Question for the gallery...do most of you use High Res or normal? I've dropped from high to normal for cpu sake, but I do feel like there's a sacrifice in the sound. That said, after I've played on normal for a while, I forget about that. I know it's entirely subjective, and if I feel like it sounds better it just does. I might have pushed myself off the fence just with that and maybe I should take out effects I'll probably never end up using instead. Still, what's the general consensus on high vs. normal.
Not to hijack the thread, very informative video, much thanks!
I personally don't notice anything major that makes me think "oh I so gotta use high res!" The difference to my ears is so minimal, it's like splitting hairs. Here's my rule of thumb for listening to things and making decisions.
I've done so many tests in my time....from amps to cabs, to interface converters, bit and sample rates, real hardware vs. modeled hardware, man....I can't even begin to tell you how many comparisons I've done. These rules below really help me though.
1. Always have a completely unbiased and fool-proof way of listening to compare. Make two files and make sure you are NOT the one that initiates your medial player. Let your girl, your friend, your kid, anyone but you, play the file so that you have no clue what is coming.
2. If you are literally creating something where you play the part twice, beware NOT to play one part differently than the other or you'll know in an instant which you are listening to.
3. Most important: If you cannot tell a difference in 3 listens, there is no major difference to waste any time on. If you can't hear it, no one else will...nor will they care unless they are tone junkies like us.
I've gotten a bit more relaxed in my judgement on things these days. I've gone from completely anal and out of my tree to accepting just about anything that sounds good or is an artistic approach to something. Even as a sound engineer/mastering engineer/producer, there are so many artistic approaches to something, unless it's blatantly horrible (like that tweed cab without touching anything lol) it has a place.
At the end of the day, the world as we know it listens to our years worth of work through freaking earbuds! If that isn't enough to make you settle for something that is decent, I don't know what is. This sucks so bad my clients and I have decided to release two forms of media on CD. The iTunes people that could care less about fidelity (we literally mix and master for buds...makes me wanna throw up) and the gear snobs like us that actually listen through good studio monitors or cool car speakers.
I got two pretty cool cars (Corvette Z06 and a Jeep) with killer sound systems in them. How people can listen to crappy earbuds all the time over a killer system is beyond me. I see more earbuds while people drive than I want to see around here....next to the people texting and driving....ugh!
But seriously, don't go mad over your tones. When you hear professional bands putting out stuff that sounds good on earbuds that sounds like crap on real systems, you know times have changed and you don't have to beat yourself up. Sure, always try to get the best tones you can get to where you have that happy medium of "good on all systems" but don't spend a bunch of hours comparing things that make little to no difference.
There are lots of things that play into how something changes. I know nothing of the high res other than it may be a little brighter in certain situations? Or....at louder volumes it may react differently?
For some things, you can notice "something" going on that compliments the sound. For other things, in my opinion it takes away from the sound. And yet in other instances, I notice nothing. From my experience, the "normal" setting is a bit like analog, the hi res, more digital maybe? Don't hold me to any of that. Just sharing my personal experience. Let your ears be the judge...never let a title sway your opinion unless you can blind test and pass every time.