Whitehouse17 Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 I am not understanding what my sample editor is showing me. I have included a picture of an image I have on screen as produced from my waveform editor. The waveform is a mono audio file of a voice-over which has been processed and limited to peak at -6db. The file sounds good but I am wondering: 1. what are the values above 0 and below 0 showing me? (I would have assumed they are amplitude, but if that was true then ...) 2. why are they weighted towards the negative side considereably more than the positive? 3. And why does the signal look like it has a limiter on the negative side but not on the positive side? And I can see the occasional spike on the left side. When I playback the audio it feels centered (not panned), and it only peaks at -6db. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 1. The amplitude of the electrical signal that will be regenerated by your D/A converter. That amplitude can be positive or negative. This is also, in turn, the displacement of your speaker membrane in relation to its resting position. The membrane can move toward you or away from you. 2. First of all you can't tell that from just looking at it without zooming in further. Second of all different sounds make different waveforms, and there's no reason a waveform should be symmetrical - most of them aren't. 3. Your signal does NOT look like it has a limiter on either side of the waveform. Try some heavy limiting on your signal and bounce it in place, and open that in the sample editor to see what that would look like. When I playback the audio it feels centered (not panned), and it only peaks at -6db. Sounds about right. Anything wrong with that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitehouse17 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 Thanks for that ... in regards to the limiting when you zoom out from the waveform you can see the limiting more clearly. The audio has some compression then soft limiting as a final process. I have included a pic here. But it does appear to be limiting on the negative side of the waveform. Which makes sense if that is the side that is peaking more. You can see from this picture that the centre 0 line is positioned about 2 thirds of the way up the whole waveform. So does the fact that the waveform is more weighted to the negative side have any bearing on how the audio sounds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 OK thanks for that pic, it does convey a different message for sure. I see the limiting now, and it only appears on the negative side of the waveform simply because that side of the waveform reaches higher amplitudes, so it hits the limiter much more than the positive side. Try this: open the audio file in your sample editor and choose Fucntions > Remove DC Offset. A window will pop up telling you how much DC offset you have in your file (in %age). Do not click "Remove", just click "OK" and tell us what value it finds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitehouse17 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 0.003 % DC offset found I used the Logic Adaptive Limiter for the final process and did not check the Remove DC box. Would this have changed things at all do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 That amount of DC offset is not significant. That means your recording is most likely fine. Does it sound good? Or are you having problems working with it in any way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitehouse17 Posted June 7, 2011 Author Share Posted June 7, 2011 It sounds good to me and the client Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Nahmani Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 Then I wouldn't worry about it personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1192 Posted June 7, 2011 Share Posted June 7, 2011 that is some Super information David thank you for sharing that and thank you for asking the question: we do not get much good coming out of the "Whitehouse" in "DC" ,for that matter, these days whitehouse -DC haha lot of symmetry in this post - DC offset compensation creates symmetry in the waveforms view !!! its all over the place ... the Yin Yang of this is killing me Larry .... LOL sorry, to much coffee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitehouse17 Posted June 8, 2011 Author Share Posted June 8, 2011 Thanks John ... so let me get this straight ... does that make me Obama because my avatar is black? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1192 Posted June 8, 2011 Share Posted June 8, 2011 LOL no, but if obama played a jan hammer keyboard rig like in your avatar, he might have a better chance for re-election cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitehouse17 Posted June 9, 2011 Author Share Posted June 9, 2011 Maybe you should let him know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1192 Posted June 9, 2011 Share Posted June 9, 2011 the number is always busy LOL twitter is probably the best way to get in touch with him. too bad I refuse to touch twitter he is on his own Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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