Subject: Re: [AUDITORY] Eight Years of the monotoSTEREO.info Website! From: Pierre Divenyi <pdivenyi@xxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2023 12:50:51 -0800To amplify (sorry for using this verb) Alain=E2=80=99s monosolution: When I am in a music-drowned conversation, I often plug my right (non-domina= nt) ear with my right (dominant) hand to increase the S/N in my attentive do= minant left ear. It works, mostly. Pierre Pardon my typos. It's Apple's fault.=20 > On Jan 30, 2023, at 21:02, Alain de Cheveigne <alain.de.cheveigne@xxxxxxxx= eu> wrote: >=20 > =EF=BB=BFIt sounds like a joke, but there may be a deeper wisdom. Here's a= conjecture. >=20 > Mono is superior to stereo, in some situations, because the sound field it= produces is more "transparent". In other words, it is a less pervading mask= er of other sounds. >=20 > Anecdotally, I've experienced situations where the background music is at t= he same time muffled and disruptive of conversations, and others where both s= eem relatively easy to perceive. In the former, people tend to speak louder (= Lombard effect), which prompts the music lovers to sneak over to the hifi sy= stem and notch up the volume at which point everyone starts shouting. I ten= d to associate the former with a reverberant space and stereo (particularly a= dditional speakers), and the latter with an acoustically damped space and mo= no (particularly played from an adjacent room). Whether there is a basis to= the stereo/mono part of this this is unclear. >=20 > Stereo might have an adverse effect on multiple sound segregation cues. I= n an anechoic space you would lose the benefit of a point source, and this m= ight carry over in part to more reverberant environments. You're less likely= to have a head shadow benefit if sound comes from both sides. Spectro-temp= oral gaps are likely to be fewer and shallower, harmonicity cues smeared, an= d so-on. Stereo-enhancing algorithms might further degrade these cues if the= y involve convolution (filters). >=20 > I'd love to know of any work that corroborates or disproves this conjectur= e, for example based on behaviour, sound field measurements, or simulations.= >=20 > Alain >=20 >=20 >> On 30 Jan 2023, at 09:51, Richard F. Lyon <dicklyon@xxxxxxxx> wrote: >>=20 >> Les, that's precious! Thanks for keeping us up to date on 50-year-old sa= tirical ideas! >>=20 >> Dick >>=20 >>=20 >> On Mon, Jan 30, 2023 at 4:11 PM Les Bernstein <lbernstein@xxxxxxxx> wrote= : >> Interesting, but why? After all, monophonic sound is superior to stereo s= ound! See the attached regarding converting to monophonic sound. You're abo= ut 50 years too late.=F0=9F=99=82 >>=20 >> Les Bernstein >>=20 >> --=20 >> Leslie R. Bernstein, Ph.D. | Professor Emeritus >> Depts. of Neuroscience and Surgery (Otolaryngology) | UConn School of Med= icine=20 >> 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-3401 >> Office: 860.679.4622 | Fax: 860.679.2495 >>=20 >> <ngkmNXu0eyag67PD.png> >>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >>> On 1/28/2023 10:48 PM, Christopher Kissel wrote: >>> *** Attention: This is an external email. Use caution responding, openin= g attachments or clicking on links. *** >>> Greetings! >>>=20 >>> For many years it was considered impossible to realistically convert mon= o musical source material to stereo. In fact, consider this statement in the= Third Edition of The New Stereo Soundbook by Ron Streicher & F. Alton Evere= st (2006 Audio Engineering Associates), undoubtably one of the most authorit= ative books published on the subject of stereo sound: >>>=20 >>> =E2=80=9CThe most important point in studying the various methods of con= verting a mono signal to stereo is the realization that it is impossible to d= o so: the best that can be hoped for is a signal that has some of the charac= teristics of a stereo signal.=E2=80=9D >>>=20 >>> On January 29, 2015 my website, monotoSTEREO.info, went live. I started t= he website to provide a collection of resources for individuals interested i= n upmixing older mono source material to stereo through the use of spectral e= diting and audio (sound) source separation... more specifically, music sourc= e separation. In that time the website has been visited over 66,000 times by= individuals in 185 countries! >>>=20 >>> The goal of this technology is the creating of stereo mixes that are vir= tually indistinguishable from stereo mixes created using multitrack session t= apes, had they existed. >>>=20 >>> There are now several hundred examples mono recordings that have been up= mixed to stereo using this technology which have been linked to on the MEDIA= pages of the website. A number of these have been released commercially: >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 1 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 2 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 3 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 4 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 5 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 6 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 7 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 8 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 9 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 10 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 11 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 12 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 13 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 14 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 15 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 16 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 17 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 18 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 19 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 20 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 21 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 22 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 23 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 24 >>>=20 >>> MEDIA 25 >>>=20 >>> Links to commercially available releases which utilize this technology c= an be found here: >>>=20 >>> LATEST RELEASES >>>=20 >>> RELEASED 1 >>>=20 >>> RELEASED 2 >>>=20 >>> There are now a total of 106 tools featured on the TOOLS pages of the we= bsite, which are accessible from the pull-down menus anywhere on the website= : >>>=20 >>> TOOLS (A-C) >>>=20 >>> TOOLS (D-I) >>>=20 >>> TOOLS (J-R) >>>=20 >>> TOOLS (S) >>>=20 >>> TOOLS (T-Z) >>>=20 >>> More tools continue to be added, including web-based services and even m= usic source separation apps that run on iOS and Android devices! >>>=20 >>> There are now over 1,700 research papers, presentations, etc. linked to o= n the RESEARCH pages of the website! >>>=20 >>> A companion Facebook page for the website provides updates and related c= ontent. Be sure to =E2=80=9CLike=E2=80=9D the Facebook page to follow it for= the updates! >>>=20 >>> You can also follow me on Mastodon: https://techhub.social/@xxxxxxxx= EO >>>=20 >>> I=E2=80=99d like to take this opportunity to again thank the engineers w= ho have been showcasing what is possible with this technology. I must also t= hank the various researchers and developers who have made this technology ac= cessible, powerful, and useable for so many. The technology and the tools to= utilize it continue to improve dramatically! Lastly, a big thank you to the= visitors to the website. Your continued interest and support are very much a= ppreciated! I sincerely hope that you continue to find the website interesti= ng, informative, educational, and inspiring! >>>=20 >>> Best regards, >>> Christopher Kissel >>> Owner & Webmaster of monotoSTEREO.info >>>=20 >>>=20 >>>=20 >>>=20 >>>=20 >>>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >>=20 >=20