4 ms·

I don't like this at all. I listened to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuDkhSJoryI&feature=player_embedded_uturn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou

by LandR 8y ago

I don't like this at all. I listened to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuDkhSJoryI&feature=player_embedded_uturn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuDkhSJoryI&feature=player_e... And it's just too distracting, it doesn't feel like being in the room with the music at all. It just feels like it's going from the left ear to the right ear. It just sounds really weird. It doesn't invoke the feeling of being at a concert at all, as the sound is constantly "moving" in space. Maybe it would be like being at a concert where I'm in some sort of car circling the stage... With the source of the music constantly changing.

mnw21cam 8y ago
Agreed. You're sacrificing the actual sound of the music, making it muffled and otherwise poor quality, adding in the "amazing" swing-it-around-your-head effect (which by the way you could do decades ago), and calling it better. I listened to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Nothing else matters", and compared to the originals. The originals were much better. Maybe if you're listening on rubbish earbuds anyway, the effect sounds cool. But on my reasonably expensive headphones it just kills it.
- mnw21cam 8y ago
  So, I listened to some of the other linked tracks, and they're much better than the Bohemian Rhapsody one, although they still just sound like someone discovered the pan control. The virtual barbershop was cool, but that's specifically because they recorded it with the proper equipment.
zimpenfish 8y ago
I think the problem with these manufactured "spatial" videos is that because there's no spatial information in the original track, they're pretty much forced to swing it around your head to demonstrate how "cool" it is. If they'd separated the various instruments and laid them out like a real, intimate gig, that would be impressive.
simias 8y ago
Uh yeah, that's pretty bad. It would make more sense if you could get/extract the individual instruments and voice tracks and then "place" them in various locations of 3D space. But then if the location doesn't change I guess it'll just sound like a new mix and that's quite mundane. But then I don't get ASMR videos either (I find them rather unpleasant and a bit creepy usually) so I suppose I'm a bit of a snob.
xellisx 8y ago
I'm surprised that Pink Floyd isn't in their playlist.
jamesrcole 8y ago
> it doesn't feel like being in the room with the music at all. [...] It doesn't invoke the feeling of being at a concert at all > It just feels like it's going from the left ear to the right ear. ... the sound is constantly "moving" in space. I don't think it's meant to sound like the former. For better or worse, it's meant to sound like the latter.
teh_klev 8y ago
I found it quite disconcerting, verging on making me feel seasick/dizzy. I tried a few different 8D's but it just makes listening to music feel like too much hard work. When I kick back with my tunes I don't really need the singer to be leaping and spinning inside my head. Nick Drake's vocal sound staging are just perfectly fine the way the studio recorded them. That said, I could see a use for this in gaming with a VR headset (are they still a thing?) if that was your bag.
- soylentcola 8y ago
  I haven't kept up with the technical developments, but when I was experimenting with an Oculus dev unit a few years ago, I remember a good deal of work going into creating the frameworks and tools to generate good, positional audio as an important part of creating immersion. Makes sense that this would be both useful and easier to do well since there actually is positional data for where sounds ought to be coming from. Ideally you'd have the audio equivalent of the tools used to simulate generation, occlusion, reflection, and refraction of light on the graphical side. But adding it to stereo tracks via post-processing is a lot harder to do well. It reminds me of "simulated surround" effects on my old home theater boxes but with more panning around instead of just trying to route certain frequencies to the proper speakers.
jnurmine 8y ago
I don't like it neither. This is horrible. I tried Bob Marley's "Is This Love" and a bunch of others, and they are nausea invoking experiences. The constant back and forth stereo panning is just disturbing. It probably makes a big pile of cash to the uploaders though since it's easy to do and sounds peculiar. This idea would be so much better if the instruments were split out to individual tracks and each track would be panned to certain point in space and kept there.
75dvtwin 8y ago
I agree with your sentiment. I do not like this at all. Feels like somebody is playing with the 'Balance' knob on my equipment. I prefer close reproduction of the original music. Somewhere were I can separate voices of back singers, where I can position mentally, where instruments are (if acoustic performance). Instead this 8D thing I just listened (Bohemian Rapsody) -- sounded horrible. Quality of recording is bad, muffed and then amplified, and the constantly and unnaturally shifting balance of sound -- just felt annoying. I am wondering if the onset of low-quality, heavily modified audio chips/earbuds, and recordings that proliferate YouTube and mobile devices -- is one of the cause of the new 'modify-shit-out-of-original' trend.

