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RE: Dynamic range power

Posted by tomservo (M) on January 7, 2009 at 20:22:32

In Reply to: RE: Dynamic range power posted by Paul Joppa on January 7, 2009 at 18:45:36:

Hi Paul

Keep in mind there are several layers to this problem.

If you take a good microphone like an earthworks m-50 and record live sounds, one finds there is a huge dynamic range present even in everyday sounds.
Now, to be clear, I am not talking about what shows up on a Vu meter or what sounds “loud” to your ears, I am talking about the instantaneous microphone voltage the acoustic pressure produces, which is different.

With analogue tape, the problem was framed nicely. There was the dread noise floor, most of the time, this was –30 to –40db below zero dB depending on the track width and tape speed. At 15ips, my quarter inch four track machines noise floor ran about -35dB.
Zero dB was not a brick wall limit either but rather a reference distortion level, you could go to +3 on peaks with no “audible” problems.
Dolby noise reduction, when that became available did help a lot, the Teac unit I had pushed the noise to about –60dB if I recall but had minor audible dynamic “effects”.
The issue with CD / digital format is that zero dB or full scale is absolutely a brick wall and the resolution decreases /granularity increases as the level falls.

The peak levels I was speaking of are only visible on an oscilloscope of other equipment made to display peak voltages, or displayed after digital recording via software.
An analogue Vu meter, even on ‘fast” has a significant integration time and is blind to these peaks.
That was a reasonable thing then as they wanted something related to apparent loudness, hence “Volume Unit” meter.
As I had observed, you couldn’t hear this effect as a discrete flaw, like traditional clipping. This instantaneous clipping only became detectable when you switched to an amplifier (in my case it was the amplifier limiting) that didn’t clip the short transients like that.
Then, the unclipped version sounded more dynamic, not necessarily louder as the average level (which is what you hear as loudness) was essentially the same in each.

Lastly, just like the subject of subwoofers makes some people wrongly think of booming bass and not frequency extension, it is important to be clear here that this isn’t so much about apparent loudness but preserving / reproducing the maximum amount of dynamics, the liveness in the recording.
You can’t hear this as a discrete problem, that is why the Vu meter doesn’t show it, but you can hear it when you compare to “without”. Without just sounds dynamically bigger, more real.

Now how loud one listens well that is a personal thing. Some studio guys like it loud, some don’t. I am not about "loud" so much. As for me I like to record, I am interested in stereo imaging and if you tried any of the recordings I made, there is No compression or limiting. Now, on a normal stereo, a wide dynamic recording like the fireworks uses up all the headroom at a very low subjective volume.

I just want to be able to produce what ever I want, at realistic levels if i want and not ever be limited by my system.

It will be interesting to see how the fireworks and other music look on his software so far as range etc.
Best,
Tom

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