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martinhm
from York (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 06:14 [#00553457]
Points: 1657 Status: Lurker
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I read this article in the Guardian today. It would seem that lossless compression of music (esp. live stuff) via Shorten has been growing in popularity for some time now among purists who dislike MP3.
The compression technique is nothing new, the necessary software is available for free from SoftSound. Does anyone have any .SHN files? Has anyone heard of this before, or intend to use it?
Another article on Shorten
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martinhm
from York (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 06:37 [#00553483]
Points: 1657 Status: Lurker
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*sigh*. none of the threads I start ever attract much interest.
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xceque
on 2003-02-13 06:42 [#00553489]
Points: 5888 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag
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There's are few newsgroups where you can download shn/lossless audio. Not all strictly legal, but that's the beauty of newsgroups :)
alt.binaries.sounds.lossless alt.binaries.music.shn alt.binaries.music.shn.repost
and my favourite... alt.binaries.music.shn.dylan
There's also a number of folks running ftps where you can grab stuff. It's not hard to find through Yahoo groups and suchlike. I downloaded the Syd Barrett 'Have You Got It Yet?' bootlegs in shn (7 CDs worth!) with the minimum of fuss.
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xceque
on 2003-02-13 06:44 [#00553492]
Points: 5888 Status: Moderator | Followup to martinhm: #00553483 | Show recordbag
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I know the feeling...
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martinhm
from York (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 06:47 [#00553499]
Points: 1657 Status: Lurker
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cheers. any ideas whether this format is being taken up in the "idm" scene? (notice my clever use of quotation marks to simiultaneously use, yet distance myself from, the term "idm").
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xceque
on 2003-02-13 06:52 [#00553505]
Points: 5888 Status: Moderator | Followup to martinhm: #00553499 | Show recordbag
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I noticed that, very clever, well done :p
I'd love to see lossless sharing of live gigs and some ludicrously rare material (like stuff that even if sold - ebay etc - would never return money back to the artist).
If record companies decided to go for selling music downloads as a serious alternative to buying vinyl/CDs I'd like to see it in lossless form simply cos low bitrate mp3 (anything lower than 224) sound really bad on my surround speakers, and if I pay for music, I want the proper music, not a compressed version which doesn't sound quite the same.
I'm no audio-purist, but I can tell the difference between mp3 and CD audio.
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Inverted Whale
from United States Minor Outlying Islands on 2003-02-13 09:34 [#00553834]
Points: 3301 Status: Lurker
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There are several lossless formats out there, Monkey's Audio seems to be growing the fastest in popularity.
I don't find a real use for them at the moment because I already have an archive source (CD or vinyl) and HQ mp3 is good enough for me. But I can see others' rationale in it.
I read an article that the granddaddy of lossless music sharing, the tape trading circle (updated to CD now, of course) is making a comeback.
I was exposed to quite a bit of new music in the old days by getting into a trading circle that originated in Europe or Japan.
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Jon Beilin
from United States on 2003-02-13 14:05 [#00554097]
Points: 86 Status: Lurker
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I'm into SHN a fair amount. Couple DC hubs dedicated to it. Check the www.ateaseweb.com MBs for some radiohead ones. Anyone else have some suggestions?
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zaphod
from the metaverse on 2003-02-13 21:39 [#00554412]
Points: 4428 Status: Addict
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SHN is excellent. i have an entire, supposedly soundboard mix of a radiohead gig in SHN format and there is a noticeable difference in quality between this and mp3. i use it for live shows only though, takes up too much room otherwise.
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str_ph
from Cambridge (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 21:43 [#00554413]
Points: 779 Status: Regular
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what's the average compression rate of that stuff ? For mp3s VBR-160 is around 1:12 I think.
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Inverted Whale
from United States Minor Outlying Islands on 2003-02-13 21:54 [#00554415]
Points: 3301 Status: Lurker
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All the lossless codecs are pretty close in size, roughly 1:2. Someone was nice enough to compare them here.
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str_ph
from Cambridge (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 21:55 [#00554417]
Points: 779 Status: Regular | Followup to xceque: #00553505
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I like to see how people here are above user tests. When a couple of tests show that 99% of the people can't hear the slightest difference between a CD and a 160 kB MP3 played on professional systems (not your shitty PC speakers) I can find 50 people on that message board saying that MP3s render a crappy sound.
I agree that you can find a difference for confield-like music between a 160kB and the CD (not the vinyl rip of course) and the textures may sound also different for the latest BOC but come on ! That's not because you have a big brain that you have better hearing habilities.
That's all in your head guys !
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Inverted Whale
from United States Minor Outlying Islands on 2003-02-13 22:03 [#00554422]
Points: 3301 Status: Lurker | Followup to str_ph: #00554417
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Where did you see a test at 160 Kbps? The test I see most frequently cited was the one by c't magazine at 256 Kbps.
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str_ph
from Cambridge (United Kingdom) on 2003-02-13 22:12 [#00554424]
Points: 779 Status: Regular | Followup to Inverted Whale: #00554422
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in some psychoacoustic papers - I don't think you can find them online.
But this link makes a comparison between raw PCM, 128 kB and 256 kB.
(follow 'critique' and click the link on section 3)
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