Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.
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By dubmunkey Tue May 17, 2005 7:55 am
right ive never been good at maths- someone hold my hand....what volume reference are we using? the peak value? the average volume?

greg

By lo-fi Tue May 17, 2005 10:03 am
dubmunkey wrote:right ive never been good at maths- someone hold my hand....what volume reference are we using? the peak value? the average volume?

greg


All of it. No reference. We're not compressing so we're not just changing peak, we're taking the level of the whole file down, like lowering a fader on a mixer. If you do this in a digital editor (i.e. destructively, not with a fader in Logic), all the audio information is quantized into the lower bits; the upper ones go unused. The math makes sure the sound uses as many (few) values as you would have when using 12 bits (4096 values, as opposed to 65536 when using 16 bits). It's a way of discarding audio information. When you raise the level back up (normalize), the lost information doesn't magically re-appear, so you keep the '12 bit' sound, but at a normal level. If you were to look at the finished file, you would see a 16bit file, but with 'stepped' levels; from 0 to 65536 in steps of 16.

I could draw it for you...
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By dubmunkey Tue May 17, 2005 10:15 am
thats cool- im just confused in reducing my volume by an equation as all my volumes are negative values...

say volume is at -4db x 0.0625= -0.25

do i take -0.25 off my volume? if so its not going down enough- making the volume -0.25 is boosting it.....

im using sound forge- the volume function and the normalize function in that-

im probably confusing things:

the rms of my beat is at -16..... that gives a result of -1....again taking -1 of my volume is only reducing it a small amount and setting to a value of -1 is obviously boosting the signal by 15db..have i completely got the maths wrong?

greg

By lo-fi Tue May 17, 2005 10:45 am
In Peak and Logic there's a function called 'change gain'. I'm sure SoundForge has it too; maybe it has a different name. With 'change gain' you can set the desired gain change in dB or percentage. Set it to 6.25% and then normalize.

If you can only set dB, try -23dB or thereabouts.
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By dubmunkey Tue May 17, 2005 11:03 am
ahhhhhh 6.25% right!!! (slaps forehead)

not sure you can do it in sf but ill have a look - nice one, cheers

greg