DJGold

winsorpd · Joined: February 21st, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Gorham, ME

Howdy,

All you OTS users, of which I am one, do you bypass the built in compression unit? Do you set up a custom pattern? I notice that all the settings that are pre-set rob me of highs or lows, depending on the song and setting. On some songs the compressor just pumps too much so a big bass note will compress audio across the bandwith.

Thoughts?

Dave

Bryan Durio · Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:36 pm Post subject:

Dave, the pumping is directly related to the Compressor being a single-band processor. I hope that Ots Labs gives us at least a 3-band processor in the future. (No comments from the Peanut Gallery!)

I used a variation of the Radio preset from 2003 until just a few weeks ago, when I tried a setting that Marion (sweet-lovelle) posted on jumpinjeff.net about a year ago. DP settings from the left,

AGP: -60, -5, 3, 500, 1
Compressor: -12, 3, 1.3, 1, 100

The volume is very consistent and I don't get the breathing that the Radio setting (especially) gives me. I also get more kick and the lows are solid. Try it and let me know what you think!

winsorpd · Joined: February 21st, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Gorham, ME

Hi Bryan,

I will give it a try. I was getting discouraged when I'd play something like "Hollaback Girl" and when that bass note would hit, the whole song would get very quiet.

Thanks again for the input.

Dave

Bryan Durio · Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:34 am Post subject:

Hey Dave,

Yep, I found a number of tunes that would just get swallowed by a pumping bass line! Let me know what you think of the new DP settings.

Bryan

TheBartman47 · Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 12:37 pm Post subject:

Can you adjust the release time? Quick attack and quick release will avoid pumping, even with a full bandwidth compressor.

Bryan Durio · Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 7:52 pm Post subject:

But having a quick attack and release will have the overall volume level bouncing up and down with a single-band processor! The usual rule of thumb is to have a release time that is longer than the attack time.

TheBartman47 · Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 2:06 am Post subject:

I've never had that problem. I set attack and release to be very quick, like around 100ms or faster. Also, I don't compress the daylight out of it; keep it light a subtle. However, for prerecorded music, I don't compress at all since in the recording process, it's already been compressed quite a bit. Any more in my opinion is just excessive. Also, why are you wanting to compress the music in the first place? As a limiter for speaker protection or something?

Bryan Durio · Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:06 pm Post subject:

I think I misled you. :oops: My comments about pumping are for the Auto Gain Control!

You are right - modern music has the daylights compressed out of it. Case in point: Livin' La Vida Loca.

winsorpd · Joined: February 21st, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Gorham, ME

Bartman,

I think they compress the audio (by default) because of the levels the music was recorded at. We do this all the time in radio to smooth out peaks and valleys. OTS is also used for internet broadcast (radio) so I believe that is why this is included. BTW, there is no way to turn it off. At least that I've found.

Dave

TheBartman47 · Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject:

In radio, yes the signal is compressed even more, but this is for the purpose of maximum signal saturation without causing sidebands to bleed over into neighboring radio frequencies. (This compression happens just before the signal is muxed in the first carrier stage.) The compression you speak of is also at the sound booth, then there's the compression done on the original recording. So in radio, there's at least three stages of compression going on, and sometimes even more. This is also why music recorded off the radio onto your mix tapes back in the '80s had a sound that alwaysed seemed a little different than what the real recording had (also, FM radio is bandwidth limited to 15KHz, so all sounds higher than that get chopped off, but that's another ball of wax.) I ramble on too much.

dokai · Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 11:06 am Post subject:

TheBartman47 wrote: I ramble on too much.

Nah, that's part of your charm. :hahaha:
Besides, a lot of us pick up good info from your "rambles". Don't worry about us. If it gets too bad, we can just scroll onward. :wink:

Bryan Durio · Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 12:50 pm Post subject:

winsorpd wrote: BTW, there is no way to turn it off. At least that I've found.
Dave, all you have to do is go to the Dynamics Processor dialog box and click the Automatic Gain Control and the Compressor buttons off at the top of the dialog!

winsorpd · Joined: February 21st, 2005 Posts: 110 Location: Gorham, ME

Bryan,

I just started messing with the controls and was directed to them thanks to your post.

I'll mess around and see what magic I can create!

Thanks,

Dave

Bryan Durio

The variation on the Radio preset that I used is:

AGC: -42, -12, 9, 35, 70
Compressor: -3, 3, 9.0, 1, 100

That setting produces a good sound also. Heck, I used it for over two years!

Keith Ling · Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:11 pm Post subject:

Question-

Does the compressor work during playback or during ripping?

In other words, if I try this out, will I need to modify these settings before I rip?

Jumpin' Jeff

The Compressor does not change the original file. It does modify the playback output on the fly.

Ots stresses that it is best not to change the original file. No destructive changes shall be made to the original file. No normalization , trim, fade, or reference information is made to the audio data itself, but marked in a seperate control information chunk that resides along side the audio data.