Audio Quality
This page is under construction.
- Recording of Osho talking has been done with great care. Of course in the early days that happened with primitive means, and as time went on with superb equipment.
- We think that the quality of Osho's discourses is very important, as it not only conveys the words, but the whole atmosphere of the words and the silences, the birds, the trains and the wind in the leaves. In optima forma listening to the audio should be as if you are sitting right there in Osho's presence.
- But when one listens to audio of the latest "editions" (see Editions and versions) i.e. with the latest quality editing, the sound leaves a lot to be desired. Strange, because we would expect the very best quality!
- We converted some very old audio cassettes to digital audio. There is of course some noise to be heard, but the quality is surprisingly good: Osho's voice sounds more natural, transparent, and with more environmental sounds.
- We feel this is a matter for concern.
- In the table below we present some samples of audio editions, so you can hear for yourself. You don't need audiophile equipment to hear the differences, just maybe a good headphone.
- By the way, edition 2 audio, made on the basis of the quality editing in the early nineties and available from OshoWorld.com, sounds even worse than edition 3.
- If you have any information about this issue, please write to us: help
sannyas.wiki.
| edition 3 (from OSHO.com) | edition 1 (from old tape-cassettes) | |
|---|---|---|
| Edition 3 audio was aquired at osho.com, with --one would expect-- the highest level of quality editing, probably made in the early 2000s. Indeed, the quality is better than e2, but actually not quite good: too much cleaning of noise has given a 'sterile' sound, missing high frequencies. | Our sample Edition 1 audio was digitized from tape-cassettes produced 1975-1980. They were aquired from the Osho Meditation Centre at the Cornelis Troostplein, Amsterdam, where they were used as master-tapes until the early nineties. (*1) | |
| Tao The Three Treasures Vol 3 ~ 01 | ||
| Sufis The People of Path Vol 1 ~ 12 | ||
| I Am That ~ 01 | ||
| Tao The Pathless Path Vol 1 ~ 03 |
The sort of cassettes used in edition 1.
The sort of cassettes used in edition 1.
(*1) The audio-cassettes have been digitized by a friend. Procedure:
- Tapes played real-time on a Nakamichi RX-202E,
it's signal output to a analog to digital converter RDL HR-ADC1,
output to a USB-to-digital interface Mutec MC-1.2
interfacing to a PC with software Wavelab Elements to produce WAV files. - These were then checked for completenes, audio levels maximized and saved as FLAC 16bit mono in software Goldwave.
- For display here the FLAC was converted to MP3 as 44.1kHz, 320kbps.
- Tapes played real-time on a Nakamichi RX-202E,
