wrote:
> Dear Walt,
>
> Thanks for the thorough explanation. You are correct, what I was talking=
> about was Automatic Gain Control which is EVIL in nature recording..at le=
ast it
> was for me. So the limiter in the Portadisc will just decrease the sounds=
that
> are nearing "clipping" and won't be constantly lowering and raising the
> constant background sounds like rivers and insects?
That is correct. It's still preferable not to need a limiter at all, by
setting your record levels down enough to keep the peaks from clipping.
I rarely set the portadisc so the meter is indicating peaks higher than
-10dB, and usually shoot for -14 or so. When I transfer those recordings
in and analyze them with my software, the actual top peaks may be at -6
to -8 or so. They are just too fast for the meter to display.
There are situations where you have little hope of avoiding all
clipping, and then a limiter is worth trying. As long as it's just
fixing short transients of , hopefully, not your main subject, it's
usually fine. If it gets to where it's dealing with a lot of the meat of
the recording you need to reduce the gain.
Automatic gain control is really nice for unattended recording where
things could be wide ranging. But, if you are there it's way better to
develop good gain setting practices.
If you want to have a nightmare, try doing serious filtering to a
recording from automatic gain control. Or even one in which you kept
changing the gain. Once you get into filtering, it quickly becomes
apparent the only sensible way is to set the gain and don't mess with it
for a recording session. And that's where experience in your particular
equipment pays off.
Walt
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