Topic: Wavelab5 Q's: Applause attenuation and SaveTrax as files

[TenoRichards]

Recently Moke rec'd a recital I did and I had him attenuate the audience applause by about 3dbl to get it closer to the music. He used SS2.0 I think. Last nite I got a good tape of Rigoletto from the M.e.t. and need to do the same. I want to confirm that using the L2 maximizer and setting it to a limiting setting by -3 that I am doing the same. I'm used to the old Wave hammer and can't quite figure out how to easily take the highest peaks (always audience applause in my tapes) and lower them without affecting the surrounding music. Am interested in the strategies you all use.

Also, in CDWave one can save the trax as independant files. I KNOW this can be done in WL5. I just can't FIND it. There is an option to do so (I think) when you are burning to CD or something. Is there a shorter more economical way? Does one have to create splits before doing this, or can it be automated? (e.g. a  "Save trax as seperate files command.)

And, is there any word if WL6 will 'save to....' FLAC?

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I use the soft knee limiter at 12db with the attack, sustain and decay values configured to something like 3ms, 5ms, and 3ms with lookahead enabled.  That will catch the impulses and drop them down with minimal effect on the surrounding music.   This should apply to any editing tool that allows configuration of the limiter parameters.

The behavior I see with the usual default settings is that when an impulse is detected, the clap triggers the limiter.  The attack is too slow to apply the complete 12db attenuation to the impulse but then the limiter stays applied long past the impulse.  That affects the sound following the impulse such that the entire selection was affected and there seems to be breathing in the levels.   The default settings cause the affected channel to be lower than the other channel so the entire image shifted toward the untreated channel.  When I zoom and select just the impulse, the attack is so long that it barely affects the clap if at all. 

With the configuration values suggested above, the limiter kicks in quickly and drops away quickly so the surrounding music is hardly affected.  I found this very effective for cleaning up a show in which there was a clapper in one channel that was louder than the music.  I was able to drop her down so that she was about the same volume as the rest of the crowd noise and I operated on just that channel.  With the limiter settings I chose, I could not hear any difference in the average levels of the two channels.   

In the cases where the clapping was after the music, I was able to select a wide area and apply my settings.  However, where the clapping is coincidental with the music, you will need to selectively apply the limiter to the impulses you want to remove.  Otherwise the impulses of the music will be affected too.

To get a feel for this, zoom into the waveform and measure the width of the clap impulse.  You will find that it is a few milliseconds only.   Select about 400 ms centered around the clap and then play with the limiter settings.  You can dail in the settings with a few trials.   Then apply the limiter across a wider selection area.   

[TenoRichards]

fanTASTic help, thank you very much Lil'.

Have any thoughts on the creation of seperate wav files AS you track stuff out?

[TenoRichards]

HMMMMM, where is the dang soft knee limiter. I have the platinun bundle and can't find it. Help!!!

[RebelRebel]

the marker function. Andrew. use a cd track start as the first one and cd end as the last one and splices in between....make sure "quantitize to cd frame" is checked, then go to tools>>autosplit and you can choose how you want them split. (in your case, at cd markers) you can also choose the folder where to save em.

Teddy

I think Micheal may be talking about the one just called "limiter" in VST.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I don't have access to a machine with wavelab in front of me so this might be wrong.  I think it's under the menu entry Process>Dynamics and then to select the soft knee limiter go to the last tab of the compressor/limiter dialog, select what you want, and load it.

If you don't have any presets, you can make your own limiter by graphically adjusting the gain curve.  The default display is a unity gain curve with three points.  drag the endpoints to the desired position.  mouseover the gain curve and drag where you want to add a point.  to make a soft knee limiter, drag the upper right point to the limit you want.  Then drag a couple of points in the center as needed to make a gracefull trasition from the unity curve to your limit value. 

[RebelRebel]

couple graphics, Andrew, so you can see what it means visually. Yeah, its a compressor, but same concept.

[TenoRichards]

Jeez, you guys... very helpful. Many thanks. Reminds me, I gotta answer yer email. T. The short story is....THINGS ARE GREAT!!!

Limiter is at:

Load file
Process>Dynamics>Presets tab

then I chose Preset (-12, soft knee), Switched back to Settings tab, unchecked AUTO, and put in Lil's variables.

Voila. Beautiful!

Teddy, I KNEW that auto split was there. I have never used it and so big thanks for remindinig me about it.

All the best, guys,
Andrew

[rowjimmy]

+T for the helpful info but mostly for the laugh below... 

I found this very effective for cleaning up a show in which there was a clapper in one channel that was louder than the music.  I was able to drop her down so that she was about the same volume as the rest of the crowd noise