I love this video as a skeptic and a practitioner of science. All the nuance and extreme positions were discussed beautifully. Discussion of placebo was great. Consider adding nocebo to your patter. Will watch more of your stuff.

This is the first video of yours I’ve watched, and what a great start! I’m only part way through, so you’re still talking about Star Wars, but I paused there to comment and subscribe. Can’t wait to watch more!

Hey! I've been binging your videos for a few days and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your nuance and clarity. As a teacher myself, it always bothers me when tutorial videos avoid the complexities and nuances of topics because they think listeners can't handle it, so thank you for not shying away. Looking forward to learning much more :)

what a great episode - thanks Justin!

Great point Justin!!!

you are a really good speaker. and you covered almost everything which needs to be told.

Justin...thanks for sharing your knowledge. My subscription to this channel has not only taught me things, but improved my approach as to a ‘way of thinking’ concerning audio, mixing, etc. THANK YOU.

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

That’s so amazing to hear. Thanks so much!

Excellent points. Cable discussions right on!

Always reassuring to be reminded that you don't have to worry about buying things that you sometimes worry about having

Thanks for this excellent video. Very true, nicely exposed. I enjoyed the whole video. Tale care.

Hi Justin, great topic (and great channel)👍🏾 I’ve seen a few people comment about the ads and I have to agree that the mid-roll vids are a bit too much. The constant interruptions make the content harder to enjoy. 7 video ads so far and I’m only 27 minutes in. Especially when you’re listening to the video (like I am), I have to constantly walk back to the phone to skip the ads.

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much for the feedback. So sorry to hear this! We usually just trust KZread to do a good job of placing the ads, but it looks like this time their automatic ads are just crazy. I've gone in and deleted practically all of them but two. We've never had these kinds of complaints before. Usually there's one video ad and a whole bunch of little banners and things, but it looks like they totally changed things around this time, and I have no idea why.

i loved this! part of the organism. you're not dead. you mean i'm human?!! thank you. what you share applies to all of life, not just audio. keep it coming!

Why did I always have teachers who were just thinking about their salaries being put in their bank account and didn't care about teaching. Mr. Coletti, where have you been all my life? I like listening to your 'classes' and I learn a lot from them! :)

In 72 I had an old Marconi valve radio. In 76 I got a Bush mono radio cassette and used to record stuff off radio Luxembourg and it was so cool. In 78 I got a Hitachi music centre with huge Celestion speakers and my mind was blown away. The move to CDs was really a small improvement in listening enjoyment (less noise) and when recordings were available with a complete digital chain (DDD) something was missing. Now I think I am so used to the current quality, I don't enjoy analogue colouration. This video was wonderful, I loved it. We succumb to many fallacies. We connect unrelated events with a story so easily. Oh well, my favourite word is still serendipity. 😃

Great stuff, always keeping us thinking...Thanks for your input on this. I'm over the fact of over thinking all aspects of creating, the time is now to get in harmony & put out your work for the world. NOthing is perfect & no one knows it all & everyone has an opinion, so what!?! Happy creating everyone. Peace + Love =)

I like Behringer. I just like it . You are Audio Pastor! Great podcast!

This is gold

Great topic. Have a few friends that try to buy their tracks better. From cables and vst's.. To even tools like meters ( with a story of how the meter should look like ).

when I look at your vintage Amethyst and I look at the one that I recently bought on summer sale, I get goose bumps. #Another_weekly_reality_check_in_the_building #Simple

I’d love to hear your take on the debate around the term ‘Music Producer’ vs ‘Beat maker/ instrument programmer’. What is a modern day Music Producer? Thank G

I just realized that this null testing approach would also be supper helpful for realigning tracks after reamping. If reamped tracks are perfectly in phase you'll hear nothing with flipping. Thanks man!

@JustinColletti

4 жыл бұрын

That is very close to right Spikes... But there will be sonic differences between the DI and the amp sound, so they won't null perfectly. They will likely null quite significantly, with some differences still audibly there. So the null won't be perfect. HOWEVER, if you get them to the place where they null the MOST when the polarity is flipped, then that could definitely help you find the right spot. Hope that helps! Justin

@spikessignal

4 жыл бұрын

@@JustinColletti Ah makes sense. Definitely does help man and thanks for the reply!

