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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!eagle!allegra!alice!rabbit!jj
From: jj@rabbit.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.audio
Subject: Re: Reply to rabbit!jj re. digital vs. analog
Message-ID: <2496@rabbit.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Feb-84 13:36:07 EST
Article-I.D.: rabbit.2496
Posted: Thu Feb  9 13:36:07 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 05:03:47 EST
References: <1054@drux3.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Lines: 82


OK. Now I've got time to be a bit more specific.

1) I'm not JUST in the business of trying to figure out
if something sounds realistic, I'm also in the business of trying
to find out WHY something does or does not sound realistic.
That's why my digital experience matters.  You're welcome to
tell me what you THINK you hear, but if you can't help me
find out what it is, and accept that some things have been
proven NOT to be what you think you hear, then you aren't
willing to help me further the state of the art. On the other
hand, if you can show me that a supposedly unimportant
factor is what you hear, I'll be quite interested,
to put it mildly!  

2)  I damn well DO know how things are SUPPOSED to sound.
I don't know why you can even begin to presume on anyone
else's experience, especially if you don't know anything about
it, and I can't see where you figure that you should explain
your opinions to the world if you are acting on mere, and
inaccurate supposition.  
About myself:
I do NOT have perfect pitch.
My HF threshholds are 16.6K in left ear 
and
17.9 in my right ear. I don't know how old you are, but that alone
could account for the differences in HF response, which don't
matter as much as you think.  Please see previous articles on
intermodulation in the ear for the reasons why.  
I am also somewhat of a musician (I haven't had as much time
to practice and perform as I'd like, but what else is new?)
I play mostly anything in the flute family, and I have
more than a passing acquaintance with pipe organ building,
theory, and repair.  (I wanted to play brass at an early
age, but one look at my dental work will show why I never did,
sigh.)
I go to live performances fairly often, both for enjoyment
and for learning/working/helping purposes.  I think that I can
also tell you what's good/bad about a recording. I also have
a fair amount of experience with recording and miking problems,

as well as acoustic problems caused by halls, stages, etc.

I don't have perfect pitch at all.  I have fairly good relative
pitch, i.e. I can judge an octave to the point where I can
hit a half beat/second, while only hearing ONE tone at once.   I suspect that won't impress you, but then again,
perfect pitch doesn't have anything at all to do with trained
listening, either.  

I think you would do better to describe what you hear,
represent it as your own opinion, and try to HELP people
who are trying to measure what you hear.  

3) I don't see why you think that insulting people 
isn't a personal attack.  It is in fact a personal attack,
and I certainly would like to see a retraction.

Mail me, if you must continue this slander.
I'd rather work for better listening.
-- 
ENGINEERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO!

(allegra,harpo,ulysses)!rabbit!jj