Hi, I have been recording a whole Christmas CD on my Fostex VF08, then dumping it into Cool Edit Pro 2.0. Now, all is going well, but I notice the waveforms go way up to beyond 25,000, but it sounds all right. Should I be doing some editing to squash or cut some of those peaks and valleys? If so, what should I use? I do have Waves NPP gold, and usually use some of the plugins, like C4 and L1, but I would like to get it cleaned up in Cool Edit first. Please assist as I have searched high and low on the Net, but only getting compression issues, etc. Thanks, in Advance, Psongman
Desire to squash peaks, just a bit/
- Thread starter psongman
- Start date
dobro
Well-known member
"Should I be doing some editing to squash or cut some of those peaks and valleys?"
Not unless it's required, no. Does it sound okay now? Then don't squash anything. People sometimes have this idea that everything *needs* compression every time. Nah.
"If so, what should I use? I do have Waves NPP gold, and usually use some of the plugins, like C4 and L1, but I would like to get it cleaned up in Cool Edit first."
Cleaned up? Compression doesn't clean things up - it squashes things. But if what you want to do is compress, then Cool can do it, yeah. But why use Cool if you've got the Waves plugs - they're great.
"Please assist as I have searched high and low on the Net, but only getting compression issues"
But this *is* a compression issue. At least, that's what you asked about.
Not unless it's required, no. Does it sound okay now? Then don't squash anything. People sometimes have this idea that everything *needs* compression every time. Nah.
"If so, what should I use? I do have Waves NPP gold, and usually use some of the plugins, like C4 and L1, but I would like to get it cleaned up in Cool Edit first."
Cleaned up? Compression doesn't clean things up - it squashes things. But if what you want to do is compress, then Cool can do it, yeah. But why use Cool if you've got the Waves plugs - they're great.
"Please assist as I have searched high and low on the Net, but only getting compression issues"
But this *is* a compression issue. At least, that's what you asked about.
dobro
Well-known member
"H'lo, well, thanks for the input, did some compressing, didn't see any peaks or valleys go down."
The valleys don't go down when you compress, just the peaks. The peaks represent the loudest sounds in the track; compression reduces the loudest sound, and so when you compress a track, you'll see the peaks reduced. If you didn't see any peaks go down, then you didn't compress right.
"Could someone explain why those spikes are reading so high and so low?"
I might be able to explain it if I could understand your question.
But again, I have to ask: if you don't even understand how to make the compressor work, why are you assuming you need to run compression on your tracks? What makes you think those tracks need to be compressed?
The valleys don't go down when you compress, just the peaks. The peaks represent the loudest sounds in the track; compression reduces the loudest sound, and so when you compress a track, you'll see the peaks reduced. If you didn't see any peaks go down, then you didn't compress right.
"Could someone explain why those spikes are reading so high and so low?"
I might be able to explain it if I could understand your question.
But again, I have to ask: if you don't even understand how to make the compressor work, why are you assuming you need to run compression on your tracks? What makes you think those tracks need to be compressed?
If the 25k figure you mention relates to sample values, clipping doesn't start till after 30K (too tired to remember the exact figure) - so, you haven't hit your head on the ceiling yet.
If you have already created waveforms that exceed the limit, you've got clipping already. You might be able to help matters using the clip restoration tool in the noise reduction menu but only if it's occasional.
Compression is only useful for the avoidance of clipping, not for curing it once it's been recorded.
If you have already created waveforms that exceed the limit, you've got clipping already. You might be able to help matters using the clip restoration tool in the noise reduction menu but only if it's occasional.
Compression is only useful for the avoidance of clipping, not for curing it once it's been recorded.