media player sucks

  • Thread starter Thread starter FALKEN
  • Start date Start date
FALKEN

FALKEN

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has anybody noticed that media player does not reproduce wav files as well as your 2 track editor? I have to boost the highs in order for it to sound right, and then the cymbals sound underwater anyway, like an mp3. at first I thought I used a bad dither algorithm, but nope, its media player. I noticed this while wearing headphones. whats going on here?
 
never noticed it. Sure you aint accidently listened to an MP3 that was maybe converted to a wave?
 
yes. working on mastering some stuff. dithered down to 16-bit, opened in mp, and blam! instant suck.
 
I'm going to assume that you already have the basic stuff covered like making sure that MP's settings like EQ and stereo spread are all flat or turned off, and that your soundcard setings are likewise normalized (bad term inthis forum, but you know what I mean ;) )

I rarely use MP for anything other than occasional WMV streaming playback, so I can't comment on specifically on what you're hearing. In theory, because WAV is a losless "bitmap" of audio, the algorithms for converting the data to sound *should* (at least theoretically) be straightforward and pert near identical from app to app. But that suprisingly does not always seem to be the case. For example I have noticed a marked difference in sound in WAV playback between Cakewalk GT2 and Sound Forge 6 (with Sound Forge being the more accurate). I don't have an explanation for this, but have an unproved theory that the Cakewalk GTalgorithm is flawed. Perhaps (this is just a guess) something similar is happening with MP.

There are differences in multitrackers in how they handle panning, but on individual mono or stereo WAV files this is not an issue.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
For example I have noticed a marked difference in sound in WAV playback between Cakewalk GT2 and Sound Forge 6 (with Sound Forge being the more accurate). I don't have an explanation for this, but have an unproved theory that the Cakewalk GTalgorithm is flawed.
Click to expand...

yeah well I just hope its not media player that is the accurate one in this case!
 
FALKEN said:
yeah well I just hope its not media player that is the accurate one in this case!
Click to expand...
Yeah, ain't that the truth. :) Well, I forget what editing software you use, but I'd trust that for accuacy more than I'd trust a consumer player like MP.

You might want to set up a multi-test; play it back in your editor, in MP and in Winamp (Winamp is no shining star either, but it it should at least make a viable comparison for this test) and see who does what to the sound. If both Winamp and MP sound like the same flavor of crap, then there may be a problem further upstream in your chain (your dithering algorithm, perhaps?) But if Winamp sounds close enough for jazz and MP still sounds like crap, then you probably have a problem with your MP.

G.
 
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