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Author Topic: The Stephen Desper Thread  (Read 718468 times)
Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1225 on: September 02, 2012, 06:30:10 AM »

COMMENT:

I have lost track of the WEBMASTER FOR SMILEYSMILE.NET.  Last time, a long time ago, I contacted someone it was Charles LePage, but I'm not certain who is in charge now.  Could you please fill me in either here or in an email.

I appreciate it very much. 
~swd
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« Reply #1226 on: September 02, 2012, 06:53:05 AM »

Stephen, I think this one will work for you.  Pretty sure Chuck still runs this board.

chuck@comiclist.com
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I, I love the colorful clothes she wears, and she's already working on my brain. I only looked in her eyes, but I picked up something I just can't explain. I, I bet I know what she’s like, and I can feel how right she’d be for me. It’s weird how she comes in so strong, and I wonder what she’s picking up from me. I hope it’s good, good, good, good vibrations, yeah!!
Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1227 on: September 02, 2012, 08:30:38 AM »



Would an online solution meet your neets?

Friend of mine uses this site …

www.lulu.com

… to create small print-run books which I understand can even be printed on-demand, as single copies. Can also be sold via the major online retailers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

COMMENT:   Last year I took an in-depth look at LULU publishing. Then I started to convert my files to their requirements. After weeks of editing, I just gave up. Too many other things to do with my life came up. But that was for the large book. LULU is not cost effective for small publications.  But, I thank you for your suggestion.

My current thinking is to center around the point of the book, Recording The Beach Boys, which is recording. It seemed to me that if I combined examples of what I wrote in the book with actual sound demonstrations, it would serve the needs and wants of the fans in a way the printed book can not. The problem has always been that any examples involve copyrighted material, which cannot be published. I mean, words can only go so far in describing sound. Like trying to explain "red" to someone in a book. Yes you can tell how many degrees Kelvin "red" measures, or you can cite where it falls in a scale of colors in relation to other colors, but that does little to actually give any real examples. Only an empirical example will do. THIS IS RED ****.  Same with sound examples. Nothing can replace or explain listening. I studied the copyright law and I think I can just squeak by under the provision for studying copyrighted material if I respect all the rules.

OK so far. I bought some space at VIMEO and with Will C. Music Productions helping me along what I mean to eventually do is publish the book's contents, but with audio examples. I think this is much better than printed pages that remain silent. The joys of music are poorly expressed by the confinds of words alone.

This approach also relieves some of the frustration I've felt for years and years of my work being "stuck in stereo." The record companies don't have a clue as to how much of a barrier they managed to erect in regards to the technological wizardry they could have promoted and made a profit from. With the advent of the Internet, now I can get music out to the fans with good fidelity for all to hear and enjoy as it was meant to be. But it must be in the form of a study. Each fan can make their own CD copy of the study sound track. As long as they do this for themselves, and not for profit, we should be OK. But one person can screw this up, so there is a degree of risk involved -- and trust.

I could have taken a year or two to build up a huge release of lots of material via Vimeo, but decided to just release a song-study as I get them done. (Will and I are working on two new ones right now.)

I'm not in this for the money, in fact it costs me money to provide and maintain the study-videos. Unlike Youtube.com, the service is not free, but does provide some advantages. In order to get the sound out there and get these songs UNstuck from stereo, I cannot even think of making a buck or two. But that's OK. The main objective is to get information, either written or sonic, to the fan base.

Since this is all free to you, your job is to obey the rules and pass along the study websights to anyone that might appreciate the efforts.    


~swd
« Last Edit: September 02, 2012, 08:43:25 AM by Stephen W. Desper » Logged
king of anglia
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« Reply #1228 on: September 02, 2012, 10:11:22 AM »

Thanks so much for doing this Steve.

Do you know what bitrate the audio is encoded at on Vimeo?
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« Reply #1229 on: September 02, 2012, 10:53:39 AM »

I could have taken a year or two to build up a huge release of lots of material via Vimeo, but decided to just release a song-study as I get them done. (Will and I are working on two new ones right now.

Awesome! Really looking forward to those.
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« Reply #1230 on: September 02, 2012, 03:48:42 PM »

I could have taken a year or two to build up a huge release of lots of material via Vimeo, but decided to just release a song-study as I get them done. (Will and I are working on two new ones right now.

