With sports on the radio, compression makes it so you hear more of the announcer and less of the crowd, since stadiums are quite noisy. The crowd will gradually increase in level while the announcer pauses a few seconds but is pushed back down when he speaks again. In music, it tends to add more punch to it so it sounds like the band is hitting their instruments harder or playing louder without the distortion of simply turning the volume up. What I hate is when the background hiss starts to keep rhythm to the music when compressed and get loud right at the end. I wonder what radio does that keeps that from happening as even CD's have noise in them. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Matzura" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC audio discussion list. " <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 3:50 AM Subject: Re: Wav Hammer in SF
> On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 19:56:32 +1100, you wrote: > >>Well, I haven't used it, but I understand it compresses the sound in some >>way, something like normalizing. > > Normalizing and compressing are two different functions and bear > absolutely no relationship betwixt and between. Compression is the > art, and I do mean art, of making soft parts loud and loud partrs soft > so you don't have to keep reaching for the volume knob. Normalization > is simply maximizing the amplitude, or volume, of a waveform such that > its loudest point is never any louder than a pre-determined value > (usually 0dB, some folks push it to +3dB). No other aspect of the > waveform is changed, it's just moved up in whole so that its peaks > brush up against that arbitrary value of loudness. > > Uses for normalization: Recordings made too low in volume. Should be > normalized to at least 90% of full wave height, leaving a little room > for harmonic distortion which could produce voltage levels that would > or could overdrive a sound-reproducing device, such as the final > output stage of an amplifier, or even a speaker itself, but not > register on an oscilloscope as being louder than the specified > normalized value (see above). When normalizing a waveform, it's > always a good idea to leave some what's called head-room for just this > case and these conditions/circumstances. > > Uses for compression: Imagine hearing a recording of a meeting where > the main speaker was clear as a bell, but the audience who may have > asked questions were down in the sonic mud. Compression would > temporarily raise the volume level so the soft parts, the far-away > audience members, can be heard when they speak. Then, when the main > speaker starts up again, the volume level is pushed back down so the > main speaker doesn't overdrive the recording or playback equipment. > Understand that normalization will not help in this case because > normalization brings every sound up in volume by the same amount, > while compression changes the volume level "on the fly," as much or as > little as needed, depending on the characteristics of the waveform. > > Hope this helps. > > > _______________________________________________ > PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we > offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com > _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com
