[icecast] automatic gain control

[Tim Pozar]

On Wed, Nov 14, 2001 at 08:36:36AM -0800, William Goldsmith wrote:
> >From what you describe, your comp/limiter can't possibly be working
> correctly. It should be the last unit in line before the sound card, and
> needs to be adjusted properly. You also need to balance the levels on your
> mixing board (so that the correc t level comes at predictable place on the
> slider). It might be worthwhile to find someone with some sound-mixing or
> radio engineering experience to help you out. Sounds like you're missing
> some very basic stuff.

I have to agree with Bill on this.  Worst case your compressor /
limitor should be getting things in the ball park.  If you need
some help with this, drop me a line.  (I am a broadcast engineer.)

> Software dynamics processing is more involved than you might think. And
> you'd be trying to use software to solve what is basically a hardware/user
> problem.
> 
> Furman also makes total crap. You'd be much better off with one of the newer
> Behringer units. Cheap but very functional. Though that doesn't negate the
> need to take care of the basics mentioned above.

I have had some minor success with the Behringer units.  I bought
a "Composer Pro" and found that it have artifacts that are associated
with lower cost units.  I can't be surprised as the street price
is about $150..  If you don't push these units you can get some
work out of them.  I found that their sweet spot is only a 10dB of
range.  Much beyond that they start to sound crappy.

I may have mentioned this on the list in the past, but Aphex makes
some rather nice boxes that do very well by having a wide dynamic
range and very little artifacts.  You can usually find the Compellor
(compressor) and Dominator (limiter) on Ebay for about $300 and
$500 respectively.

Tim

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