After 625 songs in my Pop playlist, I finally switched to Classical to hear the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on my empeg. I know it's just range compression and all, but it's so quiet! I had to increase volume to the unheard of -5db from the typical -17.5db. The dynamic range was very drastic. I had to crank the empeg to 0db to hear the pianissimo solo passages.

This is not at all how the piece sounded on my radio a few mornings earlier. Sure, they played a different recording, but still. Yet when I dropped the volume to -10db and turned on VolAdj to Low, the dynamic range matched what I heard on the radio. VolAdj gave readings between 1.5 and 2.87 (the max for Low setting?), so it wasn't adjusting too drastically.

So, I wonder, do radio stations use dynamic range compression when they send their music? Probably more likely for classical and jazz pieces than average pop radio. I drive to work every morning, windows down (yes, even often in snow and rain), and can hear radio classical music rather well at a slightly increased volume.

Is there a trick to getting my empeg Classical music to sound comfortably audible? Sure, use VolAdj, but maybe something when I rip the CDs? Despite reading the FAQ about this, I still can't imagine that my classical CDs ever hit the volume peak even once. Maybe once per CD and every track (movements of larger works) are normalized relative to that one instance. Heh, I'd take a clip or two if it'd just "sound louder". Sorry, Tony, if I'm causing you a headache.

I am waiting for Doug (tanstaafl) to respond here. He has an extensive classical library and can give some pointers...

Doug has a competition-class stereo, and hates dynamic range compression. He merely turns his stereo up incredibly loud.

Actually, he works at a radio station, too, and will tell you that, yes, all radio stations use generous helpings of multiband compressor/limiters.

Interesting, thanks for the tips. I never realized my daily dose of classical radio was so compressed. Oh well, it still sounds good... as good as it can as I drive with my windows down.

I'm starting to ponder reripping my entire collection, so any tips on ripping classical will help. Those year 2000, AudioCatalyst, 128kbps rips just aren't holding up any more.

Doug has a competition-class stereo, and hates dynamic range compression. ... he works at a radio station, too, and will tell you that, yes, all radio stations use generous helpings of multiband compressor/limiters.


Uhhh, yeah. What he said...

tanstaafl.

It seems that Tony isn't satisfied with being a FAQ bot -- he's starting to replace board members now, too!

Around here the commercial classical stations compress the hell out of everything, but the BBC don't seem to be nearly as bad. I guess it helps that the BBC are the DAB broadcaster left with decent bandwidth!

Rob

To sidetrack this thread; bandwidth? Does dynamic compression have something to do with radio bandwidth? The term "bandwidth" always confuses me. Is it a data transmission rate? Is it a ... length? Is it a broadcast radio frequency?

/me goes to check wikipedia.org before he gets wiki'd (instead of FAQ'd)

Rob is talking about DAB (ie Digital Radio) so he means bandwidth as in data rate. In audio bandwidth terms DAB should theoretically pass everything up to 20k depending upon the coder used to generate the MP2 stream whereas FM brickwalls at 15k.