Reply To: unsure when to run the accelerators
PSTEC AccountsHi Lester,
First I should congratulate Peter for giving excellent information and also yourself for making good use of it and for your progress.
Peter asked me for info on the sound on the accelerators so here goes. It's a complex question as you'll see and I could write pages on this but here's the short version/.
The fisrt thing to say is that the PSTEC tools are designed to produce results efficiently and predictably.
Sometimes this means building content into the track which can seem strange on listening. The accelerators are a case in point and they do have some content which fits this parameter . With that said there is a complexity that rears its head occasionally and this is all down to the “non standardisation of the mp3 format”. You see the MP3 file recording format is VERY loosely defined, and so is the best way to play them.
Different recording technologies and different software versions within those use different codecs to encode mp3. Then different players use different software to read them. And even amongst the differences in terms of recording codec there are then differences in terms of selected compression ratios and you can also record at a variable or standardised rate. All of which means that there is no proper standard at all. CDs use wav. Very well defined but also very large and cumbersome files. MP3 is poorly defined and very non standardised but is compact and popular. When recording MP3 one has to make a best guess as to compatibility across a vast range of players. Result… Playback definitely can vary. I've learned more and more about recording as the years have passed of course so now I record things slightly differently than I did when I constructed those tracks.
Most mp3 players play the accelerators very well but some players do play them less well. It's dependent upon the software and settings of the player itself. It gets even more complicated than this of course because people also vary quite a lot too! What sounds good for one person may not to another.
I would suggest playback on a different player but at the end of the day the big question is one of usefulness. I take the view that's what matters more than anything.
Hopefully this is enlightening.
Kind regards
Tim