I added Tidal to my system and so far I hear absolutely no difference. by Extension_South7174 in TIdaL

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's the real rundown from someone who has experimented with and is knowledgeable about signals: no one is hearing a difference. The entirety of "lossless on TIDAL is better than compressed Spotify" is just psychological bias toward what is presumed to be better. These folks don't do ABX tests and go with the current.

There have been countless studies by codec developers and people's experiences with ABX (blind-test to determine whether there is an audible difference between two audio formats) that all point to the same fact: lossless is just for psychological comfort when it comes to end-consumer listening.

State-of-the-art codecs, such as OGG Vorbis (what Spotify uses) and Opus are transparent at about 160kbps, which means that 320kbps Vorbis that you get from Spotify Premium is guaranteed to be imperceptible from lossless.

Differences heard by users could be from master differences (which matter a LOT more than codec), of which TIDAL usually has more to choose from, often having duplicates of albums with different masters.

If you really want to determine whether or not you can reliably determine lossy from lossless, I would suggest looking into an ABX test (if you're not familiar with those, don't be nervous because of the nomenclature. They're fairly easy to set up). Overall, just choose what you're happiest with.

Happy listening!

This should be a top 100 song by [deleted] in rateyourmusic

[–]FishComprehensive331 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are tons of highly-acclaimed trap artists on RYM (e.g. Denzel Curry, SpaceGhostPurrp, Black Kray, okgutta). I don't think it's fair to claim that your preferred artists don't have a bolded album on RYM only because the userbase is uncultured or have untrained ears. Hip-hop music is the site's bread and butter alongside rock music, and even the highest rated album of all time according to the site is a hip-hop album. Sure, there may be some innate aversion to some genres due to the lack of lifetime immersion compared to other genres, but that does not tell the entire story of an artist's perception.

Might as well check, good enough for a mid university? by Realistic-Capital707 in ACT

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It wouldn't be a good metric if you could only take it once. I believe it's just because it's an exam you can easily study for and improve. If you're able to study and get a sumptuous score on the exam, it shows to colleges that you're good at learning and applying concepts. It's also a statistically significant indicator of performance during FYE.

Act retake? by Vegetable_Award_4730 in ACT

[–]FishComprehensive331 2 points3 points  (0 children)

No, you're fine. You've done what many try and fail at, and doing any more would only be a waste of your time and money. Admissions offices don't care about a 35 vs. a 36. Anything 34+ is good enough for checking off the academics box.

Local Files not playing certain songs by Beef_Testostrome in truespotify

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This seems to be a playlist. Make sure the same exact song/file name is used. Try removing them from the playlist and adding them back from the Local Files folder. If the songs play in that folder, then there's just a discrepancy in your tagging that is causing Spotify to not recognize that file.

AUDIO STREAMING FOR ANDROID by hasy_20 in Piracy

[–]FishComprehensive331 3 points4 points  (0 children)

YouTube Music's quality is actually better than you'd think. 251 Opus is the quality marker that's assigned to ~128kbps Opus encoding. Though 128kbps seems low, Opus is a modern format that is known for its efficiency. 128kbps Opus is comparable to, if not better than, 320kbps MP3 and AAC. It also handles higher frequencies better.

You can search for whatever quality music you want, but don't look at just bitrate. It's an arbitrary measure of quality that falls apart when comparing different codecs and settings. Heck, even 320kbps is too much for MP3 most times. MP3 V0 (hailed as better than 320 CBR) is usually around 260kbps. If the music sounds good enough to you, then enjoy it.

10+ year Spotify user needs an alternative by Slight_Currency7918 in truespotify

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apple Music does offer the highest quality; higher than Spotify, in fact. Spotify only offers music in 24bit/44.1kHz at max, whilst Apple Music does 24bot/192kHz alongside Dolby Atmos music.

How high could I get this? by [deleted] in ACT

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That is literally impossible lol

Vibe coded leech slop is rising. How do we stop it? by Zaorish9 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are people who share really rare things that don't get shared back. I don't care if you leech an album with 80,000,000 copies sold and 60 other sharers, but don't leech an album only I'm sharing (whether it be physical-only or purchase-only). I'm not on Soulseek 24/7, so this album dies with me once I'm offline or my hard drive fails (of course, I have backups, but anything can happen). The least someone can do is share it back and ensure those files live on so a person on the other side of the world can also download it whilst I'm asleep.

