An innovative new technique for digital audio Word Length Reduction (WLR) is now available from the Pow-r Consortium, LLC. Some of the world's finest digital audio designers have come together as a team to create what is being hailed as the audio industry's most transparent and musically accurate method of reducing digital word lengths.
Pow-r, an acronym for Psychoacoustically Optimized Wordlength Reduction, is a unique, patent-applied-for algorithm, which reduces longer word lengths (20, 24, even up to 32 bits), to CD standard 16-bit format while retaining a high degree of perceived dynamic efficiency and very low noise. Pow-r is ready for all sample rates from 44.1kHz to 192 kHz, and beyond.
Pow-r is compact and designed for portability. The algorithm will operate optimally in both DSP and native software in digital audio workstation applications. Pow-r consists of three different algorithms, two being noiseshaping and one based on narrow-band Nyquist dither. Pow-r is free from artifacts present in other popular Nyquist-band or noiseshaping WLR techniques, such as "birdies" and "motorboating." With Pow-r, archaic look up tables are avoided and all audio program is decorrelated from Nyquist-band dither.
Several leading pro audio companies (e.g. Sadie and Sonic Solutions) have entered into licensing agreements with the Consortium while many others are now in licensing discussions. Sonic Solutions has selected Pow-r as their exclusive HDSP plug-in partner for high density Word Length Reduction. The Consortium development team is comprised of:
- John La Grou, President, Millennia Media, USA
- David Mc Grath, Principal, Lake DSP, Australia
- Daniel Weiss, President, Weiss Engineering, Switzerland
- Dr. Glenn Zelniker, President, Z-Systems, USA
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