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Author Topic: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac  (Read 15853 times)

lagerfeldt

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Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« on: May 29, 2006, 09:05:11 AM »

I did a little digging and being way too lazy to go thru the huge pile of posts I did a new one...

Yesterday I did a SRC from 48 to 44.1 using the Core Audio driver, and it struck me how bad it sounds, although I can't exactly put my finger on it.. "smeared" would be the word.

I've decided to get another program just for sample rate conversion, so which is the best on Mac?

Bias Peak?

BTW Peak looks like a damn nice program, maybe that's me switching from WaveBurner.

Andy Krehm

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2006, 09:24:32 AM »

lagerfeldt wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 09:05

I did a little digging and being way too lazy to go thru the huge pile of posts I did a new one...

Yesterday I did a SRC from 48 to 44.1 using the Core Audio driver, and it struck me how bad it sounds, although I can't exactly put my finger on it.. "smeared" would be the word.

I've decided to get another program just for sample rate conversion, so which is the best on Mac?

Bias Peak?

BTW Peak looks like a damn nice program, maybe that's me switching from WaveBurner.

Contact Daniel Weiss to see if he has ported Saracon over to the Mac yet. He has been working on it for a few months and must be just about finished.

Judging from reviews by PC owners, I believe that will be your best bet. If you can't wait, I think the one made by Antares, at half the price, would be your next choice (sorry can't remember the name).

Andy,

Silverbirch Productions

lagerfeldt

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2006, 10:31:03 AM »

Thanks.

I remember a test posted here also that showed Bias Peak Pro 5 as being the top dog, or one of them at least.


This test shows Barbabatch come out on top, however the Peak version here is only 4, not the new 5
http://www.audioease.com/Pages/BarbaBatch4/Barba4SRCTest.htm l

Anyone know a newer comparison with Barbabatch 4 and Peak Pro 5?

Barry Hufker

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2006, 10:34:58 AM »

BIAS Peak Version 5 has excellent sampling rate conversion, although it is extremely slow at its best setting.

Barbabatch from Audio Ease is excellent as well.

I own both programs and do my conversions with Barbabatch.  They always sound good.

Barry
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Bob Boyd

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2006, 10:46:00 AM »

As Barry mentioned, Peak's processing time should be noted.  We're talking about a typical song taking like 45 minutes on a Dual 2.5 G5.

Barbabatch is solid and efficient when I need it.

Outside of conversion, they are very different programs intended for different purposes.

Based on the results I get on the SFC2, Saracon will be the king of the hill.
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Bob Boyd
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lagerfeldt

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2006, 10:59:41 AM »

Wow, 45 minutes is not going to cut it.

Jerry Tubb

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2006, 02:13:02 PM »

lagerfeldt wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 08:05

Yesterday I did a SRC from 48 to 44.1 using the Core Audio driver, and it struck me how bad it sounds, although I can't exactly put my finger on it.. "smeared" would be the word.

I've decided to get another program just for sample rate conversion, so which is the best on Mac?


Hello Holger-

Yes the SRC in Core Audio via WaveBurner is less than desirable in many instances.

I've been using BarbaBatch for some time as well, sounds very good, although I can still hear a slight color change.

I tried Peak 5 SRC, but gave up after a few minutes of waiting, hit cancel.

(or you can use two DAWs, and capture at 44.1k after analog path.)

Best Regards
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Daniel Weiss

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2006, 04:48:34 PM »

Andy Krehm wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 15:24


Contact Daniel Weiss to see if he has ported Saracon over to the Mac yet. He has been working on it for a few months and must be just about finished.

Judging from reviews by PC owners, I believe that will be your best bet. If you can't wait, I think the one made by Antares, at half the price, would be your next choice (sorry can't remember the name).

Andy,

Silverbirch Productions


Not quite done yet with the mac version. But it is progressing well.
Daniel

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Luke Fellingham

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2006, 05:55:27 AM »

Daniel Weiss wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 21:48

Andy Krehm wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 15:24


Contact Daniel Weiss to see if he has ported Saracon over to the Mac yet. He has been working on it for a few months and must be just about finished.

Judging from reviews by PC owners, I believe that will be your best bet. If you can't wait, I think the one made by Antares, at half the price, would be your next choice (sorry can't remember the name).

Andy,

Silverbirch Productions


Not quite done yet with the mac version. But it is progressing well.
Daniel



Do you have any predictions on time scale weeks, months or years?

lagerfeldt

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2006, 07:02:07 AM »

Daniel Weiss wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 22:48

Andy Krehm wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 15:24


Contact Daniel Weiss to see if he has ported Saracon over to the Mac yet. He has been working on it for a few months and must be just about finished.

