I once agreed with this statement. Less money, less time and more titles to deliver = Less quality.
Then I came to realize it was somewhat consistent with the current system : loudness war, cheap embedded speakers.
This required over-compressed and limited mix. So we just aligned with reality.
Mixers and producers aren't less skilled than their elders. They just conformed to the times being.

 

It's true that aliasing is an issue with PCM audio, but I don't think aliasing artifacts are an issue when processing at 24bit or above. I don't have a list that'd list all 'acceptable' plugins, the rebounce only happens during resampling. And even then it's extremely low level and lost in 20-24kHz audio range (so 20kHz and below are unaffected), see http://src.infinitewave.ca

 

indeed going "bigger" is never an inferior solution,
but there is lots of content which does not deserve such superior quality (debates, conference livestreams, eduactional debates etc..), obviously music and film industry it definitely does not hurt going 96kHz if production chain allows to do so

1Gbit real speeds on 5G are nice, but let's not forget demands are increasing even faster than technology advancement,
I'm pretty sure once 5G become broad thing, people will enjoy the speeds, but within some years things get drastically slowed down due to increased network traffic - remember old days when people were waiting for a simple image to finish download? now it's basically same thing when watching 4K videos - higher demand for higher quality content is evolving, within few years 5G will literally become as "slow" as 3G is now

 

There is a lot of truth to your concise statements. Although, I have to bring it back to a fidelity point; "Because of tape vs. DAW capture." we eliminated headrooom for a time period.

Let's forget fidelity and just focus on headroom (DAW vs tape). Most mainstream label masters are tape up until 2006. This is when headroom became a major issue. Dynamics are separate, and fidelity is separate. Let's talk headroom if we are on your topic of loudness war, cheap embedded speakers.

That shit is easily solved, and already has been with 24bit masters. But, then streaming happened. Streaming doesn't care about your headroom. They will squash the most dynamic 24bit master into normalization. And this results in distortion. Because the codec that they use to 'normalize' the file creates distortion artifacts.

 

I understand your theory of limited bandwith based on population density radius.

The thing about 5G is, there is a 100x increase in capacity per square km.

This leads to a whole different experience for the end user, thanks to machine learning algorithms that constantly optimize the network. But from spectrum standpoint, the propagation of signal is 10x better per km than 4G. The fool compares 4G to 5G as an evolution.

 

Aliasing issues occur when the codecs that they were built off of are used to 'normalize' the file. See Spotify, Apple, Google, Pandora, etc.

You aren't dealing with pure PCM files on the current consumption medium (streaming).

 

Normalizing volume is generally lossless. It's not 100% lossless as there are rounding errors which have to be dithered, but there's no audible effect on audio quality. You probably mean loudness equalization - audio tracks are boosted or reduced in volume based on their LUFS/LKFS 'normalized' value for streaming (BS1770.4 or EBU R128). Basically ReplayGain but in data (not metadata) domain.
Distortion may occur when processing is not done in floating point, but that's encoder and service dependent. It's not connected to either lossy audio as a whole or VST plugin processing

 

Deezer is hi-res then?

 

There actually is a difference in the 'normalized' version.

It amounts to the 'null principle'.

If you take the 'recorded version' of a streaming platform...

and compare it to the Master file, there will be a difference.

The difference is a 'null test'.

There are ways to accomplish this null test.... VST's and such

 

Yes, subtract one file from another and you'll end up with difference. The thing is - it's not foolproof system - if one of the files is just a tiny bit faster, the transients won't line up.

Then it's a 'fault' of the service provider, not our audio chain.
What I'd do is to upload a recording volume-normalized to -18ish dBFS, that way the loudness filter can bring up the volume with enough headroom so it won't clip.

Back to your original question

Depends on what one calls 'immersive'. For me, immersive is transparent (reproduce the recording with as much accuracy as possible), for others it might be worth adding some Dolby Atmos, etc.

 

First of all, thank you for honoring the original purpose of the thread and acknowledging the possibility of creativity and interpertation.

The first impetus of immersive audio has not been explored. The Isley Brothers went for a recording of 'Shout!', and it was not obvious to be a hit. But what mattered was the ambiance.

Everyone is getting free advice here. Who will use it?

 

2L did their part too. Some of their albums are recorded in AURO 9.1 (capturing all 3-axes):
http://www.2l.no/e-book/2L106.pdf

That'd be fun downmixing it to binaural.
2L however stir too much snake oil, but at least some though process was there.

 

Have we considered 360 reality audio? It seems to be a game changer experience (bewildering)...

My music is on hold until a most impactful experience.

 

Bit depth is irrelevant to the issue of aliasing, the Nyquist frequency is everything. Nyquist acts as a mirror reflecting back down into the audible range frequencies which should properly be above it. SONY made the mistake of thinking that bit depth would mop up any low level residual aliasing as long as a Red Book single pole low pass filter was placed at 20kHz. What actually happens is that the residual aliasing, becuase it is correlated with the audible sound, forms intermodulation distortion with that audible sound, making it sound harsh. That's why people thought the first two generations of CDs sounded harsh - because they did.

96kHz recorded audio sounds not one whit better than 48kHz recorded audio. 96kHz computed filters, EQs, compressors and tube emulations sound remarkably better because residual aliasing falls so far beyond the audible range that it gets lost. That's why so many plugs offer internal oversampling. Rather than having dozens of bit conversions in your effect chain, you can just work 96/24 and outperform everybody mixing down at 44.1/24.

 

https://www.sony.com/electronics/360-reality-audio

Not really, same old binaural audio. Only thing new is OBA + MPEG-H standards. & because sony's a label they can convince artists to remix their stuff. Binaural is far from reality, and it's only real if you play USING enough REAL SPEAKERS(which they didn't say on the page).

Have a LISTEN to this binaural music https://hearthis.at/jZGMYrcb/katamaristars91f-hrtf/

not very convincing, is it?

There's Atmos music too.
https://www.dolby.com/us/en/experience/dolby-atmos/bluray-and-streaming/music-titles-global.pdf

Too bad there's no free @M, DTSX or auro decoders for PC

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2019

fantasized about this 12 years ago, mixing on a pair of krk v88. (notice the double 8)
never found a second pair, and thank god for that. Because instead of mixing surround,
Mono compatibility only got more important every year....

 

I've read some study, current average data usage by smartphone users is around 8GB/month,
estimated average data usage by end of year 2024 is to reach 50GB/month,
given the speeds of 5G and average time spend on smartphones, even something like 200GB/month can easily become reality;

if you talk about 100x capacity, and theoretical usage can rise 25x, then consider steady growth of smartphone users and other IOT devices, I'm not afraid to say the will be literally no real benefit of 5G compared to what we have today

 

so does the high energy electromagnetic radiation. And corporates, the big players didnt test the impact on health, they dont even wanna hear about it . Basically, implementing 5g it's top priority, nothing can get in between and it's at least concerning the way they defend this. Some scientists says the first inch of our body will suffer good amount of damage, probably the skin will change in decades (if not dead from cancer, skin cancer will be a very common thing)

 

Last edited: Jun 27, 2019

This seems two different things badly mixed.
- bandwidth on new 5Gs phones
- the eternal debate 96 vs 48 vs 192 (in 10 years will be 384)

BTW, there's already 3D (horribly called 8D) sound with regular headphones/stereo speakers