Thank you so much for that. So for me personal i first get clear of my goal: do i want to make music for musicians or for me. I never wanted to impress others with what i am doing. Than there came that to me:“song servant!“ Do it for the song (my baby), not for the overperfectionized nerdism. When listening to a (maybe) final mix: Switch OFF your pc monitor! Dont‘t look;...listen! And something that is an livetime exercise: learn to listen! These are my personal rules, beside those mentioned in the video.

@ampstudios

4 жыл бұрын

I actually did that with a client test mix, I turned the pc monitor off, it helped.

The best audio advice I've ever heard is: "Audio is a game of small percentages."

The voices are hilarious, especially the one at the end about the .5db difference 😂👌🏻

You need a high dynamic range track and a system with full FR (at least 2.1 or high quality IEM's) and you'll notice compression, artifacts and clipping. If you're listening to something like rock... you're going to have to really degrade the original file and down sample/compress the file to notice degradation.

Great video Loved the facts used. I was wondering if you could tell me what pop filter you are using I like the design and would like a high quality small profile one like that

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

That one is made by JZ microphones. I like the design, especially on video where you don’t want the pop filter to take up a lot of space.

@IntheDAW

4 жыл бұрын

​@@SonicScoop its expensive for a pop filter but I think the small form factor and the quality of the build make it worth it. i'm going to pick it up thanks!

Mind over matter, or matter over mind? Does it matter - and do you mind?

excellent video!

0:24 lol white sea studios.. Love his vids

I'm grooving that Amethyst! Looking good and sounding even better! Thanks too!

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

SWEET! Nice to hear!

“As powerful as our ears are our minds are even more powerful” Justin Colletti quote of the year .... 👀 maybe haha ✌️

Good analysis of an audiophile.

Does the snake oil include Digital Audio Players?

To tell the difference between wave files and 320kbps mp3, would need an ability to hear above 21kHz. Even to tell the difference between wave files and 128kbps mp3 needs an ability to hear above 16.8kHz. Most people's hearing stops at around 15 to 16kHz or in some cases even much less.

Flipping a phase to create a mid/side matrix creates a huge stereo image but in that case they are panned opposite direction and a middle ground in the spectrum. Higher sample rates lend to higher headroom and better signal processing in the box… and it’s great for mixing but, I always wonder… Since you have to dither the mix to 16bit 44.1… what difference it makes. Some say apogee algorithms can retain the quality of your original mix. Hi frequency content especially is noticeably way less pleasing after compressed. In fact I can say the high frequency synth pads sound WAY better in higher settings and after dither… they tend to completely consume the mix… becoming far more forward in the mix in a unpleasant way. Bad frequencies tend to come out of the mix after compressing even further like an mpeg for example. I’ve yet to mitigate this. In cable, impedance WILL change the frequency responses. I think it higher impedance lends to tight and punchy dampened sounds and low impedance is higher frequency upper middle airy, resonant sounds… er, visa versa

How about the analog button on waves api collection and ssl channels / bus.. do they do anything at all? Also very been thinking recently it should be illegal to claim something is analog if it is a digital plugin. I keep hearing 'analog saturation' being claimed for vst plugins!

👌!!!

I love it that you're using scientific method with this stuff. I'd go with that and asking about 50 people what they think. A Fisher exact test would give a very good significance evaluation - but the great thing about that over a chi-square is that, even with ten people, it will allow a significance test (chi-squareds don't do this low a sample that well). Re: ABX test ... m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABX_test