by LandR 8y ago

mnw21cam 8y ago

Agreed. You're sacrificing the actual sound of the music, making it muffled and otherwise poor quality, adding in the "amazing" swing-it-around-your-head effect (which by the way you could do decades ago), and calling it better. I listened to "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Nothing else matters", and compared to the originals. The originals were much better. Maybe if you're listening on rubbish earbuds anyway, the effect sounds cool. But on my reasonably expensive headphones it just kills it.

mnw21cam 8y ago
So, I listened to some of the other linked tracks, and they're much better than the Bohemian Rhapsody one, although they still just sound like someone discovered the pan control. The virtual barbershop was cool, but that's specifically because they recorded it with the proper equipment.

zimpenfish 8y ago

I think the problem with these manufactured "spatial" videos is that because there's no spatial information in the original track, they're pretty much forced to swing it around your head to demonstrate how "cool" it is. If they'd separated the various instruments and laid them out like a real, intimate gig, that would be impressive.

simias 8y ago

Uh yeah, that's pretty bad. It would make more sense if you could get/extract the individual instruments and voice tracks and then "place" them in various locations of 3D space. But then if the location doesn't change I guess it'll just sound like a new mix and that's quite mundane. But then I don't get ASMR videos either (I find them rather unpleasant and a bit creepy usually) so I suppose I'm a bit of a snob.

xellisx 8y ago

I'm surprised that Pink Floyd isn't in their playlist.

jamesrcole 8y ago

> it doesn't feel like being in the room with the music at all. [...] It doesn't invoke the feeling of being at a concert at all > It just feels like it's going from the left ear to the right ear. ... the sound is constantly "moving" in space. I don't think it's meant to sound like the former. For better or worse, it's meant to sound like the latter.

teh_klev 8y ago

I found it quite disconcerting, verging on making me feel seasick/dizzy. I tried a few different 8D's but it just makes listening to music feel like too much hard work. When I kick back with my tunes I don't really need the singer to be leaping and spinning inside my head. Nick Drake's vocal sound staging are just perfectly fine the way the studio recorded them. That said, I could see a use for this in gaming with a VR headset (are they still a thing?) if that was your bag.

soylentcola 8y ago
I haven't kept up with the technical developments, but when I was experimenting with an Oculus dev unit a few years ago, I remember a good deal of work going into creating the frameworks and tools to generate good, positional audio as an important part of creating immersion. Makes sense that this would be both useful and easier to do well since there actually is positional data for where sounds ought to be coming from. Ideally you'd have the audio equivalent of the tools used to simulate generation, occlusion, reflection, and refraction of light on the graphical side. But adding it to stereo tracks via post-processing is a lot harder to do well. It reminds me of "simulated surround" effects on my old home theater boxes but with more panning around instead of just trying to route certain frequencies to the proper speakers.

jnurmine 8y ago

I don't like it neither. This is horrible. I tried Bob Marley's "Is This Love" and a bunch of others, and they are nausea invoking experiences. The constant back and forth stereo panning is just disturbing. It probably makes a big pile of cash to the uploaders though since it's easy to do and sounds peculiar. This idea would be so much better if the instruments were split out to individual tracks and each track would be panned to certain point in space and kept there.

75dvtwin 8y ago

I agree with your sentiment. I do not like this at all. Feels like somebody is playing with the 'Balance' knob on my equipment. I prefer close reproduction of the original music. Somewhere were I can separate voices of back singers, where I can position mentally, where instruments are (if acoustic performance). Instead this 8D thing I just listened (Bohemian Rapsody) -- sounded horrible. Quality of recording is bad, muffed and then amplified, and the constantly and unnaturally shifting balance of sound -- just felt annoying. I am wondering if the onset of low-quality, heavily modified audio chips/earbuds, and recordings that proliferate YouTube and mobile devices -- is one of the cause of the new 'modify-shit-out-of-original' trend.