Well, what's in a title.
[many typos will be in here. Sorry for that ! (did not look back)]
Right. I realize that this will be the most confusing ever, and one could say that all is my fault. What ? well, let's start here :
And then there was W7 SP1 (RC) ...We all know that one. And the one *that one* refers to :
We all fell in the W7 pitfall... and the one that one again refers to. What a roar did I create. And before proceeding, let me be clear that I stand behind everything I ever came up with, while at the same time I don't think there was anyone who did not agree with it.
But times change, and it is thus time for a change once again. A change back into the black hole of Windows 7.
If we go back to December 2009, we had "a" version of XXHighEnd; we started hopping over to the new Windows 2007, and I got a kind of crazy of following the twirks of W7. We didn't have Kernel Streaming (which came only one month after that), and while the SSDs were -not- spinning by many at that time, people came up with RAM Disks and stuff. We all compared with Vista, with/without RAMDisk, and all we tried was letting Windows 7 sound and behave right, and in the middle of that process someone came about with the Release Candidate of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7.
Still in the middle of RAMDisk mess and stuff (people might still be in there, but I am not - which may be of some importance), we all (yes, all) hopped over to that W7 SP1 RC, and where happy again. The RC was not my idea, but I too fully agreed with it.
Later, much later, I could eliminate the SSD, and not long after that the RAMDisk. In my view it was for the worse, and no theories existed in my mind that could let these tweaks make music sound better. And they did not in the end.
The latter came together (of course no coincidence) when XXHighEnd eliminated way more from the OS than it could earlier on. I am not sure when this exactly was, but let's say the end of 2010. It is not that much important, and the only thing which is, is that nobody was using the raw Windows 7. Maybe outside our forum, but not within that I know of.
For some it went not 100% for the better, who applied the official Release To Manufacturing (RTM) version of SP1. This will have been March 2011 and later. Sound degraded somewhat for them, but it would be fair to say that the by then improvements within XXHighEnd compensated for that sufficiently.
Last week, towards the end of August, people still with the RC version started to notice a running clock about the end of the RC being active. Yes, that count down was running on my system as well, and a nice topic was spent on it.
Today, September 1 2011, it is likely that everybody uninstalled his RC (no upgrade was possible), and since it is free, they installed the official RTM. Although it is soon, a few noise was heard about it not sounding for the better.
So what is next ?
People who closely followed the sequence of happenings implied by my posts (and did not bother about the particilar content), may have made the combination already. I have been very explicit about it, but did not make the combination myself on purpose. I was too excited to make it a one liner as OffTopic in some other topic, and moreover I had to test more.
As so often, it has been a sheer coincidence that I found out, because what I will be talking about next, sure is not audible in every music;
I must WARN you that at this time you may not be able to perceive it at all, because my situation is too special. The main subject regadring this will be 0.9z-6 I am using, which again eliminates more of the OS, if not all there is. This IS important, and the reason for the longer lead in (about similar stuff).
To make a short story long, day before yesterday it was playback time as it is everyday, and I started to look for something to play. I looked for some compilation album which is called something like US ever greates hits, and of which I know it must be somewhere because I played it once (this is 3 or 4 volumes), but in a year's time I never could find it. Day before yesterday I took some time for it (and this is about really good sounding end 60's into 70's original recording greatest US hits), and ended up with searching for "U.S" in order to find it (ehm, within over 25000 albums). Of course it again lead to nothing, but this is how a stumbled upon Klaus Schulze's volume nr. 4 within the Contempory Works I talked about elsewhere (that volume being called U.S.O. I think).
Now you must now that ever back I liked Klaus Schulze very much. Many more of these artist I liked at the time, which is merely about the ever recurring same beat throughout a track, with Jean Michel Jarre as the worst, so to speak. However, since I went into the computer (playback) age, it went history; All I had on DAT tape by that time, stayed on there, and all I could do was reobtaining that from (music) libraries, and what I got was the stuff which slipped into my mind, or I couldn't get it otherwise. Btw, I only currently found that all what I seemed to have banned from my mind was the progressive rock stuff; so many of that exists, and somehow I couldn't think of that anymore.
Up till a few days back the Schulze's et all didn't make in in my system, if I ever got to trying one at all. They do not exhibit the interesting synth sounds from modern artists, and on this matter I often refer to Ott, Shpongle, Shulman and a few others, which just as well can be called Bluetech sound, although I kind of make that up myself (him being such a "Goa" artist himself, always around as a producer or something). This is not at all about the type of music for me, but merely about the sounds it can exhibit, which is excellent on the NOS1, and totally fails on normal DACs. It's test stuff for me, but in the mean time most often about 10 minute all-the-same-beat tracks. Schulze does not fit in there (let alone Vangelis and so many others from back then).
Until day before yesterday.
Yes, I think it is allowed to have so much babble before coming to the matters, because it is the craziest change I ever experienced. The change seems to be larger than going from any oldest XXHighEnd version to a current, or going from an Audio Note OS DAC to the NOS1-USB for that matter.
So now at least you know the degree of change I'm talking about. I rate it 5 times better than it was. Not 10% or 30% a new XX version can imply for, but 5 times (ok, I said similar about the original NOS1 to the NOS1-USB).
Ready ?
Yesterday I tried to play both Schulze albums again (in the end this was about Vol.4 as well as Vol.3). This, as part of the testing I had to apply, after listening to both albums the day before.