@DavidAndrewsPEC

3 жыл бұрын

The stuff about 'ditching science' in certain contexts ... I'm a psychologist and engineering physicist, and I cannot disagree: there's a need to be scientific when looking at where money is concerned - you need to be sure of an effect and of significance of that effect. But in a session - two cables going weird - replace both and do the session, and leave the investigative stuff till later on, when it is convenient. A good trial for shopping situations is to have a standardised recording of things and operate on, say, two conditions (a particular EQ setting v. no EQ, for example) and have two people two do not know the content of the tape mark it for 40 items (20 on and 20 off) presented in randomised order. The person delivering the test should also be blind to the test. The concordance between the two observers' responses is the number of items on which they agree divided by the total number of items and this kappa coefficient is always given as a decimal fraction. Anything above 0.80 is at least what you want, in terms of the percentage of the data you can deem to be reliable via inter-rater reliability testing. Validity of a claim made on the basis of a data set goes this way: v(max) = k² (maximum validity coefficient is the reliability coefficient times itself). So, e. g., with k = 0.90, v(max) = 0.81, which is quite reasonable. That would suggest that any detection of an effect would be down to a real effect. A kappa of 0.8 would give a v(max) of 0.64, which is just about okay. Better than this simple kappa is Cohen's kappa: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohen%27s_kappa

What’s the benefit of blind abx vs. blind ab?

@SonicScoop

Ай бұрын

In theory, ABX should be easier, because X it’s always either the same as A or B. You have the correct answer right there in front of you. All you have to do is say which is the same as X. Is it A or B? If one cannot reliably determine whether X is the same as A, or the same as B, it suggest that they cannot distinguish between A and B. For all intents and purposes, both A and B sound the same to the listener. Blind AB or AXX can also be valid ways of testing, as long as they are double blind. Blind ABX helps sort out what differences you can consciously hear. Theoretically it should be easier to complete because you have the correct answer right in front of you. That said, blind AB might theoretically be able to help you tell whether you prefer a difference you’re not even conscious of. In practice, the results of both tend to be pretty similar in a lot of applications. -Justin

I gotta say that still to this day, my favorite thing to see anyone selling is, gold plated optical cables xd. It's the greatest waste of money I've ever heard of because it's not ever going to sound any better than plastic tipped ones. Perhaps it may be somewhat more durable but I sure as hell am not going to pay more for it.

Humble you 29:29 Editing "even more impressive" to "MUCH more impressive"

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

Haha, that's actually just where my DSLR dropped off and I had to restart it. That happens after about 30 minutes. ....But I am SUPER humble. Tremendously humble. Most humble guy you'll ever meet. No one is more humble than me. If there was ever a humbling competition, I would come in second!

@JustRockMySoul

4 жыл бұрын

@@SonicScoop Haha, and so modest! Seriously though, really enjoy your no nonsense way of explaining stuff, be it even on rather subjective and vague matters like this one! On point!

Incredible. Content. 33 views my ass. I cannot believe you dont have hundreds of thousands of views.

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

Hopefully we'll get there! Plenty of videos on this channel have that many. A 49 minute podcast episode though? I'm not sure. Though that would be awesome! -Justin

You do realise that you've opened the Pandora's box? XD I love this episode, please don't get me wrong......but it just makes me think of one of the biggest biases there are when making big purchases for a studio.......I am even afraid to say what it is. In fact I won't say it. Instead I will tell you a story from 10 years ago, when a friend of mine switched from one famous DAW to another one and started telling me how all his mixes sounded "wider and better"......years later I discovered these 2 DAWs have different default pan law settings....his experience was real (the 2 softwares sounded different) but the explanation was not factual (it was down to a customisable parameter, rather than a substantial difference in quality between the sequencers).

Acoustic Research AR9, top model, 1979, in malual states "night lamp cord #18 strand may be used", again, for their TOP MODEL! "jumpers" connecting Hi and LO terminals is a piece of iron wire, again, fo their TOP MODEL! For my AR9 i use QED79, 3 euro/meter and no chance to give a cent more whad did in AR knew we don't know today?

😊 care to say what microphone you are using? 🙏 😺

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

That’s a JZ Amethyst

@victornoagbodji

4 жыл бұрын

@@SonicScoop thanks

Justin, you need to come up with a new classifying term for that predisposed "I can tell the difference between 24bit-vs-256kb audio files" as "audible digital audio psychosomatics" because you predisposed your hearing to the "differences" between the two 24bit-vs-256kb audio files. However, once you randomized it, that auditory predisposition went away. As a student of linguistics who has looked at all the consonant and vowel frequencies, there are occasionally, unique characteristics that are there in the MP3 files that you might be able to hear, however, it is more difficult with instruments because their waveforms aren't as complex as what comes out of your mouth. Usually, the best way to hear these is through a very good microphone and a really good set of headphones....and a WHOLE LOT OF QUIET and listen to the fricative consonants that are really on the higher frequencies to distinguish the differences when hearing the two files. Those voiceless fricative consonants are F (labio-dental)/TH (linguo-dental)/S (alveolar) and going back from the lips to further back in the mouth. Anyway, I'm going to test this out with my beautiful Amethyst and BH2 microphones to see how well it goes.

