Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

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loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

Greetings Goldwave HQ,

I have begun a project which may include creating a guide for those who want to do a specific task for WAV files
from DVD which are processed for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC.) Sometimes this is called Normalization and GW may have some specific naming conventions for it as well such as the MaxMatch and Match Volume features.

My goal is to make a readable and repeatable process for making what I'm calling "Personal Edition" AVI files for movies.
Personal Edition here means (according to one repsonse from a Goldwave user)

Normalize (set peaks to 0db whcih GW calls "maximize")
Use compressor to 'reduce loud parts'
Normalize again to bring up the average level

and that the Personal Edition would be appropriate for late night viewing etc without the tympany blasing after some dialog.

My object media is spoken word on live stage from prerecorded performances. Say you wanted to have a Personal Edition for use with headphones and a laptop or you are viewing late night and want the dialog at adequate level but everything else at moderate level-- a sort of "Transformers" in reverse.

What is the current best practice to do this with a WAV file from a DVD? And in what sequence?

To this point I have used GW with Maxmatch only-- no file preparation just the WAV from the source. After MaxMatch the waveform in GW looks unchanged. I am looking at high peak at + .05 and low peak at - .05 both before and after Max Match.

Please show how to do the correct operations described and in sequence.



Congratulations on 20 years of Goldwave
loninappleton, Goldwave owner circa 2001
loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

After several listening experiments with this soundtrack from the live stage I am losing human voice quality from
(in GW Effects > Expander-Compressor > Boost Quiet Parts [save that much] and Reduce Loud Parts.

I may be able to simplify what changes should be made:

1.) Raise the Volume to another level *but* lower the parts which are very loud currently (see description of drum sound below).

2.) And preserve the best natural voice content with no clipping or other distortions in the voice range.

One instrument is causing all these headaches to the best of my listening: a tom-tom style military drum 16th Century period. The sort used in parades and slung from the neck-- but large. Can An EQ setting in Effects or elsewhare from GW lower such a band individually? And where do I find the frequency of instruments as a list?
Gord
Posts: 391
Joined: Thu May 21, 2009 4:26 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by Gord »

loninappleton wrote:Can An EQ setting in Effects or elsewhare from GW lower such a band individually?
The "Parametric EQ" and "Spectrum Filter" effects (both found under Effect > Filter) offer the most precise control over the equalization effect. They both accomplish essentially the same thing, they just use two different ways of specifying the range(s) of frequencies whose volume is to be altered. Click the "Help" button in the dialog for each effect to see the details.
loninappleton wrote:And where do I find the frequency of instruments as a list?
I did a Google search for "frequency range of common instruments" and the first item on the list was the handy interactive chart here:

Interactive Frequency Chart - Independent Recording Network

.
loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

Wow that chart is the nuts: Point to an intrument and get all the data on it.

Much appreciated. In the program, then, it should be possible to "thin" the amount of tom-tom range.

Sometimes with the search engine(s) it's knowing how to ask the question.
loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

I have made some progress on this topic and it is a bit of a crosspost for convenience. But I have a question related to Goldwave specifically which follows

While doing that I found a software in as Freeware (most easily obtained from CNET as it is no longer developed) named with the catchy title The Levelator.

The Levelator was made and released as Freeware but no longer in development. It was made specifically for podcasts to balance different voice microphones for level matching. This has worked well with my project. Loud drumming and trumpet fanfares at scene changes are suppressed. I did not have to do any volume changing once a good level was found, overall level was raised.

More importantly there is no distortion in human speech which I started to hear with trying to raise the 'floor' and lower loud parts in Goldwave.

I have another test AVI in mind which is an anime with lots of firepower and explosions. Will see what The Levelator does with that one for late night viewing.

Here is a bit on The Levelator:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levelator

Now for my Goldwave question: Since The Levelator does Compression, Normalization and Limiting all at once, how would these things be broken down into discreet operations in Goldwave? Example: is there a particular order of operation for each element? Perhaps a new topic called Compression, Normalization and Limiting etc. should be made to cover this.
DougDbug
Posts: 2172
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 3:33 pm
Location: Silicon Valley

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by DougDbug »

The Levelator is unique as it's a "one click" solution and there are no optional settings.

GoldWave also has Effect -> Volume -> Auto Gain which should be somewhat similar to The Levelator, except you have several optional settings, and overall I would guess its not as sophisticated as The Levelator. Like The Levelator, Auto Gain is optimized for speech (not movies or music).

Audio editing & processing usually requires careful listening, human judgement, and trial-and-error. It's just like photo or video editing... Before you start adusting brightness or contrast you need to look at the image and analyze the problem. Then you can experiment with adjustments to see if you can make an improvement.

It would probably help if you read as much as you can about compression, limiting, and normalizing, and their various settings, and experiment with these things one at a time so you can understand what they do to the sound, including their side-effects.

With enough experimentation, maybe you can find a procedure that works for you on most movies.

As a general rule, it's a good idea to normalize (maximize) before you start, and again before your final save. Since GoldWave's compressor does not have make-up gain, normalization is pretty much a requirement after compression.

I'm not sure if you need a limiter, but I don't think GoldWave's Compressor/Expander makes a very good limiter.... There is a "Hard Limit" preset, but that just hard-clips (distorts) the waveform. A good limiter needs a soft-knee, so that it starts kicking-in with a small compression ratio (multiplier) below the limit and only hits infinite compression at the limit. That way, the waveform get's rounded-over instead of clipped-off.
loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

I have done some reading about compression settings and tried to get the terminology like floor and knee and whatnot.
Over a Reddit there is a good discussion which I saved which may be of use to others:

The topic is introduced from this about VLC:
http://www.instantfundas.com/2012/06/di ... d-use.html

The Reddit is referenced in it and found here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/LifeProTips/com ... ue_is_too/

I have to review these myself. I don't know if there's text book style tutorial on it but the Reddit thread is quite long and detailed. Hard to read that many posts though.

Thanks for answering. It sounds like the Levelator is a strong product-- one I found by accident.
mojo.jojo
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2015 9:02 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by mojo.jojo »

loninappleton wrote:I have done some reading about compression settings and tried to get the terminology like floor and knee and whatnot.
Over a Reddit there is a good discussion which I saved which may be of use to others:

The topic is introduced from this about VLC:
[LINK]

The Reddit is referenced in it and found here:

[LINK]

I have to review these myself. I don't know if there's text book style tutorial on it but the Reddit thread is quite long and detailed. Hard to read that many posts though.

Thanks for answering. It sounds like the Levelator is a strong product-- one I found by accident.
hey loninappleton,

just wanted to say thanks for detailing this post, the levelator has solved some problems for me too.
loninappleton
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2004 3:55 am

Re: Use Goldwave for Dynamic Range Compression (DRC)

Post by loninappleton »

Yes, since this post some time back I have tried to use the Audacity "Leveller" option as well but it does not do the same job.

Here is what I think the reason is: Levelator brings all the voice frequencies forward whether loud or soft. This works well for me in processing recorded live theatre performances where wireless radio mic.s are used and possibly 5 channel features added for the home market.

A quick fix is use VLC > Tools > Effects > Compression tab. Check the active box and put the last three sliders on maximum to listen and watch your content.

Levelator is the best solution I've found to the "midnight theatre" problem where sudden loud sounds can be disturbing
while listening and viewing content.


For any engineers reading, a Bluray player with on screen menu option to do the midnight theatre compression or max gain
would be something I would get.
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