Enhancers

Anyone play through one? I was thinking of getting an Aphex Aural wotsit to compensate for playing mp3s.

It'd work, right?

Compensate for playing mp3s? a properly encoded mp3 playing through a good sound card should sound identical to a cd being played through a decent cdj. I'm not quite sure what you feel you need to compensate for...

The Aphex website makes a lot of dubeous claims that don't seem to backed up by any real scientific evidence. Saying it "makes it sound better" should be enough of a warning sign already, as quality is totally objective and there isn't really such a thing as a "sound enhancer"

I wouldnt get one, sounds like a lot of wank to me. Its like paying $5000 for monster cable when you could just use a coathanger and it would make pretty much no difference.

Those "sound enhancers" aren't made to compensate for MP3s (no need). They're best suited to making a track sound full while at a lower than normal volume when playing through a PA. They can also (if used conservatively) add sparkle and punch to "OTA" broadcasts (radio, podcasting, streaming, etc). If you do alot of either, then buying one might be a good idea. If not, you're much better off buying a proper EQ instead.

Anybody who plays on large systems regularly will tell you that there is a difference between compressed and uncompressed or analogue sound, especially at the bass end.

I'm not sure how big the systems are that you play over guys but it's definitely noticable. Most of the crowd don't notice but it's definitely there.

Found this in a SOS review too:

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A throw-away comment in the handbook made me try the Model 204 out on data reduced material and I found the unit extraordinarily effective in breathing fresh life into MP3 files and other heavily data-reduced recordings. More usefully though, processing tracks through the Model 204 prior to encoding seemed to help them survive data reduction rather better. By adding a modest amount of harmonic enhancement before encoding, the material seemed to replay with a greater sense of space, stereo imaging and detail, instead of the two-dimensional sound characteristic of the format. It doesn't restore uncompressed WAV quality, but it certainly improves matters.

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Introducing:
Soundgoodizer noun.(Sound-good-izer)
You could use the software version of these sound enhancers...
FL packed a plugin called SoundGoodizer in FL8 which is pretty classic :p
It has 4 settings and only 1 knob - pick your flavor and turn up the knob to goodize your mix! Its great to see the people at FL studio have a sense of humor.
Never fear though you don't need FL studio to use this, you can get a free copy of a plugin that does/sounds perfectly identical - YouWaShock
Sound-enhancers like "SoundGoodizer" are compressors and all your tracks have been compressed to hell and back anyway, so use with caution - see the loudness war on wikipedia. Loudness War

So given the fact that the tracks have been compressed to hell and back anyway, so when compressing them further you should be really carefully.

The more compression you add the less dynamic range you have to work with , so things like kicks and snares usually really stick in your tracks will get lost everything else that is going on in the mix!

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All these "Sound-enhancers" are compressors, and all your tracks have been compressed to hell and back anyway - see the loudness war on wikipedia Loudness War

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No, they're not. They aren't dynamics processors at all. They are psychoacoustic processors and have more akin with EQs than compressors, although that would be an oversimplification. Maybe you were referring to your software and not products like the AAE in your post?

More reading...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aphex_Systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoacoustic

These aren't audiophile black magic, and aren't at all mysterious. They originally were built to automate a process that was being done manually by recording engineers.

The problem with them is that they tend to get overused, resulting in a harsh sound that barks on a loud PA. And I personally think it's madness to consider processing MP3s with them because (a) you have to decompress the file to apply the effect and then recompress - losing quality in the process, and (b) the MP3 codec already messes with stereo imaging and phase, these processors make it worse - NOT better.

But if you're doing mobile gigs in places where you can't turn it to 11, one of these exciters will allow you to get more clarity in your audio when playing at lower volumes. They are fantastic in that regard.

You right, i edited that bit to make more sense. I have just been wanting to post for a while hehe :p It is possible to replicate different types of sound enhancers in a DAW environment aswell, there is also a BBE SonicMaximiser free replicant that can be found here - http://www.madtracker.org/plugins.ph...hancer&from=10

Or if you have protools you can fork out big bux for the official software version of Aphex Aural - http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...=3820&langid=1

I use a BBE 482 in my set up, carefully I like to also mention.
It does the trick..

:)