"Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Effects, Recipes, Interfacing with other software, etc.
Forum rules
If you require help using Audacity, please post on the forum board relevant to your operating system:
Windows
Mac OS X
GNU/Linux and Unix-like
Post Reply
Trebor
Posts: 9847
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

"Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by Trebor » Sun Nov 07, 2010 4:51 am

Would it be possible to create an Audacity plug-in which would automatically modify the equalization of a track so its frequency response closely matched that of another track.

e.g. export spectrum text, ("spectrum.txt" file ), from each track, calculate the differences, then somehow import the difference data to the graphic equalizer and apply it to the track. [or automatically apply the “difference” equalization directly without the “import to graphic equaliser” step].

I was thinking such a plug-in would be useful for continuity purposes.

This idea seems somewhat similar to the “78rpm EQ Curve Generator” project and could be used for that purpose, generically : you wouldn’t need to know the different equalisation settings used by the different record labels. If you have a standard 78 recording and a recording from another 78, the hypothetical “spectrum follower” plug-in could alter the equalization of the latter to match the former.
Last edited by Trebor on Sun Nov 07, 2010 10:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 68902
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by kozikowski » Sun Nov 07, 2010 5:18 am

+1.

Crinkle newspapers in front of a very high quality microphone and then crinkle newspapers in front of a crappy microphone -- same environment. Apply the difference to an equilization of the crappy microphone.

Koz

billw58
Forum Staff
Posts: 5565
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:10 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by billw58 » Sun Nov 07, 2010 3:14 pm

There's a proposal page for just such as thing on the wiki: http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Propo ... hancements

Koz, want to add yourself under "Developer/QA backing"?

-- Bill

whomper
Probationer
Posts: 1251
Joined: Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:36 pm
Operating System: Please select

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by whomper » Mon Nov 08, 2010 2:16 am

Trebor wrote:Would it be possible to create an Audacity plug-in which would automatically modify the equalization of a track so its frequency response closely matched that of another track.
...
I was thinking such a plug-in would be useful for continuity purposes.

This idea seems somewhat similar to the “78rpm EQ Curve Generator” project and could be used for that purpose, generically : you wouldn’t need to know the different equalisation settings used by the different record labels. If you have a standard 78 recording and a recording from another 78, the hypothetical “spectrum follower” plug-in could alter the equalization of the latter to match the former.
i can think of other uses where this would save a lot of work

assuming you have a "standard" 78 record to test with

i think i would just tweak a 78 by ear using tone controls

kozikowski
Forum Staff
Posts: 68902
Joined: Thu Aug 02, 2007 5:57 pm
Operating System: macOS 10.13 High Sierra

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by kozikowski » Mon Nov 08, 2010 3:06 am

<<<Koz, want to add yourself under "Developer/QA backing"?>>>

I have an account. How do I do this:

==Developer/QA Backing==
Bill <br />
Koz <br />

billw58
Forum Staff
Posts: 5565
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:10 am
Operating System: macOS 10.15 Catalina or later

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by billw58 » Mon Nov 08, 2010 4:54 am

Koz:
Did it for you.

-- Bill

Trebor
Posts: 9847
Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2008 5:22 pm
Operating System: Windows 8 or 8.1

Re: "Spectrum follower" plug-in ?

Post by Trebor » Wed Nov 10, 2010 8:02 am

This hypothetical "spectrum follower" feature could be applied in a similar fashion to noise reduction: in 2 steps ...

1. Highlight a section of one track, then press a button, lets call it “save spectrum”.

2. Highlight another section, (typically on another track), then press an “apply saved spectrum” button and that portion of the second track is equalised so its spectrum matches the first sample.

Personally I’d be prepared to copy and paste the spectrum.txt data into nyquist code, like this

but the method I have described above would be more widely acceptable.

I’m not sure that the (limited ?) demand for such a feature would justify the effort required to create it.

Post Reply