Dave Moulton

You need to get a handle on the actual measured levels at which you are working.

In this follow-up column I will reveal to you how to enhance and polish that sound once the warts are gone, or at least reduced.

Compressors go back and forth between the realm where the level change can occur to each individual sound and the realm where we are changing the overall level for a while.

Not all crumminess sounds the same.

My measurements sought to examine the question of variance of audio levels between channels and how this variance has changed (or not) over time.

Dave Moulton takes another look at TV audio levels in advance of the CALM Act next month.

You may recall that we’ve been grappling with the measurement of audio loudness and the implications of the ITU’s B.S. 1770-1 standard for the measurement of loudness, in support of the CALM Act.

“I’m a TV engineer from the old school, so of course I never read articles about audio. The CALM Act changes that, of course.”

As we've discussed, low frequencies don't do well coming out of small loudspeakers into smallish rooms.

It seems appropriate to me that we go a little further with the discussion, simply to clarify what seems to be meant and desired in practice by A/85 and its authors.

Stable, consistent and predictable bass is one of the hardest things to obtain in a monitoring situation.

This will actually take a couple of columns. I'll start with the idea of standing waves.

There are issues of dynamic range, maximum and minimum levels, subjective loudness qualities, spectrum and much more.

This process will have the effect of making your mixes clearer, more transparent, a little louder for a given maximum level and generally a little "nicer.

You need a room—pretty much all to yourself and big enough so others can join you on occasion.

You need good speakers, placed well in a good room.

One major determinant of timbre is the distribution of energy across the audio spectrum.

Last month, I hinted at some of the things we can do to make our use of loudspeakers for audio monitoring more effective.

This month I’d like to spend a little more time discussing the center channel, concentrating on some of the production issues we have to deal with.

Our perception of loudness varies as a function of amplitude, frequency, frequency bandwidth and time. It is a complex sensation.

Last month, I reviewed the Modulation Sciences SpiderVision Surround Sound signal level meter. As the lead-in to that review, I noted Lord Kelvin’s dictum that to measure is to know.