I’m not sure about I’m posting this in the right category or forum, but anyway I want to get some help with this that is driving me crazy:
I broadcast in a radio program the Saturdays into a Virtual Radio Station, so our project is not very big; however, I try to keep a good quality for the listeners.
And my problem is, I can’t level all the songs to the same volume! Now I’m using an EQ, a normal compressor, a multiband compressor and a limiter to boost the final loudness, but it just works when the songs sound stronger, and even the master is pumpy like in the FM radios. Nevertheless, when there’s a low-volume song, all the processing is not working as good as expected and the volume increases more or less abruptly when a stronger song comes. I thought I could use an AGC effect (like it is in the AM stations) but it seems that’s not the right choice; at least i used the Steve’s effect in Audacity, so I imagine I couldn’t use an effect of the same sort to achieve this purpose.
So, have you some ideas? What could I do to enhance my volume control? Thanks! And sorry again the inconsistencies.
You may be a candidate for Chris’s Compressor. Chris wrote a plugin to Audacity that can be adjusted to sound like the local radio station. He intended it to “even out” operas so he could listen in the car.
I increase the first value, Compression ratio from 0.5 to 0.77 and it’s a dead ringer for KPCC.
I use it because I stopped recording shows off-air a while ago in favor of the on-line podcasts. The podcasts, however, don’t go through broadcast compression and their volume changes are all over the map. Are you familiar with “Car Talk?” Uncompressed, Tom’s laugh is enough to blow out the windows in the car. Chris’s Compressor turns the shows back into KPCC and all the volume problems go away.
The only bad thing about it is that it’s made only in Nikist, but not in VST or DirectX and Ive read that the project has been abandoned; however, I’ll take it into account in order to raise the volume of certain recordings in Audacity. Have you some idea about a similar DirectX/VST plugin with such characteristics?
Oh, really I didn’t know about those sad news… My most felt condolence.
Thanks again for your answer, anyway I’ll continue looking for something else to use it into the radio.
But speaking of Chris’s compressor, do you know about some manual for it? Since it doesn’t have the standard parameters of a common compressor, such as the treshold, the ratio, the attack or the release. Thanks a lot!
No it doesn’t. I got my values from somebody responding to a challenge on the forum. All I know about is the first value, Compression ratio, and the two numbers are normal 0.5 and the one I use 0.77.
This is an illustration of the three blue waves. Top is the original.
A couple you can get by inspection. Maximum Amplitude is pretty straightforward.
The control panel comes with an instruction pack (attached).
There IS a manual for it, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to find it. However, for most purposes (and it sounds as if this includes your use) the only control that you are likely to need to change (assuming that you use the 1.2.6 version) is the first control (the “ratio”). Good values are usually between 0.5 and 0.8 (higher is more compression).
Thanks Stebe for your help. I have listenned the podcast and have read the second page, and now I have a better cknowledgement about the parameters. There are some audio problems that I would like to cover in a separated post, anyway this compressor is working fine for me.
