Planetarion Forums

Nodrog · 6 Apr 2006, 10:45

Actually its a winamp plugin. Most music is ripped at a bitrate that is significantly worse than CD quality, and hence the sound is noticably poorer. Ozone is a plugin which attempts to compensate for the lossyness, and restore some of the fullness of sound that that is often lost during encoding. And though I was sceptical at first, it actually works - the difference in quality is highly noticable and the improvement is very significant. You dont notice it that much at first, but once youve had it on for 10 minutes or so and turn it off, you notice straight away that the music loses its warmth and fullness of sound. Try it.

Note that if you have shit speakers/headphones, there might not be much of a difference. I'm listening on fairly decent headphones which probably makes the improvement more noticable, but I think it would be fairly obvious on any equipment that isnt terrible.

edit: theres various presets to play around with, but I think the default is fine. Theres actually a 'headphone' setting, but this isnt very good - it makes the sound quite closed and clumpy.

KoeN · 6 Apr 2006, 10:47

thank you nod.

Flavius · 6 Apr 2006, 10:57

for mother russia

Cooling · 6 Apr 2006, 11:22

It does a good job on my bookshelf speakers. Just the default gives it quite a warm pleasant sound. They are rather small speakers, they certainly benefit from a bit of digital wizardry.

With my floorstanders though the sound dosn't sound quite right. It sound's a little too overcompensated. The bass is a little overdone. I don't tend to use them for mp3 listening however, so it doesnt really matter.

ps. Listening to the White Stripes with this plugin just dosn't sound right.

Nodrog · 6 Apr 2006, 12:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cooling

With my floorstanders though the sound dosn't sound quite right. It sound's a little too overcompensated. The bass is a little overdone. I don't tend to use them for mp3 listening however, so it doesnt really matter.

Yeah, like most EQ settings, it really depends on the type of music. The default settings do add a significant amount of bass, which isnt going to sound right for some stuff. You can select a preset that has less bass, but I've not really played about with non-default settings yet. I would have intuitively thought that it would sound best for 'harder' music, but I'm not really sure - it certainly improves the trance that I've listened to, but doesnt seem to do much for hard rock. But I like the effect it has on normal rock/indie music - the change it has on (eg) Wolf Parade is amazing.

I'd be interested in the effect it has on classical music - the increased bass would have to go, but a fuller and more musical sound is always good.

Cooling · 6 Apr 2006, 12:33

It certainly isn't perfect, but it does a great job of brightening up my comp setup. You have to pay to unlock most of the presets, I don't imagine they will add all that much to the usefulness of the program. If it makes a significant difference then it may be worth it, but I doubt it.

DSP Enhancers can only do so much in adding to the quality of the sound.

I agree on the rock/indie comment. I like the effect it has on The Decemberists and The John Butler Trio - they sound a lot warmer. But I don't like what it does to Joy Division. Too much echo/reverb; there is really only one way this music should sound

gazza_dj · 6 Apr 2006, 18:29

nice. ive used a couple of similar plugins before, but they werent too good. this one seems pretty nice!

Cannon_Fodder · 6 Apr 2006, 19:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nodrog

Actually its a winamp plugin. Most music is ripped at a bitrate that is significantly worse than CD quality, and hence the sound is noticably poorer. Ozone is a plugin which attempts to compensate for the lossyness, and restore some of the fullness of sound that that is often lost during encoding. And though I was sceptical at first, it actually works - the difference in quality is highly noticable and the improvement is very significant. You dont notice it that much at first, but once youve had it on for 10 minutes or so and turn it off, you notice straight away that the music loses its warmth and fullness of sound. Try it.

Despite knowing you aren't a new poster, I am so tempted to say:

'Advertising. Ban.'

P.S. Why cant you change the bit rate anyway so that it's CD quality. That's what I'm doing, or am I missing something.

Achilles · 6 Apr 2006, 20:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by CF

P.S. Why cant you change the bit rate anyway so that it's CD quality. That's what I'm doing, or am I missing something.

I was wondering the exact same thing. I can only imagine that it is because they are using the free version of winamp with limits you in terms of bitrate when you rip a cd. This is exceptionally poor use of the internet.

In essence, while winamp is a perfectly good program for the playback of music, it is not ideal for ripping (in it's free form.) In fact it's really shit at it. I spent a few seconds googling to find a guide that uses the LAME codec (also free, rips at higher bitrates.) This is a pdf of a comprehensive looking guide. Its a bit more work than using bittorrent to download a commercial application but presumably you guys don't want to steal said software or this wouldn't have been an issue in the first place.

Phang · 6 Apr 2006, 21:01

you people are talking hilarious nonsense. the only formats that can be described as 'CD quality' are FLAC and similar lossless formats. 192 is 'near enough' CD quality. The plugin is essentially a very, very good EQ which attempts to bridge the gap. I would have thought its effectiveness would start to taper off at about 320 but i havent listened to any high-bitrate stuff since installing it.