Awesome! Really looking forward to those.

Agreed, thanks for all your hard work.
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« Reply #1231 on: September 02, 2012, 03:56:40 PM »

I could have taken a year or two to build up a huge release of lots of material via Vimeo, but decided to just release a song-study as I get them done. (Will and I are working on two new ones right now.

Awesome! Really looking forward to those.

Me too! I was having a bad day when I saw the first episodes, and they made it an absolutely amazing day I'll never forget!
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1232 on: September 02, 2012, 05:26:03 PM »

Thanks so much for doing this Steve.

Do you know what bitrate the audio is encoded at on Vimeo?

COMMENT:

The audio bitrate on VIMEO is 320kbit/s.  The audio bitrate on YouTube is 192kbit/s.

Reference (see third chart)  >>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_video_services

You can thank Will C. for insisting we use VIMEO, even though it is not free like YouTube, because of the higher resolution for both video and audio. The audio chain used for these study-videos is of audiophile quality with processing done by professional grade equipment. I have done A/B comparisons between the processed audio and the audio coming off of VIMEO through my HP computer. In those listening comparisons, using $1000 Sennheiser headphones or Tannoy Monitors or JBL Monitors or KRK Monitors I have found no difference that can be heard. Today's digital chain is rather robust, with error correction, multi-path readings and such. I assure you that every effort (we can afford) is being used to maintain the highest sound quality via today's video hosting services.


~swd

Additional Information:  

VIMEO AUDIO

Codec: AAC (Advanced Audio Codec)
VIMEO is using AAC for the audio codec.  (About ACC  >>>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding)

Data rate: 320 kbps
320 kbps is the highest quality audio data rate VIMEO currently supports.

Sample rate: 44.1 kHz
44.1 kHz is the highest audio sample rate VIMEO currently supports.
« Last Edit: September 03, 2012, 07:15:25 AM by Stephen W. Desper » Logged
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« Reply #1233 on: September 05, 2012, 07:02:51 AM »

Fantastic. I will follow this topic!
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« Reply #1234 on: September 05, 2012, 01:27:17 PM »

I've just listened to "Cool, Cool, Water" and the bonus track ... wow!  They both sound amazing (I have to say, I have under-appreciated the latter song up until now).  And hearing the CCW sessions, and the detailed notes - an unparalleled resource...

Stephen, after listening to both, I realized that somewhere along the line, the left and right channels coming from my computer were coming out of the wrong/opposite speakers.  I've resolved the problem, but now that I've re-listened to parts of the bonus track again, I can't tell if it actually sounds better this way or I am becoming more familiar with the 360 degree sound.  My question is, does inverting the right and left channels negatively affect the matrix-processed audio?

Thank you so much for this treasure!  I'm looking forward to returning to these and hearing more (hopefully full-length Sunflower in "the matrix"!).
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1235 on: September 05, 2012, 06:55:10 PM »

I've just listened to "Cool, Cool, Water" and the bonus track ... wow!  They both sound amazing (I have to say, I have under-appreciated the latter song up until now).  And hearing the CCW sessions, and the detailed notes - an unparalleled resource...

Stephen, after listening to both, I realized that somewhere along the line, the left and right channels coming from my computer were coming out of the wrong/opposite speakers.  I've resolved the problem, but now that I've re-listened to parts of the bonus track again, I can't tell if it actually sounds better this way or I am becoming more familiar with the 360 degree sound.  My question is, does inverting the right and left channels negatively affect the matrix-processed audio?

Thank you so much for this treasure!  I'm looking forward to returning to these and hearing more (hopefully full-length Sunflower in "the matrix"!).

COMMENT:  That is an interesting question.  To my knowledge it should make no difference. However, you really want to keep what is left to the left and what is right to the right. In the CCW study I provided a track that went from center to left and center to right. I guess this is how you discovered your error. Of course when watching a movie you want the screen action to match the sound action. You don't want a car moving right to left on the screen and doing the opposit as you listen.

