Pre-echo II: Castanets, ATRAC-R vs. ATRAC 4.5
Reply #8 – 2004-07-30 12:24:27
I've compared the reference file to the encoding you've uploaded (thanks). With Replaygain (0.35 dB difference between two files) enabled. Pre-echo is very low with this encoding (4 first attacks). But before that, the guitar annoys me: smearing was immediately audible. Guitar has something sticky, like "chewing-gum". Lame 320 kbps have a similar problem, but it's really subtle in comparison. Here, ATRAC can't reproduce with precision the original guitar sound. There's also some harshness in the second part of the file (bunch of castanets attack). It's an artifact I can't hear in lame for exemple.foo_abx v1.2 report foobar2000 v0.8.3 2004/07/30 13:00:04 File A: file://C:\ABX\castanets.wav File B: file://C:\AUDIO\3_ CODECS\_atrac\ATRAC-R.flac 13:00:05 : Test started. 13:00:13 : 01/01 50.0% 13:00:24 : 02/02 25.0% 13:00:29 : 03/03 12.5% 13:00:34 : 04/04 6.3% 13:00:39 : 05/05 3.1% 13:00:43 : 06/06 1.6% 13:00:48 : 07/07 0.8% 13:00:52 : 08/08 0.4% 13:00:57 : 09/09 0.2% 13:01:01 : 10/10 0.1% 13:01:07 : 11/11 0.0% 13:01:11 : 12/12 0.0% 13:01:15 : 13/13 0.0% 13:01:20 : 14/14 0.0% 13:01:33 : 15/15 0.0% 13:01:37 : 16/16 0.0% 13:01:41 : 17/17 0.0% 13:01:44 : 18/18 0.0% 13:01:53 : 19/19 0.0% 13:01:56 : 20/20 0.0% 13:01:57 : Test finished. ---------- Total: 20/20 (0.0%) To be short (comments based on this sample only ): - on sharp and distinct attacks, ATRAC doesn't suffer from pre-echo - on sharp but dense attacks, ATRAC could introduce some artifacts - on less precise attacks (guitar with background noise), smearing is annoying.
Wavpack Hybrid: one encoder, one encoding for all scenarios WavPack -c4.5hx6 (44100Hz & 48000Hz) ≈ 390 kbps + correction file WavPack -c4hx6 (96000Hz) ≈ 768 kbps + correction file WavPack -h (SACD & DSD) ≈ 2400 kbps at 2.8224 MHz