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11th October 2006, 01:39 PM
| #1 |
| Gear addict  Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Melbourne
Posts: 413
| Creative Xmod mp3 "restorer" *worth it for a laugh* "Experience your MP3 music beyond studio quality" http://www.creative.com/products/pro...ct=15913&nav=0 Forget that Manley Massive Passive for mix bus just grab an XMod...    |
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11th October 2006, 02:30 PM
| #2 |
| Gear maniac  Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 267
| wow. the nerve that company has. from reading the text on the website, it seems that all it does it use a smiley face EQ ("by intelligently enhancing the highs and lows. You'll hear it all - crisp cymbal crashes, wailing guitar solos, screeching tires and deep, booming explosions"). just, wow. they must be on crack. |
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11th October 2006, 02:57 PM
| #3 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Worcester, MA
Posts: 902
| I just threw up..... 
__________________ Earthworks Slut, and Vendor  !And I put a Chaffing 5 post eq on the Choadometer. I loosened the meat wallet meter 2 db's on the jizload compressor and tipped the blond coiffer gig cut to an even feeder knob... |
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11th October 2006, 03:03 PM
| #4 |
| Gear addict  Join Date: May 2005 Location: Sweden
Posts: 438
| Hmm...I wonder what happens to the music if you: Compress it to mp3 -> Xmod it -> Compress it to mp3 -> Xmod it -> Compress it to mp3 -> Xmod it and so on... I bet it sounds bitching after a while!  |
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11th October 2006, 03:22 PM
| #5 |
| Gear nut  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: BFE
Posts: 100
| Xmod 24bit Crystalizer. I bet that it also has some type of dither in it. And who would want to boost the highs on a 128k mp3, they sound nasty enough as they are without exadurating the nasty cymbal distortion. I'm actually a little curious to hear it. |
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11th October 2006, 03:26 PM
| #6 |
| Gear nut Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: BFE
Posts: 100
| X-fi I did a little more research and found this: "The X-Fi Crystalizer identifies which areas of the audio file have been truncated or damaged during compression. Creative says the technology can "restore" the highs and lows of the music that otherwise would not have been audible." By saying that it identifies truncated frequencies, I wonder if it actually finds them, or if it just means all highs. |
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11th October 2006, 07:12 PM
| #7 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Nashville
Posts: 1,666
| The FCC should sue them for false advertising. Seriously. Their info is crap, and they should not be allowed to mislead consumers who may not know better.
__________________ Regards, Brian T |
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11th October 2006, 07:19 PM
| #8 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: tx
Posts: 8,819
| I don't believe this falls under the FCC's jurisdiction. Although I'm no lawyer. besides, it's the American way! |
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11th October 2006, 07:21 PM
| #9 |
| Gear Head  Join Date: May 2006 Location: Calif.
Posts: 67
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11th October 2006, 07:45 PM
| #10 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Annapolis, MD/L.A.
Posts: 3,612
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11th October 2006, 09:09 PM
| #11 |
| Gear interested  Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 25
| It's even more disgraceful considering that this is a company that has one foot in the music studio market, E-MU. That would be great to write E-mu tech support and inquire if they would suggest chaining this device w/ one of there audio interfaces to achieve greater than studio quality mixes. |
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11th October 2006, 09:38 PM
| #12 |
| Gear maniac Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 284
| is that the infamous suck knob? |
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11th October 2006, 09:43 PM
| #13 | |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 901
| Quote:
Maybe control is a better word? 
__________________ "You're going to AMPLIFY this crap?!?!?" | |
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12th October 2006, 01:23 AM
| #14 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Philadelphia, PA
Posts: 1,367
| That graph nearly made me piss myself. Too funny! |
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12th October 2006, 01:26 AM
| #15 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 901
| Check out the flash animation of it, and wonder at the marvel of the demonstrations as you hear MUSIC THAT IS 10 TIMES LOUDER SOUNDS BETTER! http://www.x-fi.com/whatis/
__________________ "You're going to AMPLIFY this crap?!?!?" |
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12th October 2006, 04:09 AM
| #16 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Cleveland, OH
Posts: 2,397
| The best part of that demo was listening to the "crystalizer" part. If you do a volume adjustment between the "x-fi off" and "x-fi on" portions so that the volume remains the same, the difference seems to be a bit of eq but not by much. Totally weak.
