>I find the problem of intermittent loud noises interesting, and I
>take note for future reference of your decision not to try to
>compress it.
Peter,
I normally record about 18dB low and bring the level up afterwards.
What I tried to do was to use the Audacity compressor as a peak
limiter, to restore the level between the pheasant calls but it did a
more general compression which killed the recording.
The other major problem was the recovery time after each peak which
gave a pumping effect on everything else.
> Would you have compressed it if it had only called once or twice?
No. Perhaps I would do a manual edit on the peaks but that would have
also sounded odd.
> I've been wondering about turning on the limiter on my Sony PCM M10,
> but haven't had time to test it. I'm wary of using something if I
> don't know if it might wreck a recording. Does it only kick in when
> the recording's about to be wrecked anyway, or does it affect
> quieter sounds too?
That's a good question but I'll keep my answer short. :-) It triggers
on the peaks but brings everything down in level and, as above, there
is a recovery time for everything else so you get a "hole" after each
peak.
I have the limiters on my mixer and recorders turned off to avoid the
pumping effect if nothing else. The loudest pheasant peaks were in
fact clipped by the digitiser in the recorder, but this is often
acceptable. With door slams, thunder, gunshots, etc, a bit of
distortion makes it sound better because your ears would be doing this
anyway. I could have used the Audacity "hard limiter" (which is really
a peak clipper) on the pheasant but that would have made it sound
rough.
The general answer is to record low with digital, as you can pull the
level up a lot afterwards with no audible effect. You have about 3
bits "spare" on 16 bit digitising, hence the 18dB mark, more if you
have a noisy background. Once you've got compression or limiting and
pumping after the peaks it can't be repaired.
We've got too used to compression in all sorts of broadcasting, and
commercials are extra compressed to sound louder. My pet hate is news
reports with an automatic record which brings up the background mush
and then they put it through a noise gate. Horrible.
David
David Brinicombe
North Devon, UK
Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum - Ambrose Bierce
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