Hear The Difference? | QuestionPro

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Welcome to the 'Can You Hear The Difference' test. This test is split up into two sections. Section 1 is to compare analogue summing (Out The Box) to digital summing (In The Box). Simply listen to the reference and then match one of the two clips to it. You're listening to mixes summed in ProTools HD (In the Box) and then summed on a SSL AWS 900+.

In Part Two of the test your hearing samples that are being effected either by a SSL channel strip (hardware) and a Universal Audio SSL channel strip copy (Plugin). Can you hear the difference?

Notes - While it is best to do this test on high quality studio grade monitors if you do not have access to this feel free to complete the test on quality headphones. To save you time and hassle the clips are hosted on soundcloud however they add some file compression to the clips even though I uploaded the original .wav files to their site. If you want to do the test with the .wav files please find the download link here:

ResearchTestFiles - (170mb)

Waveform Image - Soundcloud want to charge me £10 to get rid of the waveform image in the media player which aren't representative of the audio playback anyway, so please don't try and cheat the test by analysing them and basing your answers on them.

Due to the amount of data here, it may take a while to load depending on your internet connection speed. If for some reason something doesn't work please download the audio files at the link above or email me at [email protected]

Also, if you really can't match one of the clips to X, please answer 'Don't Know'. Even if you answer 'Don't Know' on each question because you can't match any of them, thats perfectly fine. I'm looking for the most honest answers as possible!

If you want to know how you did please keep a record of your answers and I'll post the results online as soon as I have the data I require and the survey can be finished.

Now, onto the test!

Please listen to audio clip 1 below:

Clip X

T1X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T1A by jonathanh

Clip B

T1B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 2 below:

Clip X

T2X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T2A by jonathanh

Clip B

T2B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 3 below:

Clip X

T3X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T3A by jonathanh

Clip B

T3B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 4 below:

Clip X

T4X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T4A by jonathanh

Clip B

T4B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 5 below:

Clip X

T5X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T5A by jonathanh

Clip B

T5B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 6 below:

Clip X

T6X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T6A by jonathanh

Clip B

T6B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 7 below:

Clip X

T7X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T7A by jonathanh

Clip B

T7B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

The next three questions are related to comparing a plugin channel strip (Universal Audio SSL Channel) to the real hardware unit (SSL Duality Channel).

Please listen to audio clip 8 below:

Clip X

T8X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T8A by jonathanh

Clip B

T8B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Please listen to audio clip 9 below:

Clip X

T9X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T9A by jonathanh

Clip B

T9B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with Clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same

Your onto the last question! Thanks for taking the test!

Please listen to audio clip 10 below:

Clip X

T10X by jonathanh

Now listen to the next two clips:

Clip A

T10A by jonathanh

Clip B

T10B by jonathanh

Out of clip A and B, which one do you think matches up with clip X?

Clip A

Clip B

Don't Know

Clip A, Clip B and Clip X are the same