Re: OT: brickwall

[Charles Zwicky <cazwicky@earthlink.net>]

Title: Re: OT: brickwall

Ronan,

 Thanks for restating everything I already said on the subject... ;-)

I'd like to correct your misaprehension of analog tape saturation.

Saturation is not an exception to any limiting 'law' since it's not the same thing.

It's simply magnetic clipping.

 As I stated erlier, there are several instantanious analog peak limiters on the market.

Good luck on your article!

> There have been some excellent responses
> to this question already but let me pile on.
>
> There are a few devices that do limiting
> before the converters, and some do it very well, but in the analog
> world it is not possible to catch all the sharp transients. This is
> what changed in the digital world, where the software could anticipate
> the transients (by delaying the sources material). In the analog
> world, the signal has already passed the threshold before the limiter
> knows its time to turn it down. The natural compression/saturation of
> analog tape is an exception to this.
>
> This is a timely subject, as I am in the
> middle of writing a magazine about this issue called "RED =
> BAD".
>
> If you are recording to 24 bit and
> feeling the need to record with some kind of limiter in front of the
> converters, it means you are recording incorrectly. There is no reason
> to record your levels so hot that you are running the risk of clipping
> the converters. Many people will get led astray and be told that you
> should be recording your levels as hot as possible with out hitting
> the red (OdBfs). There are many reasons why this is not advantageous
> which are beyond the scope of what I will write about here, but the
> biggest one is that if the performance ends up being more dynamic than
> you predicted, you will have clipped the converters and distorted the
> material. I make about half my living mixing records that other people
> have recorded, and I am pretty good at it but there are a few things
> that will completely tie my hands or not be "fixable", the
> absolute worst is super hot levels that clip. with the exception of
> the close mics on drums, there is no fix for this!!! (The close mic
> fix is replacing the drums with samples)
>
> Many people will record really hot levels
> because they feel the need to get  maximum resolution and detail,
> while this is an argument that is worth considering, in practical use
> it is just a bad idea. All meters are different, but keep in mind that
> if you are recording at 24 bit and your meters are going about half
> way up the meter scale, you have far surpassed the resolution of an
> audio CD and I think its safe to say that if you are looper using a
> bunch of FX, you will have surpassed the resolution/dynamic range of
> the source material being recorded when the meters on your software
> are less than a 1/4 up your meters.
>
> Do not confuse recording levels with
> final CD levels. Once you have recorded the music there are lots of
> ways to cleanly and safely get your levels to compete with other
> commercial CDs
>
>
> Ronan Chris Murphy
> www.venetowest.com (Production & mixing: King Crimson,
> Chucho Valdes, Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio, CGT...)
> www.homerecordingbootcamp.com (Workshops around the world
> teaching the art and craft of recording )
> www.livesofthesaints.net (The hottest ambient noise duo
> since Sonny & Cher)
>
> On Apr 18, 2007, at 9:36 PM, Raul Bonell
> wrote:
> > does anybody know of a good (.. and
> > cheap?) brickwall limiter for
> > preventing clips when recording into the
> > line-in of a soundcard... I'm
> > assuming here, this can't be done via
> > software... thanks, raül.
> >
> >
> > --
> > The Playing Orchestra: http://www.telefonica.net/web2/tpo
> > Chain Tape Collective: http://www.ct-collective.com
> > TPO at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theplayingorchestra

--

...
http://www.zmix.net