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Binaural sound systems suffer from differences between the shape of the listeners ears and the shape of the dummy head used to make the recording (or the filter used to simulate the shape of the ear).

"...everyone's ears are shaped differently and so everyone has slightly different associations between comb-filter pattern and corresponding source direction. This makes it virtually impossible for any system generating artificial comb-filtering artefacts -- such as RSS and Q Sound -- to produce reliable and repeatable 3D positional impressions for more than one person.".

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul04/articles/qa0 704-5.htm?session=c5a914ec7bd10ebc7e45df0a17c0cb30

Haven't there been several advances made in recording technologies since then?

From what I remember of looking at the site before it was Slashdotted, it doesn't cover recording technologies so much as sound generating technologies: the instruments themselves.

I think the major advance there, incidentally, is acoustic modelling (patented by Stanford University and implemented by Yamaha, just like FM synthesis of the eighties).

Haven't there been several advances made in recording technologies since then?

From what I remember of looking at the site before it was Slashdotted, it doesn't cover recording technologies so much as sound generating technologies: the instruments themselves.

I think the major advance there, incidentally, is acoustic modelling (patented by Stanford University and implemented by Yamaha, just like FM synthesis of the eighties).

> ...I prefer the UK mags. American mags have WAY too much advertising and not nearly as much in the was of tutorials...
> a lot of the UK mags have CDs glued to them.

I agree on all counts: tutorials, CDs, and fewer ads! I enjoy Future Music (love the CD and the tutorials!) and Sound on Sound (great at explaining complex recording topics). They're too expensive to get subscriptions in the USA though.

IANAL and US law may be different than that used in the UK and the Netherlands, which markets I know more about.

I am not saying they don't have to pay, they do. I am just saying that they probably don't need a special license. AFAIK, the rules here are that you only have to inform the licensing organization (BMI/ASCAP/etc) for use of the song and pay apropriate rates, based on airplay.

I recently read an interview in "Sound On Sound", a UK music mag, with an artist who specializes in sound-a-likes for the major advertising agencies; he re-records songs that sound so close to the orriginal (except vocals, ofcourse) that they often fool even the original artists or their record company. The whole purpose of this is to get out of high license fees for the songs and not requireing their approval.

For the actual use of a recording, you need to directly contact the label and negotiate a license.

Yep, it was a vocoder. A Digitech Talker. Carrier signal was a Nord Rack and modulator input was her voice.

If you need some explanation how a vocoder works, I highly suggest this great vocoder article.

And for all the details on Cher's song, read this Making-of "Believe" with all the gritty details.

How come something that emulates the MT-32 1987 sound module that most people haven't heard of gets into trouble, yet programs like Propellerheads's Rebirth, which emulates three much-sought after pices of Roland gear, seems to have no trouble? Did they pay royalties or something? What about Native Instruments cloning Yamaha's DX-7 synthesiser and Sequential Circuits's Prophet 5?

How come something that emulates the MT-32 1987 sound module that most people haven't heard of gets into trouble, yet programs like Propellerheads's Rebirth, which emulates three much-sought after pices of Roland gear, seems to have no trouble? Did they pay royalties or something? What about Native Instruments cloning Yamaha's DX-7 synthesiser and Sequential Circuits's Prophet 5?

How come something that emulates the MT-32 1987 sound module that most people haven't heard of gets into trouble, yet programs like Propellerheads's Rebirth, which emulates three much-sought after pices of Roland gear, seems to have no trouble? Did they pay royalties or something? What about Native Instruments cloning Yamaha's DX-7 synthesiser and Sequential Circuits's Prophet 5?

Here's a link to some MP3 format copies.
Kimi no uwasa / Male lead vocal (Japanese song)

Sarasara yukigeshiki / Chorus (Japanese)

Amazing Grace / English example

Here's a link to some MP3 format copies.
Kimi no uwasa / Male lead vocal (Japanese song)

Sarasara yukigeshiki / Chorus (Japanese)

Amazing Grace / English example

Here's a link to some MP3 format copies.
Kimi no uwasa / Male lead vocal (Japanese song)

Sarasara yukigeshiki / Chorus (Japanese)

Amazing Grace / English example

the have some samples here

sounds synthetic to me

Sample Songs Available in MP3 at: http://www.soundonsound.com/soundbank/YamahaVocalo id.php

Heartily agree with that comment. When I did my Music Technology A level I bought and read many music mags including Future Music (wasn't impressed), SoS, etc. Sound on Sound was without doubt the best of the bunch by a long way, and definitely helped me pass my exams :) Well, that and having a very cool and knowledgeable music teacher who was actually interested enough in sound engineering to go out of his way and get our school to host the Music Tech course in the first place!

Which reminds me, I keep meaning to go through my old stack of SoS issues and cannibalize the workshop articles, but I don't have to 'cause all the articles are online for free! Very cool indeed.

Cheers,

Computer Music is okay, but the real "semi pro" recording publication in the UK is Sound on Sound. You don't get a CD, but the quality of the information is quite a lot better.

Yes, I am sure, as I've read reports of apps using >4GB under OS 10.2.7 on a G5. The only references I could dig up right now are a brief blurb on ZDNet here: ZDNet Story and at the Register here: Register Story, though the register mistakingly says that the G5s use a 64 bit memory address space. A more detailed and accurate report of the G5 is available here: SoundOnSound Story. That last one really has all the info on this matter, though it doesn't mention 10.2.7's memory address capabilities specifically. You better believe, however, that Apple isn't shipping systems with 8 GB or RAM that can only address 4 GB, or the outcry would be quite palpable.

Just for the knowledge of everyone out there there, the "Cher effect" used on "Believe" wasn't done by Antares Auto-Tune. It was done using a Digitech Talker guitar pedal. And it apparently took a lot of work to get those vocal transformations.

Cher really abused it on that "Believe" song.

Nearly. It was a vocoder, but the end effect is very similar. The main practical difference is that vocoders can be used to make anything sound in pitch, and even let people sing chords rather than single notes. That and they've been around far longer. Hmm, maybe I should submit them as a new technology for a Slashdot article...

Here's a Sound on Sound review of the DirectX plug-in version of Antares Auto-Tune... Dated August 2000.