There is another situation in stereo that can make the image less than it could be. It is called The Wood Effect. Discovered by Charles Wood at the Defense Research Laboratory in 1957, it was first reported in 1962 in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (of which I am a menber). According to the Wood effect, or as we call it today, Absolute Phase, takes into consideration the first compression of a sound signal that a microphone picks up.  If the microphone diaphram's first change to a sound in air is to go inward, then in reproduction the speaker cone should also go inward first. To go the opposit way is considered reversed absolute phase. Since we are talking about natural sound, you want the speaker cone to mimic the microphone coil. In stereo this refers to both speaker cones. To reverse absolute phase, you must reverse BOTH left and right polarities to cause a change. In reality, you can only hear when absolute phase is wrong on a recording done in one time domain. That is, not a multi-track recording done in seperate time frames or at different times, but recorded at one time. An example would be a spanish guitar solo recorded in stereo or a symphony orchestra recorded with two or three microphones such as the Mercury Records Living Presence or RCA Living Stereo recordings by Robert Fine, Engineer, back in 1959 through 1963. Better audiophile equipment does have an absolute phase switch, but the difference is very hard to hear.

The third mistake you can hear is a phase mistake of 180 degrees or a polarity flip of plus for minus. Thus, one channel would have the speaker cone going outward and the other going inward, when they should both be going in the same direction.

Glad you are enjoying the study-videos. More on the way . . . 


~swd 
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Al Jardine: Pick Up Artist
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« Reply #1236 on: September 07, 2012, 05:53:30 PM »

Dear Mr. Desper,
Deirdre sounds noticeably different than other tracks on Sunflower and is very "odd" sounding in general. It seems to be something to do with the stereo mixing, it has an almost "duophonic" or similar quality to it. What am I hearing? Why is it there/what caused it?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it's on "Feel Flows" as well...
« Last Edit: September 07, 2012, 05:55:24 PM by Cactus » Logged

Which song: Inappropriate relationship with sister-in-law

Which song: Gonna straight up bang you with "the wood".

Which song: Weather conditions make me horny

Which song: Lack of proper shoes leads to potential blood poisoning and death.

Which song: Who needs church? Let's do it on the couch.

Dennis: "Holy sh*t, Al, you're finally showing signs of developing facial hair!!!"
Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1237 on: September 08, 2012, 06:44:43 AM »

Dear Mr. Desper,
Deirdre sounds noticeably different than other tracks on Sunflower and is very "odd" sounding in general. It seems to be something to do with the stereo mixing, it has an almost "duophonic" or similar quality to it. What am I hearing? Why is it there/what caused it?

EDIT: Now that I think about it, it's on "Feel Flows" as well...

COMMENT:  For me to try to answer your question(s) I will need to know how you listen and over what equipment, if you don't mind telling us all. Those songs should not sound that way, so let's see were the problem might be, and offer a solution.  ~swd
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« Reply #1238 on: September 08, 2012, 10:31:16 AM »

I listen on an old Pioneer stereo (one of the first decent CD players, I'm aware CDs have atrocious sound quality, but I have a Sunflower/SU CD) played through some *big* Boston Acoustics speakers (sorry I can't give more details). I also notice it on my digital copy on my MacBook Pro, I listen usually with a pair of Sennheiser 280s.

It's very odd. It's easy to tell it's in stereo, I can tell what channels things are in, but it sounds very phase-y and like I said, almost duophonic. The more I listen, it seems to only affect the instrumental track, the vocals are very crisp, clear, and well arranged, but the instrumental track feels lopsided or *something*. I wish I could pinpoint what it is.

Now that I think about it, it's really in the first 30 seconds or so of Feel Flows. It's mostly on Deirdre.
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Which song: Inappropriate relationship with sister-in-law

Which song: Gonna straight up bang you with "the wood".

Which song: Weather conditions make me horny

Which song: Lack of proper shoes leads to potential blood poisoning and death.

Which song: Who needs church? Let's do it on the couch.

Dennis: "Holy sh*t, Al, you're finally showing signs of developing facial hair!!!"
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« Reply #1239 on: September 08, 2012, 03:05:29 PM »

Have the passwords been changed? Can't get in  Huh
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« Reply #1240 on: September 08, 2012, 09:04:58 PM »

Still works for me.  Check your spaces and caps!