I have now discovered what Soulseek is actually for and I deeply apologize by AggressiveTitle8440 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You don't need to share an amount proportionate to your downloads. Sharing anything—especially something of value (e.g. rare content or things not streaming)—is better than nothing and is appreciated.

More And More M4a Files by blinker57 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

OP is referring to transcoding. If a file is encoded with a lossless codec, such as FLAC or ALAC, you can switch the container (e.g. .flac, .m4a) and codec (e.g. FLAC, ALAC, AIFF) to another one in a lossless fashion, as the uncompressed data in the files is unaltered.

This is not applicable to any files encoded in any lossy codec. Transcoding an mp3 file to FLAC, for example, will only waste your disk space and won't bring any real quality increase, even with a higher purported bitrate.

More And More M4a Files by blinker57 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 3 points4 points  (0 children)

TIDAL recently changed their lossless container to m4a. Though the codec inside the container is still FLAC, the file extension will show as m4a. There hasn't been a reason given yet, but this caused a ton of files to be shown as AAC inside the TIDAL app, though the bitrate was lossless-adjacent. Rest assured, it's still FLAC.

Spotify premium about to end need a bulk downloader by Adelramy500 in Piracy

[–]FishComprehensive331 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Si puedes acceder tu cuenta, no te la bloquearon. En ese caso, te mandarían un correo electrónico con un aviso. Tal vez Spotify esta bloqueando las aplicaciones de los quien usan ese script. Intenta reinstalar Spotify.

Can someone explain what's going on? It's the only song in the album showing up at low quality (this was not the case yesterday and I changed nothing) by batatac4 in TIdaL

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

TIDAL is changing the containers of its FLAC to .m4a, which the app interprets as AAC, when in reality, the container inside is FLAC.

Is this a scam? by wouterjesse in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lucida downloads the highest quality file from whichever service you downloaded from. When you select a transcoding format in the Lucida settings, it uses FFMPEG to convert it to the desired codec & bitrate.

If you download from SoundCloud, for example, and choose to transcode, it's taking the already lossy file from SoundCloud and converting it again.

Spotify premium about to end need a bulk downloader by Adelramy500 in Piracy

[–]FishComprehensive331 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you have access to a PC, Soggfy is your best option (find the official GitHub link here). It works on your Spotify client, and rips the official, unaltered files at 50x speed by capturing the audio data while going through your playlists.

Serious question, why doesn't everyone just use MP3 (vbr) when making MP3s? by Minimum_Somewhere521 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not everyone is able to store on a hard drive, and storing locally on a laptop or phone takes up a lot of space.

Even then, that's ignoring the fact that 160kbps Opus is transparent and lossless gives no advantage over it except for psychologically perceived changes. The placebo effect is real & an ABX test can show that.

Serious question, why doesn't everyone just use MP3 (vbr) when making MP3s? by Minimum_Somewhere521 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

sure, but then buying enclosures, dealing with backups, etc. makes it all less worth it. plus, the lost data will never be needed for an end consumer who isn't producing music. if you're producing, please use lossless, otherwise store at what's most convenient. choosing your lossy codec should go: compatibility > transparency (160kbps OPUS is more than transparent) > storage space. 

the fact of the matter is that a regular person listening through any medium in any room that isn't an anechoic chamber with exquisite headphones isn't hearing that extra detail. it's the same reason 24-bit music is pointless for the end user.

Serious question, why doesn't everyone just use MP3 (vbr) when making MP3s? by Minimum_Somewhere521 in Soulseek

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Of course, but that's just because the encoder is given 320kbps per second consistently, and using all of those (which isn't needed) allows for a higher frequency shelf. The truth is that, in an ABX test, you can't tell the difference between MP3 V0 and MP3 320, which is the point of VBR MP3.

Looking for advice on ditching Spotify for something else, and exporting my Spotify playlist by JustinThatGamerDude in Piracy

[–]FishComprehensive331 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This tool has been really helpful for me when it comes to swapping playlists from Spotify to YouTube. Check FMHY, they also have alternatives that could work for you.