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Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

wildergardenaudio.com

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Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

#1

Post by wildergarden »

I made MAIM, an open-source audio plugin that uses real MP3 encoders to distort the sound. I've also added knobs that let you "circuit bend" the encoders, changing parameters that would normally be inaccessible to the user to get strange glitchy sounds.

The plugin lets you switch between two MP3 encoders, since under the MP3 standard, the specifics of what to lose in MP3 lossy compression is left up to the encoder. The encoders are LAME, the gold standard for open-source MP3 encoders, and BladeEnc, an old open-source MP3 encoder that has a really bubbly sound and was fun to work with.

I'd love any feedback, and I'll be around to answer questions!

Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
wildergardenaudio.com

Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

#5

Post by TonyTrapp »

And if you want to undo all the destruction caused by this plugin: Check out Zynaptiq UNCHIRP :) (https://www.zynaptiq.com/unchirp/).

Obviously it cannot undo every single artifact caused by MP3 compression, but I was blown away by how much it can undo the bubbly, metallic artifacts of many older MP3s. If your single source for a sound that you absolutely need is an old, low-quality MP3 file, this thing can do wonders that I thought wouldn't be possible. It's quite expensive but if this is something you have to deal with regularly, it's quite worth the price.

Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

#6

Post by wildergarden »

TonyTrapp wrote: post #5

And if you want to undo all the destruction caused by this plugin: Check out Zynaptiq UNCHIRP :) ( https://www.zynaptiq.com/unchirp/ ). Obviously it cannot undo every single artifact caused by MP3 compression, but I was blown away by how much it can undo the bubbly, metallic artifacts of many older MP3s. If your single source for a sound that you absolutely need is an old, low-quality MP3 file, this thing can do wond…

Oh that's cool! I didn't know about that program. Now I wonder what compressing and UNCHIRPing a sound hundreds of times in a row would sound like....

Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

#8

Post by [deleted] »

TonyTrapp wrote: post #5

And if you want to undo all the destruction caused by this plugin: Check out Zynaptiq UNCHIRP :) ( https://www.zynaptiq.com/unchirp/ ). Obviously it cannot undo every single artifact caused by MP3 compression, but I was blown away by how much it can undo the bubbly, metallic artifacts of many older MP3s. If your single source for a sound that you absolutely need is an old, low-quality MP3 file, this thing can do wond…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds

#10

Post by bestham »

TonyTrapp wrote: post #5

And if you want to undo all the destruction caused by this plugin: Check out Zynaptiq UNCHIRP :) ( https://www.zynaptiq.com/unchirp/ ). Obviously it cannot undo every single artifact caused by MP3 compression, but I was blown away by how much it can undo the bubbly, metallic artifacts of many older MP3s. If your single source for a sound that you absolutely need is an old, low-quality MP3 file, this thing can do wond…

In the late 90s sometimes the mp3 files I got sounded awful and there was a little utility for windows named “uncook.exe” that would restore the original sound. It must have been because of some encoding error or mime error in the transfer to or from server. I was too young to know what it was but Uncook often worked to fix this.
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