It sounded like totally unbalanced sh*t; sub low was in there (I use sub woofers), and furthermore there was exceptionally high output which I didn't like at all because so much out of balance. Somewhere a higher mid was way profound, and the guitar like stuff from the last track of Vol.4 was shouting towards me all over. The higher bass was totally not there. Nothing, zilch.
Of course I am telling the story upside down, which is only possible because I knew the reference. This was how I heard the albums the day before. Anyway, this time (yesterday) all I would do is finding another album as quick as I could, hoping for a better balance/sound. See ? Schulze can't do it these days.
But I did nothing of the kind. I tried all the tracks of both albums at least briefly (that totals something like 7 tracks anyway), in order to be sure to ...
uninstall SP1 RTM.
And when that was done 10 minutes later it immediately worked as the day before, and I listened to one of the albums AGAIN, just because it is so great. Ah, maybe not the album(s), but the sound coming from it. Tot-tal-ly unheard (by me).
There is completely no way that any highs can sound harsh. They are just overwhelmed by this SUPER upper bass coming from it. Actually by everything coming from it.
If I had to describe this by one word I sure word say : UMPF.
But I'm not sure this is understandable in the englisg language. Dutch/German certainly will understand, as it is even official audio language. It means that every attack is preceeded by a longer envelope of the deeper tones actually being there. Like a rolling thunder ending up in the bigger smash when it is close to you. It is in everything.
Maybe now it becomes more clear how I experienced the best bass drum ever (I talked about this elsewhere). So, whether a real bass drum, a sampled one or a sheer synthesized one, man, I can't explain this. All the roar, the deep founded tones, the develop to whatever it is to be in the end.
I can tell you, the "BlueTech" rototoms (this is a certain kind of tom drum which the fastest attack possible) ... I noticed them day before yesterday like "huh ?!? him too ??", while yesterday during the "bad test" they were not there AT ALL. Like it being a complete different track. Later, within the "good test" again, they sure were there.
Here we again have one of your nice mysteries, because when I listen to e.g. Shpongle with the very same means of breaks by rototoms, I don't see the difference. It is the most characterization of that type of music, and now suddenly Schulze (what is it, 2001 ?) uses the very same in the very same fasion. I never noticed it, nor did I in the "bad test" (while knowing already they were there !).
All is about the balance. It is as different as you will be able to imagine, and it is one of these situations that I can't ever imagine that both versions are bit perfect. Still they are, or something else must be tricking me. It seems impossible anyway.
I can tell you, assuming you will be able to experience the same as I do for the difference, if you had the money you would shell out 200K euro instantly.
But this is for free.
Ah, wait. You are not sure what I exactly did, right ?
Well, I just told it, but the combination looks unsure. Ok, here we go with the normal sequence :
1. Had to uninstall W7 SP1 RC because it expired;
2. While I was rid of it anyway, somehow I had the urge to listen to it. So I did. Stood there for 2.5 hours with open mouth.
3. Installed SP1 RTM for further testing. So bad that I really would have shut it of and go on.
Ad 2.
We must notice here that RC always has sounded good to our ears. However, the experience form now means that it can be way way better again. I would *not* have noticed or do anything about the bad sound coming from RC, because it just sounded like a sh*tty album of which there are more these days - weren't it for me listening to W7 Vanilla.
Ad 3.
I can't be sure about to what degree RTM sounds worse than RC. I didn't test it, and I guess it will never happen anymore. Oh, I could install RTM again and listen to my regular (test)stuff and see how it is changed compared to RC. But then I must be very fast, because all I know now is that I want to listen to W7 vanilla.
It won't happen.
This Vol.3 album contains a 45 minute track of constant pondering of the most interesting basses I have ever experienced. Some rave about my bass, and I did too. Well, worth nothing compared to this. Space ships, left to right raging walls of sound. Smashing windows a la Mike Oldfield's Amarok in the middle. ROAR. Still 45 minutes of the same melody and rythm. I don't want such a track to end. Still they do. But wait, there's 13 more volumes in this Work. Haha.
I can't rave more. Can't write more long-threaded either. Well, I want it to be a story. More important than any NOS1 maybe, although I feel it will be related; read : maybe for someone without an NOS1 no differences are to be heard.
One thing seems clear to me : this must be about what we did ourselves to tweak the OS first. It was per se NOT so that RC sounded so bad compared to vanilla. Nothing will have changed to that, but WE changed. We got new XX versions, with my own 0.9z-6 to the extreme of that.
What I recall foremost, is that at the decision between Vista, W7 and W7 SP1 RC there were talks about deeper bass. Well, by now we can bet this was the W7 vanilla showing the best bass, the rest of it being wrong (up to distorted sound I recall). For sure W7 carried better bass than Vista, and most probably with RC some of it vanished again. SOME ? man, all of it. I know now. But it is not the low end of that. It sits higher.
I can not imagine that nothing will be perceived from this when using 0.9z-5-2. I say : go for it. Uninstall SP1 and judge. But careful, because it doesn't show in all music, and at this time I don't know where to look for, unless it is about these specific albums. Or some of the Goa stuff I tried by now, because it really makes a synth roar (and like I'm used to it from ever back btw). Watch for the fundament of things. Could be about the sound of a violin, while now suddenly the cabinet speaks (more).
Ah, I forgot to tell, and it could be the most important of it all :
I never heard something sounding more analogue than these Schulze albums.
Can you imagine ?
But then Moog synthesizers are analogue devices ...
Peter
