Is there a way to smooth a wave form?

[sten]

For example, I have the following. Now this is of a high gain electric guitar signal - but I wonder whether there's a way to remove those long, thin lines in it - without altering the source timbre?

[kozikowski]

It's always dangerous to start with the waveform and work backwards without hearing the performance. Those peaks may be the attack of the pick on the string and removing them will take all the spark and character out of the show.

Post some of the show.

http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 49&t=64936

The performance seems to "fit" in the timeline very nicely. I bet it sounds like the real thing. Why do you want to modify the waveform?

Are you disappointed that your live performance doesn't sound loud and dense like a CD or iTunes download? Produced shows go through very serious compression and processing to get that sound. Is that the goal?

Koz

[Trebor]

... a way to remove those long, thin lines in it

Steve's limiter will trim off those bits ... http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 65#p162765

A before-after example of Steve's limiter applied to electric guitar ... http://forum.audacityteam.org/download/file.php?id=4368

[sten]

Thanks, Trebor. (And nice to see you here.) I have little experience with compressors and limiters, and hadn't yet gotten round to looking them up.

....Okay, I tried it some. It increased the loudness without altering the sound.


@koz: I want to increase the noise floor. Overall, I'm trying to make a recording that sounds better than what I'm getting. It's funny. I have this old live cassette 4-track recording of a guitarist and me. It was done on a 4-track mixer/recorder of I think early 90s vintage, each of us mic'd mono with a decent but not expensive mic and then hard panned. Nothing special. I have better gear than he did....he was using a solid state amp....and the original tape got heated and munched....I have a digital copy of that abused tape recording....and his sound on it....muffled and garbled....sounds more like an amp than anything I can record now.

[DVDdoug]

Thanks, Trebor. (And nice to see you here.) I have little experience with compressors and limiters, and hadn't yet gotten round to looking them up.

....Okay, I tried it some. It increased the loudness without altering the sound.

Dynamic compression reduces the "dynamic contrast" by making quiet sounds louder and/or making loud sounds quieter. Normally, it's used to boost the overall/average volume without boosting or distorting the peaks. Limiting is a special kind of compression (often just a different compressor setting) that "rounds off" the peaks (and usually the overall level is boosted).

When you overdrive a guitar amplifier, you also get a kind of distorted-compression. Tube amps tend to round-over the peaks, and solid state amps tend to hard-clip (square-off) the peaks when overdriven. Most guitar players tend to prefer tubes, although you can make a solid-state amp sound similar to a tube amp. Hi-fi amps usually sound "too clean" for a guitar amp, until driven to distortion where they usually hard-clip and sound nasty... especially when connected to full-range hi-fi speakers (with tweeters).

@koz: I want to increase the noise floor. Overall, I'm trying to make a recording that sounds better than what I'm getting...

I'm confused. I assume you want to reduce the noise (hum, buzz, hiss)? However, you might want to increase the distortion. Since compression tends to make "everything louder", it also makes backgroud noise louder and that's often a problem.

I have a digital copy of that abused tape recording....and his sound on it....muffled and garbled....sounds more like an amp than anything I can record now.

I'm still confused. Are you saying you like the "muffled and garbled" sound, and you are trying to get that sound with you new recordings? or are you tring to fix-up those "bad" recordings?

If you are making new recordings, what equipment are you using? Or, is your guitar plugged directly into your computer's mic input?

[sten]

@DVDdoug: .....despite the badness of that recording mentioned, you can hear the quality of the amp tone, is what I said. Anyways, in my fiddlings, using compression made everything louder; a guy on another forum told me he used a limiter, and I thought his tracks/stems sounded pretty good, so I thought maybe that was the way to go. Perhaps I want to use dynamic compression instead of limiting?

[Trebor]

... Perhaps I want to use dynamic compression instead of limiting?

I believe Steve's-limiter performs dynamic range compression in an ultra-fast response time.
A standard dynamic range compressor will not respond quickly enough to trim off the "long, thin lines" on the guitar sample.

[steve]

There is also this "brick-wall" type limiter that affects only the high peaks: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 98#p150498

If you want to create maximum loudness, use a dynamic compressor first, then the brick-wall limiter. You will need to experiment on short samples to find settings that give you the sound that you want.

[sten]

... Perhaps I want to use dynamic compression instead of limiting?

I believe Steve's-limiter performs dynamic range compression in an ultra-fast response time.
A standard dynamic range compressor will not respond quickly enough to trim off the "long, thin lines" on the guitar sample.

Yeah, I've been using Steve's limiter. Turning the make-up gain off seems to do what I thought the limiter was created for.

There is also this "brick-wall" type limiter that affects only the high peaks: http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 98#p150498

If you want to create maximum loudness, use a dynamic compressor first, then the brick-wall limiter. You will need to experiment on short samples to find settings that give you the sound that you want.

Coool, thanks.