HEAT, NEVE 8048 Listening Challenge

[jasonmiller0607]

As much as I totally love tests like this and will gladly participate in them every time they are available... I could not agree with SOUNDDECISION more on that last post.

Remember the SSL vs. Pro Tools shootout? There were several tests and before everything there was an example of the SSL and an example of Pro Tools.

A friend of mine has taken the SSL challenge several times and consistently scored around 20%. In a test like this 20% correct is the same as 80% correct. You ARE hearing a definitive difference, you're just confusing which is which.

Anyway, rock on. HEAT is cool. We can all agree on that at this point, right?

[Mt.Everest]

Originally Posted by kinghand

It seems you understood me, did you ever do this test? If you did, you should know, you don't know which is which before you submit the answer, so I guessed the ones I like most is by HEAT, but I'm totally wrong, then I made a oppsite choice, guess the ones I like most is by Neve, and most of the answers are right, so I can tell, to my ear, the best result is from NEVE but not HEAT. Understand?

Yep, I gotcha now. I originally interpreted what you first said as being that you chose your favorite sounding one as NEVE, but they turned out to be HEAT. I had it reversed.

And yes, I did take the test, and Im going to retry it by reversing my answers same as you.

I get now that this test is weird in that you could have consistently chose your fav one, and marked HEAT, even though it was NEVE, so you end up getting a " low " score, but that score doesnt mean you cant tell a DIFFERENCE, or have a PREFERENCE -- One may just be selecting the wrong
device for their preference.
Now, when the results comes out, it will be interesting to see how CONSISTENT each of us were. The score doesnt matter at this point. What matters (correct me if Im wrong) is what you most consistently picked as your favorite sounding loop.

Maybe what Avid is trying to show here in the end is that the average will show that there wasn't much consistency for ppl correctly identifying which was Heat and which was Neve. Someone could have gotten a VERY low score, but only because they kept picking HEAT instead of NEVE. But it would still mean they actually preferred NEVE.

um, or something... haha. Yeah, this test is confusing..

[Eric Lambert]

Let's start injecting some useful, relevant data.

So let the "challenge" be: Which do you prefer, the HEAT of the NEVE?

[25ghosts]

I too was dearly missing the overall bass of this mix. When I listen to mixes on my large studio speakers I am used to that gut feeling and warmth - say from a M. Bolton mix which is close to this here sound. But that bass never came once...

Anyway I had a HARD time telling which mix was playing and that is what this test was all about. I scored a 20% and preferred the "Neve Summed to Protools mix" in section 5. But it was all a very close call and in section five to be honest I had a very hard time picking between 1 & 3.
2 - to me was clearly something I did not prefer when close listening.

However a mix with more low end would have revealed a lot more and made the test a whole lot easier for the listener.

[bing181]

Originally Posted by SOUNDDECISION

... what would have made the results more relevant would have been to FIRST play 3 examples and tell us which is which, then ask us to identify the rest of them based on having a reference to what each option sounded like.

That's what I was going to say ...

Was fun to do, but hard to see what it actually shows, as all that's really being tested are people's preconceived ideas as to what PT/Heat/Neve mixes should sound like.

[Fidelis]

Originally Posted by 25ghosts

I too was dearly missing the overall bass of this mix. When I listen to mixes on my large studio speakers I am used to that gut feeling and warmth - say from a M. Bolton mix which is close to this here sound. But that bass never came once...

However a mix with more low end would have revealed a lot more and made the test a whole lot easier for the listener.

Thanks God I'm not crazy! Thank you 25ghost! This mix has no warmth at all for me. That's the problem. And that proves that a Neve alone doesn't do anything neither does HEAT...

The guy behind the tools is the key!

[25ghosts]

Originally Posted by Fidelis

.

The guy behind the tools is the key!

And even the guy behind the tools cant make a song that aint great great....

NOT saying that the song in this is BAD,,,,

[Fidelis]

Originally Posted by 25ghosts

And even the guy behind the tools cant make a song that aint great great....

NOT saying that the song in this is BAD,,,,

Actually, I like the song. Just feel that the mix could make this song much much better...

As far as the test goes, I don't care how many did it right or wrong. For me, I could hear what HEAL does, and it looks like its nice.

I'll be upgrading to SL as soon as I can to try it out on my own material.

BTW, I'm playing with Slate's VCC this last 3 days. OMG! This thing is REALLY great. No problems at all here (except by the high CPU usage). No crashes at all, PT 8.04 on 10.5.8.

[yambike]

Originally Posted by SOUNDDECISION

Without any point of reference the results don't have any significance.

If it was important for the test to be done this way what would have made the results more relevant would have been to FIRST play 3 examples and tell us which is which, then ask us to identify the rest of them based on having a reference to what each option sounded like.

Or if the idea is to give no bias then just ask us to pick the best sounding etc.

But to have to try to attribute what is what based on what we might expect it to sound like would by design produce irrelevant results.

Yes.

I'm a fan of Dave Hill and his analog emulation algorithms and Pro Tools but this test makes a weak case. I have to disregard the numbers related to specific identification of sounds. The numbers related to which mix was preferred and those where people say they can't hear a difference are useful though, but a lot of people are saying they're listening on laptop speakers ...

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by Fidelis

BTW, I'm playing with Slate's VCC this last 3 days. OMG! This thing is REALLY great.

That seems to be the word everywhere you look. Slate has scored big with VCC. It's also cheaper than HEAT, no?