POW-R
Dithering algorithms (by license) | |
Revenue | private company |
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Website | https://www.mil-media.com/index.html |
POW-R (Psychoacoustically Optimized Wordlength Reduction) is a set of commercial
. Developed by a consortium of four companies – The POW-R Consortium – the algorithms were first made available in 1999 in digital audio hardware products. POW-R is now licensed for use by many companies, particularly those in the digital audio workstation (DAW) arena, where it currently has significant market share.History
POW-R was developed between 1997 and 1998 after an unfavorable change in the licensing terms of a leading bit-depth reduction algorithm of the time prompted some of its licensees to put together a consortium to develop a viable alternative algorithm.
Formed by four audio engineering companies: Lake Technology (
In 1999, the first products containing POW-R were released by consortium companies.
Reception
One of the first products to include POW-R was a hardware dithering unit from Weiss engineering; in a review of this product in 1999,
Technical details
Technically, the entire POW-R suite is not noise shaping; rather, the original POW-R algorithm is based on narrow-band Nyquist dither, while other POW-R algorithms include noise shaping and white noise.[3] Unlike noise-shaping algorithms based on an ‘Absolute threshold of hearing’ model (i.e. the quietest sound that can be heard on otherwise silent conditions), POW-R has been designed to give optimal performance at normal listening levels. Here, optimal performance means maximizing the apparent dynamic range of the resultant signal while simultaneously minimizing the audible effects of the dither and quantization noise which, if this is not achieved, are typically tonal in nature.[1]
Since noise audibility depends on the nature of the audio being processed, the POW-R algorithm is made available in three variants, optimized respectively for simple program such as
See also
- Dithering
- Audio mastering
- Noise shaping
References
- ^ a b c d e Katz, Bob. "Weiss Engineering POW-R Dither". Retrieved 12 March 2009.
- ^ Ableton ‘What’s new’
- ^ a b Manufacturer's POW-R Data Sheet
Further reading
- Bobby Owsinski, Sally Englefried (2000). The mastering engineer's handbook. Mix Books. ISBN 0-87288-741-3.
- Bob Katz (2007). Mastering Audio, Second Edition: The Art and the Science. Focal Press. ISBN 978-0-240-80837-6.