Actually, for some of us, it can remain pretty impossible to understand even with a lot of effort, our skills and talents can lie elsewhere, that's why so many of us are grateful for these lists and people such as yourself being subscribed - Andy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 4:38 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: CDEX and normalising | "I wish I could get my head round some of this stuff the way some of you | guys can." | | It helps if you have emerged from some kind of technical background in | audio which at least for some portion of my life past and present I | have, but it is not impossible to undertstand with some effort. | | | Regards. | | Tristram Llewellyn | tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | Technical Support | Sight and Sound Technology | | -----Original Message----- | From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf | Of Andy Collins | Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 3:31 PM | To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | Subject: [access-uk] Re: CDEX and normalising | | Tristram, I was hoping for a more thorough explanation than this :] I | wish I | could get my head round some of this stuff the way some of you guys can. | | Thanks for the explanation, I always try to achieve the best sound | [subjective I know] but because I have some high frequency deafness, I | can't | trust my ears to know what others hear that I do not! - | | Andy | ----- Original Message ----- | From: "Tristram Llewellyn" <tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> | To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> | Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 2:45 PM | Subject: [access-uk] Re: CDEX and normalising | | || The term "normalisation" when used in its proper sense has nothing to | do || with making music tracks apparantly have the same volume level. I am || not sure how CDEX implements the feature you speak of, I haven't used | it || for a few years now. || || The process of normalisation is used in order to optomise the apparant || level of audio to the maximum extent allowed by whatever bit depth 16 | or || 24bits of the digital audio path. What normalisation generally does | is || look for the loudest parts of audio material and arrange things so | that || those land at the top or near to the top of the 16bit audio range || without causing digital clipping. There are two types of | normalisation || and one thus described is peak level normalisation which is perhaps | the || most common. Normalisation is desirable because it helps maximise the || maximum dynamic range possible whilst reducing to a minium | quantisation || errors at low level. || || However the problem may be that you can normalise two tracks so they || peak at the same level but the apparant volume still seems to be || different because of the differences in the material which mean that | the || average level of the sound of one of the tracks is higher. It is most || likely that the one with the higher average level will be determined | by || the human listener as the loudest. This can also be made to happen || artificially during TV ad breaks and you find yourself wanting to turn || down the sound. In order to catch our attention commercials heavy | heavy || audio compression applied to the sound to reduce the size of audio | peaks || and turning up the makeup gain for the lower level signal so that the || average level becomes higher whilst the differences between the | highest || level of sound and lowest is less, result, something that sounds | louder || and more exciting. || || In such cases as yours would would either need the help of software or || use your own ears to compare two or more audio programs and even out | the || difference beween them as an average level because most likely the || normalisation process will not help. Also if you are sourcing from || commercial CDs this process will have already taken place. A breed of || individual in the audio industry known as a mastering engineer will be || making sure that all the tracks of an album sound like they fit | together || and make sure the levels appear to the human listener to be roughly | the || same. There are all sorts of other things they do to given an abum | its || sound if that is the kind of project they are working on. I know | iTunes || certainly a facility called sound check which evens out levels between || tracks in your music library but I don't it does it particularly well || come to think of it. || || To add further fuel to the fire the human ear is not completely linear || therefore what a machine or software "hears" (I used the term | advisedly || here) may not be what a human perceives. The vast majority of all the || acoustic energy in most pop music certainly is contained in the lower || end of the spectrum, thus a regeah track may sound about the same | level || as something mush less bassy but the former still has more acoustic || energy in it whilst still sounding quieter and register a higher audio || level (as measured). || || Hope this helps. || || Regards. || || Tristram Llewellyn || tristram.llewellyn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx || Technical Support || Sight and Sound Technology || || -----Original Message----- || From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On | Behalf || Of Andy Collins || Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 11:15 AM || To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx || Subject: [access-uk] CDEX and normalising || || Hi all || || Within CDEX settings, are tabs for normalisation, will this just make || all || tracks have the same volume, in other words, when ripping tracks, does || it || equalise the volume so that some tracks are not louder or quieter than || others? Am I right in thinking it doesn't affect the sound quality? || || Thanks - || || Andy || || ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- || ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] || ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: || ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx || ** and in the Subject line type || ** unsubscribe || ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the || ** immediately-following link:- || ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] || ** or send a message, to || ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq || || || ______________________________________________________________________ || This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. || For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email || ______________________________________________________________________ || ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- || ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] || ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: || ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx || ** and in the Subject line type || ** unsubscribe || ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the || ** immediately-following link:- || ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] || ** or send a message, to || ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq || || || -- || This email has been verified as Virus free. || Virus Protection and more available at http://www.plus.net | | ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- | ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] | ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: | ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | ** and in the Subject line type | ** unsubscribe | ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the | ** immediately-following link:- | ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] | ** or send a message, to | ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq | | | ______________________________________________________________________ | This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. | For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email | ______________________________________________________________________ | ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- | ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] | ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: | ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx | ** and in the Subject line type | ** unsubscribe | ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the | ** immediately-following link:- | ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] | ** or send a message, to | ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq | | | -- | This email has been verified as Virus free. | Virus Protection and more available at http://www.plus.net ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** access-uk-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq