dynamic range of a mix

dobro

Well-known member
Is there any way to figure out the dynamic range of a mix? Dave Moulton says a typical rock song has a dynamic range of about 20 dB, compared to an acoustic song whose range is about 30 dB. That's nice, but how do you calculate it?
 
Good question. Which means I'm unsure of the answer. But if you run "analyse statistics" on the file or a highlighted part thereof, perhaps you could obtain that figure from subtracting the minimum RMS power given from the maximum.
 
Yup, that's it. There are four RMS values: minimum RMS, maximum RMS, average RMS, and total RMS. If I subtract the minimum from the maximum, that would seem to give me the range, but I have to be careful to highlight only the portion of the wave where there's music, otherwise it includes the noise floor, which extends the range a lot. (BTW, the range on the mixdown I analyzed was 32 dB. Nice.)
 
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