[LAU] DFasma 1.4.4 - A tool to analyse and compare audio files in time and frequency

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Fri Mar 11 13:31:23 UTC 2016


On Fri, 11 Mar 2016 05:16:00 -0600, Brent Busby wrote:
>it would be nice if there was some quantifiable way to look at what
>the mix and mastering engineer has done and actually see it

Hi Brent,

take a look at painted colors in the way Josef Albers did by his
"Interaction of Color".

Take a look at the same blue square on a green and orange background.

Assumed software should give each colour an unique sinus frequency, you
could hear three different sinus tones. One for the green, one for
the orange and one for the blue, but for the brain the blue that is
equal on the green and on the red background, seems to be two different
shades of blue. This might also be the case of the impression of two
mixed sinus tones, but your understanding of the painted colors wont
become more objective by listening to the sound.

There is nothing crucial for the overall effect you could analyse
by objective, measurable values. That's why there is not one valid
color theory, there are several color theories and even if only one
valid color theory would exist, it can't give an ultimate answer to
overall effects of complex paintings, in combination with different
compositions of similar paintings, let alone for comparison of
completely different paintings from different cultures.

If a sound analysis done by software of Arnold Böcklin's different
versions of his "Isle of the Dead" would provide you different tone
combinations, it would be harder to determine the impression of the
painting by the sound, then by taking a look at the paintings.

A painter needs to learn how color and composition interacts and an
audio engineer needs to learn how sound color and composition interacts.

Spectral analyses of sound files e.g. could be helpful to ensure that
e.g. two mixes that should sound equal, since one file just is a digital
copy of the other, are really equal. Assumed the digital copy should
have failed regarding a software bug, you might see two definitively
different color impressions.

A spectral analysis can't show you, what impression the audio mix does
cause to a listener and how to change the impression to e.g. sound
warmer and I doubt that any other visualisation of sound could be used
to get "some quantifiable way to look at what the mix and mastering
engineer has done". 
What you want is similar to want to get software, to analyse a recording
of an opera and to generate sheets of music, that are equal to the
sheets of music, with all the comments the conductor of that recording
had in mind.

Regards,
Ralf


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