@JustinColletti

4 жыл бұрын

Sounds like a catchy name Thomas! :) I'll take it. Yes, I do believe that some people in some cases may be able to reliably hear the difference with some 256kbps files blind. I believe there is some evidence of that if I'm not mistaken. But it appears to be very difficult and rare in double blind tests, especially with normal musical content. The last I checked, there was no evidence of it yet at 320. But if someone ever creates that evidence, I'd love to hear about it!

@ThomasLoyd

4 жыл бұрын

@@JustinColletti In thinking about it a little deeper, I think one could most likely be trained to distinguish between them. However, your limitations would be how good your ears are hearing and the quality of the headphones/speakers apart from other environment factors. The thing that might give it away between the lossless and lossy would be in the complex waveforms that are in the upper human-hearing frequency ranges that are produced as mentioned about in the voiceless fricative consonants. You've sparked my interest so I'm going to play around with using my JZ Microphones (Amethyst & BH2) to test the hypothesis. About the only thing I can think of where there might be something from it is due to using a DAW where the "analog audio" is already digitized anyway. Oh well. Yay for hypotheses! And thanks for cleaning out the snake oil!

@arseniy

4 жыл бұрын

Young people with a high ceiling of frequency hearing. I guess like up to 18hz.

@Maver1ck911

2 жыл бұрын

This is why filters and sample rate matter in Delta Sigma conversion at 44.1 and 48Khz; certain filters will roll off the high end and some people might like that for a hot system or some people might want transient decay for bass with a sharp leading edge. But someone who can tell the difference between a short delay fast and a fast or a SD Slow and a Slow/NOS they're lying.

Claim about cables are always outrageously ridiculous... simply ignore these vendors.

Scoop Scoop Whoop Whoop

25:19 what’s up with the audio?

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

GSM interference. Had my cellphone placed right next to my gear and someone tried to call me :) I usually turn it off!

@Gretsch0997

3 жыл бұрын

My interface does that too. It is also a Clarett (four). It’s an awesome unit. Now I know to move my phone or turn it off. Thanks!

There were 16 ads during this Jesus Christ

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

So sorry to hear that. We just turn on the default YT ads. They’re mostly banners and things right? There aren’t actually 16 video roll-ins, are there? We’ll look and see if there are other options for the settings. Thanks for the feedback!

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

PS: We've heard the feedback more than once on this video and deleted most of the ads. Sorry! I don't know why KZread put so many in this time. Really weird!

@samwocks

3 жыл бұрын

@@SonicScoop thanks for responding, it was a crazy amount so I didn't know if it was intentional or something weird was happening Anyways I really love the content, I think you make the best KZread videos hands down, so please keep up the great work!

I don't buy rich people snobs toffs speaker cable - I hate rich elite toffs and I hate their h-fi and speakers

Lol, I growed up listening to digital and CDs. Sorry Vinyl wins hands down. Especially if mixed well. As a musician I hear a tember from Vinyl that I don't get in Digital. Way more 3d nature in the decay of sound. IMO

@budsmoker4201120

28 күн бұрын

Also the stylus behaves more like an analog instrument reading the groove. Imagine a guitar string moving in 3d instead of a 2d.

But I just bought silver plated MIDI keys...

Ethan Winer designed a null tester to physically test cables and components and has proven over and over that cables, unless one has a physical defect such as a bad solder joint, there is no difference. He put a Walmart RCA cable up against a $2000 interconnect RCA cable and it perfectly nulled out. I completely lost respect for Dave pensado when he was trying to shill power cables from some company and claimed it improved the sound of his rig.

