Our funky little country radio station records shows (principally for licensing requirements ) , streams live and then uses the recordings for on-demand services.
Currently it’s all MP3 @360.
I broadcast records and cds and have argued we need to use a lossless format.
The head techie, not a music or a hi fi buff has resisted my suggestion that we use FLAC. arguing processing times and data storage capacity. I am not sure whether this is really true. He is difficult and tends to resist anything not his idea.
He has suggested AAC and then HE-AAC V2 BVR 128 kbps as a better choice for all our needs.
His option certainly outguns FLAC when it comes to letters and numbers – but is he right?
Choosing a format for storing and on demand streaming
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Looking forward to another “No idea what SteveF is saying but boy is it fascinating” discussion.
Glad to see that someone else feels like this. SteveF’s technical posts leave me feeling enriched in some strange mystical way despite my rarely really understanding them.
I view a “Steve F Technical Post” as one of the more enjoyable interludes in my day. That may say more about me than Steve F, of course…
I like to think of it as a gentle reminder that “it is time for your nap now, gentlemen”.
I believe everything he says. I just don’t understand most of it.
MP3, even at 320kbps (do you mean 160?), takes a large amount of processing power & time, as it crunches the file down to about 20% of the original file size using a complex algorithm.
FLAC is much quicker & less processor intensive, although the resultant file size is typically two or three times the size of the equivalent MP3 file. Still roughly half the size of the raw input file.
BBC Sounds uses 320k AAC. If you’re going to stick with that data rate (& file size), AAC is a much better encoder than MP3, but the encoding takes a lot of processing.
I’d suggest 320k AAC is a good compromise. You need a trained ear to spot the difference between that and FLAC.
128k is pretty crap, whatever the encoding scheme.
Well AAC is lossy and takes up between 3 to 5 times less storage space than FLAC so if storage is an issue then he’s probably correct. However if it’s a matter of SQ and storage isn’t a problem then FLAC would be the way to go. Does SQ matter overly much in broadcast radio? How many of your listeners will be employing kit that will be able to take advantage of an uptick in sound reproduction? Do your listeners care about this matter? Is there any way you can ask for their opinion?
Edit:- What Steve says 👆
Well quite Pencil. Most listeners probably dont give a fuck , for that matter they probably dont really care much for the Mauritanian Moorish music I played the other night either.
My thinking is that if there are simple and easy ways to improve our product by choosing a format better than MP3 then it helps. A mate at a much bigger station complains about rhe crap sound from shows with guys streaming stuff from spotify.
The station has a music database – all MP3. Longer term I’d like that upgraded to a lossless format too.
I’d listen to Steve about 320k AAC. If that’s good enough for the BBC then costs being acceptable to the head honchos it should be the standard to reach for.
Yeah sure. Think the techie was suggesting 128.
Either way a big step up from MP3.
Those Mauritian Moorish hit parade bangers will drive your fans into paroxisms of ecstacy at 128.
Yes. 320k AAC for the stream. That’s as near as dammit an industry standard, but the music library that you’re streaming from should ideally be lossless or >=320k. Otherwise sound quality will at best only be whatever the current mp3 resolution permits. Can’t add sound detail that doesn’t exist.
But don’t make the mistake of (re)encoding mp3 files to mp3 – it gets worse. Depending on the original bitrate, anything between 2 and 10 decode/encode cycles renders the original unlistenable. The Fraunhofer mp3 encoder really isn’t very clever…
“anything between 2 and 10 decode/encode cycles” – must I be subjected to such filth on a morning in Holt, Norfolk where it’s just started snowing and the entire USAF is flying overhead in some sort of my-one’s-bigger-than-yours “show of strength”?
Oh, lovely, I’ll be up there in a little over a week. If you want to bribe me, you could leave a crisp twenty behind the counter at Holt Vinyl Vault.
Twas closed entire time I was there (5 days).
For sure.
Try some!
Diolch, don’t mind if I do.
This is probably the only ABBA album that Junior owns.
But where on the shelf does it get filed? Under Eide, or next to Arrival?
If you enjoy that one Junes, there’s another Dimi Mint Abba CD I found from a couple of years later that’s equally good:
I can arrange a download for you if you’d like, but you’ll have to let me know what lossless format and bitrate would be most acceptable for the task…
I have Moors in my avatar. The ‘Four Moors’ on the cross of Saint George is the Sardinian flag. It was originally the flag of the Kingdom of Aragon in Spain, back when Aragon was an important kingdom (and it still appears on their regional flag). In 1096 the battle of Alcoraz was won by the incumbent King of Aragon, Peter I, who defeated the Moors who had been giving him and his country shitloads of hassle for over two hundred years. Legend has it that St George miraculously joined in the battle, wielding his shield with its red cross and fighting for the Aragonese and then, when it was all over, leaving his shield on the battlefield with the severed heads of four Saracen nobles placed on it. Thus it became Aragon’s flag. Fast forward about 200 years and the latest King of Aragon, chap called James, invaded and occupied Sardinia and the Four Moors consequently became the Sardinian flag too. The Sardinians didn’t object, they’d endured as much grief and hassle from the Moors over the years as the Aragonese had and didn’t like them one bit. Over the next centuries the Sardinian people came to see the flag not in its original light as a symbol of the victory of Christians over Muslims, but as a symbol of their own defiance and independence, which continues to this day. The Italian flag is everywhere on mainland Italy but it’s rare to see it in Sardinia. Instead, the Four Moors flag is absolutely everywhere.
Is that because Sardinia works on bifurcated 128 which, to state the obvious, is not compatible with 32 bit unless, of course, you route it through a modulator – Steve recommends a Bison Tork ?
Either way, it’s clear Junior sits in his “studio” and plays whatever obscure records he wants whilst his “audience” wonder what time Spot The Koala is on.
I always think that you can tell what the Italians think of the Sardinians by the fact that in the dubbed version of The Simpsons, Groundskeeper Willie talks with a Sardinian accent.
You win Obscure Fact of the Day. Nice.
The flag also features on the label of the local Ichnusa beer. Which you can now get in the UK.
Sardinia is a fab place (well, Costa Rei is, the only bit I’ve been to). Must go again.
You’ll need the “Avoid Gary” app if you do …