On 08/10/14 at 09:17pm, Fons Adriaensen wrote: > On Wed, Oct 08, 2014 at 09:15:44PM +0100, Jonathan Gazeley wrote: > > > However, I'm struggling a bit with dynamics processing on the > > recording. Naturally, choral music has an extremely wide dynamic > > range. If you normalise the infrequent loud parts to 0dB, the rest > > of the recording is too quiet, and people have complained that the > > CDs are "too quiet" compared to their other CDs. I know that people > > listen to these recordings on their iPod or in the car and if the > > quiet parts are too quiet, then they simply can't hear them. > > > > We all know about the loudness war and I certainly don't want to > > compress the crap out of these delicate and beautiful recordings. > > But I think some subtle compression would help bring up the average > > amplitude without clipping the loud parts. I've experimented a bit > > but I'm struggling to get a "natural" sound. After compression, it > > sounds fine in the quiet parts but in the louder parts it sounds > > "lumpy" and the reverb sounds unnatural. > > Almost all recordings I've made during the last five years were > of contemporary or late 20th century 'classical' music, and this > can have a very wide dynamic range. They also were made for radio > broadcasting, which meant that dynamic range had to be reduced. > > There are several methods, and the best approach is to make > each of them handle a few dBs, and combine them. > > * If you use Ardour to record, then editing the region gain > curve is a very convenient way to reduce the dynamics in > function of the music itself (it's much easier than trying > to use automation for this). The advantage compared to using > compression is that you can anticipate level changes - as > you would when adjusting the level manually while reading > the score. > > * In many cases I've used a gentle automatic compression, with > a ratio of 1.2 or so and a low threshold, so you get a very > gradual gain change over a wide range of levels. This was done > using zita-dc1, which unfortunately is not released yet. > > * In most cases peaks are very short, and a peak limiter will > remove them and allow 5 dB or more extra gain without any > perceptible artefacts. The best one for this is zita-dpl1 > which was designed exactly for this type of use. I've used > it on all recordings I made the last years, without exception. > > Combining these, it's not at all difficult to boost your average > level by 15 dB or so (and even more if needed) in a way that will > still sound completely natural. > > Ciao, > > -- > FA What about adding a multiband compressor at the end of the chain (eg. Jamin or Calf )? -- « Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus » _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
