[BC] Sibilant artifacts in Digital Radio

[Williams, Chris Albuquerque]

Rich,

How are MOST engineers supposed to process HD when they cant get radios?
I know many markets that have HD on and can't process it because HD
radios are back ordered. I know here we are waiting on 10 or so. And I
can also tell you that our HD signals sound better then our FM's. Mainly
because the PD's don't have radios and we have free run of the
processing. It goes back to implementation. Most engineers were forced
to have their stations on in HD to meet the Ibiquity Fire Sale price.
With existing bit rate reduced STL's multiple codecs and multiple A/D
conversions. I say lets give everyone 6 months to "clean house" then
start with the microscopic analysis. 

I do agree about how bad XM is. I sold my XM radio on Ebay just after
they started crunching down to add more channels. Plus the channels that
seem to have more bandwidth are horribly over processed. Just for
curiousity I would like to know who's processors they are using. 

And I also agree the more we are exposed to the artifacts the more we
ignore them. 

And finally I can't stand CD's anymore either! Overprocessed to make
them LOUD! Take all the dynamic range and fidelity and just squash the
crap out of it. So the VU meters on your radio don't move I hate it.
That is also going to be an issue if 5.1 FM takes off but that is
another discussion.

My 2.4 cents worth (Inflation adjusted 2 cents worth)
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net
[mailto:broadcast-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Rich Wood
<richwood at pobox.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 03, 2005 11:39 AM
To: Broadcast Radio Mailing List
Subject: [BC] Sibilant artifacts in Digital Radio

------ At 12:23 AM 12/3/2005, DANA PUOPOLO wrote: -------

>I have my XM home tuner connected up to my re-capped Advent 300
receiver.
>Speakers are Athena AS-B1, which are considered "Low high end" 
>speakers. I can CLEARLY hear artifacts on just about everything bit 
>rate reduced (especially male voices) - even many FM analog stations 
>that use bit rate reduced audio sources.

The main artifact I hear is awful sibilants on both male and female
voices. This is both AM and FM IBUZ. The other problem is on Classical
music, especially stringed instruments. It appears that those stations
that don't process heavily are the main victims. It's hard to tell the
difference when the audio density is high. There's so much distortion
that artifacts are the least of our worries on something like WPLJ, New
York.

I have 2 NPR stations in HD in the area. Both exhibit the sibilant
problem. It's not there in analog. If Stradivarius heard his violins
sound this bad he'd become a musical terrorist. This distortion is
profound enough to annoy a regular listener. The days of sitting in
front of a stereo system to enjoy an Opera are going fast. One soprano
(singer type) and your fine glassware is a thing of the past.

>Here's a (related) question - with all this bit rate reduced audio 
>everywhere (radio, TV, DVD movies, etc.) that involves psychoacoustic 
>masking, could our ears be getting 'better' at masking?

In this case my ears are better at masking because my hands are covering
them.

>Could it be that my ears/brain have become better at masking then 
>before because they're being 'exercised' more these days?

I think we all know that the brain adapts. Watch a low quality video
and, after a few minutes, it becomes acceptable. You stop noticing it
and concentrate on the content. I don't know that that's true of audio
unless the content is so compelling that you'll endure any torture to
listen. Remember that sound and smell are the senses that most recall
past experiences. Another issue for remastering for 5.1.

Again, when I switch to a CD I get a blessedly clean sound, so I'm sure
it's not the sound system.

Rich


Rich Wood
Rich Wood Multimedia
Phone: 413-303-9084
FAX: 413-480-0010



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