Also, two things: first, will people PLEASE stop confusing sniborp and Cannon_Fodder, I know having two sets of words in different places taxes your little minds terribly but do try at least. second, why do people make the otherworldly assumption that most of the mp3s people listen to were ripped by them?

Cannon_Fodder · 6 Apr 2006, 21:09

phang whats wrong

Achilles · 6 Apr 2006, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phang

you people are talking hilarious nonsense. the only formats that can be described as 'CD quality' are FLAC and similar lossless formats. 192 is 'near enough' CD quality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nodrog

Most music is ripped at a bitrate that is significantly worse than CD quality, and hence the sound is noticably poorer.

The fact is that most people would have a very hard time differentiating between a high quality mp3 and a cd. (I would suggest that 320VBR would be the benchmark for a 'high quality mp3.') If the poster was having issues with downloaded mp3s ripped at a lower quality (and I misunderstood the issue) then the only solution is, as you suggest, to download their music in a lossless format. Using an equalizer will nor provide any kind of faithful replication, though it might make the music sound "better."

Oink's Pink Palace is a place to download or request lossless rips. It's easily the best music torrent site I have seen but you need an invite to join.

edit: Also, blank neg-repping someone who is trying to be a little helpful is just shite. Have at least one testicle and sign it. What kind of child is scared of signing a criticism on the interweb?

edit2: Direct link removed. In hindsight it was pretty dumb to include it.

Yahwe · 6 Apr 2006, 21:37

do not post links to websites which carry out illegal activities!

ffs the world has gone spastic!

midge5 · 6 Apr 2006, 21:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yahwe

do not post links to websites which carry out illegal activities!

ffs the world has gone spastic!

On that point do you know what exactly the law is on making backups of music? As I had always assumed I was safe with Beatles/Thin Lizzy etc... albums as my parents have them all on record but someone I was talking to seems to think that the albums have been modified slightly since then which means that if I downloaded the album then it doesn't constitute a backup.

Quote:

Oink's Pink Palace is a place to download or request lossless rips. It's easily the best music torrent site I have seen but you need an invite to join.

If anyone is desperate I have an invite left.

Achilles · 6 Apr 2006, 21:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yahwe

do not post links to websites which carry out illegal activities!

It is not illegal to download music which you already own. This is called Fair Use in the US and is incorporated into Irish law in the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000. I believe it is also a part of UK law under a different name?

Nonetheless the direct link was foolish and I have edited accordingly.

JonnyBGood · 6 Apr 2006, 22:13

Direct links are bad

Stealing when you get away with it is good though

PS My dog wrote that in case the RIAA came a-knocking.

Androme · 6 Apr 2006, 22:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yahwe

do not post links to websites which carry out illegal activities!

whoever posted the links can "PM" me though so that I can check it - so I can form my opinion about whether it's illegal or not

Phang · 6 Apr 2006, 22:46

i know all about oink. in fact, i gave invites to midge and nod.

and i'm not sure how "a 2 megabyte program that makes 192 sound like 320 is better than just getting 320 when you have less than a terabyte of hard drive"
isn't obvious.

meglamaniac · 6 Apr 2006, 23:05

That's actually quite nifty, despite my initial scepticism.

Achilles · 6 Apr 2006, 23:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phang

i know all about oink. in fact, i gave invites to midge and nod.

No doubt you do. I was not posting solely for your benefit though. In the unlikely event I ever feel the desire to communicate with you directly I'll avail of the pm button.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phang

and i'm not sure how "a 2 megabyte program that makes 192 sound like 320 is better than just getting 320 when you have less than a terabyte of hard drive" isn't obvious.

I'm not sure why the benefits of posting different options for people to try on a public forum aren't obvious to you. I guess we'll both have to remain puzzled.

midge5 · 6 Apr 2006, 23:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phang

i know all about oink. in fact, i gave invites to midge and nod.
.

Indeed, and I'm really grateful. Its a brilliant site

meglamaniac · 6 Apr 2006, 23:26

Update:
This iZotope Ozone thing + the Sqrsoft Advanced CrossFade plugin = party perfection. Just make sure to remove deselect Ozone on winamps DSP plugins screen and add it to the DSP list in Sqrsoft ACF and you're sorted, it works pretty well for most indie/pop/dance type stuff.

I tried it out Ozone on it's own with heavier rock and then some classical (the 1812 Overture no less!) and it doesn't really work, but in combination with ACF you can rack up a selection of tunes and leave it to it.
Ozone seems to add the sort of compression/punch that radio stations add in to their Drivetime shows, which also happens to be quite similar to the sort of amp/EQ setup that many bars or clubs will use.

Dante Hicks · 7 Apr 2006, 09:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Achilles

If the poster was having issues with downloaded mp3s ripped at a lower quality (and I misunderstood the issue) then the only solution is, as you suggest, to download their music in a lossless format.

This is hardly trivial given most people's MP3 collections have been built up over a number of years and often span to several hundred gig.