I have purchased the 2015 Ultra Pak Plus...and the 2016 upgrade after.
However I was told that I should have bought the Audiophile version from a friend as the quality of the tracks are better.
Can someone confirm this for me, and what is the bitrate or quality difference?
I am noticing some tracks have a bit of a odd sound like a gloss or and overtone that happens when playing them. Not all but some, and I am playing the song at a very close to or exactly on the suggested tempo.
Tony, this comes up frequently and you should be able to find plenty of opinion in posts within the last two years. Some instruments show compression artifacts more than others. You need good equipment, a good listening environment and good ears to hear the differences. If you are producing commercial recordings, the audiophile version makes a difference.
The 'regular' version uses .WMA files. I don't know the specs but they seem to me to be comparable to a 198 MP3. The compression is about 11 to 1. The audiophile version uses files of 44.1, 16-bit, or in other words CD quality.
Regardless of audiophile or not, the farther you stray from recommended tempo and the Elastique algorithm works harder, the more you risk hearing artifacts. Also, try unchecking some of the speed-up options in Preferences, RealTracks. I have a fast i7 and I even turn some off to get the best quality I can.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
Preferences, RealTracks. There are several over on the right. I'm not at a BIAB computer but you should see them. One says use +/- and one says Fast Generation, something like that. The Help for that dialog tells you how to check/uncheck the options.
By the way, the audiophile version runs slightly faster, which might not sound intuitive. The program doesn't have to first uncompress the .WMA files.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
my suggestion is its only really needed if you are a pro audio person but if your someone who is like me who is a hobbyist the standard version is just fine i got the 2015 megapak for a nice deal on ebay last year and it qualified me for a nice 159 buck upgrade (us) to the ultrapak with harddrive. so i will be happy with that for sure :-).
if you are really really picky with audio quality and have the money to spare no harm in the uncompressed version but i would guess for the average user the cost vs performance would not really big a problem.
I have purchased the 2015 Ultra Pak Plus...and the 2016 upgrade after.
However I was told that I should have bought the Audiophile version from a friend as the quality of the tracks are better.
Can someone confirm this for me, and what is the bitrate or quality difference?
I am noticing some tracks have a bit of a odd sound like a gloss or and overtone that happens when playing them. Not all but some, and I am playing the song at a very close to or exactly on the suggested tempo.
The audiophile version uses waves, whereas the "normal" version uses a slightly compressed format....WMA
There is very little noticeable loss in sound quality between them. The main reason to use the WMA is the space savings for the hard drive.
I've had the normal version for many years. It's a good sounding piece of software. I have had music placed in film and TV that was created using the WMA files in BB/RB... so the quality achievable is broadcast ready.
The odd sound..... you called it "gloss or overtone".... can come from a few things.
1. It can be in the original recorded sound if the recording wasn't done perfectly.
2. You can get artifacts from tempo changes from the original recorded tempo if the tempo is changed. The more the tempo changes, the more likely you are to get artifacts. You also have a pitch change happening. If the original file was in the key of C and you are playing it in any other key, it has to be transposed. This is the reason the real tracks are recorded several times and in various keys. However, they are not recorded in every possible key.... they have steps between them. So if the song is not in the same key, it has to be transposed to the key you are using. The further the transpose needs to be, again, the more likely you are to get artifacts.
Combine the artifacts from the pitch and the tempo, throw in the fact that perhaps the recording itself wasn't all that good to start with and you have a really bad sounding track. I've had this happen on several projects. My solution was to use a different track, and in some cases, switch to a different instrument. Yes.... you can easily switch from one bad sounding acoustic piano to a different one that sounds amazing.
I notice this more often with the more complex sounding things like acoustic pianos and acoustic guitars.
Hope that helps a bit
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
It should do one or the other, as long as you are keeping close to the recommended tempo. And Herb is correct that rarely noises make it onto the original recording, so we report that to PG Music and they issue an update.
One other thing. Noise in a mix is cumulative. If you have a little noise on each track, but add many tracks, you may begin to notice it more.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
You might also want to check if the BiaB reverb module is set on and what the settings are. I render everything completely dry and there is assuredly a difference in the sound. It "might" account for some of what you are hearing.
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.... Be aware, the annual upgrade price will be more.
I think a lot of people might "upgrade" to the Audiophile version if there was a reasonable way to do your annual upgrades. Seems odd to have to re-purchase all your previously purchased wave files every year, not so bad on the USB drive price. They could release the new Audiophile Waves & program updates on a similar USB drive (let the end user do the transfereing to where ever they store their samples). I guess they make more from those with the Audiophile version forking out each year otherwise they would probably do that.
Remember, the Audiophile version also requires more space (a bigger drive). I think this year the Audiophile Hard Drive has USB3 capabilities, making it faster too.
There's more than meets the eye at first.
Plus the time to produce, the bandwidth for downloads .. they are more expensive to maintain all around.
I get your point, just wanted to point out a couple aspects you may not have considered. I just checked; it almost costs the same to upgrade the UltraPlusPak (WMA) version as the Audiophile (depending on years of previous version) .. doesn't seem too unfair to me. It actually costs more to upgrade the everythingPak (also WMA).
Last edited by rharv; 06/21/1611:55 AM.
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
Thanks for posting the prices rharv. My recollection was that it was pretty good value to upgrade to the audiophile version this last release. Has the price dropped over the years? It seems to me that this version is getting more economical every new release.
I think they run special pricing for a limited time when they bring out new releases. I paid $199 each year for the past few years to upgrade Audiophile to Audiophile.
I also paid $199 to upgrade from Everything Pak to Audiophile. Probably while it was on special, but that's also a few years ago.
Last edited by VideoTrack; 06/21/1609:34 PM. Reason: Added everything pak upgrade info
BIAB & RB2026 Win.(Audiophile), Windows 10 Pro & Windows 11, Cakewalk Bandlab, Izotope Prod.Bundle, Roland RD-1000, Synthogy Ivory, Session Keys Grand S & Electric R, Kontakt, Focusrite 18i20, KetronSD2, NS40M, Pioneer Active Monitors.
Thanks Rharv. I didn't realize it is quite reasonable when compared to the the Ultra, which I get every year. Once you pay for the first upgrade to the audiophile it's not that much difference. Think I might look at doing that upgrade next time there is a new edition released.
This is my first year of using the Audiophile edition. I like it a lot. While the difference doesn't seem hugely noticeable, there's an extra clarity and fullness of sound that comes from having the original wav files. I've found it particularly so when using Ozone for professionalising the sound of the final mix.
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