11 Aug
2005
11 Aug
'05
10:02 p.m.
From: <davidrclark@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Aug 11 2005 - 19:28:51 EEST
> You've asked some good questions.
And you gave some great answers. Thanks. I half
expected responses saying I had included too many
variables, and that there might be others that I
hadn't even considered that made the answers to my
questions impossible to pinpoint.
I also had considered the possibility, after I sent
the message, that it could be a less-than-high-quality
soundfont in the mix...
Many thanks again,
Mark
____________________________________________________
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http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
13 Aug
13 Aug
1:01 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Distortion -- bad speakers or cheap soundcard?
Mr.- I have the craptastic logitech "X5bla" system on my desktop and
I can't even listen to MP3 files on them unless I have the volume
turned down slightly and causes the amp to distort. So your softsynth
is probably too loud. But anyhow, all distortions have their own
characters. What you're hearing is a harsh and defined digital
clipping sound of information being out of range, since CDs play ok
your amp is probably fine. When an amp distorts it will usually sound
smoother, less clicky than digital clipping. When your speaker is
cooked it will usually sound bad around specific energies of sound(?)
like, bass will sound terrible and mids sound slightly airy / fuzzy at
low volume and then as it gets lowder it all starts to sound like a
flag in the wind.
14 Aug
14 Aug
1:33 a.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Distortion -- bad speakers or cheap soundcard?
Greg wrote:
Mr.- I have the craptastic logitech "X5bla"
system on my desktop and
I can't even listen to MP3 files on them unless I have the volume
turned down slightly and causes the amp to distort. So your softsynth
is probably too loud. But anyhow, all distortions have their own
characters. What you're hearing is a harsh and defined digital
clipping sound of information being out of range, since CDs play ok
your amp is probably fine. When an amp distorts it will usually sound
smoother, less clicky than digital clipping. When your speaker is
cooked it will usually sound bad around specific energies of sound(?)
like, bass will sound terrible and mids sound slightly airy / fuzzy at
low volume and then as it gets lowder it all starts to sound like a
flag in the wind.
Some sound cards (noteably Soundblaster) introduce a whole new type of
distortion sound. They don't sound like digital clipping, because they
are clipping at 44100hz, then resampling to 48khz before converting to
analog (or visa-versa).
I notice this particularly when recording - no matter how hot the input
signal, sample values rarely get outside the +/- 30000 range and never
outside +/- 31000, even though the native 48k samples are clipping at ~32k.
I really wish sound card manufacturers would tell us what sample rates
they really support, and which ones they fake with up/down sampling.
--
e. j. branagan
the MUSE § Nashville, TN
15 Aug
15 Aug
11:12 p.m.
New subject: [linux-audio-user] Distortion -- bad speakers or cheap soundcard?
On 14/08/05 04:32:53, e. j. branagan - the MUSE wrote:
Some sound cards (noteably Soundblaster) introduce a
whole new type of
distortion sound. They don't sound like digital clipping, because they
are clipping at 44100hz, then resampling to 48khz before converting to
analog (or visa-versa).
Interesting.
My experience of the very cheap soundblaster (the one based on the ES1371 chip) is that it
can't handle the full 16 bit range without distortion when either recording or during
playback. I had always assumed that this distortion was occuring in an VCA mixer stage
but re-sampling is another possible explanation.
As to why CDs play correctly - normally the link between the CD-ROM drive and the sound
card is an analogue one and the D/A converter being used is the one in the CD-ROM driver
rather than the sound card. This will, of course, work at the 44100 Hz sample rate as it
would make no sense for a CD player to do otherwise.
Why do the sound card manufacters assume that sound cards are for fancy effects for
computer games? Some people may use them primarily for that but I like to listen to music
and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Steve.
7042
days inactive
7046
days old
linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
e. j. branagan - the MUSE -
Greg -
Lee Revell -
mrmoo1231＠ahooyay.omcay -
Steve Fosdick