Computer Audio Asylum Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

---

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] Thread: [ Display  All  Email ] [ Computer Audio Asylum ]

---

[ Alert Moderator ]

---

Re: Does using Replaygain degrade the digital audiostream?

Posted by kls on April 6, 2007 at 01:05:32

In Reply to: Does using Replaygain degrade the digital audiostream? posted by Dave in gva on April 5, 2007 at 08:04:03:

Hi there.

1. Volume control in the digital domain is not necassarily worse
then done in the analog world. It'll heavily depend on your setup.
You would loose 1 bit resolution when attentuating the signal
by 6 db, 2 bit by 12db asf. On 16bit this is in most cases
not recommended. 24bit are much less of an issue if you listen
at high volume levels.
Quantification noise (and the related dithering) remain the biggest problem, when recalculating the signal.

2. Adding replay-gain, though might even improve the sound.
If you add e.g. 6db (on 16bit material) you'd lift up your micro-dynamics a lot.
You'll most probably hear as much details as you'd hear on a 24bit
recording. The problem here -- you need to cutoff the peaks to avoid going above your 16bit frame. This will change the original.
The issue here:
On a recording especially on classic music just a limited percentage of samples
do have a very high dynamic range - sometimes above 110db.
So - not only the 110db has to be compressed to fit in the
16bit frame.
The remaining samples ( > 99% in many cases) are getting
compressed even further - much closer to the noise level -to fit
in the given 16bit frame.
That explains the difference, what you usually experience, that
standard music seems to be much louder than classic music, even if
your volume control stays at the same level. Standard music has by
far not the dynamic range as classical music.
That also explains, as one of many reasons, why classical music sounds so awful on low
quality systems. The noise level on these systems is usually much worse then
on high end-systems and the music signal is getting much closer to it -- "disappearing in the noise floor." ;)

If you look at e.g. the spectrum of XRCDs. To me it seems that they
exactly do this. They usually fill up the whole available range.
I guess they just lift up the (replay-) gain of the
recording, perhaps by using a bit more sophisticated conversion
algorithm that takes care on the peaks and avoids distortions.
IMO lifting up replay gain in the digital domain might get you very close to XRCD
quality. It gets you away from the noise level and increases the
low level dynamics. It won't help on all recordings though.
The ones which are using the full dynamic range on the majortiy of
samples already, won't change.
You'd rather catch much of distortions because you'd cut off not only a few sample peaks, you'd cut off a lot of the signal itself.

Just give it a try. On a PC you're the sound engineer! ;)

Cheers

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Signature Sound

[ Signature Sound Lounge ]

---

[ Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]

---

[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]

---