A few months back i did a post on Remastered music.
I believe that music is headed down two paths. The first is Streaming music.
Apple seems to be headed down this path with rumors that the Apple store will be shutting down its music store and pushing its Apple Music streaming service. I must stress that this is only a rumor but it makes sense.
The problem is with streaming is that you never really own your music. Once you stop your subscription, the music vanishes.
For some people this is ok.
On the plus side is that streaming doesn’t take up much room on your device.
The second path is Hi-Res or 24Bit music.
This is something i’m really into.
To hear music the way the recording studio hears it.
To explain 24Bit Audio is like to listen to a CD. The CD music format is 16Bit/48Khz…
Now double it.
Suddenly the faint guitar sounds of a song are more predominant, you can now hear sounds that go right to the very edge of your hearing spectrum and the music sounds more natural, more alive.
The downside of 24Bit Audio is that the files are huge. One standard size album will be around 800Meg-1.3Gig.
If you like the idea of streaming, you can stream 24bit audio but your internet connection needs to be fast.
There are 2 parts to 24Bit Audio. First part is the most obvious, the Bit Rate. Basically the more ‘Bits’, the more information.
Most recording studios record in 24Bit then cut out various parts to squish into a CD, but CDs are slowly becoming obsolete, its old technology.
The second part is the frequency range. For 24Bit Audio, there are 2 available = 96Khz or 192Khz
For me personally i prefer 96Khz. I tried listening to 192Khz and seriously, could not hear the difference. Some people might but i couldn’t, But i could hear the difference between 16Bit and 24bit.
Try it for Yourself, Its not that hard.
The first thing you will need is a good set of Headphones.
I have a pair of Sony headphones that have a frequency range of 8hz to 24,000KHz. Most headphones don’t show the frequency range as they are flat (standard 20hz – 20Khz) but Sony always has there range printed on the back of the packaging.
My Sony’s as i said before is 8Hz to 24,000khz.
The bottom number is the Bass frequency (human hearing stops around 12Hz) so a headphone of 8Hz or lower then you will feel the Bass vibration and will sound more ‘Punchy’
The other frequency is the high frequency. my Sony’s go to 24,000Khz and this is pretty good, any higher and they will sound ‘Tinny’.
20,000Khz to 24,000Khz range should sound Crisp and Vibrant.
The second thing is to look at in your quest for 24Bit audio is your computer.
Most new’ish computers have decent sound hardware and will allow 24Bit Audio.
Just search your computer in control panel for ‘Sound Settings’
Mine computer has Realtek High Definition Audio listed.
Also make sure your computer has the latest audio drivers updated (Click here for Realtek Audio Drivers)
24Bit Audio is done best through Headphones so be sure you have your headphones plugged in.
Now go to your sound settings, click on your current speaker or headphone that is your current device and click on properties and a smaller box will open.
Click on the tab ‘advanced’ and you will see ‘Default Format’.
In the drop down tab, change to ‘2 Channel-24Bit-9600hz (Studio Quality), you can click the ‘Test’ button to see if your computer can handle 24bit and if you hear the sweet bell sounds, Congratulations.
Now click ‘Apply’ button down the bottom and then click ‘OK’
If your computer could not handle the change of setting, try to download new drivers, if you have Reaktek, listed then click the link above.
AND now to the music.
I have made a track available… NKOTB – Hangin Tough (1989)…
You can stream the track and you can download it.
Being 24Bit Audio, you should notice a more punchy Bass, various sounds going right to the edge of your headphones and the highs should be Crisp and Clean.
Take a Listen (be patient, if you have a slow connection… You may have to press play/pause button a few times)
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK – HANGIN TOUGH (1989)
LINKS
https://soundcloud.com/timelord17 (click on more and then download)
And so this is what i want to be part of Electronic80s website to become, I believe its the future and it makes listening to the 80s, exciting again.
When you see a post with the ‘Hi-Res Audio’ symbol (see below) that track will be in 24Bit Audio.
The download part (if available) will be in a FLAC format.
To listen ‘On The Go’ you will need a music player / Phone that can handle 24Bit Audio.
I was lucky enough to get a Sony Xperia XZ phone for Christmas, (my first phone in 11 years). This phone can handle 24Bit Audio.
Apple fans have a bit more work cut out for them.
Apple, as i said earlier, are looking more at streaming and even to date, the Itunes software does not support 24Bit or even FLAC …YET
BUT, you can still get away with it using the Onkyo music app (paid version) or the VLC app on your device.
Its a drag and drop process = Plug your device into your computer, sync with ITunes and go to the VLC or Onkyo app and drop the files into it.
It then should play.
My Sony is a similar process, just plug into computer and drop the files into the storage card part of the phone.
Hope you catch the 24Bit bug like i have. It makes listening to music like new again, being able to hear music the way it was intended.
Cheers
ELECTRONIC 80s V2 