MaximumPC 2006 01

MAXIMUMPC

CHALLENGE

ANOTHER

40 MA XIMUMPC JANUARY 2006 JANUARY 2006 MA XIMUMPC 41

The thing that most often fools newbs is not

knowing what kind of sounds are evidence of

bad encoding or heavy-handed compression,

but there are a couple tracks you can throw

at your software to see how well it’s doing. Of

course, you should begin with uncompressed

fi les, so you can’t download these test tracks

from an online service. If you don’t want to

pony up for the CDs, you might want to check

your local library.

The fi rst is “Neon Reprise” from

Metropol by Lunatic Calm. The song con-

tains a whooshing upward sweep that audio

compressors have a very diffi cult time with.

Turn off Joint Stereo and keep upping the

bit rate if you hear any warbling (like a cas-

sette tape that’s been mangled).

The second comes from the legendary

1965 RCA Victor Opera Series recording of

Verdi’s La Traviata. In Act II, Track 10, position

3:16, Anna Moffo belts out a bone-liquefying

high note. Focus your attention not on her

voice, but on the instrumentation behind it. If

there’s any fuzz or rumbling in the background,

again, dial up the bit rate.

PLURALIST’S CURMUDGEON’S HIPSTER’S AUDIOPHILE’S

TRACK TRACK TRACK TRACK “This is hard... this

is really hard.”

PLURALIST’S CURMUDGEON’S HIPSTER’S AUDIOPHILE’S

TRACK TRACK TRACK TRACK

UNCOMPRESSED ✔ X X X

320K VBR ✔ ✔ X X

160K VBR ✔ X ✔ ✔

UNCOMPRESSED X X ✔ X

320K VBR X X ✔ X

160K VBR X X ✔ X

“I’m pretty sure

about this.”

HOW GOOD IS

YOUR ENCODER?

(^) THE HIPSTER
The Hipster was frantic. She listened to tracks over and over
again, ferreted out loud sections and asked them to be repeat-
ed and compared with the same section in another version of
the track. She leaned forward several times, pressing the cups
of the headphones to the sides of her head. She removed the
headphones, took a breath, and put them back on. It was all
for naught—“this is hard” she said, “this is really hard.”
In the end, the Hipster confessed that she resorted to
guessing in most cases, relying on a hunch based on instinct
rather than any identifi able portion of the tracks. Her instincts
proved to be accurate when listening to her own track; she
correctly identifi ed the bit rates of all three versions. As for the
rest, guessing didn’t pay off so well—none of the other partici-
pants’ tracks were correctly identifi ed, and she had to settle
for a humbling three out of 12 correct, the lowest of the group.
In her frustration, however, she man-
aged to deliver one zinger. While
listening to a choral track provided
by another participant, she told
Maximum PC: “After listening
to this song, I don’t feel so bad
about my track.”
THE PLURALIST
The Pluralist appeared to be having too much of a good time,
smiling, frisking through tracks, and tapping her fi ngers on the
table in time with the music. She was fearless about volume
level and didn’t hesitate to ask us to crank it
up while scrutinizing certain portions of
the tracks. But she found the exercise
to be anything but a breeze. “I’m pretty
sure about this,” she told us, but quickly
added, “sort of.” And then: “Wait, can I hear them again?”
Despite this last-minute waffl ing, she was very confi dent
about identifying the quality levels of her own track, as well she
should have been: She correctly identifi ed all three. With songs
she was not familiar with, or with tracks that made her burst out
laughing (see the last sentence of the Hipster’s report), she iden-
tifi ed only two of the 160Kb/s tracks and a single 320Kb/s track.
The fi nal result—six out of 12 correct—doesn’t seem particularly
impressive until you consider that this was the highest score of
the entire group!
SCORE CARD
SCORE CARD