Hi folks,
let me start this thread by wishing everyone a happy new year !
Looks like we've finally made it into 2022.
I, for one, am happy to be leaving two rather challenging and in many ways difficult years behind me, and perhaps some people may relate to this.
My name is Stefan Michael, I've actually introduced myself not so long ago in the introductions thread here on Audiokarma, but for a quick info I would summarize:
-A child of the 80s
-Living in Germany, close to the Northern Black Forest
-Music & Audio Enthusiast since decades
-A new-starting creator / maker with an invention that I've started working on a decade ago, pretty much in silence.
The last point is the reason of this very thread, as I would like to take the opportunity to introduce to you:
The "Audio Microcomputer" or "Audio Mikrocomputer".
What ? A Microcomputer ? Sounds pretty retro, doesn't it ? Well, it does indeed. On purpose. The Audio Microcomputer is basically a device that lets you select and play your music in a fascinating old-school kind of way over a DAC, but it's not just the way how you select a song that you'd like to play, which in itself is a very satisfying and decelerating experience, but it's even more intriguing because of the fusion of bringing a new audio playback technology with it.
I have written the software for this myself, as someone who had just a bit of knowledge about BASIC or batch programming, and even less knowledge about GNU/Linux, so I probably had a pretty unorthodox approach to this from the very start, which kind of led to this invention, presumably in a wild mixture of luck, by accident, by chance but with undying passion, determination, out of curiosity and actually by using and conditioning my own hearing intensively.
What the Audio Microcomputer - and the technology behind - will offer is the possibility to playback music with individual audio-timing settings. There are many parameters that will affect the sound when playing back music. One could also call this PR&T or PRAT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing or Pace, Rhythm, Audiotiming).
I have created a video and a channel on Youtube where I introduce my invention, including a few snippets of audiotiming-infused re-recordings that will show the effect of the Audio Microcomputer for a substantiation. Now I know this is only scratching the surface of what's possible, but I see it as a starting point for things that may come.
The concept of audio-timing is neither pitch nor the playback speed, it is a different discipline and for many people it is something that cannot be heard or grasped instantly, which makes this a bit of a more difficult topic to begin with, as it's an effect that needs some conditioning of the human hearing in order to get to the point to dissect it.
But once you'll get there there will be no turning back and one would prefer to have a certain pace, rhythm or timing for maximum listening pleasure. What's also interesting is when you playback music with a certain timing-setting it may suit one album or recording fine, but another album may need different settings. Which is only the proof that every album has been transferred differently to the CD and there cannot be one fixed musical timing that would suit every kind of record. That's why some people prefer to have different DACs with different sound signatures.
In the analog domain it is also not uncommon to have different systems, perhaps different cartridges for a turntable, perhaps different preamps and amps and/or different headphones, depending on a certain piece of music, for a bit of a similar change of the musical PRAT (there are two kinds of PRAT: one coming from the system, one from the record).
My invention lets you adjust for instance the "tightness" of the music, and it also allows a fine-tuning of the audio-timing in ultra-precise steps to get to the sweet spot for a certain piece of music.
You can also store individual settings per title, so they will temporarily overwrite the current audio-timing settings when you playback a certain track. This programming can also be done with commands within the command-line in linux.
Because of how this system has been developed it currently supports 16bits/44.1kHz, normal CD rips, which is the vast majority of (many great sounding) music records in my book, but this can technologically even evolve in the future.
I have a multi-layered concept how to bring this project to life, at the moment I am looking for support in order to be able to continue investing into the pre-production prototype and to turn this into a universal RPi microcomputer DIY KIT (without soldering!), which will be its basis.
Also the creation of videos for an educative information about the conditioning of the different disciplines of the human hearing, especially for beginners, will be a part of my concept, as I find that very important in order to reach a higher level of listening pleasure. I also plan to disclose my software later and to offer a license for potential technology partners.
In the description of the video there is some more information to digest if you'd like to.
The link is a bit further down, posted again by hjames.
Thanks for your interest ! Stay healthy.
Kind regards,
Stefan Michael.
let me start this thread by wishing everyone a happy new year !
