epicenter.... pc software?

[toaster 10+ year member]

i dont know if anyone has thought about this or not, but why is there no digital bass restoration software? you know, rip it, run it thru the pc sw, bam! no need for epicenters!

i hear the search engines starting up....

Click to read more...

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

Yeah, I Googled to find out what an Epicenter is.

The reason they don't exist is because they are not necessary. You don't exactly lose bass when ripping. If your cd rippings are so bad you've lost the lower octaves of the song, then the midrange and highs will be so bad you might as well start over.

In all truth, I'd love to know how an Epicenter really works. What they claim it does is (IMO) unfeasable for a device working in real time.

 

[toaster 10+ year member]

no, epicenter works well. and no, im not speaking of losing bass due to ripping...

the ripping part is just to put it on your hdd.

 

[Raven 10+ year member]

Why do you want "digital bass restoration software" when you haven't lost any bass to restore?

You might want to check out the compression method used in Macromedia Flash. It maps the top and bottom octaves of musc to higher and lower frequencies (respectively) to get a smaller file size. A side result is that you seem to get (psycho-acoustics) fuller bass out it. If the epicenter works so great and is a real time device, then it's probably doing the same thing.

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

Interesting point (re: realtime), and good info; Bump for more educated replies.

Does the epicenter include a mic?

 

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

epicenter can do some cool stuff

 

[Mr. Opportunist 10+ year member]

yes it can i want one //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[mikescanlon 10+ year member]

the epicenter takes your audio (lets say a sports commericial) and takes the low end (voice of announcer) and makes it into a little bass loop, and it plays that loop..

so even if you're listening to commericials, or metal, or anything, it gives you ground pounding bass, with 10volt pre-outs, used inproperly, the epicenter can blow up any woofer and clip it to death.

but, used properly, the epicenter can give you head-ache causing basslines on even classical music

btw: it doesn't have a mic.. it's an inline device

headunit:subout > epicenter:input > epicenterutput > subamp

 

[bamaboy 5,000+ posts]

if you get an epic 160 it has an spl mic built in, but not the most accurate, but a cool feature to have

 

[DBfan187 5,000+ posts]

http://mobileaudiocontrol.com/product.asp?Product_Id=14165&d_Id=5249&l1=5249&l2=

 

[theCybe 5,000+ posts]

I'm not sure I dig the information I just got.

Nobody needs commercials to hit 150db.

I expected a little more finesse.

 

[boister77 10+ year member]

actually, there is a way to restore bass through pc software. waves, the creator of the maxxbass, have been around for while in pro audio. they have plugins for the maxxbass which can be installed and used with computer audio programs like protools, audtion, and others.

http://www.waves.com/content.asp?id=146

http://www.maxxplayer.com/

 

[thch 10+ year member]

the epicenter takes your audio (lets say a sports commericial) and takes the low end (voice of announcer) and makes it into a little bass loop, and it plays that loop..

so even if you're listening to commericials, or metal, or anything, it gives you ground pounding bass, with 10volt pre-outs, used inproperly, the epicenter can blow up any woofer and clip it to death.

but, used properly, the epicenter can give you head-ache causing basslines on even classical music

btw: it doesn't have a mic.. it's an inline device

headunit:subout > epicenter:input > epicenterutput > subamp

reading the patent on the epicenter, that is exactly what it is designed not to do, nor is it how it works. furthermore the epicenter and maxxbass are not the same thing. the epicenter (and maxxbas) is DSP based. it takes samples of the song, and searches for higher frequencies (likely using FFT) that probably indicate a bass note is being played. it also double checks to see if these same cues are consistant with vocals that might be playing. if the midrange is not consistant with vocals, it adds or reinforces a low frequency fundamental that might have been "lost". this is often called "subharmonic synthesis".

Maxxbass does the almost the exact opposite. it takes deep bass that exists in the song, then converts it into higher frequency bass in such a way that the ear is fooled into preceiving the lower notes. (edit, i may be thinking of another product with a very similar name)

 

[Deadbeat 10+ year member]

there is a ton of software out there that will let you add bass lifts and slopes to any audio track. .

I personally use cool edit pro

 

[squeak9798 5,000+ posts]

reading the patent on the epicenter, that is exactly what it is designed not to do, nor is it how it works. furthermore the epicenter and maxxbass are not the same thing. the epicenter (and maxxbas) is DSP based. it takes samples of the song, and searches for higher frequencies (likely using FFT) that probably indicate a bass note is being played. it also double checks to see if these same cues are consistant with vocals that might be playing. if the midrange is not consistant with vocals, it adds or reinforces a low frequency fundamental that might have been "lost". this is often called "subharmonic synthesis".
Maxxbass does the almost the exact opposite. it takes deep bass that exists in the song, then converts it into higher frequency bass in such a way that the ear is fooled into preceiving the lower notes. (edit, i may be thinking of another product with a very similar name)

Bingo!

The Epicenter isn't a "bass booster" in the traditional sense, it doesn't restore bass that was lost during the ripping process, and it doesn't just add a bass loop to the music. It's to "restore" bass that may have been part of the original musical composition, but may not present in the actual recorded song (but the harmonics are). Basically it adds/reinforces bass that it thinks *should* be there through the process described by thch above.

And, as noted, the Waves Maxxbass does exactly the opposite (yes Chris, you were thinking of the right product).

In short;

Epicenter searches for upper harmonics and adds/reinforces the lower fundamental if necessary. The Maxxbass adds upper harmonics of a lower fundamental frequency.