Range compressing (was: AW: Mastering music)

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

>> I guess you're talking frequency bands here when saying "in
>> the middle of the dynamic range"?


On 14 apr 2007, at 13.49, Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill wrote:

> No, I'm not. I'm talking "dynamic range" here, meaning:
>
> A normal compressor does the following. It completely "ignores"  
> signals
> below a certain signal level (the threshold), signals passing above  
> it will
> be subsequently attenuated by a certain factor (the ratio) - and this
> happens up all the way to 0dB.
>
> Another way to go is to have a range instead (say -30dB to -20dB),  
> and if
> the signal is in that rage, it gets attenuated according to your  
> factor (say
> e.g. 2:1). So a signal with -30dB goes through as -30dB, a signal  
> with -20dB
> goes through as -25dB. So now comes the tricky part:
>
> If the signal goes beyond -20dB, it doesn't get compressed any  
> further - so
> in this example a -5dB signal would come out at -10dB etc.
>
> This way, you compress dynamics in the midrange of the dynamic  
> spectrum (the
> soft parts of your song, which often get lost under suboptimal  
> listening
> conditions), while the dynamic transients in the loud parts (read:  
> drums)
> get preserved.


Great explanation, Rainer! I see what you mean. Over here I have used  
the software plug-in compressor Neodynum, from Elemental Audio, for  
doing exactly that. Do you know about other compressing gear/software  
that offer such a "range" setting?

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
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