Chris Compressor Inexplicably Failing

[kozikowski]

I download the Car Talk podcast, cut it down, compress the volume range with Chris's Compressor to be more like the broadcast volume range and export a mono WAV sound file. Or that's what I used to do. The last two weeks I tried Chris's Compressor, the cut timeline would flash once and nothing would happen. No compression and as far as I can tell, no change to the show.

I don't know of any significant changes to the machine. I've been doing this for years.

Chris's settings are default except the first value, Compress Ratio which is changed from 0.5 to 0.77 or 0.78. The program is release 2 or version 1.2.6 depending on how you count.

It fails in Audacity 2.1.0. I saved a project, opened it in Audacity 2.1.2 and that fails. I moved the Project to another machine and those two versions fail as well. I Exported a WAV (Microsoft), opened it in one of the Audacity versions and that succeeded. I don't remember which version. I ran out of time to mess with it.

See:
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/clip ... roblem.zip

That's a ~500MB folder containing the failing AUP, _DATA folder and the eventually successfully compressed and exported show...the goal.

Does the show fail for you? Why? How do I make it stop?

Koz

[kozikowski]

Missed a step. OS-X 10.9.5.

Koz

[steve]

Try clicking the "Debug" button instead of the "OK" button. If there's an error message, post it here.

[Robert J. H.]

I download the Car Talk podcast, cut it down, compress the volume range with Chris's Compressor to be more like the broadcast volume range and export a mono WAV sound file. Or that's what I used to do. The last two weeks I tried Chris's Compressor, the cut timeline would flash once and nothing would happen. No compression and as far as I can tell, no change to the show.

I don't know of any significant changes to the machine. I've been doing this for years.

Chris's settings are default except the first value, Compress Ratio which is changed from 0.5 to 0.77 or 0.78. The program is release 2 or version 1.2.6 depending on how you count.

It fails in Audacity 2.1.0. I saved a project, opened it in Audacity 2.1.2 and that fails. I moved the Project to another machine and those two versions fail as well. I Exported a WAV (Microsoft), opened it in one of the Audacity versions and that succeeded. I don't remember which version. I ran out of time to mess with it.

See:
http://www.kozco.com/tech/audacity/clip ... roblem.zip

That's a ~500MB folder containing the failing AUP, _DATA folder and the eventually successfully compressed and exported show...the goal.

Does the show fail for you? Why? How do I make it stop?

Koz

There's either a NAN value (not a number) or a division by zero error (which disappears with dithering and export).
Let me see...

[kozikowski]

Could I have a broken Float-Loop? I think I had that for breakfast the other day.

