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kylen · Posted - Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:48 am

I was over at the UA web site reading about the 1176LN again Tongue

and decided to give all of my compressors the attack test per the test they have on their web page:

http://www.uaudio.com/emulation/index.html

Anyone else done this? Bear in mind my test wasn't scientific or anything but it didn't take long for Ozone to shoot every compressor I have by taming any possible transient in the audio spectrum with its' very fast attack.

Figuring that an audio spectrum of 10Hz to 22.5KHz includes waves with periods of 100ms thru .04 ms you need a really sharp attack time if you want to be able to catch all transients. So to get a 22.5KHz transient you'd need a 40 us attack time to catch the very first one.

That's in the range of the 1176LN as its' attack can go down to 20 us.

I generated a 20KHz wave with CEP that was similiar (?) to the one in the 1176 vs Bombfactory shootout. According to what I saw Ozones' attack is very impeccable and precise. I used a 0ms attack and it performed its gain reduction and release with no artifacts or overshoots like my other compressors did.

I Use CEP, Ozone, PSP, TRacks, Timeworks, RNC, db-audioware, Voxengo, and digitalfishphines compressors and limiters. They all have their uses and individual sounds.

What I'm interested in this weekend is studying control of transients so that's why I wanted to see if I have anything that will catch them all without producing potential distortion via overshoot. It looks like Ozone does that.

So I'm just basically sharing this with anyone who is interested and wants to discuss these kinds of things. Or if anyone has tried this and gotten other results or successes with other similiarly priced limiters. Or my approach is just wrong - I'd like to hear that also.

The goal here isn't to kill the life-breathing dynamic transients, just to understand them a bit and try to control them within a comfortable range of db or headroom. What I'm finding is that the pop/rock reference material I like has an average rms of about -12db, max rms of -6db, and peaks to 0db using CEP stats w/50ms window (a 50ms window which allows the entire audio spectrum 20Hz-20KHz in).

So I'm looking and listening to what makes up the max rms to peak db range where those type of transients live and how to better apply that to my own material without squishing it to death.

Thanks for any comments of feedback. Pro or Con...:)

kylen

DeluXMan · Location: Canada

It might be worth pointing out here that the CEP compresser, and generally digital compressers have the ability to 'look ahead' and respond to a peek at the time of the peek or just before, allowing the compresser to catch all of the peek if desired. This also allows you to set the attack time to something greater than 0, and still catch those peeks.

post78 · Location: USA