Quote:
Originally Posted by Martijn
Thank you for your input so far!
I am happy to hear that you did not experience any unusual distortion. However this also makes it more difficult for me to solve this mystery.
To me the Vimeo version does for examply not sound like a slighly suboptimal recording, or a hypothetical difference between 44.1 and 48 kHz. Instead, the amount of distortion that I hear sounds like if something went wrong during mastering, like exceeding the 0 dB level.
It makes me hesitating as I would very much like to release my recordings, but I am afraid that more listeners might face the distortion issue, so perhaps I should wait for it to be solved.
Last week I did some experimenting with uploading different file formats and bit rates, but I did not experiment with multiple loudness levels, I will give that I try. Thank you for the suggestion.
I am using a Beyerdynamic headphone connected to a Steinberg interface, on several computers (both desktop and laptop). But if the distortion would be caused by the speakers itself, I would think that it would also be an issue when I listen to the Youtube version, but it isn't.
Changing formats and bit rates did not make a difference unfortunately.
I am very curious about your findings when you have had a listen on your studio system!
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It would be useful to see the audio track in the uploaded video file, i.e., what was the quality and track specs (loudness, dynamic range, peaks, etc.).
I recorded the streamed audio off both videos and there is definitely a very slight bit of distortion in what I'm getting from Vimeo.
If you open the original video in something like Handbrake, you'll see the embedded stereo type and bitrate (or equivalent), and just importing/opening the video in something like Audacity will show you if it has any peaks over 0dBFS.
p.s. this is not an equivalent example, but it shows the suggested formats uploaded to the two services. This is the original project, which was rendered/uploaded as 720p with the poor 160kbps AAC audio, but, alas, it doesn't really benefit from better quality rendering
. Still, I don't think there's as much audible difference as I heard on OP's samples. Also, some waveform stats for the audio in the two files, which have the same video settings, but different in the 48kHz/
16-bit audio (FLAC vs. AAC 320kbps constant bitrate, and the images are in that order).
YouTube video with FLAC audio
Vimeo video with 320kbps AAC audio
p.p.s. This link has slightly different specs for audio content in video uploads to YouTube. (It does not mention the "content matching" program, FWIW.)
https://support.google.com/youtube/a...ppy=%2Cbitrate
Some curious is the recommendation for 384kbps (compressed/lossy) stereo. That's not a common bitrate you'll see offered, as 320kbps is typically the highest. I am sure *I* cannot hear the difference between 320 and 384kbps!