MQA is Vaporware

[James lee]

" Since been removed "

Keep going.

[Currawong]

I'm going to speculate that MQA assumed that they'd start earning serious money, enough that they could employ and train people to do the mastering of the albums for them, which were prepared using the DAW/VST plug-in. 

The strong skeptic in me thinks that they were going to do this to hide the simplicity of what actual mastering was going on -- ie: it was nothing that needs the MQA encoding to work. Given how, say, The Beatles' White Album sounds in MQA, with quieter sounds being slightly louder, I really think it wasn't a heck of a lot more than carefully managed compression to enhance the quieter sounds. I do recall a post by someone who quoted an unknown recording engineer who had listened to MQA masters, and speculated from experience what had actually been done to create them. 

Back to the MQA group, they were losing money hand-over-fist and had to earn something quick, so went with batch encoding on TIDAL to try and get some traction. 
The only purpose of the remastering, really, was so that MQA files sounded different to the originals, as if they hadn't, the audiophiles who were attracted to the format would have just called BS on it as almost everyone in the professional world did. The re-mastering didn't require the MQA encoding, and the MQA encoding didn't require the mastering. 
 

[Fx Studio]

32 minutes ago, Currawong said:

I'm going to speculate that MQA assumed that they'd start earning serious money, enough that they could employ and train people to do the mastering of the albums for them, which were prepared using the DAW/VST plug-in. 

The strong skeptic in me thinks that they were going to do this to hide the simplicity of what actual mastering was going on -- ie: it was nothing that needs the MQA encoding to work. Given how, say, The Beatles' White Album sounds in MQA, with quieter sounds being slightly louder, I really think it wasn't a heck of a lot more than carefully managed compression to enhance the quieter sounds. I do recall a post by someone who quoted an unknown recording engineer who had listened to MQA masters, and speculated from experience what had actually been done to create them. 

Back to the MQA group, they were losing money hand-over-fist and had to earn something quick, so went with batch encoding on TIDAL to try and get some traction. 
The only purpose of the remastering, really, was so that MQA files sounded different to the originals, as if they hadn't, the audiophiles who were attracted to the format would have just called BS on it as almost everyone in the professional world did. The re-mastering didn't require the MQA encoding, and the MQA encoding didn't require the mastering. 
 

 

It may have been the initial intension to set up a facility to process and create the MQA's and retain control, but it seems like its the record companies who ended up doing the batch creation horrors. Its like the re-run of the SACD fiasco, where some were goodish, and some were just bit for bit copies of CD's. Meat Loaf's (Bat out of Hell) never sounded better on SACD - believe me on that one!

 

 

[Fx Studio]

3 hours ago, James lee said:

There is no VST MQA plugin.

Prove me wrong.

 

Way Back Machine is your friend - from 2016

[Fx Studio]

 

3 hours ago, James lee said:

" Since been removed "

Keep going.

 

So what I said before is exactly correct to what was on there website in 2016, but inaccessible from 2017.

 

 

 

[JoeWhip]

FX Studio, me thinks you are working too hard here. Give it a rest, enjoy your life.

[firedog]

35 minutes ago, JoeWhip said:

FX Studio, me thinks you are working too hard here. Give it a rest, enjoy your life.

Why should he? "There are people on the internet forums who don't know what they're talking about". He's apparently the worlds greatest expert - he knows more about it than Bob Stuart - so he must correct them. 

[Fx Studio]

1 hour ago, JoeWhip said:

FX Studio, me thinks you are working too hard here. Give it a rest, enjoy your life.

The response when you guys have been found to be embarrassingly wrong again!   LoL

 

Remind me again for how long you guys have been pushing "there is zero evidence that a plugin exists" line?  

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, Fx Studio said:

 

 

So what I said before is exactly correct to what was on there website in 2016, but inaccessible from 2017.

 

 

 

Read it on the internet. It must be true. 
 

- Abe Lincoln 

[JoeWhip]

20 minutes ago, Fx Studio said:

The response when you guys have been found to be embarrassingly wrong again!   LoL

 

Remind me again for how long you've been pushing "there is zero evidence that a plugin exists" line?  

I have have never claimed that as I do not know. Unlike you, I don’t comment on things I know nothing about. You are the flat earther of audio doing your own research. I have heard MQA. Didn’t like what it did to tge sound of tge recording, over and over again. The market has spoken. It is all but dead. Doesn’t matter what you and Mr. Veth do. You two are just tilting at windmills. 
 

 

[JoeWhip]

9 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

Read it on the internet. It must be true. 
 

- Abe Lincoln 

I may be wrong but I think it was Ben Franklin who said it after he got the iPad prototype.

[DuckToller]

So @Fx Studio joined AS at the 30st of August, in order to prove the thread poster here wrong.

After 12 days and 70+ posts he is so, so happy that he can prove via WBM screenshot that MQA was talking about a MQA mastering plug-in in 2016, which has an FAQ that does not say it does do that and that, but it WILL do that and that.
 

