Watermarks in audio files...
their presence in the samples becomes a problem...
so what's a best software(s) to detect/edit/delete them?

 

Only a problem if audio file is used in isolation. Once you start mixing there wont be an issue as once you combine more than one file the ones and zeros get all scrambled.

 

Tone2 creates watermarks in audio files.

 

Here is one way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsDa1jRUgw

 

so, how do the famous watermarks work ?

 

I've read some whitepapers on watermarks but it was ridiculously complex and I didn't have a lifetime to devote. They often get removed so there is a way to do it. Inverting phase or comparing two copies against each other looking for small differences and then working from there.

 

I've tried null testing in all the major DAW's Mc Cookie, and they all perform the invert phase null test perfectly, ie - they export perfect silence when you do it.

 

Please check the 10 000 songs that appear everyday on the internet for watermark ...
*yes*

 

Should narrow it down if they only check the ones making any money!

 

great, thanks

incredible how different algorithms and a different code can give the exact same results.

 

when I was a student at the Steinberg School in Germany one of my classmate was questionin' about the watermark system..
the trainer, literally, starts laughin' about him sayin' that, if watermarks had worked, 99% of rap/hip hop producers will be now in jail..
he compared it to the old "poor man copyright" method..

 

I've worked off and on in the sample biz since the 90s (working on Akai S1000 early on). Companies made claims of... "audio fingerprints", which I was told by the president of one (whose company also made that claim), "It's not true. We just hope it keeps honest people honest."

20 years later, it's REALLY weird seeing that YouTube tutorial.

 

interesting video.

 

well, I'm not obsessed on the watermarks, but once I sent my track to Music Dealers
(well known company on licensing business), they declined it with explanation why they did so (quot):

"Average-High Production Quality: The recording does not distract you from
the composition. There are no glitches, pops, skips, or unintended
background noise. The mix is balanced. There are no uncleared samples or
blatant watermarks."

There are samples in my track (strings&drums), but I added a lot of VSTi instruments (z3ta, Hypersonic 2 and many effects too)

Later I'll place that track here, so, everybody could test it on production or watermarks

 

Well they speak like physicians..
That quote, per se, means that there is no evidence of watermarks or whatever.
So I dont understand why they reject your work!

 

could it mean they have some special tools that instantly displays any signs of watermarking ?

 

May i suggest a test?
Watch the FL Studio video above, , then use that technique and apply it to only one instrument in a mix, then do a mixdown and watch a spectral display of it and see if you can still see the image you added.
Then do another mixdown, this time with the watermarked track with a bunch of typical effects on it, compression,reverb,maybe some chorus or delay, bit of saturation, then mixdown the entire thing again and run it through a spectral display.

Should end a lot of the speculation...

 

http://audiowatermarking.info/awt1_details.php

Watermark robustness and aural (im)perceptibility

On robustness…

The proposed watermarking scheme demonstrates very high robustness to almost all kinds of audio conversions. Here are some typical examples:

lossy transcoding using MP3, Ogg Vorbis and other audio codecs (including multiple transcoding at very low bitrates)
acoustic coupling (i.e. traveling of sound from D/A to loudspeaker, then to the microphone via air and then to A/D)
mixing with other signals, noise addition
signal cropping, cutting
sample rate conversion (even down to low sample rates such as 8 KHz that is typical for phone networks); amplitude re-quantization
effect processing, from a simple EQ to an extreme dynamic range compression, reverberation, echo, spectral effects, etc.
waveform distortions such as limiting, clipping, slope manipulation, gain control
A/D - D/A conversion
transmission over the radio waves
almost any combination of the above

A quick example: the watermark survives even after several dozens(!) of transcodings using low MP3 bitrates and back, and then transducing of the transcoded signal via air (i.e. reproducing it with a loudspeaker and recording with a microphone) in presence of loud background speech. See “examples” section for more details.

 

I found already some softs that as declared remove watermarks:

1.HEX EDITOR NEO

2.Special plagin for player Foobar2000

will test them both...

and more: even Adobe Audition 3 can make visual watermarks in the spectral view (I think this is
most important cuz we don't HEAR them as others do(FL), but SEE them, so there is no any sound distortion there)

 

Yes, the one i link it makes sound, but also hard to remove. The reason i post that one is because they have demo to download and try, also newer version. If you click under Partners of link you see Embertone, they make kontakt instruments right? I dont find ppl complain about wierd sounds in files, but there must be there if they are partners.

Pls post back your test im interested.