On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 05:55:12PM +0100, Dave Griffiths wrote: > On Mon, 04 Apr 2005 18:01:02 +0200, Pieter Palmers wrote > > the following links provide quite some info regarding distortion, > > clipping and DC offsets: > > http://sound.westhost.com/clipping.htm > > http://sound.westhost.com/tweeters.htm > > interesting articles > > > My recommendations: > > - Be sure to do a decent sound-check: have a full-scale piece of > > music ready for the PA engineer to set the PA desk incoming level, > > and be sure not to change your volume when soundcheck is done. - > > Adapt the dynamic range of your music to the live enviroment, e.g. > > by using a compressor plugin just before the soundcard output. > > so it isn't so much of a software problem, but rather the responsibility of > the artist to keep the dynamic range down, and the sound engineer to set the > levels sensibly? > > it's interesting though, as a lot of performers who use computers eschew the > soundcheck these days, thinking just a line test, or just plugging in and > setting the volume, is enough. > > so, would it be a good idea to purchase a small compressor, if using homemade > analogue synths, or even software capable of producing nasty signals?
A compressor might not be fast or hard enough to buy you much safety. For that, better would be a good fast limiter and a subsonic filter. The filter is pretty easy and cheap (see e.g. the Harrison Labs Fmod), but I don't happen to know of a really good inexpensive brick-wall limiter first-hand. I've heard that the Aphex Dominator isn't bad, but it's hardly cheap. Maybe one of the DBX models? *shrug* If I owned a venue or rented a sound system I'd probably provide my own anyway, but I don't know how many do that. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com
