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Old 2010-12-11, 05:44 PM
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paddington paddington is offline
crumpet-stuffer
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: UK
Re: Question about weird looking wave

the setting you are asking about is "normalize" and is common on many CD burning programs. It should never be used.

however, I don;t think that is what was done here.
Generally, unless it sucks ass, a normalization algorithm will simply boost the modulation until the loudest sound peak hits 99% (or however you set it) which has the effect of bringing ALL the audio up the same amount - until that loudest peak hits max, then the amplification stops.

The only way for that process to modify the wav in a manner that matches your post is for some jackass to only normalize that quiet section as a separate selection, rather than the whole song / tape at once, as it should be done.

I do not think that was done, here.


That said, if they ran it through a limiter (which would not be part of a CD Burning app), the limiter, with enough drive, would do pretty much what you have there... notice the removal of the dynamics during the song and the huge amp of the banter sounds.
Limiting basically jacks up the volume of the wav, but limits how high it can reach, absolutely. A "line" is drawn and any audio peaks that go over are clipped off, so the loudest sounds never get louder, but the softest sounds come way up (depending on how much you drive it).

In effect, the dynamic range (difference between the softest and loudest sounds) is decreased, which looks to be exactly what has happened to your audio, here.
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