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WAV file quality

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vpo-organist

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WAV file quality

PostTue Nov 09, 2021 4:19 pm

Hello,

when I record a piece and then play the WAV file on the same PC and the same headphones,
then I have the impression that it sounds a bit duller and the acoustics are not the same.
Is it possible to improve the export so that the piece sounds like played with Hauptwerk?

Best regards
vpo
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mnailor

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Re: WAV file quality

PostTue Nov 09, 2021 5:10 pm

I think the only HW settings that affect audio recording quality are: 32 bit vs 16 bit (CD compatible) .wav format, audio recording level on the mixer bus where audio recording is enabled in case the file volume is too low, and making sure the recording mixer bus is the same one driving your headphones so the recording gets the exact same inputs and processing as your live playing.

Then it's up to your .wav media player to match the output quality of HW. Does it support 32 bit .wav fully or reduce it to 24 or 16 bit internally? Does it use the same device driver (like ASIO) and the same audio interface or sound card to run your headphones? Is it playing back at the same sample rate as HW does, 96k, 48k, or 44k? Are there any other playback quality options that default to less than the best ones?

P.S. I have the problem in a different way: I hear live playing on 20 studio monitors and a subwoofer, but get a stereo recording I hear on headphones or two speakers. No comparison!
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vpo-organist

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Re: WAV file quality

PostTue Nov 09, 2021 6:01 pm

I don't know, what the Standard-player used for audio.

Audacity shows "Stereo 48000Hz, 32-Bit floating point. That's ok.
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mdyde

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Re: WAV file quality

PostWed Nov 10, 2021 5:00 am

Hello vpo-organist,

I confirm Mark's reply (thanks, Mark).

Hauptwerk's audio recorder records the audio stream that plays from the relevant mixer bus, so if the audio output device channels selected from that same bus go to your headphones (and no other buses are also configured to play through your headphones), then the audio that Hauptwerk records will be *exactly* (byte for byte) the same as the audio stream that it sends to the device channels provided that, for the that bus, the bus's settings (apart from whatever specific device channels your headphones use) look like this:

mixer1.jpg


[i.e. both level adjustments of zero, and both 'From the output of this bus']

... and you have 'General settings | General preferences | Audio recording format' set to 32-bit.

A few additional points:

- It's a well-known psycho-acoustic phenomenon that when comparing two audio sources that louder of the two will tend to be perceived as sounding better, so for a fair comparison make sure your audio player is playing the file through your headphones at exactly the same output level that you were hearing the audio through them from Hauptwerk.

- Make sure your audio player is using the same audio driver and channels that Hauptwerk was using, and that the audio player doesn't have any additional processing enabled.

- Make sure that only one audio application (Hauptwerk, or your audio player, etc.) is using the audio device at any given time. Many audio drivers/devices don't allow two applications to have the the same driver/device open simultaneously, and especially so at different sample rates. If the device's sample rate is wrong when playing the file then the pitch will be wrong, which will affect how bright/dull it sounds. Hence also check that your audio interface is actually using the sample rate that you had selected in Hauptwerk (e.g. 48 kHz or 96 kHz), both when using Hauptwerk, and when playing the audio file. (Hauptwerk will have saved the recorded audio files using that sample rate.)
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.
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OrganoPleno

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Re: WAV file quality

PostWed Nov 10, 2021 10:40 pm

vpo-organist wrote:when I record a piece and then play the WAV file on the same PC and the same headphones,
then I have the impression that it sounds a bit duller and the acoustics are not the same.


I used to have this problem too. Hauptwerk sends output to my Sound Card via the ASIO driver that comes with the Sound Card. My WAV-Player (WinAmp) did not, just using the default Sound System in Windows. When I added a plug-in to the Win-Amp giving it an ASIO driver of its own, the problem disappeared and I now get the same good quality play-back either way.

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