Originally Posted By: Antho1965
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

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