POW-R Consortium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
POW-R, as licensed and distributed by Apple Computer, Avid-Digidesign (NASDAQ: AVID), SADiE, Sonic Studio, BIAS, Cakewalk (company)-Sonar, Merging Technologies, Lake Technology (Dolby Labs), Weiss Engineering, Millennia Media, Z-Systems, and others, is an acronym for "Psychoacoustically Optimized Wordlength Reduction." This mathematical algorithm reduces longer digital word lengths (20, 24, 32 bits) to industry standard 16 bits while retaining a high degree of perceived dynamic efficiency and very low noise. POW-R is a scalable algorithm, meaning it is dynamically optimized and ready for all sample rates from 16 kHz to 192 kHz, or higher.
POW-R is compact and designed for portability. The Algorithms operate optimally in both DSP and native software in digital audio workstation applications. POW-R is technically not noise shaping. Rather, the original POW-R Algorithm is based on narrow-band Nyquist dither and is free from artifacts present in other Nyquist-band WLR techniques, such as "birdies" and "motorboating." With POW-R, look up tables are avoided and all audio program is dynamically decorrelated from Nyquist-band dither. To better target all audio sources, non-narrow-band techniques are also offered in the POW-R Algorithm set.
POW-R users are offered a choice of two or three POW-R Algorithms from which to select. POW-R Algorithm number one is optimized for simple program of average dynamic range, such as spoken word. POW-R Algorithm number two is optimized for low dynamic range program, such as rock music. POW-R Algorithm number three is optimized for complex, high dynamic range program, such as orchestral music.
The POW-R Consortium, LLC is an autonomous, non-competitive entity established for the sole purpose of maintaining and supporting the POW-R Algorithms. POW-R is a registered trademark of the POW-R Consortium, LLC.