Judging from reviews by PC owners, I believe that will be your best bet. If you can't wait, I think the one made by Antares, at half the price, would be your next choice (sorry can't remember the name).

Andy,

Silverbirch Productions


Not quite done yet with the mac version. But it is progressing well.
Daniel




Estimated price tag? And when are you doing a de-esser in AU/VST format, thanks Very Happy

Bob Boyd

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2006, 09:59:52 AM »

I got the impression that the Mac version would be priced the same.  I think the full version (multchannel, DSD, 192k PCM) is $1900.  The "lite" version (stereo, 96k PCM) is $900.

The "lite" version can be upgraded by paying the difference.

Reletively, it feels expensive for sample rate conversion but considering you're getting the same quality as the $3900 SFC2, it's  worth it.
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Bob Boyd
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Jerry Tubb

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #11 on: May 31, 2006, 04:43:08 AM »

Daniel Weiss wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 15:48

Andy Krehm wrote on Mon, 29 May 2006 15:24

Contact Daniel Weiss to see if he has ported Saracon over to the Mac yet. He has been working on it for a few months and must be just about finished.


Not quite done yet with the mac version. But it is progressing well.


That's good news Daniel, software developers need to remember us Mac guys.

There's a zillion of us in music & audio.

Look forward to doing a Saracon vs Barbabatch shootout. 48/96k to 44.1kHz.

BTW I just grokked the name Saracon...

Sa = sampling

Ra = rate

Con = conversion

Best Regards  JT
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bblackwood

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #12 on: May 31, 2006, 07:37:14 AM »

Bob Boyd wrote on Tue, 30 May 2006 08:59

Reletively, it feels expensive for sample rate conversion but considering you're getting the same quality as the $3900 SFC2, it's  worth it.

Yah, it's a heckuva deal. IIRC, Saracon actually outperforms (on 'paper') the SFC2 as well as everything else...
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Brad Blackwood
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Matt_G

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #13 on: May 31, 2006, 11:04:42 AM »

Holger, check out this website http://src.infinitewave.ca/ it was done recently through the aid of Dave Horrocks & some of the regular contributors from Gelnn Meadow's Mastering Webboard. It shows detailed passband & transition FFT's from the majority of SRC algorithms available today (both on the PC & the Mac) including Weiss Saracon, Barbabatch, Peak 5 etc.

Looking at the Passband & Transition samples, tells a good story of the quality of the SRC's on test. Not conclusive evidence, as usual it's always best to use your ears, so I created some test files (unmastered & mastered snippets of music) & the 96kHz test files were SRC'd through a lot of the available converters. These include - Peak 4, Pro Tools Tweakhead, Audition, R8Brain Free, Sequoia, Wavelab, Barbabatch plus a couple more.

During the listening tests I conducted before the test files were made official. I couldn't believe my ears when I actually preferred the conversion done by Barbabatch. It sounded truer to the original 44.1kHz source file then the Saracon conversion did. The Saracon still sounded great, but it had added a slight  increase in the high frequencies, which was confirmed by Alan Silverman late with his own blind tests. He upsampled a 44.1k test file to 96k & then SRC'd back down to 44.1 using Weiss Saracon & managed to pick Saracon's conversion over the original 44.1kHz test 8 out of 10 times due to the slight boost in HF content.

For the testing I did, I compared how the SRC'd files sounded against the original source file & listened for differences, not so much comparing the SRC'd files against each other. I just found that to my ears the Barbabatch converted file sounded truer to the original source then Saracon did. I also did some null tests & found a lot of the SRC'd test files nulled perfectly against each other, such as Adobe Audition, Pro Tools Tweakhead, Barbabatch 4 & R8Brain Free. All of these files nulled against each other. The ones that didn't null perfectly included Wavelab's SRC, Seqoiua & Saracon. There were some dreadful ones too like Peak 4, Waveburner & Logic which was an eye opener.

If you'd like to hear the listening tests that I compiled with the help of Dave Horrocks for the mastering webboard you can still download it here (to my surprise as it's about 6 months old now) http://www.iwserver2.com/LT.zip & the voting page is still up too http://src.infinitewave.ca/VOTE/vote.php

I am still hoping that iZotope will release their 64bit SRC as a standalone application for Mac as well. Up till then I think I'll stick with Barbabatch 4 even though BB4 is only 32bit & minimum phase. I have made requests to Aram from Audioease to make BB 64bit internal processing with some more dither options  & they said it will be considered for a future release, but it's been over 6 months since I made that request & nothing more has happened to my knowledge.

Hope this helps you with your future choice.

Matt

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Barry Hufker

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Re: Sample Rate Conversion for Mac
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2006, 11:50:24 AM »

When this thread first appeared, I brought it to Audio Ease' attention.  They said a 64 bit version is in development.

Barry
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