Question: If you were to drop a rock and a tiny pin onto a table, and both land at the same time…do they both make a sound?

Yes they do.

Can you hear them both?  Probably not…

Why?

Logic would dictate the reason why is because the sound of the rock is so loud that it would “cover” those of the tiny pin. This concept is known as masking.  The really loud sound of the loud rock masked the tiny sound that the pin made. 

This is a nice introduction to how perceptual audio coding works.  Continue reading The idea behind perceptual CODECs →

Listening for coding artifacts

When you hear audio engineers talk about coded audio, inevitably you’ll hear us talk about “coding artifacts” in one way or another.What are “coding artifacts”, and what exactly is it that we are hearing?Listening for artifacts involves knowing where to listen.  In this case, one must listen int he background.  It is also easier to hear artifacts if you have a non-coded version of the audio compare with. Continue reading Listening for Coding Artifacts →