Compressor needed
On 8/16/2010 8:10 AM, ---MIKE--- wrote:
I asked this once before but I can't find the information I received. I
find that many CDs and all SACDs have too wide a volume range. If I
want to hear the soft sections, then the loud parts are too loud. (The
BIS Beethoven symphonies are particularly bad in this respect). Can
anyone suggest a decent compressor that I can use to "even out" the
volume levels?
The BIS symphonies don't have a "too wide" dynamic range.
You just want compressed music.
There are two kinds (well, more than two ...) of volume compressors:
those that try to have a short time constant so ALL the soft parts get
pushed up, and those that are in effect gain riders, as if somebody
was reading the score and changing the volume over periods of
say 20 seconds or more. The latter allows sharp volume spikes (the Haydn
"Surprise Symphony" for example) to offer full effect, the former does not.
Which do you want?
I have never found a good one that does the latter (gain riding) well,
so I wrote on in software. There are plenty of the former.
I have found that my compressor works great for iPod use, especially
outdoors, or in a car.
Doug McDonald
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