SPOTLIGHT Virtual Surround Sound Streaming Platform

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On the other hand, the "Back In The U.S.S.R." channel-by-channel demo was really impressive.

It'd be interesting to hear an uber-discrete, total four-corner mix and see how it survives this process.

We just put up several new demo videos right at the top of stereo.sucks. There's a dropdown list so you can access all the videos from one location. In addition to The Beatles' Back in the U.S.S.R channel-by-channel demo, we have:

- The Who's Pinball Wizard Loop vs. Stereo A/B
- Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child (Slight Return) Loop vs. Stereo A/B
- The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots 1 Loop vs. Stereo A/B
- Guns n' Roses Paradise City Channel-by-Channel
- Madonna En Vogue (Live) Channel-by-Channel
- Beck E-Pro Channel-by-Channel
- Missy Elliot Get Your Freak On Channel-by-Channel
- Miles Davis So What Channel-by-Channel
- Beyonce Single Ladies (Live) Channel-by-Channel

More to come!
 
No approval is required, just as terrestrial radio and streaming platforms don't need approval to EQ, compress, and recode audio to reduce data bandwidth keep their broadcasts legal.
hmmm... I hope you've got good lawyers!
 
A little announcement everyone!


In 2008, Nine Inch Nails released Ghosts I-IV under a Creative Commons license. Trent Reznor, who leads the band, also released the multitrack sessions for the album.

Now Loop has created the first surround sound mix of Ghosts and will be streaming the album in its entirety without interruption this Thursday, September 19th at 7 PM PST.

These mixes are all object-based, meaning each instrument is placed in its own space. Sounds are not mixed into channels or tied to any speaker configuration. This allows for the best surround experience on headphones possible.

We hope to see you Thursday, and before and after as well!

www.stereo.sucks
GhostsI-iv_sm.jpg
 
Hello 360, I look forward to hearing your stream on thursday, I had a chance to listen to about a dozen or so tracks on your stream service and I have a few comments, for me it was not so much a surround experience as I really did not feel as though I was surrounded by the music. Unfortunately I just don't quite get the virtual surround idea yet. I tried as much as possible to get a sense of surround with the stream but it just wasn't working for me. I did however enjoy the wider than normal stereo field and will definitely try to catch your NiN special on thursday. Now here is where I have a problem with the stream, Normally when I put my full size headphones on and settle in for some serious me time private listening I go for my hi rez rips or at the minimum lossless flac, your stream sounded more like mp3 compressed down to about 96kb. Not enjoyable from a sonic standpoint. Hopefully you can get the quality up. For portable play I use my Lg v20 phone with a 400g card, the Lg has dual EssSabre dac chips on board, a Fiio montblank headphone amp, and either hifiman he-400 or beyerdynamic ds 990 full size cans. Point here is all top notch portable play gear. So you can Readily hear the difference between flac and mp3 below about 192k. I use the poweramp app for playback which also has a very nice spatial expander plugin that when used sparingly increases the soundfield nicely without sonic degradation. I am sorry to say but at this point I find that listening more enjoyable than your stream. I will however keep checking in because I really like where you are going with this and I would very much like to be a customer but you need a way to bring up the quality quite a bit.

And by the way Dave, I resent being called a curmudgeon, I think the Q has the fewest of that species than any other site on the internet. So a great big raspberry goes out to you for that one my friend. K
 
I will however keep checking in because I really like where you are going with this and I would very much like to be a customer but you need a way to bring up the quality quite a bit.

I appreciate you taking the time to create such thoughtful feedback!

An impressive setup, I wouldn't expect anything in your signal path to cause any issues.

Yes, we are currently streaming at below-optimum bitrate mp3, but it's a lot higher than 96 kbps ;-). But codecs can affect the experience, so that's definitely a valid concern. As we scale we will add higher bitrates and lossless downloads.

It would be great if you remember any of the tracks you heard and your opinion. Feel free to PM me about that or anything else.

