What's your opinion regarding this MP3 story?

[audioicon]

Well I'm just confused as to why this song was the focus, wasn't there other recordings that could be used that are more acapella?

 

According to this article from Wikipedia.

 

Tom's Diner

 

Vega's song Tom's Diner was used as the reference track in an early trial of the MP3 compression system, earning her the distinction of being "The Mother of the MP3".

 

It was chosen because her a capella vocal with relatively little reverberation was used as the model for Karlheinz Brandenburg's compression algorithm.[4] Brandenburg heard Tom's Diner in a radio playing the song. He was excited and at first convinced it would be nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice.

 

AI

[Anderton]

I dunno...seems to me where compression really falls down is with high frequency content, of which there isn't much in the human voice.

[Billster]

My opinion is that the song happened to be there at the right time.

[spokenward]

I'm a sucker for anecdotes about process and discovery.

 

If we take the wiki quote literally:

 

I was ready to fine-tune my compression algorithm...somewhere down the corridor, a radio was playing "Tom's Diner".

 

 

I bet he was thinking about a voice like a whisper that could be heard from down the hall.

 

From Live Science:

http://www.livescience.com/health/060509_cochlea_hearing.html

 

"I knew nothing about cochlea mechanics and I think that was to my advantage," Manoussaki said. "I looked at this organ that was shaped like a snail but that everyone was modeling as if it were a straight duct and I asked the obvious question." Just a whisper Manoussaki found that the spiral shape causes wave energy to accumulate against the outside edge of the chamber. The uneven energy distribution causes fluid in the cochlea to slosh higher on one side of the chamber. This tilts the basilar membrane in the direction to which the hair cells are most sensitive. The effect is strongest in the area where the lowest frequencies are detected. The effect is akin to the "whispering gallery mode" in which a mere whisper can travel along the curved walls of a large chamber and stay strong enough to be heard clearly on the opposite side of a room.