A new report by the Audio Engineering Library (AEL) has revealed that MP3s and similar formats impact the ‘emotional characteristics’ of musical instruments.
Titled, The Effects of MP3 Compression on Perceived Emotional Characteristics in Musical Instruments, the research compared different compressed and uncompressed sounds.
These were analysed at different bitrates over ten emotional categories.
According to the results, the AEL discovered that MP3 compression enhanced neutral or negative emotional characteristics such as mysterious or shy.
At the same time, so-called positive emotions such as happiness or tranquillity were supposedly weakened.
However, the impact of anger was totally unaffected according to the findings.
Differences were also found across instruments, with the trumpet’s timbre the most impacted, the horn 'by far' the least.
The study offers a reason for these emotional differences between instruments - the 'background 'growl' artifacts added by MP3 compression'.
Visit the AEL website for more information on the findings and to read the study.
Titled, The Effects of MP3 Compression on Perceived Emotional Characteristics in Musical Instruments, the research compared different compressed and uncompressed sounds.
These were analysed at different bitrates over ten emotional categories.
According to the results, the AEL discovered that MP3 compression enhanced neutral or negative emotional characteristics such as mysterious or shy.
At the same time, so-called positive emotions such as happiness or tranquillity were supposedly weakened.
However, the impact of anger was totally unaffected according to the findings.
Differences were also found across instruments, with the trumpet’s timbre the most impacted, the horn 'by far' the least.
The study offers a reason for these emotional differences between instruments - the 'background 'growl' artifacts added by MP3 compression'.
Visit the AEL website for more information on the findings and to read the study.
