On Fri, 15 Dec 2000 05:35:32 -0600, David Shin wrote:
I may have described a limiter, but I didn't intend to. I wasn't thinking anything along the lines of looking ahead either. I think something very easy to implement would be to just reset the attenuation setting after X samples of no clipping. This would of course increase the number of overall clips that "get past" the decoder, but would avoid the problem of a peak that sets an attenuation too large for the entire file. How would this be more audible, as I can keep setting and resetting the attenuation manually with no hiccups? Am I making sense?
This is the release parameter of a compressor/limiter. www.prorec.com has some nice info on compressors and other dynamic processors.
The difference is with a limiter(good one) you won't get clips and won't pull back the material too much. Since we see only a few nasty peaks and only very little sustained clipping, I suppose setting a base attenuation to -0.5 dB and having an optional limiter cut away anything else that pops up by more than 0.3 dB will ensure a nice smooth transient. I do urge you to check out a few compressors so you know what happens when a limiter starts going to work and how the transients look when it's done.
Tony