Re: [microsound] Re: microsound Digest 19 Apr 2003 23:05:19 -0000 Issue 888

[Aaron Ximm <ghede@xxxxxxxx>]

> If you wan't to do be able to do EQ on your recordings don't use MD.
> Minidiscs reduce the amount of data is by removing 'inaudible' bands of
> frequencies. However, it's very audible if you try to do EQ on your
> minidisc recordings.

FWIW my experience with my own recordings is that applying FFT or EQ (as I
do almost all the time) is fine.  I do not find that bumping up any given
frequency band 'reveals' compression.

I can generally detect MD artifacts in (a) low level near-white noise
background ambiance (eg, rushing water noise recorded at a low level
relative to some foreground sound), and (b) when doing time/pitch domain
transformations, particularly radical varispeed manipulations (eg, 2 or
more octaves).

Incidentally I'm speaking of hearing positive artifacts, not 'negative'
ones caused by the absence of something I might otherwise hear.  In my own
work the former bother me a lot more than the latter. (Although I've used
some of the artifacts as elements in composition before ~ why not?)

But of course YMMV, I'd be the first to admit that my ears are not as
golden as I might wish. I'm a proponent of MD because its convenience
changed my life, but not particularly 'religious' about it; if you're
reading this and are considering adopting it as a medium for collecting
sound for your own work, the obvious thing to do is give it a try and see
whether any of the real or perceived limitations of it bother you...

 best
  aaron

  ghede@xxxxxxxx
  http://www.quietamerican.org

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