What exactly is PRaT???


Ok, it’s like this thing and is associated with “toe tapping” and such.  I confess, I don’t get it.  Apparently companies like Linn and Naim get it, and I don’t and find it a bit frustrating.  What am I missing?  I’m a drummer and am as sensitive as anyone to timing and beats, so why don’t I perceive this PRaT thing that many of you obviously do and prize as it occurs in stereo systems?  When I read many Brit reviews a lot of attention goes to “rhythm” and “timing” and it’s useless to me and I just don’t get it.  If someone can give me a concrete example of what the hell I’m not getting I’d sincerely be most appreciative.  To be clear, enough people I greatly respect consider it a thing so objectively speaking it’s either something I can’t hear or maybe just don’t care about — or both.  Can someone finally define this “thing” for me cause I seriously wanna learn something I clearly don’t know or understand.  

soix

PRaT, in my book, also has clean delineated ’plosives. part of the package.

It requires a clean start and stop of a transient, with no out of phase smear or lag in the signal additions that are unwanted, which would cover up the fine aspects of the plosive or transient. the requirement is one of a clean wideband low distortion and high signal to noise ratio signal reproduction. That’s what it takes to get a plosive right. Live amplified vs reproduced. the trick is, of course, to get the reproduction to sound like the live and amplified.

When all that is working, we can naturally and natively extract or witness ’PRaT’ in the amplified and reproduced signal..

PRaT seems like the pornography of the audio world, I can’t define it but I know it when I hear it.

I can definitely feel the toe-tapping quality in the Bombino and Chris Rea songs. At the same time, I can't disagree that Chris Rea was garbage, so it seems PRAT and crappy music are not mutually exclusive.

I can feel no PRAT in the Stevie Ray Vaughn piece nor in thriller, however.

Considering that PRAT clearly manifested through the diminutive speakers of my Pixel phone, I would venture that PRAT is very real but that it can safely be ignored as a selection criterium for audio equipment. PRAT lives in the music, not the system, and I can't imagine equipment so bad it can't reproduce something a smartphone can.

@stuartk
You might check out this analysis, exploring how Little Wing in fact incorporates both straight time and swing, which is why it’s deceptively difficult to get right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uGDYs__ZP8

 

Thx for posting a link to this video. I found it fascinating. The presenter did a great job.