__________________ Joshua Aaron President/Chief Engineer AudioLot/AudioLot Studios High End Pro Audio Sales & Consulting Recording/Music Production/Mixing http://www.audiolot.com |
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12th October 2006, 07:33 PM
| #17 |
| Gear addict  Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Kits Beach
Posts: 375
| Is this not just the latest "aural exciter"? |
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13th October 2006, 12:43 AM
| #18 |
| Gear nut Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: BFE
Posts: 100
| Xmod I thought People might like hearing this. When they say beyond studio quality, they mean that it adds to the listening experience, the device has nothing to do with the actual audio quality. It's from the Creative FAQ page. What do you mean by an experience beyond studio quality? Music is about the experience. Studio sound quality is always better than a 'live' performance, but it cannot compare to the experience at a 'live' performance. X-Fi enhances your overall music experience. Using its breakthrough technology to restore all the details and vibrance in your music, you'll hear ambient sounds appearing all around you, and voices will be centred in front of you. It's as though you're sitting in with your favourite band or sitting at the best seat in the movie theatre. Log on to X-Fi.com to experience X-Fi. You have to hear it to believe it. But how does X-Fi technology compare to formats like lossless AAC -which claim to have virtual studio-grade sound quality? "Lossless MP3" is described as a data compression algorithm that retains all the information, allowing it to be recovered perfectly by decompression. In other words, lossless MP3 is at best only CD-quality sound, and it does not give you any form of surround sound technology. X-Fi technology gives you surround sound and re-masters details that were lost during compression. |
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13th October 2006, 01:40 AM
| #19 |
| Gear addict Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Melbourne
Posts: 413
| the only way this thing could make mp3's sound "better" is by releasing LSD vapour into the air...  |
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13th October 2006, 02:13 AM
| #20 | |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: London
Posts: 4,796
 | Quote:
They could have called it an EQ preset box- but this is soo much more impressive to a certain customer. I can't wait to see a client bring one in and insisting I use it. I am going to keep a broken bottle near my console as an auto-responder when it happens. I think I am equally shocked and impressed by this lil bit of marketing slight of hand. Caveat Emptor I guess.
__________________ Regards, Jim Richmond "I don't go to mythical places with strange men." Douglas Adams Last edited by octatonic; 13th October 2006 at 02:19 AM.. Reason: confuses my axis-es-es | |
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13th October 2006, 10:06 AM
| #21 |
| Gear addict Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Melbourne
Posts: 413
| my mate is a pisser:  |
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13th October 2006, 10:17 AM
| #22 |
| Gear maniac  Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 183
| Perhaps it's not only an EQ, but also an (limited band?) reverb and expander? Volker |
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13th October 2006, 02:08 PM
| #23 | |
| Gear nut  Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 98
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__________________ "Rockstars. Is there anything they don't know?" -Homer | |
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15th October 2006, 09:13 PM
| #24 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: May 2006 Location: Brea Ca,
Posts: 5,373
| just think, some chunt made a mint selling pet rocks. people give money so they can go to heaven. people pay 5 bucks all the time for a shitty cup of joe |
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17th October 2006, 09:11 AM
| #25 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 682
| I checked out the 3d virtual too. it sounds like it adds some reverb and makes it louder. Personally, I did't think the 24-bit crystallizer was subtle at all. In addition to making it louder, it does and exceptionally good job of highlighting all of those awful high end mp3 artifacts. (It would probably do an even better job if I listened to it on something other than crappy earbuds, b ut I'm scared to try.) |
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17th October 2006, 12:22 PM
| #26 | |
| Gear Guru  Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Uterèg statsie woar!
Posts: 11,061
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17th October 2006, 11:50 PM
| #27 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 1,165
| I was just about to post this! Man...that product is just ridiculous.
__________________ "Some of you people just plain don't know s---. No offense." -theblue1 "Tell us if it looks like it will sound good." -RKrizman "The many truths we cling to depend greatly on our point of view." -Obi-Wan Kenobi |
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18th October 2006, 12:10 AM
| #28 |
| Lives for gear  Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 5,791
| Wotta bunch of sleazy SOBs. What lies! What gall! What this country needs is truth-in-advertising laws with teeth. I have to say that my first soundcard was a "stereo 16 bit" Soundblaster Pro from Creative. That was a little misleading -- as it could do EITHER stereo OR 16 bit... but not both at once. (Stereo was 8 bit. No kidding.) They transcended a bit with the Soundblaster Live with its built in SoundFont DSP... for the money -- I bought a couple for $40 [OEM] while they were still being made -- they were great. (Not necessarily silky converters, mind you, but the SF DSP was like having a very flexible sampler built into your computer. I used one for synth work with several decent audio cards and it was great.) Of course, that was probably ALL EMU technology, who they'd then recently bought (SoundFonts were definitely EMU tech, of course.) But then I turned around and was going to pick up an early Audigy as an everyday card for a box I was building. It was marked with big stickers with the then-current buzz features: 24/96... what I almost didn't find out until it was too late was that the 24/96 was PLAYBACK ONLY!!! (Tiny, tiny print on the side of the box gave a CLUE... I went home and finally found the info: AD was still limited to 48 kHz [don't recall the bit depth.] Sleazy SOBs... |
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18th October 2006, 06:47 PM
| #29 | |
| Gear addict  Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Midwest
Posts: 492
| Quote:
__________________ --------------------------------------------------------------- Chad Jacobsen Check out my blog at: www.cheshireomnimedia.com/blog/ | |
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19th October 2006, 10:08 PM
| #30 |
| Lives for gear Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 686
| Anyhow, where is Dave Rossum nowdays? After being bought out by Creative Labs, EMU was enslaved had had to use their fundi power to developed overpowered dsp's for the SB Live! range that had crap drivers and software written by the Singapore R&D team that only ever used something like 23% of the dsp horsepower. Even the EAX “positional” Reverb that was way ahead of it’s time used only ever used about a quarter of the dsp’s resources. They had some really great stuff going on there with guys like Dave Rossum. But to Creative the MI industry was never worth it they figured they could capture the mass market with gold plated mini jack products. It's only ever been abouit expensive packaging and marketing for Creative. Maybe their is a bit of Fundi Magic in that there thingymagoofmagaf!  Or has Dave Rossum left the room? |
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