A Polite Request From Mr. Angry

A Polite Request From Mr. Angry

We have about 400 regular readers on ESWA so imagine my surprise when some very recent posts reached over 2500 people (overnight!). I know most bloggers would enjoy reaching new audiences and will do their very best to expand readership, however here I do like to keep things compact and controllable. This allows me to quietly go about my hobby in my peaceful little spot on the internet away from mass exposure.

My hobby is recreating the best possible audio capture from an analogue media for my own archives. The blog's purpose is purely as a vehicle to share the results with a like-minded audience, focusing on mainly difficult to acquire music. Perhaps it was my mistake to feature a critique on the fifth album and accompanying deleted singles by a faded British four piece, however I did not expect an individual to then post this page linked on one of the group's social media sites, encouraging people to acquire the free downloads. I lost my job shortly before Christmas and I for one cannot afford to fend off greedy, self-profiting legal vultures, nor would I want to bring any unwanted attention to these pages.

The ethos of ESWA is purely based around my personal love of important and much missed bands from the key years of my musical education, it is a big reflection of me and how great and rare music plays an important part in my life. ESWA survives not only because of this but also because I have a great and loyal following who understand this, who donate records and rips or recommend other bands, or donate cash so that these other rare items can be sourced. Every penny donated has gone into the procurement of new source material. Except of course for a few of you kind souls who bought me a beer on Sonic Circus.

I had previously thought about going invite only for access, that may have to be the way forward but I will need to investigate the means and methods first. ESWA is a wholly personal project shared with very few like-minded souls, please can we keep it that way or it will be lost for good.

Take care,
Blogmeister

What's The Frequency Analysis, Kenneth?

Where's The Link?

Internet audio forums are full of theory, fact and fable about the best audio quality for listening purposes. Back in the early days here, I permitted myself to post nothing but mp3s, I then moved up to 16-bit flac and then 24-bit. My largest files were in 24-bit 96000Hz resolution but I could see/hear no benefit in audio quality so have stuck with 24-bit 48000Hz for my own flac posts. I always rip at 24/96 to ensure the best possible audio capture, then master/track split before down sampling to 24/48. Some of those who donate rips have chosen 24/44.1 quality which works fine too. The fine trade off between audio quality and file size has allowed me to host more and more files, and hence allow the links to be made available for a little longer than two weeks. My hardware allows a 24/192 rip ....however I think that is just silly and a waste of hard drive space and bandwidth, but I have seen files that size on other sites.

There has also been a debate on whether Audacity is really up to it for capturing 24-bit rips using Windows. There are suggestions, with some evidence, that the platform really just upscales from 16-bit to 24-bit due to the way it works with Windows sound drivers. A decent USB sound card is a good workaround as it captures via its own drivers, plus you have control over the resolution better than with Windows drivers. I've tested my rips and am confident they are true 24-bit ...until somebody comes up with a better test than just counting the bits on a waveform. Thankfully good audio software like Audition can analyse wave forms and give reasonably accurate stats as well. I have used Audition for a few rips, but in comparison the software lacks Audacity's ability to remove sonic rumble from the quiet bits on vinyl rips.

Most of you are just happy with 16/44.1 which in effect is cd audio quality. The human ear hears little above 20000Hz per channel, so that would make sense. For me it is the resolution and detail in the capturing of a rip which makes all the difference which is then represented in the final quality audio file. I recognise that most studios record digitally at 96000Hz or 192000Hz, but I work with an analogue media (a vinyl record) using analogue equipment (a stylus and cartridge), so am satisfied most frequencies above 24000Hz in each channel are just inaudible noise. I also have to consider the frequency response of my stylus and tests show that I rarely pick-up anything worthwhile over 24000Hz in each channel. Its amusing these days when bizarre anomalies such as wifi signals and CFL light bulbs can be picked up by a stylus. I see those little tell tale frequency spikes on my rips as well as on those of many others - thankfully they are almost all inaudible and down sampling removes them.

It was concerning to have found the recent New Order 24/96 HD audio tracks distributed earlier this year by their label, Warner Music, were really just upscaled 16/44.1 CD tracks. This only serves as proof of how major music companies have attempted on jump into the high definition business without carefully thinking it through. Their silence when questioned on the matter was deafening.

Ripping vinyl and blogging is a hobby, but it eventually becomes an obsession as you constantly strive for the cleanest rip with the best balanced sound, at the right volume with minimal clicks, pops and fuzz. It has cost me much personally but ESWA will continue striving to improve with every rip or post. I have a wealth of stuff in the pipeline, much courtesy of you blog followers, so keep your eyes and ears peeled over the next week or so in the run up to the Christmas period.  You know I always try to do something a bit different every Christmas! 

Cheers Blogmeister.