DolbyA demo and clarification how REALLY useful it is.

J

johndyson10

Audioholic Intern
This decoder is INCREDIBLY useful. I cannot directly attach example files here, but I have an available repsitory for your review. It makes a huge difference where many 'flattened' and 'shril' digital recordings can be corrected to sound almost like the old vinyl LP (or nearly so.) This is a tool that has been needed since the 1980s, but CPUS have only gotten fast enough to do the decoding super well perhaps in the middle 200X (maybe as early as 2001.) The current decoder goes far beyond the minimum, so works a Haswell (moderately recent performance) type CPU pretty hard.

This is NOT snake oil, and this is not any kind of payware and nagware. Almost anyone (not everyone --but by far most) who have given the decoder a real look-see are giving pretty much rave reviews. THIS REALLY UNDOES MOST OF THE HISTORICAL SHRILL DIGITAL SOUND -- and even I am amazed that this hasn't been found out until now. This is NOT simple EQ of any kind, but kind of the opposite of a compressor with VERY special characteristics.

There are two simple A/B examples -- Bread-demo-after.mp3, Bread-demo-before.mp3 AND Queen-demo-after.mp3, and Queen-demo-before.mp3. There are also other, good examples, but might take more time.

It is best to listen to the 'after' cases first, because the ear seems to get used to the shrill and flat sound. The decoder even helps a little with the stereo depth. The sound of DolbyA is somewhat similar to undecoded DolbyB -- but probably worse, and the amount of NR is between 10 and 15dB. THIS TOOL IS NOT AN EQ or some kind of elitist magic -- the technology is well known, but for some reason until now not properly implemented in SW. (It is DEFINITELY possible to implement, even with patents describing techniques other than my own.) Some experts have poo-pooed the idea that there is a DolbyA that works in software, but most have not tried this one.

The archive location (and software distribution if you are interested) is at: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/tjUm4ywtDR

Again, this software is NOT for sale, but available gratis to consumers, and will probably eventually be modified for graphical and/or other form useful to consumers and professionals. This tool is a barebones command line application, and really works well. It can use standard .wav files at normal sample rates, and with normal kinds of formats (16bit, 24bit and floating point.) The result is very often a LUSH sound with depth -- similar to what one feels with vinyl (but maybe without some of the advantages and many of the disadvantages of vinyl.) Up until now, I also have often been disappointed with 'digital' sound. I quit the hobby many years ago because to me the sound made listening unenjoyable. This program does NOT invent a sound, but only makes the sound much closer to the original intent of the artist and engineer.

This decoder can be very useful to those with archives on Intel-style computers (for now), and will probably be implemented in a more commodity form in the future.
 
J

johndyson10

Audioholic Intern
The free version of the DolbyA decoder is on hiatus. The verison as of 06Jul2018 works pretty well (that is -- usually sounds better than undecoded), almost always sounds better than undecoded. However, it does have some known bugs -- those bugs should not normally cause the decoder to produce material that sounds worse than the original.
Because of time/resource conflicts, and a very strong argument to commercialize the decoder -- I just don't have time to do the free version and update it as often as I would like. So -- the 06JUL version, being useful -- but imperfect, will be the 'free version' for now.
There is interest being shown by pros and archives alike, and it is definitely superior in some aspects (even the current free version) than the real DolbyA. So the free (consumer) now has a useful tool, and the commercial version will be incredibly better yet.
I have to say that the decoder is as good as it is -- only because of the professional recording engineer who is prodding me to do things the way that he needs. This is also forcing me to use the more exacting criterion of -- it is accurate, instead of 'sounds good.' 'Sounds good' is NOT good enough!!!

So, there will be updates of the free version, but not for a little while (weeks and not months.) I am very busy doing things like a 4X speedup (in the pro version only), and fixing a lot of little nits (there are 5 'nits' that are fixed in the professional version relative to the 'free' version already.) Most of the nits are noticeable attack/decay bugs (sometimes there is some distortion in the attack side of the gain control), and also a delay in the decay on the right channel (odd, huh?)
For right now, the 'pro' version isn't available at any price, because there is too much being done to it, and the release managment is outside of the project scope right now.
I'd still rather listen to the free decoder instead of undecoded/raw DolbyA encoded (possibly EQed) material!!! :).

John
 
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