Re: [LAU] digital voodoo: master fader should be set at 0db

On 04/15/2010 06:06 AM, Arnold Krille wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Wednesday 14 April 2010 21:40:08 Kim Cascone wrote:
>
>>> It's all ones and zeroes. Given the same inputs, the same output should
>>> be obtained. Acoustics is physics. And if I can't measure it, it doesn't
>>> exist.
>>>
>> yeah well that quite nicely works for machines
>> but with human sensory systems you'll find they are quite non-linear
>> and hence the field of psycho-acoustics
>> which can be interpreted as voodoo by some
>>
> You are mixing something up here.
>
> If machines can't measure it, it doesn't exist (at least to Ken)[*]. Does that
> doesn't mean that if your 0.50€ mic can't record anything from mosquitos
> making out, they don't exist?
> No, it means that if no mic in the world can record the mosquitos, they don't
> make any sound.
>
> The human reception is different then machines reception (not just the non-
> linearity!). But it isn't able to detect anything machines can't. Your ears
> are worse then any half-decent microphone regarding SNR and frequency-range.
> Your eyes are worse then microscopes, telescopes and slower then fast cameras.
> Your nose is a lot worse in detecting smells then any mass-spectrometer is.
> What makes the human different (some call it superior) is combining this
> sensory input not only into facts but also into feelings. And it can combine
> thoughts to create new ideas much better then machines combine their input to
> even foresee the future, let alone transfer knowledge of one thing onto
> predicting behaviour of some other thing.
> Of course there are legions of scientists and nerds working on making machines
> better in these parts too.
>
> Going into psychoacoustics is not really contradicting the "machines can't
> measure it, still it exists". Machines can measure the frequencies the human
> ear can't hear but which still have an effect how we perceive the sound. Only
> the effects aren't looked into as deep as the frequencies below 20kHz are. To
> the result that most scientific research wasn't able to give reliable results.
> Which in turn makes most audio people discard frequencies>22kHz light-
> heartedly. And they are right as the scientific (thus neutral) proof of the
> effect of the frequencies below 22kHz is _much_ greater then above. That
> doesn't deny the psycho-acoustic effects, it only ignores them for the sake of
> bandwidth, reliability and cost...
>
> Have fun,
>
> Arnold
>
> [*] Might also be that today's machines aren't good enough. Just compare the
> knowledge about the atom of today with that of 250 years ago...
>
>

Currently we only measure in upto 4 dimensions but if there are 12 as
string theory suggests then we are most likely missing a lot of
information from our scientific measurements.

Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd

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Received on Thu Apr 15 00:15:04 2010