Correcting DC offset

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ptron
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Ptron

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I've been having DC offset problems with my recordings. Most likely due to my cheapo stock sound card, I'm told. It's a soundblaster audioPCI 64D made by Ensoniq. I've downloaded and tried using the DCoffset plug-in from http://www.analogx.com which allows you to manually shift the offset of a previously recorded file (it says it can be automated but I can't get it to work) but don't you lose head room if the music isn't recorded with the proper DC offset in the first place? Are there programs out there that fix the offset before you record? It seems like overkill to buy a fancy soundcard to fix this. I don't need multi-ins because I mix to stero first and I don't need 24bit because my software (dart pro)only handles 16bit.
 
This sounds like an interesting experiment.
Could you E-mail me a short (<5MB) sample of the file with the ugly offset so I could play with my SW tools and see if I can fix it?
drstawl@home.com
 
Uhh...certainly. But I don't know how to. I'll try to talk to someone who does. You mean send you a wave file, right?
 
Run the plugin as an offline command. Preview the effect first so that it can figure out what the offset is, then apply it... it should work (works for me)
 
I have no idea what it means to "run the plug-in as an offline command." I'm not very good with this stuff. What I did do is open a pre-recorded wav file, pull down the tool box menu, select directx, select analogx dcoffset. Once I got that far I tried what seemed like everything. The only thing I got to work was a manual adjustment using the sliders. I think I'm going to just fork out for soundforgeXP. It seems to do everything I need. What I'd really like to know is: is it possible to correct DC offset before or while recording? It seems like DC offset would take away precious headroom, especially at 16bits. Or, maybe I don't understand this correctly. It seems like a waste to fork out 300+bucks for a fancy soundcard when I just mix down to stereo and, in the few taste tests I've heard, haven't been able to tell the difference anyway.
 
My Lynx One card, www.lynxstudio.com , has a utility in it's supplied mixer which can calibrate the converters anytime I want. I only needed to apply it the first time I used it, haven't had any troubles since.

Wow! You can't hear the difference between Soundblaster and a "high priced" audio card? You should write a testimonial... :D

What "high priced" sound card did you put against your SB? I used to have a Yamaha card with similar spec's as a SB, and boy, when I got the Lynx card, I HEARD the difference in a big way.

Anyway, better cards have better converters. Better converters calibrate for DC offset usually with some kind of utility or whenever the computer is rebooted. My ADAT's recalibrate the DC offset right when I arm a track for record. I believe that you will have a hard time fixing the DC offset at this point and you really need to investigate getting a "higher priced" card. Why this may not make much of an 'audible difference' to your ears, at least you will not have DC offset problems anymore.

Ed Rei
Echo Star Studio www.echostarstudio.com
 
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