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Dare to compare!A funny thing about demo pages; about a year ago when Microsoft put up a demo page trumpeting how the newly released WMA 8 beat Real 8 in 64kbps quality, they included a number of samples purportedly demonstrating that WMA was now clearly superior. I read the page at that time, shook my head and thought to myself, "Poor Real. Microsoft finally caught them." I didn't even listen to the samples, but I left the page with a clear idea in my head that WMA 8 really was better than Real. Low bitrate codec roundupOgg Vorbis's full CD-format low bitrate performance is our proudest point in this release. In this test we round up seven of the most popular encoders in use today, including Vorbis, in a 64kbps free-for-all. Vorbis's sharp attacks, full dynamics, crisp, stable treble and above all reliable quality across the length of sample are things to listen for.There are two Ogg samples in this test; Ogg always performs best in its native VBR mode. CBR and ABR are lower quality techniques, but useful for streaming. Therefore, a 'streaming grade' version of the Ogg sample is also included, which sacrifices some quality for strict bitrate control (it is also the lowest bitrate sample in the test).
Track: #41 - Dave Matthews Band Sample; download original here
Music collection: test of the Heavy HittersThis test consists of two compilation samples that include a varied selection of music and percussion. About half of the clips included are from Microsoft's own WMA demos, a few come from high-fidelity digital demonstration sources and some are from Xiph.Org's codec tuning selection. The demo below is at mid (~128kbps) and low (~64kbps) bitrates.We chose this longer test from a smaller set of the most popular 'cutting edge' formats today, Ogg, MP3, WMA and MP3Pro.
Track: Compilation.wav; download original here
Track: Compilation2.wav; download original here
The original Dare To Compare: Low and Lower BitrateGetting back to that original, vaguely odd WMA8 vs. Real demonstration. Completely aside from the fact that it contradicted all the carefully polished ad-speak surrounding it, one thing was obviously seriously wrong with it... Ogg wasn't included! It's vaguely like holding a political debate without inviting the ruling party.In the spirit of correcting this grave omission, we offer the original WMA and RM audio samples from that test, along with Ogg at matching bitrates. To be perfectly honest, these samples are relatively very easy to compress, probably explaining why Microsoft chose them. The samples from the above demos are more realistic tests of a general pupose codec. Regardless, we now present, "The Original Dare To Compare, now with 100% More Ogg Goodness" pre-decompressed WAV files provided for folks who want to compare without installing a hundred decoders.
There's so much more to rave on and on about! For example, the only low bitrate comparisons we've done so far have been at CD rate 44.1kHz (except where the competition couldn't keep up and had to downsample). As of this release, Ogg also supports a number of modem-rate audio modes... all the way down to 8kbps mono and 12kbps stereo. However, this test page is getting long; we'll leave lower sample rate testing and comparison as an exercise for the reader. The motivated listener may also wish to sample FNR (#fnr on irc.freenode.net) which streams at mid and modem bitrates exclusively in Vorbis. Thanks for reading and listening!
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