Members Eye_Of_The_Liger Posted September 22, 2007 Members Share Posted September 22, 2007 How can I tell if an album on cd is compressed, or over-compressed. I know that on certain songs, a few of the albums I have on cd actually distort the speakers a little in my car. I don't think it's the speakers because it doesn't go away when I turn down, and it doesn't happen on other tracks. Also, and I don't know if this has anything to do with compression, but I notice that when I watch Fox News, I have to change it after a while, because the sound is too intense. Flip back and forth between Fox News and CNN, without touching your volume knob, and you can tell a big difference. CNN is physically easier on the ears. So is Fox News more compressed, or am I confusing compression with volume? And btw, if you wanna talk about whether or not CNN and/or Fox News are politically easier on the ears, you're probably better off doing it here. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members franknputer Posted September 22, 2007 Members Share Posted September 22, 2007 Short answer to #1 is probably yes on both counts. If you want to see it, though, open up the waveform in a wave editor like Audacity (a freebie, if you don't have one). If the wave sorta goes up & down like a hilly landscape, it's less compressed - although probably everything you're likely to have on CD has been compressed somewhere along the way. If you see a picture that resembles a fat, fuzzy caterpillar, then it's probably been compressed all to hell. #2 wouldn't surprise me at all. TV compresses the crap outta their audio, to even out levels for little speakers, & also to play the loudness game too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members philbo Posted September 23, 2007 Members Share Posted September 23, 2007 How can I tell if an album on cd is compressed, or over-compressed. I know that on certain songs, a few of the albums I have on cd actually distort the speakers a little in my car. I don't think it's the speakers because it doesn't go away when I turn down, and it doesn't happen on other tracks. Also, and I don't know if this has anything to do with compression, but I notice that when I watch Fox News, I have to change it after a while, because the sound is too intense. Flip back and forth between Fox News and CNN, without touching your volume knob, and you can tell a big difference. CNN is physically easier on the ears. So is Fox News more compressed, or am I confusing compression with volume? And btw, if you wanna talk about whether or not CNN and/or Fox News are politically easier on the ears, you're probably better off doing it here. Good luck. Well, if it's really annoying to listen to, it's probably compressed. My question is: What are you planning to do with the knowledge if you find out it is compressed? It'd be nice to be able to 'undo the damage' with an expander, but it would need to be smart enough to pick threshold, attack and ratio settings by looking at the waveform. Hmmmm...That'd be a pretty cool project to do with DSP... Maybe make a box to sell to people who have their TV audio running through their stereo (or surround) systems.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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