Just listened again... My favorite moment that highlights this version of CCW is when it gets to Mikes "In an ocean or in a glass..." part.  Hard to describe exactly, but the matrix and/or transient restoration processing takes it to a whole 'nother level!
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1241 on: September 09, 2012, 05:09:56 AM »

I listen on an old Pioneer stereo (one of the first decent CD players, I'm aware CDs have atrocious sound quality, but I have a Sunflower/SU CD) played through some *big* Boston Acoustics speakers (sorry I can't give more details). I also notice it on my digital copy on my MacBook Pro, I listen usually with a pair of Sennheiser 280s.

It's very odd. It's easy to tell it's in stereo, I can tell what channels things are in, but it sounds very phase-y and like I said, almost duophonic. The more I listen, it seems to only affect the instrumental track, the vocals are very crisp, clear, and well arranged, but the instrumental track feels lopsided or *something*. I wish I could pinpoint what it is.

Now that I think about it, it's really in the first 30 seconds or so of Feel Flows. It's mostly on Deirdre.
COMMENT:

Sounds like a reasonably good system to me.  I guess I'm stuck in the PC computer era, but if you can plug a pair of headphones into your MacBook Pro, then why not get an adaptor cord from Radio Shack or someone like that and plug your MacBook Pro into the system where you now have your CD connected. That should give you sound from the MacBook out to the Boston Acoustics.

The optimum setup for these study-videos is to listen over full-range speakers, with you centered between the speakers. Oddly enough, even speakers that are close together will still image the expanded stereo quite nicely.

But apart from the study-videos, I would suggest that you check your Pioneer/Boston Acoustic system speaker connections to be certain the speakers are both connected the same. Make certain they are in-phase, or that both speakers are connected positive to positive, amp to speaker and negative to negative. If you know what to listen for when checking speaker phase (or more properly polarity) do that. Unfortunately there are situations where the speaker manufacturer has connected something wrong. I've seen tweeters out-of-phase and the woofers OK. Even seen JBL's from the factory get it wrong. If you just happen to be in this low-percentage of speaker owners, the techniques used for recording Deirdre or Feel Flows could give you this duophonic-type sound impression.

Your headphones should be wired properly. What do these songs sound like on your Sennheiser 280s? 


~swd
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1242 on: September 09, 2012, 05:23:45 AM »

Thanks so much for doing this Steve.

Do you know what bitrate the audio is encoded at on Vimeo?

COMMENT:  To further examine your bitrate question, try the test at the following site.

128kbps versus 320kbps listening test >>> http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/mp3-sound-quality-test-128-320/

Over good speakers the subtle differences become obvious. Both sound OK, but 320 is smoother with more detail, to my ears.

See what you think.


~swd
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1243 on: September 09, 2012, 05:27:45 AM »

Have the passwords been changed? Can't get in  Huh
COMMENT:  Passwords remain the same.  Try copy-paste.  Copy the password (between the quotation marks) at my profile and paste it into the VIMEO password box.  That should do it!

~swd
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« Reply #1244 on: September 09, 2012, 11:39:33 PM »

Thank you Stephen! I'm dying to hear these! Shall report back Smiley
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« Reply #1245 on: September 10, 2012, 07:13:55 AM »

This is amazing. Thank you so much SWD. Looking forward to more too!
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« Reply #1246 on: September 10, 2012, 10:51:15 PM »

THANK YOU!!!!!!!
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"I thought Brian was a perfect gentleman, apart from buttering his head and trying to put it between two slices of bread"  -Tom Petty, after eating with Brian.

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« Reply #1247 on: September 12, 2012, 03:21:40 PM »

Best 40 minutes of my life, perhaps Smiley Smiley
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Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1248 on: September 12, 2012, 04:54:25 PM »

COMMENT TO ALL FANS:

I am grateful to all of you for your many "thank you's" and all your statements of kindness.

They are most heartfelt and will be cherished forever.

THE BEACH BOYS are not only a national treasure, but a great group of talented guys
that have blessed us all with many wonderful hours of entertainment and joy.

Bless you all and Good Listening,


~Stephen W. Desper
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« Reply #1249 on: September 16, 2012, 06:50:58 PM »

Thank you Mr. Desper.
You are an actual legend!
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