What exactly is an Aural Exciter artifact?

[CJ Shearn]

It's been mentioned a lot here, what exactly do one of these artifacts sound like?

[Scott Dolan]

Probably more of a buzz term they heard someone else mention, but you should find some of those comments and encourage them to explain what they mean. 

 

I've heard of an aural exciter, but have no idea what it does. 

[Chuck Nessa]

http://www.aphex.com/products/exciter/

[Jim Alfredson]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exciter_(effect)

Essentially the technique revolves around adding harmonic distortion into the signal. This may sound like a bad thing (and in many circumstances, depending on the amount and the kind of distortion, it is) but remember that older recording technologies such as analog tape are inherently noisy and add distortion artifacts anyway. So 'exciters' are used to dirty up the ultra-clean, some would say 'boring', digital sound.

One of my favorites is the Sonnox Inflator plug-in.

 

Edited August 17, 2015 by Jim Alfredson

[CJ Shearn]

Thanks Jim, that's helpful.

[Scott Dolan]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

[Kevin Bresnahan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exciter_(effect)

Essentially the technique revolves around adding harmonic distortion into the signal. This may sound like a bad thing (and in many circumstances, depending on the amount and the kind of distortion, it is) but remember that older recording technologies such as analog tape are inherently noisy and add distortion artifacts anyway. So 'exciters' are used to dirty up the ultra-clean, some would say 'boring', digital sound.

One of my favorites is the Sonnox Inflator plug-in.

 

Jim - thanks for validating my decision to skip a career as a recording engineer. I couldn't do this for a living. I'd never be happy with this many buttons to play with. There would always be some part that would need that last little tweek.

[Jim Alfredson]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

Well, yes and no. Our ears find 2nd harmonic distortion to be rather pleasing for some reason. Adding a bit of that into the signal can create a sense of 'excitement'. It's why we still like vacuum tubes. But vinyl is an extremely limited medium, especially in the low-end. 

Jim - thanks for validating my decision to skip a career as a recording engineer. I couldn't do this for a living. I'd never be happy with this many buttons to play with. There would always be some part that would need that last little tweek.

As my wife said about painting, a painting is never finished, it's just abandoned. I think the same is true for a mix.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Jim Alfredson

[mjzee]

But what is an Aural Exciter artifact - what makes that bad?

[Jim Alfredson]

Like anything, too much of it can be a bad thing. It can also be used in place of good EQ'ing by lazy engineers.

[Scott Dolan]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

Well, yes and no. Our ears find 2nd harmonic distortion to be rather pleasing for some reason. Adding a bit of that into the signal can create a sense of 'excitement'. It's why we still like vacuum tubes. But vinyl is an extremely limited medium, especially in the low-end. 

Exactly.

Second order harmonic distortion is pleasing to the ear. It's an argument I've tried to make in past conversations to no avail here. And it's the main reason why I find the "high resolving" argument when it comes to tubes and LP's so odd. Not to mention the fact that some folks get a little uppity when you mention the distortion that is introduced.

I personally prefer the cold, clean sound of digital. Not to mention the wider dynamic range. IIRC, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, vinyl is limited on both the lower and upper ends. 

 

[CJ Shearn]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

Well, yes and no. Our ears find 2nd harmonic distortion to be rather pleasing for some reason. Adding a bit of that into the signal can create a sense of 'excitement'. It's why we still like vacuum tubes. But vinyl is an extremely limited medium, especially in the low-end. 

Exactly.

Second order harmonic distortion is pleasing to the ear. It's an argument I've tried to make in past conversations to no avail here. And it's the main reason why I find the "high resolving" argument when it comes to tubes and LP's so odd. Not to mention the fact that some folks get a little uppity when you mention the distortion that is introduced.

I personally prefer the cold, clean sound of digital. Not to mention the wider dynamic range. IIRC, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, vinyl is limited on both the lower and upper ends. 

 

I think you are right about that, Scott.  Vinyl being limited up at the top and bottom.  The distortion is what creates, the sense of "warmth", right? So I think when you read things at the Hoffman forums and here about people who like DCC and CD's like that being warm, they like that distortion being introduced.

[TedR]

I have little knowledge of hardware beyond auditioning and choosing audio components. When I read about components meant to create "distortion" the first thing I think about is that the musical instrument is the first and most important part of the chain. The embouchere, the reed, the mouthpiece, type of strings, the shape and type of instrument, etc all create "distortion" for the purpose of developing an individual sound. All I want from my sound system is to create as accurate a representation as possible of those musicians without having to compensate too much for how recording technology may or may not change the original sound. Difficult to achieve when even live performance can be dependent on microphones, speakers and room acoustics. 