However, this plug-in or it's future incarnation (after 2016), as far as I could follow him, is the reason why certain pieces of music to him and his ears sound so much better in a big room and a big system than anything else, even as the original masters.
 

Bingo, another BS incarnation has shown us our own naive fallacy and the greater than life existence of BS' superior approach for mankind.

He's the man ... to re-use a Joe Jackson quote ...

[Daccord]

1 hour ago, JoeWhip said:

FX Studio, me thinks you are working too hard here. Give it a rest, enjoy your life.

 

He's having a very enjoyable time winding you guys up with the usual BS.

[botrytis]

34 minutes ago, Daccord said:

 

He's having a very enjoyable time winding you guys up with the usual BS.

 

Actually, there are people that actually are like this, and the Dunning-Kruger effect is all it is.

 

I mean Peter Veith is one.

[JoeWhip]

Yes, FX Studio for top left.

[Fx Studio]

14 minutes ago, botrytis said:

 

Actually, there are people that actually are like this, and the Dunning-Kruger effect is all it is.

 

I mean Peter Veith is one.

 

How about its:

 

Ladder of Inference Thinking   V  Critical Thinking Skills.

[botrytis]

48 minutes ago, Fx Studio said:

 

How about its:

 

Ladder of Inference Thinking   V  Critical Thinking Skills.

 

When you have neither, one has to suffer from the fools thinking out loud.

[JoeWhip]

Keep digging FX Studio.

[Fx Studio]

1 hour ago, JoeWhip said:

Keep digging FX Studio.

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

[Spike Kasperak]

11 minutes ago, Fx Studio said:

 

Thanks for the encouragement!

 

just STOP. Nobody here gives a Flying F@@K,

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi @Fx Studio, when was this plugin created?

[FredericV]

5 hours ago, DuckToller said:

So @Fx Studio joined AS at the 30st of August, in order to prove the thread poster here wrong.

After 12 days and 70+ posts he is so, so happy that he can prove via WBM screenshot that MQA was talking about a MQA mastering plug-in in 2016, which has an FAQ that does not say it does do that and that, but it WILL do that and that.
 

However, this plug-in or it's future incarnation (after 2016), as far as I could follow him, is the reason why certain pieces of music to him and his ears sound so much better in a big room and a big system than anything else, even as the original masters.
 

Bingo, another BS incarnation has shown us our own naive fallacy and the greater than life existence of BS' superior approach for mankind.

He's the man ... to re-use a Joe Jackson quote ...

Remember that the MQA ADC also never happened. But it was announced in the press and there was a product page. That does not make it an actual product. It was planned but never happened.

If the VST plugin was such a big thing, why wouldn't MQA have a product page about it? Why keep it secret?

Even on  the pro audio boards, it seems it was TBA just like the MQA ADC, but it never happened:

https://gearspace.com/board/mastering-forum/1182692-mqa-practicalities.html

 

[MikeyFresh]

2 hours ago, FredericV said:

If the VST plugin was such a big thing, why wouldn't MQA have a product page about it? Why keep it secret?

Exactly, and that question was posed to Fx immediately on his arriving here, but unsurprisingly he wasn't ever able to answer it.

 

With MQA's finances going steadily down the tubes over the last 18-24 months, culminating in their late 2022 financial statement filing indicating significant new investment would be needed or cash would run out after 1Q23, the last thing in the world they would do is keep such a secret when so desperately in need of good news/spin.

 

The fact it was briefly mentioned in their FAQ and then withdrawn a long time ago means it never happened.

[John Dyson]

2 hours ago, MikeyFresh said:

Exactly, and that question was posed to Fx immediately on his arriving here, but unsurprisingly he wasn't ever able to answer it.

 

With MQA's finances going steadily down the tubes over the last 18-24 months, culminating in their late 2022 financial statement filing indicating significant new investment would be needed or cash would run out after 1Q23, the last thing in the world they would do is keep such a secret when so desperately in need of good news/spin.

 

The fact it was briefly mentioned in their FAQ and then withdrawn a long time ago means it never happened.

Just think about the money spent on the MQA marketing& technology that has already fallen behind the times, but there are real issues that a fully funded effort could help to remedy.   What a waste.

 

 

[Fx Studio]

2 hours ago, John Dyson said:

Just think about the money spent on the MQA marketing& technology that has already fallen behind the times, but there are real issues that a fully funded effort could help to remedy.   What a waste.

 

 

 

That's why MQA going completely bust is the best thing that could happen at this moment in time - because then its more likely the Plugin and Encoder software will get released one way or the other. Then once that's reversed it will be possible to see how it works and how it can be improved upon, even if that means larger files. For example it may be possible to cherry pick the time smearing correction and leave the rest uncompressed, ending up with a file size that's more like a FLAC but without the lossy vocals.