FLAC is the only way to appreciate recorded WinUAE Amiga audio

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by Oxygene

And could you honestly call the music created on the Amiga high quality, soundwise? I'm not talking about quality of composing, because some of the tracker musicians on Amiga really did wonders, but the end result, as far as the SOUND QUALITY is concerned, leaves a lot to be desired.

You didn't acknowledge my criteria. What else was there available? And no mention of non-computer hardware.

[Oxygene]

Originally Posted by Foebane

You didn't acknowledge my criteria. What else was there available? And no mention of non-computer hardware.

I'm not particularly interested in your criteria, especially since it has no meaningful connection with your original post. The fact that one could use samples on the Amiga, doesn't mean it's sound quality was good, which (sound) was your original point. Not what can be done with Amiga, but how does it sound.
And I'll state again, it doesn't sound good.

[ma693541]

@Oxygene, go to Aminet and download InThePipe-fz.lha by Feekzoid and listen to it. That module use samples and sound good.

[Oxygene]

These days I find myself more and more often feeling like I'm talking to the walls. The original post was about the sound of the Amiga (even though the OP is using WinUAE :-) ), and how the modules would sound on the Amiga. Not on PC, not after cleaning, oversampling etc, but how they would sound on original hardware. And the OP claimed that the FLAC is the only way to properly capture that sound.
Since I'm obviously not getting through, and I don't foresee any success in that regard, I'll just give up.

[rutra80]

Good points Oxygene.
Amiga does have distinct sound (and no emulation catches 100% nuances of the real thing so sites like paula8364 are worthwhile) and bang for a buck was great in 80s, but it's nowhere near hifi.
As for psychoacoustic-based lossy codecs, they aren't so well tuned for synthetic sound - 100% stereo separation and chiptunes might be problematic. Never did an ABX test though.
Suggesting CBR AAC over VBR is anyway an absurd.

[Foebane]

Originally Posted by rutra80

As for psychoacoustic-based lossy codecs, they aren't so well tuned for synthetic sound - 100% stereo separation and chiptunes might be problematic.

I have used 50% stereo separation for my WinUAE emulation, and therefore, the FLAC files. I just can't stand the idea of totally separate left and right channels, especially on earphones, so back when I had my real Amigas in the 1990s, I would record on tape in mono mostly. But WinUAE has been a godsend in that department: 50% is the best partial separation I can think of, and it still sounds good on earphones yet gives a nice stereo effect.

[no9]

Originally Posted by Oxygene

And the OP claimed that the FLAC is the only way to properly capture that sound.

This is actually true if we talking about qualities of the sound, not percieved quality. Those qualities can be preserved fully with loseless compression or partially with lossy ones. Whether those qualities sums up into objective quality of sound or not, is completely another matter.

Like with other media like tape or vinyl recordings which degrade sound quality just by their nature - you can love or hate them. But their qualities can be also preserved more or less faithfully with different compression methods.

I suppose that Paulas 'dirt' can interfere with psychoacoustic alghoritms of lossy compression so it can in fact degrade even further already degraded sound. There is a lot happening in those frequencies that coming out of Amiga -> [ Show youtube player ]

[no9]

Originally Posted by Foebane

I have used 50% stereo separation for my WinUAE emulation, and therefore, the FLAC files. I just can't stand the idea of totally separate left and right channels, especially on earphones, so back when I had my real Amigas in the 1990s, I would record on tape in mono mostly. But WinUAE has been a godsend in that department: 50% is the best partial separation I can think of, and it still sounds good on earphones yet gives a nice stereo effect.

I tried to deal with it creating middle channel containing sounds below certain frequency. Something like subwoofer channel but tuned somewhat higher than just bass. And with softer filter slope (it was 6dB I guess). It turned out like this:

[ Show youtube player ]

[IanS]

Originally Posted by ma693541

@Oxygene, go to Aminet and download InThePipe-fz.lha by Feekzoid and listen to it. That module use samples and sound good.

How 'good' a piece of music sounds to you, subjectively, as in "I like this song" has nothing to do with measurable 'sound quality'. The quality of the electronics is important. Just as having a high megapixel camera doesn't guarantee a good quality image. Cameras can have cheap lenses and poor quality sensors, which equals poor images. A cheap hi-fi will sound worse through good quality speakers than a good hi-fi system through the same speakers.

Did the Amiga sound good in comparison to many other home computers of the time? Yes. Was the sound quality particularly good compared to quality audio equipment of the time? No.

[Foebane]

UPDATE:

As much as I've enjoyed listening to the FLACs, I'm finding their sheer size to be a bulky problem, as it takes ages to copy the files to my phone for playback, among SSDs, etc.

I decided to convert them to a lossy format, but trying AAC was a big mistake, even on 320kbps, as the poor quality I described previously in Tulou's Mortality are still there.

I then tried Ogg Vorbis, which I have never used before, and it turns out the sound and quality is nearly identical to the FLACs (judging by ear alone) but at "quality 8", only a quarter of the size.

So it looks like conversion is on the cards.

I'm using the latest Audacity with Ffmpeg to do the conversion.