Justin, I saw an interesting video where a guy compared using distortion plugins in a daw at different sample rates. You can clearly see and hear aliasing at the lower sample rates. Compression is able to cause this also particularly at distortion settings. hence why plugins have oversamlling features. I was convinced of the non-importance of higher sample rates after watching your video on this topic, but I must say this guy changed my mind. He also suggests that 48 is likely the best sample rate to run at. Id love to hear your thoughts on this..youre amazing! ❤️ Btw here is video: m.kzread.info/dash/bejne/X5532aushJO-aLA.html

@SonicScoop

3 жыл бұрын

Hey Ryan, I mention that oversampling is useful in some types of effects processing as a caveat in in every video where I talk about sampling rates. Saturation/distortion and some types of compression/limiting and synthesis are all good examples of this. However, you don't need to have your whole session be at a higher sampling rate to take advantage of oversampling in plugins that have oversampling built in. So yes, there is truth in this, and I always try to mention it when I talk about this stuff, but it's not necessarily a reason to record or mix at higher sample rates. That said, there are some plugins that may not have oversampling features, that you think "should" that you might like to use. For that I recommend a simple test: Do an entire production at a higher sample rate. Mix it. Then, copy the whole mix session to a lower sample rate and print it again. Then, compare the two files blind. Most people who do this kind of test come to find it's just not really an issue for them. But you should definitely test it for yourself if you are concerned. Hope that helps! -Justin

@Rhuggins

3 жыл бұрын

@@SonicScoop thank you so much, I suppose I must've heard you say that and then forgot it. I love industrial music, which is synth, guitar and distortion heavy so I assumed it might make a difference here. Although I think a bit of aliasing probably isn't a concern in a full mixdown, if that's even the case, as you mention. Its so funny how with this stuff, as with many things at a higher level, there are no hard and fast rules. Every blanket statement has a caveat and exception. Such is the nuance of many things. Thank you so much for taking the time, love listening to your show and learning, I absorb it like a sponge :) Regards, Ryan

that whitesea nerd.....

The amount of adverts is slowly making this channel unwatchable

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the feedback. If you don’t mind the question, how many ads did you get, and how far into the video did you get? We also have the audio only version anywhere you get podcasts, which is ad-free.

@murraywebster1228

4 жыл бұрын

SonicScoop I didn’t actually count, @ 8 ,but there was enough so that it irritate me enough that I considered breaking off viewing, very poor choice of placement time too

@SonicScoop

4 жыл бұрын

Wow, so sorry to hear that. You're not alone, a few people commented to say they had this problem, so I went in and deleted most of the ads. We've never had this issue on other videos before. I have no idea why KZread created so many this time!

@ibrahim47x

4 жыл бұрын

SonicScoop I think KZread started adding ads with profit that’s just for them. They started doing it with unmonetized videos a while back, now ads have double in quantity of midrolls as well as multiple ads in a single midroll. It’s becoming worse than TV, especially because if you don’t exit out of an ad in some cases the video will be paused indefinitely.

Changing a powered chord is BS........😂😂😂😂😂😂

I find power cables might make great changes to sound when I noticed my headphones sound consistently better after mid-night every day. So I bought some expensive cables. To my surprise, more expensive cables generally sound better. Even USB cables can sound very different. There are many other cases that some device do something, but comes with side effects. For example, low end power conditioners sound cleaner but less dynamic. Some cables sound too bass heavy or bright. The bottom line is, you have to listen, prepare a list of all genres of music that you are familiar with as benchmark to determine if the stuff you buy is worth the price.

@necrodogs

4 жыл бұрын

Usb cables? Hogwash. Unless there is something completely bonkers wrong with your source or dac. A bad usb cable would cause crackle and pop sounds, not (relatively) subtle changes in sound. As for power cables, don't get me started. Or do. All this said, it's your money to spend as you please. Whatever makes you happy, I guess.