Code: Select all

break: float loop
if continued: return from BREAK
Function: #<Subr-BREAK: #32a3740>
Arguments:
  "float loop"
Function: #<FSubr-WHEN: #32a2738>
Arguments:
  (> COUNT 10000)
  (BREAK "float loop")
Function: #<FSubr-DO: #32a3f68>
Arguments:
  NIL
  ((< (ABS (- DY Y)) 0.1) I)
  (INCF COUNT)
  (WHEN (> COUNT 10000) (BREAK "float loop"))
  (SETF I (+ START (/ (- END START) 2)))
  (SETF DY (- (INTERP (+ I X)) (INTERP I)))
  (IF (> DY Y) (SETF END I) (SETF START I))
Function: #<FSubr-LET: #32a032c>
Arguments:
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Function: #<Closure-BINARY-SEARCH-FLOAT: #499574c>
Arguments:
  5179
  949.863
  1
  NIL
Function: #<FSubr-IF: #32a3f14>
Arguments:
  (OR (= RES 0) (= RES (1- (LENGTH PARA))))
  RES
  (BINARY-SEARCH-FLOAT RES Y X LEFT)
Function: #<FSubr-LET*: #32a260c>
Arguments:
  ((LEFT (< Y 0)) (RES (BINARY-SEARCH-INT Y X LEFT)) (I (IF (OR (= RES 0) (= RES (1- (LENGTH PARA)))) RES (BINARY-SEARCH-FLOAT RES Y X LEFT))) (YOFF (- Y1 (INTERP I))) (I (- I X1)))
  (LAMBDA (X) (+ (INTERP (+ X I)) YOFF))
Function: #<FSubr-LET: #32a032c>
Arguments:
  ((Y (- Y2 Y1)) (X (- X2 X1)))
  (WHEN (> (ABS Y) (AREF PARA (1- (LENGTH PARA)))) (ERROR "y is too big"))
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  (LET* ((LEFT (< Y 0)) (RES (BINARY-SEARCH-INT Y X LEFT)) (I (IF (OR (= RES 0) (= RES (1- (LENGTH PARA)))) RES (BINARY-SEARCH-FLOAT RES Y X LEFT))) (YOFF (- Y1 (INTERP I))) (I (- I X1))) (LAMBDA (X) (+ (INTERP (+ X I)) YOFF)))
Function: #<Closure-SOLVE-PARA: #4998b1c>
Arguments:
  0
  -1000
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Function: #<FSubr-SETF: #32a0170>
Arguments:
  CUR-PARA
  (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY)
  CUR-PARA-END
  J
Function: #<FSubr-TAGBODY: #32a29a8>
Arguments:
  AGAIN
  (SETF J (1+ I) JY (SAMP J))
  (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY) CUR-PARA-END J)
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  (WHEN FIRST (PROGN (SETF FIRST NIL) (GO AGAIN)))
Function: #<FSubr-LET: #32a032c>
Arguments:
  ((IY (SAMP I)) (FIRST (NULL CUR-PARA)) J JY)
  (TAGBODY AGAIN (SETF J (1+ I) JY (SAMP J)) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY) CUR-PARA-END J) (LOOP (INCF J) (WHEN (NULL (SAMP J)) (PROGN (WHEN (NULL CUR-PARA) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY))) (RETURN))) (SETF JY (SAMP J)) (LET (IY-CHANGED (PARY -1)) (WHEN (AND FIRST (> (/ (/ (- JY IY) RIGHT-WIDTH) (- J I)) 0.01)) (PROGN (SETF IY-CHANGED T) (SETF IY (- JY (* 0.01 (* RIGHT-WIDTH (- J I))))))) (WHEN CUR-PARA (SETF PARY (FUNCALL CUR-PARA J))) (WHEN (>= PARY 0) (RETURN)) (WHEN (OR (< PARY JY) IY-CHANGED (NULL CUR-PARA)) (PROGN (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY)) (SETF CUR-PARA-END J))))) (WHEN FIRST (PROGN (SETF FIRST NIL) (GO AGAIN))))
Function: #<FSubr-WHEN: #32a2738>
Arguments:
  (OR (NULL CUR-PARA) (AND (= I CUR-PARA-END) (SAMP (+ I 2))))
  (LET ((IY (SAMP I)) (FIRST (NULL CUR-PARA)) J JY) (TAGBODY AGAIN (SETF J (1+ I) JY (SAMP J)) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY) CUR-PARA-END J) (LOOP (INCF J) (WHEN (NULL (SAMP J)) (PROGN (WHEN (NULL CUR-PARA) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY))) (RETURN))) (SETF JY (SAMP J)) (LET (IY-CHANGED (PARY -1)) (WHEN (AND FIRST (> (/ (/ (- JY IY) RIGHT-WIDTH) (- J I)) 0.01)) (PROGN (SETF IY-CHANGED T) (SETF IY (- JY (* 0.01 (* RIGHT-WIDTH (- J I))))))) (WHEN CUR-PARA (SETF PARY (FUNCALL CUR-PARA J))) (WHEN (>= PARY 0) (RETURN)) (WHEN (OR (< PARY JY) IY-CHANGED (NULL CUR-PARA)) (PROGN (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY)) (SETF CUR-PARA-END J))))) (WHEN FIRST (PROGN (SETF FIRST NIL) (GO AGAIN)))))
Function: #<FSubr-LABELS: #32a15ec>
Arguments:
  ((SAMP (I) (GET-BUFFER-SAMPLE INPUT-BUF I)))
  (WHEN (OR (NULL CUR-PARA) (AND (= I CUR-PARA-END) (SAMP (+ I 2)))) (LET ((IY (SAMP I)) (FIRST (NULL CUR-PARA)) J JY) (TAGBODY AGAIN (SETF J (1+ I) JY (SAMP J)) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY) CUR-PARA-END J) (LOOP (INCF J) (WHEN (NULL (SAMP J)) (PROGN (WHEN (NULL CUR-PARA) (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY))) (RETURN))) (SETF JY (SAMP J)) (LET (IY-CHANGED (PARY -1)) (WHEN (AND FIRST (> (/ (/ (- JY IY) RIGHT-WIDTH) (- J I)) 0.01)) (PROGN (SETF IY-CHANGED T) (SETF IY (- JY (* 0.01 (* RIGHT-WIDTH (- J I))))))) (WHEN CUR-PARA (SETF PARY (FUNCALL CUR-PARA J))) (WHEN (>= PARY 0) (RETURN)) (WHEN (OR (< PARY JY) IY-CHANGED (NULL CUR-PARA)) (PROGN (SETF CUR-PARA (SOLVE-PARA I IY J JY)) (SETF CUR-PARA-END J))))) (WHEN FIRST (PROGN (SETF FIRST NIL) (GO AGAIN))))))
  (WHEN (= 0 (REM I 1000)) (SET-BUFFER-POS INPUT-BUF I))
  (LET* ((V (FUNCALL CUR-PARA I)) (RES (IF (> V FLOOR) V (+ (* (- V FLOOR) -1 NOISE-FACTOR) FLOOR)))) (IF FIRST-SAMP (PROGN (SETF FIRST-SAMP NIL) RES) (PROGN (INCF I) (IF (AND (NULL (SAMP I)) (NULL (SAMP (1- I)))) NIL RES))))
Function: #<Subr-SEND: #32a4790>
Arguments:
  #<Object: #4974288>
  #<Object: #4974288>
1> 