[mjzee]

So an AE artifact is a distortion to the music that the AE produces that is noticeably over-and-above what was heard on the original vinyl, or (in a digital recording) sounds unnatural and/or unmusical.  Is that it?

[erwbol]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

Well, yes and no. Our ears find 2nd harmonic distortion to be rather pleasing for some reason. Adding a bit of that into the signal can create a sense of 'excitement'. It's why we still like vacuum tubes. But vinyl is an extremely limited medium, especially in the low-end. 

Exactly.

Second order harmonic distortion is pleasing to the ear. It's an argument I've tried to make in past conversations to no avail here. And it's the main reason why I find the "high resolving" argument when it comes to tubes and LP's so odd. Not to mention the fact that some folks get a little uppity when you mention the distortion that is introduced.

I personally prefer the cold, clean sound of digital. Not to mention the wider dynamic range. IIRC, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, vinyl is limited on both the lower and upper ends. 

 

I think you are right about that, Scott.  Vinyl being limited up at the top and bottom.  The distortion is what creates, the sense of "warmth", right? So I think when you read things at the Hoffman forums and here about people who like DCC and CD's like that being warm, they like that distortion being introduced.

Interesting. Is distortion always what creates the warmth, whatever stage it is introduced? Recording, mastering or playback through a certain amp or speakers?

Like, when Marantz amps are supposed to sound warmer than NAD amps, what creates that extra warmth? I find that my new Dali Ikon 5 MK2 speakers which are supposed to be very good and well integrated in the highs and mids also add a pleasing warmth to those mids when connected to my old NAD amp. More than I remember from my old Tannoy speakers which I got rid of years ago, and so have to go on memory.

 

[Chuck Nessa]

Aphex introduced the Aural Exciter before digital recording was a factor. It was meant to function in the analog world. I was introduced to it at Streeterville studios in Chicago in November of 1977 while we were recording Air Time. Streeterville claimed it was the first unit in Chicago.

[JSngry]

I'd like to know what the brain's wiring is as to the "why" that 2nd harmonic distortion pleases most ears. Is it something that somehow puts back an element of "reality" to a clinically recorded output? Because, think about it, really, there are very, very few live performing environments that are truly "quiet". There's always something going on.

The inference is that "most people" don't hear it as distortion per se, but as added "warmth" or "presence", which to me sounds like maybe fleshing out some of the "transparency", which kinda makes sense, because the most un-natural listening environment is in an isolated room with all outside and mechanical sounds eliminated. You just don't get that in live performance, any live performance.

Of course, if the live performance model is not the one being pursued by the recording and/or the playback, that's a whole different game.

[CJ Shearn]

In other words they're trying to make digital sound like LP. Interesting. 

Well, yes and no. Our ears find 2nd harmonic distortion to be rather pleasing for some reason. Adding a bit of that into the signal can create a sense of 'excitement'. It's why we still like vacuum tubes. But vinyl is an extremely limited medium, especially in the low-end. 

Exactly.

Second order harmonic distortion is pleasing to the ear. It's an argument I've tried to make in past conversations to no avail here. And it's the main reason why I find the "high resolving" argument when it comes to tubes and LP's so odd. Not to mention the fact that some folks get a little uppity when you mention the distortion that is introduced.

I personally prefer the cold, clean sound of digital. Not to mention the wider dynamic range. IIRC, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, vinyl is limited on both the lower and upper ends. 

 

I think you are right about that, Scott.  Vinyl being limited up at the top and bottom.  The distortion is what creates, the sense of "warmth", right? So I think when you read things at the Hoffman forums and here about people who like DCC and CD's like that being warm, they like that distortion being introduced.

Interesting. Is distortion always what creates the warmth, whatever stage it is introduced? Recording, mastering or playback through a certain amp or speakers?

Like, when Marantz amps are supposed to sound warmer than NAD amps, what creates that extra warmth? I find that my new Dali Ikon 5 MK2 speakers which are supposed to be very good and well integrated in the highs and mids also add a pleasing warmth to those mids when connected to my old NAD amp. More than I remember from my old Tannoy speakers which I got rid of years ago, and so have to go on memory.