Have you had a chance to listen to the video demos on the website, www.stereo.sucks? There are Loop vs. stereo A/B and channel-by-channel playback videos. I'd be interested if those videos provide a different experience for you.
 
15 Ghosts II

I definitely heard a "virtual" headphone surround pan.

adjective: virtual: almost or nearly as described, but not completely or according to strict definition
Similar: in effect, near, near enough. for all practical purposes, indirect :geek:

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Ok Mr loop, that was f ing awesome. And the thing is I really don't like Trent reznor or his industrial wierdness. But that was way cool. I still am not getting so much of a surrounded feel to this but it's more of a distance feel if that makes any sense, a sort of near and farness, with stuff rotating around my head and coming at me while other aspects are moving away. Very Cool. I still would very much like to hear the Sonic quality come up a bit. I will say without pretense that sonicly it sounds as if it's either mp3 compressed to about 128k or it's got a dts compression on it. I would like to hear 192 or better and no dts compression if that is the case, the reason I'm hearing problems is on certain aspects such as bells at a certain timbre or specific piano strikes I had to turn it way down cuz it hurt my ears. That type of reaction I hear from dts or heavily compressed mp3. But otherwise way to go! Big thumbs up. if you can do this to music at a higher Sonic level, I would be a customer.
 
Ok Mr loop, that was f ing awesome. And the thing is I really don't like Trent reznor or his industrial wierdness. But that was way cool. I still am not getting so much of a surrounded feel to this but it's more of a distance feel if that makes any sense, a sort of near and farness, with stuff rotating around my head and coming at me while other aspects are moving away. Very Cool. I still would very much like to hear the Sonic quality come up a bit. I will say without pretense that sonicly it sounds as if it's either mp3 compressed to about 128k or it's got a dts compression on it. I would like to hear 192 or better and no dts compression if that is the case, the reason I'm hearing problems is on certain aspects such as bells at a certain timbre or specific piano strikes I had to turn it way down cuz it hurt my ears. That type of reaction I hear from dts or heavily compressed mp3. But otherwise way to go! Big thumbs up. if you can do this to music at a higher Sonic level, I would be a customer.
Thank you! We've received a huge response to the broadcast.

Our stream is currently 192 kbps mp3. It's obviously far below what we all want, but right now the economics (or lack thereof) force this compromise on us, but there's certainly no DTS compression.

To your point about about certain instruments jumping out at you, we QC'd the renders on a few headphones, but maybe we just got used to what it is that you're describing. We'll certainly keep an ear out for that in the future. Please feel free to PM us with any specifics (question/concern, song title, instrument in question, time index, etc).

Thanks again!
 
Because of the response of those who tuned in to hear Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV (and many who said they couldn’t because of scheduling) we’re streaming an encore presentation today at 12 PM PST AND 7 PM PST, so more people will have a chance to have another listen or hear the album for the first time.

www.stereo.sucks
 
SEE POST #22 @Soundfield I'd guess; and the fact that headphone surround just doesn't work- too near field!

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RE: Post #22
You may not need permission to "re-broadcast" material but the RIAA is a diligent watch dog to make sure payments are made for that use.

Actually headphone surround sound does work for dummy head, or binaural recording. I've heard some cassette copies of BBC drama shows made this way & it's actually pretty effective. I believe Suzanne Ciani has made some of her downloads available as ambisonic binaural. I have little interest in Ambisonics or headphones so I haven't looked into it.
 
RE: Post #22
You may not need permission to "re-broadcast" material but the RIAA is a diligent watch dog to make sure payments are made for that use.

Actually headphone surround sound does work for dummy head, or binaural recording. I've heard some cassette copies of BBC drama shows made this way & it's actually pretty effective. I believe Suzanne Ciani has made some of her downloads available as ambisonic binaural. I have little interest in Ambisonics or headphones so I haven't looked into it.
Then hear ya go SW!

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