[Robert J. H.]

As I suspected, there are too many zeros in the beginning (digital silence). Just remove a part of it, it will work afterwards.

Robert

PS.
I like the one with the "Floaty Loops" for breakfast.
Otherwise, the error message is not very helpful--got the same one. However, trust me, the zeros are the cause (are they eatable too?)

[kozikowski]

Except I put those there. The show has a long preamble and a bunch of introduction stuff I don't want. So I drag-select some portion immediately in front of the valuable work and silence it with Command-L. Then I trim a part of that fresh silence along with all the trash and that becomes my new start.

Earlier shows didn't need the Command-L because the production didn't snug unwanted work right up against the valuable work. The older edits consisted purely of drag and delete.

Is this a formerly unknown rule for Command-L? Thou shalt not put it at the beginning of a show? How do I perform that edit?

Koz

[Robert J. H.]

It's basically a rule for Chris' compressor--it has difficulties with any start, I think.
you could normalize the beginning to -120 dB or generate noise there or...

A few zeroes are allowed. The float loop goes up to 10000, it seems. The program tries to fit a parabola to the amplitude over a certain window length. This works only if there is at least one non-zero value. Decreasing the hardness might also be an option.

Robert

[kozikowski]

Why did you pick Normalize for that rather than Amplify?

Koz

[steve]

"Amplify" is limited to +/- 50 dB. For more than that you have to apply the effect multiple times. Normalize does not have that limitation.

The easiest workaround for this limitation (in Chris' Compressor) is to avoid including absolute silence (or "white space") at the start of the selection. If the track has nothing but absolute silence for the first 6 seconds, start the selection from the 6 second mark.