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New "compression" feature?

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:56 pm
by Quest The Wordsmith
I've been working with Goldwave a good long time. I produce hip hop music and I'm always zooming in on the waveforms of kicks and snares, among other things. I've gotten pretty used what music "looks" like. There would be one feature that would be AMAZING to add, so resourceful, and I assume (although I cant program!) pretty easy. I call it a type of "compression" because its the closest thing to what I'm trying to describe.

Lets take a kick drum sample, for instance. A lot of times I'll open up the file and see a few spikes in the waveform. I'll manually select the idividual peak (half a waveform) at the "zero" marks and reduce the volume to a desired level. Then, since that peak is reduced, I can bring up the level of the whole kick sound. Sometimes I have to do this to multiple peaks, but it works great. Imagine doing that to a 4 minute song?! Impossible. But the computer can.

Would it be possible to add a feature that does this? Basically, the user could set the threshold, say -3db, and only the peaks above that threshold would be altered. You would then set a volume level that you want those detected peaks to be reduced to. Goldwave would detect the peak, automatically select that individual peak on the left and right at the "zero" mark, and reduce it to the user-defined level. Sound easy? I hope so. You have no idea how great a feature that would be. To me, for what I do, it would render true compression useless - only for an effect.

At http://www.questthewordsmith.com/peaks.htm I posted some pictures to help illustrate my point. I hope I communicated the feature I'm trying to suggest well enough. Thanks so much for an awesome program! I couldn't do without it.

Quest

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:37 pm
by GoldWave Inc.
The Auto Gain volume effect in GoldWave does something very similar. It attempts to modify the volume of sections of the audio between zero-crossing points. There is a "Peak reducer" preset that may do what you require, though you'll probably need to lower the target volume and silence level to -3dB.

Chris

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 10:48 pm
by Quest The Wordsmith
The peak reducer was the closest feature of Goldwave to what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, it isnt an "exact" science. Waveforms right next to the ones that are intended to be lowered are affected - slightly, but they are affected. At different frequencies this can make a big difference.

I think if a feature was added like I was trying to describe, it would eliminate the need for a limiter or master bus compressor and really let the volume be raised on the whole song. I do it for small sounds, like kicks or snares, but to process a whole song is just too much.

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 2:14 pm
by DewDude420
Basically, the user could set the threshold, say -3db, and only the peaks above that threshold would be altered.
This is known as hard-limiting or a limiter. This is it's EXACT behavior. You specify a dB threshold and whenever the amplitude exceeds, it basically applies stops it and holds it at that level. It's kind of like a compressors over zealous bigger-brother. A compressor till "compress" the amplitude by a specific ratio...a limiter just outright limits it and applies an infinate ratio compression.

Most limiters also have a "gain" feature...this boosts the signal before being sent in to the limiter...kind of like virturally turning down the threshold. It's a bit more complicated, but the basic understanding of how it works is enough to play around.
Waveforms right next to the ones that are intended to be lowered are affected - slightly, but they are affected.
this is just how audio is. you affect one thing, you will modify the rest of the contents around it to a degree...programs do this to prevent RBHT (really bad horrible things) from happening to your audio. It's similar to the bands on an EQ.

Your idea is slightly good, however, implementing it the way you described is not practical....

Try looking around for other compression/limiting plugins. The magic of Goldwave is you can add a plugin to add functionality the stock program doesn't have. Any good audio engineer has a whole plethora of plugins in his personal tool kit....we don't rely JUST on what the internal program gives us.

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Wed Apr 14, 2010 4:24 pm
by wvernier
I record church services and put the sermons on CDs for others. In order to compress the occasional peaks and allow the low volume portions to rise relatively, I used to Change Volume on the loud portions between zero crossings. After doing that enough times, I could Maximize the volume (normalize), and it would be ready for CD writing. That was a very tedious process. I would also use some compression to further reduce medium loud passages.
Then, I ran across PeakSlammer, a Direct-X plug-in that promised to change the gain between each zero-crossing to force the peak to be changed to a chosen level. As I am sure you can see, this produces less distortion than the normal compression. PeakSlammer does exactly what we were all doing by Changing Volume on the portion of the waveform between two consecutive zero-crossings, BUT it continues to do it for the Selected portion of the file.
This may be fixed by now, but I have not been able to get PeakSlammer to work with GoldWave. I finally bought Acoustica, which did allow PeakSlammer to work. Now, I record and crop with GoldWave. Then I load the file into Acoustica to use PeakSlammer to set the upper threshhold. Then, I reload the file into GoldWave for Maximizing the volume before creating the CDs.
PeakSlammer saves me a huge amount of time. Look it up on Google. I'm not sure that PeakSlammer can't be reverse-engineered without copywrite problems. It sure is useful.
Bill

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Tue May 25, 2010 9:14 am
by smithdwsn
It is very nice feature included. It woks very effective and reliable. It is fast and quick response. This is the best option for compression.

Re: New "compression" feature?

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2011 4:41 pm
by MixMasterJenn
Hey! I know I'm posting in an almost year old thread (and I really do appreciate you letting me post), but I wanted to know if any features have been featured on Goldwave since then. I'm very new to the world of audio mixing/editing (and Goldwave) and one of the prerequisites for me downloading/installing an audio program is to have this type of "pseudo-compression" feature. Since this request/suggestion, have any new features been implemented? Not only will this save me time in the long run for doing sound design, but I can only imagine the beautiful sounds coming from my surround sound system. Either way, I can't wait to hear from the development team. I'll definitely be back to inquire about more facets of Goldwave. See you all later, folks!!!!