Wasn't expecting to like the actual sound of it, could be used to modulate game in music, for example, when approaching a club with music playing
Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#12And 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.
I think this used to happen when files were transferred as plain text rather than binary, but I forget which transfer protocol was affected - maybe FTP?
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#13This is really cool, and perfect for an aughts-throwback music project I've been chewing on. Thanks!
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#14Hey, I'm a long-time music producer and I'm dying to get into this exact kind of work - writing plugins and eventually synthesizers from scratch.
I'm curious what your path was to get to the point where you can write an audio plug-in from scratch - I noticed you're using the JUCE framework, and that's about as far as I got and I never really escaped tutorial hell.
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I think this used to happen when files were transferred as plain text rather than binary, but I forget which transfer protocol was affected - maybe FTP?
>> uncook.exe is a utility to remove line feeds from the mp3 file. Line feeds can be inserted when web sites are not configured properly to serve mp3 files. So Netscape (the browser which actually pays attention to such things as server configuration), can download mp3's as text files.
https://hydrogenaud.io/index.php?topic=736.msg6877#msg6877
>> How many times does it happen? You click a link to an mp3 file while using Netscape, and before you know it the mp3 file starts loading itself like a text file in Netscape. Either that, or you shift+click on a mp3 file then put save to disk. You goto play it after it downloads, and in no time you are disappointed that it sounds like plain screwed up shit, like you are under water, or you are listening to the lead singer of Type O Negative gargleing on a glass of kool-aid!!! Well with this new fix program that Blex has found out there on the net, I will guide you though fixing this irritating problem!!!
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#16Hey, I'm a long-time music producer and I'm dying to get into this exact kind of work - writing plugins and eventually synthesizers from scratch. I'm curious what your path was to get to the point where you can write an audio plug-in from scratch - I noticed you're using the JUCE framework, and that's about as far as I got and I never really escaped tutorial hell.
Hi there, I’m in a similar situation!! Would like to write my own things at some point.
For me I’ve looked at using the new Max VST compiler https://cycling74.com/products/rnbo
Great for prototyping ideas.
There is also native instruments Reaktor which is also awesome for low level dsp prototyping. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synt...
These tools are for creating the algorithms before programming them in text.
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#17Hey, I'm a long-time music producer and I'm dying to get into this exact kind of work - writing plugins and eventually synthesizers from scratch. I'm curious what your path was to get to the point where you can write an audio plug-in from scratch - I noticed you're using the JUCE framework, and that's about as far as I got and I never really escaped tutorial hell.
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Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#18Why are you doing this to me? I feel old enough already!
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#19Looks similar in spirit to Goodhertz' Lossy plugin [1], described as:
"The infinitely desirable sound of crappy mp3’s, broken cellphones, streaming videos, and much more."
I think Lossy approaches the same idea from a more artistic angle in contrast to MAIM which comes to a similar end from a more technical direction.
Coming from the 8-bit generation I find it interesting and refreshing that the younger generation seems to leave the harsh sound of the bit crusher behind and brings more sophistication into digital degradation. It's no surprise, of course, because low quality lossy compression is what they grew up with, in contrast to 4-bit 4 kHz bit banged crash, my generation would consider lo-fi.
Another plugin that is similar in spirit in the sense that it goes beyond simple downsampling to make things retro is AudioThing's Speakers. It has convolution samples from many old devices like the Gameboy or several old phones. I think it would be the perfect companion to listen to MP3 degraded sound with a speaker from your past.
[1] https://goodhertz.com/lossy/
[2] https://www.audiothing.net/effects/speakers/
I'm not affiliated with any of the companies mentioned. These are just plugins from my collection that came to my mind. Usually I do not post links to paid products at all, but I also think the VST plugin space is somewhat special in that it seems to allow many small companies to exist (maybe even prosper?), which is rare today, so I made an exception here.
Re: Show HN: Audio plugin for circuit-bent MP3 compression sounds
#20Looks similar in spirit to Goodhertz' Lossy plugin [1], described as: "The infinitely desirable sound of crappy mp3’s, broken cellphones, streaming videos, and much more." I think Lossy approaches the same idea from a more artistic angle in contrast to MAIM which comes to a similar end from a more technical direction. Coming from the 8-bit generation I find it interesting and refreshing that the younger generation se…
Yes, absolutely! Lossy was one of my main inspirations in coding MAIM, and I would recommend their plugin highly: it sounds beautiful, although it is perhaps a bit less "accurate," since it does not use real MP3 encoders.