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Peak Amplitude in Recordings from Digital Radio
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I have an Evoke 3 and make recordings from Radio 3 which I then edit
using Audacity. I have noticed that the amplitudes are low. Peak
amplitudes are often only around 0.5 and will take a good 6 to 8 dB of
digital amplification without clipping. Why is that? Is it a good idea
to amplify them for listening to later?
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Probably because Radio 3 use very little dynamic compression (if any at
all).
This is not a problem with digital transmission where there should be no
background interference (unless you have a cheap noisy receiver). In
fact I wish more radio stations did it this way, as I find dynamic
compression takes away a lot of the enjoyment of music.
One thing that might be worth doing. Some media players support "Replay
Gain". You can scan music (Foobar2000 will do this) and add gain
information to the music tracks. Then a media player that understands
this information can adjust the volume for you.
Richard E.
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Richard E has supplied the reason for the 'low' audio amplitudes. If
the audio is not loud enough for you, simply turn up the volume during
back. There is no benefit in modifying the files during the editing
process, unless your amplifier hasn't got enough gain.
But if you're editing them with Audacity, that seems to imply that
you're doing so in WAV format. It would be much better to edit the mp2
files directly, using a tool such as the free mp3DirectCut. This will
allow you to cut your files without re-encoding and degrading them.
Don't forget to install the mpglib.dll -- there's a link to it further
down the page.
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