Talking to AI on Nostr: The book is called Audio Production And Critical Listening Technical Ear Training by ...
The book is called Audio Production And Critical Listening Technical Ear Training by Jason Corey.
We are discussing chapter 04 Dynamic Range Control. Below the first set of texts. Please convert this to bullet points for a presentation for university students.
Chapter 04 Dynamic Range Control
Achieving an appropriate balance of a musical ensemble is essential for expressing an artist’s musical intention. Conductors and composers understand the idea of finding optimal ensemble balance for each performance and piece of music. If an instrumental part within an ensemble is not loud enough to be heard clearly, listeners do not receive the full impact of a piece of music. Overall balance depends on the control of individual vocal and instrumental ampli- tudes in an ensemble.
When recording spot microphone signals on multi- ple tracks and mixing those tracks, an engineer has some amount of control over musical balance and therefore also musical expression. When mixing multiple tracks, it can be necessary to continually adjust the level of certain instru- ments or voices for consistent balance from the beginning to the end of a track.
Dynamic range in the musical sense describes the dif- ference between the loudest and quietest levels of an audio signal. For microphone signals that have a wide dynamic range, adjusting fader levels over time can compensate for variations in signal level and therefore maintain a consistent perceived loudness. Fader level adjustments made across the duration of a piece amount to manual dynamic range compression; an engineer is manually reducing the dynamic range by boosting levels during quiet sections and attenuat- ing loud sections. Dynamic range controllers—compressors and expanders—adjust levels automatically based on an audio signal’s level and can be applied to individual audio tracks or to a mix as a whole.
One type of sound that can have an extremely wide dynamic range is a lead vocal, especially when recorded with a closely placed microphone. In extreme cases in pop and rock music, a singer’s dynamic range may vary from the loudest screaming to just a whisper, all within a single song. If a vocal track’s fader is set to one level and left for the duration of a piece with no compression, there will be moments when the vocals will be much too loud and other moments when they will be too low. When a vocal level rises too high it becomes uncomfortable for a listener who may then want to turn the entire mix down. In the opposite sit- uation, a vocal that is too low in level becomes difficult to understand, leaving an unsatisfying musical experience for a listener. Finding a satisfactory static fader level without compression for a sound source as dynamic as pop vocals is likely to be impossible. One way of compensating for a wide dynamic range is to manually adjust the fader level for each word or phrase that a singer sings. Although some tracks do call for such detailed manual control of fader level, use of compression is still helpful in getting part of the way to the goal of consistent, intelligible, and musically satisfy- ing levels, especially for tracks with a wide dynamic range. Consistent levels for instruments and vocals help communicate the musical intentions of an artist more effectively.
We are discussing chapter 04 Dynamic Range Control. Below the first set of texts. Please convert this to bullet points for a presentation for university students.
Chapter 04 Dynamic Range Control
Achieving an appropriate balance of a musical ensemble is essential for expressing an artist’s musical intention. Conductors and composers understand the idea of finding optimal ensemble balance for each performance and piece of music. If an instrumental part within an ensemble is not loud enough to be heard clearly, listeners do not receive the full impact of a piece of music. Overall balance depends on the control of individual vocal and instrumental ampli- tudes in an ensemble.
When recording spot microphone signals on multi- ple tracks and mixing those tracks, an engineer has some amount of control over musical balance and therefore also musical expression. When mixing multiple tracks, it can be necessary to continually adjust the level of certain instru- ments or voices for consistent balance from the beginning to the end of a track.
Dynamic range in the musical sense describes the dif- ference between the loudest and quietest levels of an audio signal. For microphone signals that have a wide dynamic range, adjusting fader levels over time can compensate for variations in signal level and therefore maintain a consistent perceived loudness. Fader level adjustments made across the duration of a piece amount to manual dynamic range compression; an engineer is manually reducing the dynamic range by boosting levels during quiet sections and attenuat- ing loud sections. Dynamic range controllers—compressors and expanders—adjust levels automatically based on an audio signal’s level and can be applied to individual audio tracks or to a mix as a whole.
One type of sound that can have an extremely wide dynamic range is a lead vocal, especially when recorded with a closely placed microphone. In extreme cases in pop and rock music, a singer’s dynamic range may vary from the loudest screaming to just a whisper, all within a single song. If a vocal track’s fader is set to one level and left for the duration of a piece with no compression, there will be moments when the vocals will be much too loud and other moments when they will be too low. When a vocal level rises too high it becomes uncomfortable for a listener who may then want to turn the entire mix down. In the opposite sit- uation, a vocal that is too low in level becomes difficult to understand, leaving an unsatisfying musical experience for a listener. Finding a satisfactory static fader level without compression for a sound source as dynamic as pop vocals is likely to be impossible. One way of compensating for a wide dynamic range is to manually adjust the fader level for each word or phrase that a singer sings. Although some tracks do call for such detailed manual control of fader level, use of compression is still helpful in getting part of the way to the goal of consistent, intelligible, and musically satisfy- ing levels, especially for tracks with a wide dynamic range. Consistent levels for instruments and vocals help communicate the musical intentions of an artist more effectively.