Topic: Strange WAVS

[Arglebargle]

Hey Tapers!!!!

I taped Max Creek last night at Lupos trying a new to me method, and the tape sounds great to my ears and my girlfriend's, but the WAV histogram looks really odd in both Soundforge and CDWAV, and the levels during the show seemed very odd as well. I was using DPA 4060>Shure Attenuattors at -15 Db>AD20>D8. I put my rig in a soft sided cooler and attatched the mics to opposite sides of the cooler pointing at a 45 degree angle towards the ceiling, and set the cooler down on the floor of the front of the stage, between the guitarist and keyboard player. As I was taping I thought I may have been brickwalling, because the levels were not reacting to the music as dynamically as they usually behave, like they were hitting a wall. When I transferred the WAVs to the computer, the top half of the waveforms appear as normal (in CDWAV), but the bottom of the histogram doesn't match the top half at all, it looks truncated. Usually the top half and bottom half are like reflections of each other on a lake, metaphorically speaking. This is reflected in both Soundforge and CDWAV, but in one program it looks cut off at the top and in the other program (SOundforge) it looks cut off on the bottom. Both channels are affected similiaraly. When I listen to the tape on headphones or speakers I can hear no distortion, it sounds pretty good to me, like it sounded when I was there.

Does anyone know what's up with that?

[VA_TAPER]

Sounds like DC offset, what was your powering system for the 4060's?  See the following links (sound familiar):

http://www.bu.edu/webcentral/learning/av2/optimize-dcoffset.html
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/arsclist/2003/03/msg00160.html

The first V3s had some serious DC offset too.  

peace, chris

[Arglebargle]

Hmmm, I checked DC Offset in Soundforge by selecting a portion of the music and looking at the statistics and it said DC offset is 0, I'm using the battery box from Core Sounds to power it. I also checked out the spectrum analysis and it seems to be normal.    When I get back home from work I'll try selecting some other areas of the music and seeing what the DC offset reads. I have to admit I was a little suprised the DC offset said 0 because half of the histogram reaches much higher peaks than the cutoff section.

I'll check out those links though!

[crunchy]

Hey Arglebargle were you at Lupos for Spiritualized?

[Arglebargle]

No, I've never seen them or heard them.

Well I played the show nice and loud today and still can't hear the distortion I am seeing. There seems to be a certain level that when the music exceeds it is when it gets cut off, the graph looks sort of like what I'd imagine brickwalling would be like, but only on half of it. Imagine a cheesey Hollywood oozing blood dripping downwards out of a wound graphic and that is what the WAV kind of looks like. DC oofset read 0 out of the many samples that I took with statistics. I have recorded much louder shows without the AD20 with my DPA's and had no problems before, but I was using the attenuators and the AD20 has certainly handled much hotter levels from my AKG's without a problem. And if it was brickwalling I'd imagine I'd be able to hear it and it would effect both the top and bottom of the histogram. The only thing I can imagine being a cause is the proximity of the mics from the floor (about 8 inches from the stage floor).  

[crunchy]

No, I've never seen them or heard them.

Just curious, a friend of mine was at the spiritualized show at lupos a few weeks ago and he said he met a taper running DPA 4060's. Wasnt sure if it was you.