Hacker News: geraldmcboing

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:50:49 +0000

Wrong again. As a sound designer I can choose to import a 192kHz file into a 48kHz PT session in two ways, one as resampled audio which means pitch & duration stay the same, OR I can choose to import it without SR conversion, in which case the audio plays at quarter speed & pitch is 2 octaves lower. We use both techniques ALL the time, every day. It's a common technique every sound designer uses.

You are arguing about techniques you have no experience with.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:34:24 +0000

I do not use the DACs in the MixPre. Its a recording device. The field recordings & studio recordings are transferred as data and used in a 32bit float 192kHz Protools session. So the recorders DAC is completely irrelevant. The sounds are then used as source material, for processing and manipulation at 192k, 96k and 48k. There is no debate to be had. This is how film sound designers work & have worked for years now.

The half speed you call naive is again just showing your ignorance. Sound editors have been using this technique since the days of recording on a Nagra at 15ips and literally replaying at 7.5ips half speed, and at 3.75ips for quarter speed. There is nothing naive about it, it is a very well know technique. To be able to achieve the same result digitally with full spectrum has impacted every feature film you have experienced in recent years. Again I speak from decades of lived experience.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:20:26 +0000

"Nobody uses 32 bit float for recording" - you are just displaying total ignorance here.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:16:36 +0000

Why are you obsessed with DAC? Its the ADC that is WHY we capture 32/192.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 23:14:56 +0000

Dude I've been doing sound design on films using these techniques for years. There is zero 'woo' involved, it is ALL practical evidence based use. I've been using 32bit float multitrack field recorder by Sound Devices MixPre10-II professionally for many years now. The recorder has three preamps per mic input, each gain staged to provide optimum signal to the 32bit float AD. Read this to clarify your thinking: https://www.sounddevices.com/32-bit-float-files-explained/

Surely you understand a recording made at 48kHz has a max freq response of 24kHz and played at half speed that max freq is 12kHz and at quarter speed only 6kHz. You can very clearly hear the filter cut off due to Nyquist. Record at 192kHz with mics capable of 100kHz capture and when played at quarter speed, the sound is full spectrum because there is no truncated frequency response. And when I load a 192kHz recording to izotope RX I can literallu see the harmonics going up to 96kHz. (not with every sound of course)

I repeat, i am not talking about 'normal' listening. I am talking about an industruy you have no knowledge or lived experience with, so spare me the incorrect claims about what can & cant be heard.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "24-bit/192kHz music downloads and why they make no sense (2012)"

geraldmcboing — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:26:30 +0000

The OP is a bit off with their description of why pro audio engineers work in higher bit rates and sample rates. We use 24bit to preserve low level sounds eg reverb, breaths etc and use 32bit float when recording as the headroom is so massive clipping is not an issue (other than of course still neeing to avoid overloading microphones with max SPL - cleanly recorded distorted sound is still a fail). Unclipping 32bit float feels like voodoo - I did a test, recording fireworks & unclipping the 32bit float recordings.

I use microphones that can 'hear' up to 100kHz (Sanken CUX100K) and for film sound design playing 192kHz audio at half and quarter speed the results are very significant, and reveal there IS 'content' above human hearing. Irrelevant for general listening but very important for sound design.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Can I hear a difference between MP3s and uncompressed audio?"

geraldmcboing — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:45:19 +0000

The author could do a bit more work to make their opinions more valid. First, what speakers were they listening on and in what environment? If attempting to do critical listening, you do not use low quality speakers in a reverberant listening space with room mode colouration & cancellation.

Second, why not do a null test? Invert phase of MP3 and mix it with uncompressed WAV file. The remaining audio IS the difference, and it is audible.. But it is only significant if you have a good sound system & have ears capable of critical listening.

Third, what volume SPL were they listening at? A compressed JPG looks ok on a small screen but project it large and the image becomes blocky. Same applies to audio.

Fourth, tester fails to mention age and results of a recent hearing test. Maybe they have no perception over 12kHz? We do not know.

Failed test, confirms user bias, as expected.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Exposure Simulator"

geraldmcboing — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 23:09:47 +0000

One thing that is lost when using auto cameras is using focus & DOF as part of composition. With an auto-everything camera, the only part the user does is frame the shot. But composing requires thought about where you choose to place the focal plane, and the depth of field. Also lost with auto digital is pre-visualisation. No need for it as most people just bang off shots & look at the result. The delay of seeing film developed means film prohotographers learn to previz their shots. Less and better.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin speaks to Tatsuya Takahashi (2017)"

geraldmcboing — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 01:25:41 +0000

This is also a great deep wide-ranging interview/conversation c SYRO release

https://web.archive.org/web/20141111015756/http://noyzelab.b...

https://web.archive.org/web/20141112205122/https://noyzelab....

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Spotify reportedly investigating Anna's Archive's scraping of their library"

geraldmcboing — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 22:04:39 +0000

also: "Musicians might note that 87% of tracks will now receive the same payment from Anna’s Archive as they do from Spotify: zero."

https://dadadrummer.substack.com/p/anti-copyright-extremists

New comment by geraldmcboing in "The underground cathedral protecting Tokyo from floods (2018)"

geraldmcboing — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 03:29:22 +0000

It has a fantastic reverb too! Would love to take a drum kit down there... and a speaker to play a sweep & capture an IR. Tried using handclaps when I visited.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Everything is Ghibli"

geraldmcboing — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 03:49:07 +0000

I disagree re toil. The original idea that brings a creative work into existence is only a tiny part of how that work evolves with every step. For example absolutely no writer starts off writing their final draft. They write & through writing their ideas are clarified & new ideas form, that they did not previously have, all due to the 'toil' of writing the previous drafts. Skipping all the steps that are required to create significant work leads to shallow work born from instant gratification, exactly like the Ghibli slop. It's not 'gatekeeping' that something requires time & effort. All that Ghibli slop is already forgotten, despite saturating social media only a few days ago, because it so shallow. The story & characters & intent is what gives Ghibli films meaning & human resonance.

New comment by geraldmcboing in "Subvert – Collectively owned music marketplace"

geraldmcboing — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 23:27:06 +0000

The problem with Bandcamp is neither hypothetical or weak. The problem is that its been sold twice, and is now owned by a company who attempted to fire anyone who tried to unionise, which is a red flag. Will bandcamp be sold again? Yes, very very likely. So that is exactly the problem.