Looks like we've finally made it into 2022.
I, for one, am happy to be leaving two rather challenging and in many ways difficult years behind me, and perhaps some people may relate to this.My name is Stefan Michael, I've actually introduced myself not so long ago in the introductions thread here on Audiokarma, but for a quick info I would summarize:
-A child of the 80s
-Living in Germany, close to the Northern Black Forest
-Music & Audio Enthusiast since decades
-A new-starting creator / maker with an invention that I've started working on a decade ago, pretty much in silence.
The last point is the reason of this very thread, as I would like to take the opportunity to introduce to you:
The "Audio Microcomputer" or "Audio Mikrocomputer".
What ? A Microcomputer ? Sounds pretty retro, doesn't it ? Well, it does indeed. On purpose. The Audio Microcomputer is basically a device that lets you select and play your music in a fascinating old-school kind of way over a DAC, but it's not just the way how you select a song that you'd like to play, which in itself is a very satisfying and decelerating experience, but it's even more intriguing because of the fusion of bringing a new audio playback technology with it.
I have written the software for this myself, as someone who had just a bit of knowledge about BASIC or batch programming, and even less knowledge about GNU/Linux, so I probably had a pretty unorthodox approach to this from the very start, which kind of led to this invention, presumably in a wild mixture of luck, by accident, by chance but with undying passion, determination, out of curiosity and actually by using and conditioning my own hearing intensively.
What the Audio Microcomputer - and the technology behind - will offer is the possibility to playback music with individual audio-timing settings. There are many parameters that will affect the sound when playing back music. One could also call this PR&T or PRAT (Pace, Rhythm and Timing or Pace, Rhythm, Audiotiming).
I have created a video and a channel on Youtube where I introduce my invention, including a few snippets of audiotiming-infused re-recordings that will show the effect of the Audio Microcomputer for a substantiation. Now I know this is only scratching the surface of what's possible, but I see it as a starting point for things that may come.
The concept of audio-timing is neither pitch nor the playback speed, it is a different discipline and for many people it is something that cannot be heard or grasped instantly, which makes this a bit of a more difficult topic to begin with, as it's an effect that needs some conditioning of the human hearing in order to get to the point to dissect it.
But once you'll get there there will be no turning back and one would prefer to have a certain pace, rhythm or timing for maximum listening pleasure. What's also interesting is when you playback music with a certain timing-setting it may suit one album or recording fine, but another album may need different settings. Which is only the proof that every album has been transferred differently to the CD and there cannot be one fixed musical timing that would suit every kind of record. That's why some people prefer to have different DACs with different sound signatures.
In the analog domain it is also not uncommon to have different systems, perhaps different cartridges for a turntable, perhaps different preamps and amps and/or different headphones, depending on a certain piece of music, for a bit of a similar change of the musical PRAT (there are two kinds of PRAT: one coming from the system, one from the record).
My invention lets you adjust for instance the "tightness" of the music, and it also allows a fine-tuning of the audio-timing in ultra-precise steps to get to the sweet spot for a certain piece of music.
You can also store individual settings per title, so they will temporarily overwrite the current audio-timing settings when you playback a certain track. This programming can also be done with commands within the command-line in linux.
Because of how this system has been developed it currently supports 16bits/44.1kHz, normal CD rips, which is the vast majority of (many great sounding) music records in my book, but this can technologically even evolve in the future.
I have a multi-layered concept how to bring this project to life, at the moment I am looking for support in order to be able to continue investing into the pre-production prototype and to turn this into a universal RPi microcomputer DIY KIT (without soldering!), which will be its basis.
Also the creation of videos for an educative information about the conditioning of the different disciplines of the human hearing, especially for beginners, will be a part of my concept, as I find that very important in order to reach a higher level of listening pleasure. I also plan to disclose my software later and to offer a license for potential technology partners.
In the description of the video there is some more information to digest if you'd like to.
The link is a bit further down, posted again by hjames.
Thanks for your interest ! Stay healthy.
Kind regards,
Stefan Michael.
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Been there, done that.