in two drives, one for reading (DVD/CD-ROM) and one for writing (DVD+-RW or CD-RW). My Sony DDU-1613 has always served me well and has damn near perfect DAE (it's dirt cheap too).

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Lady Miyomi

How do I do this?

Double Post:
Nevermind, figured it out.

Also most good plugins have a pre-amp for volume amplification, set that to a desireable volume if you still use Winamp.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Lady Miyomi

So, turning the volume up in Winamp would make it sound louder before I convert it?

Not exactly what I'm talking about. If your plugins don't support a preamp in the plugins, just move all the sliders on your equalizer up evenly until you achive your desired loudness.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Not necessarily a good idea, as it can introduce clipping if you're not very careful about it.

Double Post:
To "replaygain" files in foobar2000, just select them from its window, right-click and go ReplayGain > Scan selection as…

Yeah, but Lady Miyomi's GSF files are only natively playable in Winamp (you can play them in foobar2000 0.8.3, but it requires a Winamp plugin wrapper). You could then edit the spit out wav files and apply Replaygain to them to delete the clipping.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

Nope. Clipping in WAV files is unrepairable.

Double Post:
If only it worked.

It doesn't - as I just posted above, replaygain won't fix clipped WAV files.

It's a convoluted path but here goes:
1. Convert your files in Winamp to wav (or some other lossless format)
2. Go into foobar2000 v0.8.3
3. Scan the files for Replaygain (don't worry if they can't have Replaygan applied to them, the database will save the RG values
4. Open up the preferences
5. Go to the Playback options and make sure the following option is checked:

6. Go to the diskwriter preferences and make sure the following option is checked:

7. Then covert the file to any format you please, the files will have the clipping cut off and Replaygain applied.

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Originally Posted by lion

Does anyone know the difference between 'joint stereo' and 'stereo' in a mp3 file? I tend to think 'stereo' sounds better than 'joint stereo' but joint stereo is used when I rip using EAC (from that thread by Moguta)

Joint Stereo analyzes the audio for similarities between the left and right channel and will result in better quality for a lower bitrate if the two channels have little or no separation. LAME determines which is best for each frame in an MP3 and so do most other lossy encoders. You get better quality for lower bitrates with joint stereo, so it's best to use joint stereo with mp3s (though non-LAME mp3 encoders make bad choices on what to use joint stereo on).

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by ArrowHead

You think, but can you tell? Have you tried blind testing J-Stereo vs Stereo vs the original?

No I haven't, but these people have. Hydrogen Audio is the site I respect the most for the final word on the best sounding codecs. JStereo will most likely increase quality on a CBR file and lower the bitrate on an ABR/VBR mp3. Any lossy codec that gives you a choice between mid stereo (aka Joint Stereo) and regular stereo (except for non-LAME mp3 encoders) will benefit more from mid stereo.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Lady Miyomi

I've tried finding programs to do this, but XA to WAV program that's on Zophar's Domain site doesn't work on this computer anymore. I've tried other programs, but they don't work either. Some even advertise XA to WAV conversation, but have no such function. I'm having no luck. Anybody have any ideas?

I do belive PsxMC can import XA files, it does work with most popular PS1 formats.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by wvlfpvp

OK, so I know thsi is going to cause people to go OMG TRANSCODING but here goes:

I have some .ogg files that I want to transcode to mp3 for use in an mp3 player.

What settings/quality blah blah blah should I use in LAME to avoid making the files huge/not lose TOO much quality?

Anything at "-V 5" (don't forget to add the vbr new switch, which I conviently forgot the exact command to) or higher should be workable under most circumstances. It'd probably be best to use a similar preset to the bitrate the source Ogg is at, as not to waste space or lose too much quality.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Merv Burger

I suppose just saying convert it to 128k would be too much to ask for LAME, wouldn't it.

Yes, but VBR does a better job of determining what's the best quality. CBR (for bitrates below 320kbps) is pretty much useless, it wastes too much potential quality. If one wants to use 128kbps, then all you need to do is supply an input filename, LAME automatically uses 128 CBR as the default. If you want a stable bitrate and the best quality, ABR @ 128kbps is the best way to go.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Blue_Kirby2

What are the differences between APS and APX VBR? I'm just wondering since I don't know what to encode my future rips in.

Really both will be indistinguishable in almost all cases (there might be a few cases where APX (aka -V 0) sounds better). If you don't keep lossless backups of your CDs, APX might be the way to go. If you don't really obsess about quality to the extent a select few do, then APS will sound transparent in 99.999% of all songs (especially if the words $100 and headphones never enter the same sentence when buying audio hardware).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Blue_Kirby2

Well the thing is, I will be backing up my VGM collection eventually and I am a quality-obsessed ripper. I've also seen #gamemp3s ripping most of their music in APS. That, and I kinda got the impression that APX files have a larger filesize than APS files do, though I can't be 100% sure on that.

If others were to burn my projects onto CDs I would go for APS then, eh? And thanks for the help.

Generally APS mp3s average between 190-210kbps and APX goes from 230-280kbps. The quality difference is not that great, especially compared to 128->192kbps. If you have large amounts of space, then go for APX, but if you backup to small mediums (like CD-R), using APS could mean the difference between having 8 full albums as opposed to 6.
Oh and use LAME 3.97b2 with -V 2 for better-than-LAME3.90.3-APS-quality. You'll get faster encodes and better quality in almost all cases. Personally I'd use -V 0 if you're obsessed with quality though, anything higher would be superflous and a waste of space. OR go with the compromise of -V 1 which is around 210kbps in most cases.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Cyrus XIII

We had this extensive and well written hardware guide on the previous incarnation of the GFF - could anyone bring it back?

As soon as the GFF Archive starts working again, I could just hyperlink the guide. But with this crap, someone will have to supply us with a html copy of the thread.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'd agree there. Try 44100Hz, if that doesn't work, 48000Hz or 37800Hz should do the trick. PsxMC should be able to correctly detect the sampling rates of said files.

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Originally Posted by soniclover

I thought so.

The last question on my mind is about Enhanced CDs. While searching through soundtracks. I noticed on Amazon.com that some CDs have [Enhanced] on their description. So, what do they really do differently for enhanced CDs? Do they buff something out or increase pitches or something?

What would be the big differences from Enhanced CDs and non-enhanced?

Not sure, but I think it has something to do with special encoding of the 15th bit of the 16bit CD audio, called a HDCD. It expands the quality to 20bit audio (or 120dB range, the limit of human hearing), making it sound better, but only if you have an audio player that can interpret the data (WMP 9 or 10 is your best bet). More infomation can be found here.
It could also simply mean a Blue-Book Audio CD, meaning a CD with the audio tracks and music videos, flash movies, wallpapers and *ahem* DRM software.

FELIPE NO

If you do decide to buy one of these CDs, make sure you hold down onthe Shift key when you load it into your PC. That way any copy protection won't attempt to jam itself into your OS, and you'll be free to copy the CD without restrictions.
Also when browsing its contents, be very wary of any non movie/picture files, EXE programs tend have some crappy surprise in store for you.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by soniclover

Okay, I've been having some confusion about VBR.

I've been cruising on the internet for soundtracks and I find that I see some albums that say something like 224kbps VBR. Is that possible? I thought VBR meant variable Kbps. Do people on the internet just make a mistake about VBR or something?

The 224kbps means the average bitrate of the whole song (or the setting used). For example 192kbps VBR could also mean --preset standard or -V 2 in LAME. Even though the bitrate of the mp3s varies from point to point, it's average bitrate is still measured in kbps to help people determine size and quality level of the file.

Jam it back in, in the dark.