Thanks Nonreality I think I do understand the Loudness Wars and the problem with dynamic range (and that brush strokes probably would not start out at 89db - a rather extreme example I'm sorry). What I struggle with is the different scales being used.
One moment I am told that 0db equates to full output and anything that tries to break this "barrier" is clipped. OK - that's clear. Then this arbitrary level of 89db is touted around, but db is a relative scale, so 89db compared to what ? It surely can't be 89db below full output ! Or is it 89db above the -96db that might equate to the lower threshold of Red Book resolution (which, presunably, could also be represented as -7db). Then the gap between 89db and "something" is stated as being 11db - so presumambly full output has now been expressed as 100db (and with a fixed maximum dynamic range of 96db, how does this fit in with CD ?). So this would suggest a max difference of 11db between "average" and "peak" loudness. Why can't we all use the same scale, for example; 0db = full output -15db = arbitrary average loudness that Replay Gain would seek to match -96db = lowest level that CD can reach So, on a "good" recording, the real dynamic range might span, say, -50db to -2db (giving a 48db range)with an average loudness level of, say, -20db. With the headroom available above -2db it is unlikley that a recording like this has been "clipped". But what we are often getting might be a range of -20db to 0db (where peaks may have been clipped during the mastering process to ensure no output beyond 0db) with an average loudness level of, say, -9db. Lousy dynamic range, loud and clipped ! Or am I completely missing the boat somewhere ? -- liffy99 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ liffy99's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7832 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=51320 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
