VST´s Not Bit Transparent? #1
Description
purchased a plugin long ago,
that has DX and VST versions...
PSPAudioware MasterQ v1.0.1 - v1.5.2 Discontinued, Now MQ2.
v1.0.1 had variable latency, since v1.2.2 had fixed latency.
im testing 1.0.1 because i need low latency.
using VB-Audio FFX-4 Rack to load DX plugins on 32-Bit VST hosts.
The same plugin, the same version, the same settings, same audio signal,
sound always better on DX.
tested at 48KHz, 96KHz.
you need a transparent DAC and loudspeakers to hear that, ofcourse.
tested other plugins from that era, available in DX & VST, same result.
tested VST Bridged & Unbridged, VST2/3 where available.
There is a SSL X-ISM,Download bit analyzer.
But Not very useful
similar happens "Non Transparent" jitter sound, when decoding
.mp3, .wma, .flac to .wav using different decoders...
XLD has lots of harmonic jitter, vs. VLC player Built-in Converter, or Audacity for example.
same others...like Freac vs. Telos Audioactive MP3 decoder 1.1.4,Download, 2, 3 or FLAC.exe decoder + FrontEnd has Bit-Transparent Audio.
XLD had an amazing idea to decode multiple mp3s in parallel using Parallel CPU cores simultaneously.
same happens in Linux Pulse Audio when has forced 16-Bit driver, but file is 24-Bit, there is Bit-Truncation Jam.
similar to HDCD
WindowsMediaPlayer 9/10/11 had the 24-Bit option [X], allowed to play HDCD encoded CDs with Pacific Microsonics ADC,
to play from the PC CD/DVD drive to soundcard / interface.
when Decoding HDCD was Off, the 16-Bit sound was weird, just 1-Bit LSB affected the sound,
but when HDCD was ON, it did sound a lot better "20-Bits".
HDCD List
There is something weird happening with VST plugins,
MSB LSB Big.Endian vs. Little Endian, something at low levels.
in Analog similar happened with LPs / 12" encoded with dbx
played Normal sounded wrong,
but when decoded properly with a decoder the LPs sounded better.
Maybe VST´s have some kind of hidden signature Watermark Steganography
similar to Aphex Twin spectrogram, Spiral, NIN Hand, etc...
or Oscilloscope Music, 2.
https://oscilloscopemusic.com/software/oscilloscope/
https://github.com/kritzikratzi/Oscilloscope/
maybe is the compiler?
some versions of FLAC.exe,1 have it, some dont.
sound like a thin layer of water vapour on a mirror.