 

Not sure erwbol, but what so many people say is harmonic distortion is what adds "warmth", what are the mechanics of that? IDK

[xybert]

I remember doing a class on why distortion sounds so good back when i was doing audio engineering. I'll see if i can dig out my notes when i get home. From memory isn't it just that harmonics sound good, and distortion is literally harmonics in to infinity so the ear finds it to be super 'interesting'? Like, harmonics sounds good, infinite harmonics is like pleasure overload. From memory it's all mathematical, and there is an aural difference between tube distortion and other because something something the harmonic sequence generated something something waveform something something everything in the universe is made up of vibrations and waveforms something something i'll wait till i get home to confirm. Sort of interested to see how good my recollection is.

[CJ Shearn]

I remember doing a class on why distortion sounds so good back when i was doing audio engineering. I'll see if i can dig out my notes when i get home. From memory isn't it just that harmonics sound good, and distortion is literally harmonics in to infinity so the ear finds it to be super 'interesting'? Like, harmonics sounds good, infinite harmonics is like pleasure overload. From memory it's all mathematical, and there is an aural difference between tube distortion and other because something something the harmonic sequence generated something something waveform something something everything in the universe is made up of vibrations and waveforms something something i'll wait till i get home to confirm. Sort of interested to see how good my recollection is.

Interesting.  So when there is a digital recording that sounds "cold", i.e....... an early digital recording, or say Tony Williams "Young At Heart", the first DSD recording released, is that because it's so clear and precise?

[xybert]

I remember doing a class on why distortion sounds so good back when i was doing audio engineering. I'll see if i can dig out my notes when i get home. From memory isn't it just that harmonics sound good, and distortion is literally harmonics in to infinity so the ear finds it to be super 'interesting'? Like, harmonics sounds good, infinite harmonics is like pleasure overload. From memory it's all mathematical, and there is an aural difference between tube distortion and other because something something the harmonic sequence generated something something waveform something something everything in the universe is made up of vibrations and waveforms something something i'll wait till i get home to confirm. Sort of interested to see how good my recollection is.

Interesting.  So when there is a digital recording that sounds "cold", i.e....... an early digital recording, or say Tony Williams "Young At Heart", the first DSD recording released, is that because it's so clear and precise?

To be honest i'm sort of riffing off in to 'why does distortion sound good?' land from a wider perspective, as in when you hit a note on a guitar that's running through a distortion pedal or being played through a tube amp more so than adding distortion to a recording via a plug in, although there is quite likely to be some common ground there (if it is indeed all related to frequencies and harmonics etc which are all numbers). Anyway, take what i'm saying well and truly with a grain of salt but i'll report back once i've dug out my notes.

 

[xybert]

Well, i went through my notes a bit. It's basically all on paper, a 'filing' box full of notebooks and ring-binders so unfortunately 'CTRL-F isn't an option. But i did find some interesting stuff. Not ideal but i just took photos because there's no way i'm retyping stuff that's probably of limited interest and slightly off topic anyway. Having said that, i found it interesting going through it all and i might sit down on the weekend and see if there's anything else worth sharing in there. I'm fascinated by how sound is made up of waveforms that have frequencies and it's all so perfectly, insanely mathematical and symmetrical and orderly. 

 

[Scott Dolan]

I remember doing a class on why distortion sounds so good back when i was doing audio engineering. I'll see if i can dig out my notes when i get home. From memory isn't it just that harmonics sound good, and distortion is literally harmonics in to infinity so the ear finds it to be super 'interesting'? Like, harmonics sounds good, infinite harmonics is like pleasure overload. From memory it's all mathematical, and there is an aural difference between tube distortion and other because something something the harmonic sequence generated something something waveform something something everything in the universe is made up of vibrations and waveforms something something i'll wait till i get home to confirm. Sort of interested to see how good my recollection is.

Interesting.  So when there is a digital recording that sounds "cold", i.e....... an early digital recording, or say Tony Williams "Young At Heart", the first DSD recording released, is that because it's so clear and precise?

That's the way I understand it. 

It doesn't have all that second order harmonic distortion which people associate with a "warm" sound. 

And yes, in comparison, digital does indeed sound "cold and clinical". Perhaps "overly precise" would be a way of stating it? And some folks don't like that. I do, but I'm in the minority around here, I believe. 

[CJ Shearn]

If the music is killing Scott, it doesn't matter to me either. Though there are people like that Michael Fremer guy who swears anything digital sucks, that's an attitude I can't get with.

[.:.impossible]

I'm listening to Street Of Dreams on CD tonight. I don't presume to know what's going on here, but I will say whatever harmonics are distorted, they are distorted to perfection. This CD always delivers that vibe.