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Those With The Musician's Ear,...Report In:

S

Scooter Lesley

Guest
I don't have the gift, but there are those out there that have Musician's Ear. Without any prior skinny, can tell what stations are broadcasting Wav files, WMA's or Mp3's. I do know that stereo separation is the same no matter what. So,...what are these stations broadcasting?
 
My sense is that those with a musicians ear can hear pitch differences, and what you're asking about usually doesn't affect pitch. But there is a graininess to the sound as the sampling gets smaller and the compression gets greater. There are at least four different bit rates for saving an mp3. The smaller the bitrate, the worse the fidelity. Regardless of the system, it all gets run through analog compression and limiting in the final stage of broadcast, and the other factors tend to limit the frequency response. And then you have the limitations of the receiving system and the listening environment. How's that for an answer?
 
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Actually, stereo separation is NOT always the same. There are several different methods for encoding stereo signals in just MP3 files alone. The possibilities are myriad.

However, as TheBigA states, there are many other factors to consider. It's practically impossible to tell what file format is being used by the time it hits the airwaves. And, I can tell you from experience that not all stations encode their audio files in the same format across the board, so you can be hearing multiple file formats on the same station.

As for what those formats may be, many stations still use MP2 (the precursor to MP3) with a .wav extension, as that was the industry standard for quite some time. In fact, using uncompressed WAV files (which are NOT compressed in MP2 format) has only become more common relatively recently as hard drive space has become less expensive. You'll almost NEVER find WMA files on a station's server, simply because the format is proprietary, hardly anyone uses it for anything, and licensing it just doesn't pay off for most software and hardware companies. MP3's are much more common because of how ubiquitous they are at the consumer level, which has helped stations keep costs down through using consumer-grade software and hardware, and the difference in audio quality between a full-quality, 320kbps constant-bitrate MP3 and an uncompressed WAV file is realistically unnoticeable.

So while you most likely can't tell the difference just by listening, chances are that, in order from most to least likely, you're hearing 1: MP2, 2: Uncompressed WAV, 3: MP3, or 4: anything else.
 
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To the both above, we appreciate you explanations of sound,....at the beginning of the funnel, but you didn't finish-up by answering the question.
I have learned much from the two posts, but who's playing what? Supposedly,....WMYI is all WAV files.......
 
By "without any prior skinny," I took the question to be that you were looking for someone who could identify the file format a station was using by ear. As to who's using what, not being from the area, I couldn't tell you.
 
The Music I hear on 98.9 FM out of Spartanburg sounds "Tinny" on my HD Radio Tuner. And that is just on an Analog Transmission. It is only this Station that sounds this way. Others sound just fine. Which begs the Question... is it a File Format Issue or a Transmission Issue, especially for this particular Station? Steve.

JoshTheRadioDude said:
Actually, stereo separation is NOT always the same. There are several different methods for encoding stereo signals in just MP3 files alone. The possibilities are myriad.

However, as TheBigA states, there are many other factors to consider. It's practically impossible to tell what file format is being used by the time it hits the airwaves. And, I can tell you from experience that not all stations encode their audio files in the same format across the board, so you can be hearing multiple file formats on the same station.

As for what those formats may be, many stations still use MP2 (the precursor to MP3) with a .wav extension, as that was the industry standard for quite some time. In fact, using uncompressed WAV files (which are NOT compressed in MP2 format) has only become more common relatively recently as hard drive space has become less expensive. You'll almost NEVER find WMA files on a station's server, simply because the format is proprietary, hardly anyone uses it for anything, and licensing it just doesn't pay off for most software and hardware companies. MP3's are much more common because of how ubiquitous they are at the consumer level, which has helped stations keep costs down through using consumer-grade software and hardware, and the difference in audio quality between a full-quality, 320kbps constant-bitrate MP3 and an uncompressed WAV file is realistically unnoticeable.

So while you most likely can't tell the difference just by listening, chances are that, in order from most to least likely, you're hearing 1: MP2, 2: Uncompressed WAV, 3: MP3, or 4: anything else.
Click to expand...
 
Could be any number of things, really. If it's only the audio coming out of the automation system, it could be the file format, it could be the sound card in the computer itself, it could be the connection between the sound card and the mixer, it could be the specific channel strip in the mixer going bad... they could even be doing pre-processing on their automation audio that gives it that tinny sound. It would literally take being there in the studio and hunting down the problem by process of elimination to find out. Of course, if it's ALL of the audio that sounds tinny, it would most likely be something in the processing or a problem somewhere else between the mixer and the transmitter, which would be a whole other process of elimination.
 
Scooter Lesley said:
Supposedly,....WMYI is all WAV files.......
Click to expand...

My general answer is this: Stations that download their music from record label sites get them as wavs. Those who download them from radio sites get them as 256 mp3 files.

The other factor is how big is your library and how much disc space do you have? That's a big factor in how you save your music.
 
the pencil necked consultant thinks that wav files are large and hard to store so there is compression that removes data. of course, you think radio was better in your day.
 
Well,...Freqy,...Pencilneck Consultants don't know anything about Programming,...so, how you figure-in that they know anything about Engineering?
I'm not Engineer, but even I know, in the Digi-world, that Wav files are the best. Sometimes cumbersome, and/or expensive,....+plus the space to put them, but HD space is getting cheaper by the minute;.....and stations can afford the Best.

........and Yes,...Radio was better in my day, as Vinyl sounds better, and everyone knows it! Also,...we had Boobs like you, but they weren't allowed to type anything....too bizzy washing the Van!
 
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