@allansh828

4 жыл бұрын

Helge Olsen I AB-blind tested some of my friends, to rule out the chance that I was imagining thing. They were shocked that USB cables can sound so different. What’s more appalling, is how cheap the device I used to test them. You can repeat my test. I had Roon streaming FLAC from Qobuz on my MacBook Pro, three different USB cables, chord mojo, Shure SE215 with an upgraded silver cable. Those are entry level sub $100 IEMs. The difference was so distinct that everyone could spot the sound characteristics of that particular USB cable. Edit: I think I should do the test on video some day. I am pretty sure most people can hear the difference.

@hharvey53

4 жыл бұрын

I think there is a logical problem with the expensive power cable thing. The power cable from the wall to your amp (or whatever) is around 6 ft long. The cabling in the rest of your house might be 50 ft to the breaker box. The now 8 gauge or whatever three phase 220v power cables from the breaker box to the nearest transformer might be hundreds of yards. etc. The wiring in most houses, studios etc. is at best 14/3 or 12/3 solid copper wiring. how can the last 6 ft of super expesive power cable possibly make any difference? This would be like saying that adding 3 ft of high end mic cable to a 50 ft run of average mic cable will make the signal sound better. The best you can do is another 6 ft of 14/3 solid copper wire. If after your wall outlet you have a very high end power conditioner, I might see it; but just from the wall? Then again, who knows.

@allansh828

4 жыл бұрын

@@hharvey53 That's what I thought before I tried those cables. I used to laugh at stupid audiophiles too. But the sound difference is so distinct. Adding a $300 power cord improves more than upgrading a $1000 DAC to a $2200 DAC. The deal is too good to refuse. I feel so stupid for believe in the wrong thing for a very long time.

@JustinColletti

4 жыл бұрын

"Even USB cables can sound very different" I'm sorry, but that just doesn't seem possible, even in theory. I think you may want to look a little more into how digital audio transmission, and you'll pretty quickly understand why Helge's response makes sense here. With USB cables, you should have either have really really bad audio quality, or no measurable difference at all. That said, if you have hard evidence to the contrary, such as a null test or blind ABX test to support this view, I'd be excited and to see it! Again, I don't doubt that you tried something new and heard a difference. But remember: You can listen to the same audio clip twice and, with the right story, hear a difference. Even though no difference exists. It's true that people can train their ears to hear impressive things. But it's also true that no matter how powerful our ears may become, our minds are always more powerful still. I think you'd benefit from getting through the whole episode, but it's your life to live, so do what makes sense to you! Hope that helps, Justin

25:20 The difference between CD and mp3 is not even close. MP3 sounds much more coarse and muddy. You don’t need very high end device to hear. HiRes files sound much better than CD as well. But once you spend more on DAC, especially over $5000 price range, CD sounds very close to higher res files. The thing is, CD contains almost all the data you need to do DAC, assuming you have infinite computing power. Once your DAC is good enough, CD quality is all you need.

@jimmiefarmer3022

4 жыл бұрын

Are you going to take the Golden Ears Challenge?

@allansh828

4 жыл бұрын

@@jimmiefarmer3022 I can't find it. Help?

@JustinColletti

4 жыл бұрын

You can find the original posts from years ago here: www.trustmeimascientist.com/2013/09/03/think-you-have-golden-ears-take-the-scientist-challenge/ www.trustmeimascientist.com/2013/10/07/update-on-the-golden-ear-challenge-who-will-conquer-audio-mount-everest/ We still don't have a winner! I issued the same challenge again in this episode if you get through it at some point. But if you can be the first person on record to reliably hear the difference between a 320 kbps MP3 file and a full resolution WAV in a proper double blind listening test, I WILL write a glowing editorial about you, and even have you on the podcast for an interview if you like. Hope that helps! Justin

@allansh828

4 жыл бұрын

@@JustinColletti The ABX software that the website can't playback anything I selected. Not a single mp3, FLAC or DSD file can be played back with that testing software. So I opened Roon and made a playlist of different resolution version of the same track and I shuffled randomly through them. The gaps between mp3, CD and FLAC are so huge that how could anyone not hear? Think about the difference between old Apple earphones and AirPods Pro. It is that big kind of gap in terms of clarity. About Foobar, it does output the correct sample rate on Windows. However, the sound quality is clearly inferior to Roon.

If somebody want to pay 500% more for 5% "improvement" in sound, just do it