AUTOMATIC GAIN CONTROL

[FightinFueler]

I finally found a feature that I've been looking for for a long time! The AGC feature makes my music come to life, what a difference! I listen to a lot of FM radio in California and always wanted my CD's to have the same sound quality as FM radio (Auto Level Control type sound) but was unable to find this type of feature anywhere for audio software programs. The NORMALIZATION or ENVELOPE feature never really did the trick for me. I used to have to manually fidget with the recording input level knob using a CD player and cassette deck simultaeously while hooked up to my computer turning up low parts of the song and turning down to high parts of the song and saving in my hard drive. And if I screwed up, I'd have to start all over again. I'm a SUPER PICKY perfectionist when it comes to sound (music fanatic!). With just a click of my mouse I can get the songs the way I want after activating the AGC feature. After purchasing WAVEPAD, I got rid of all the other crappy music editing type software and deleted them from my computer. I'm completely hooked on this AGC feature and spent the last 3 days re-doing 1200+ songs in my computer. It may take a couple of more days to complete, but it's worth it!

 

Thank you much Swift Sound!!!!!!!!!

[nchngoc]

Thank you for your feedback!!

[Guest rob_c]

Yeah . . . . I've been looking for a piece of AGC software for music too.

 

I know that compressing music loses it's "dynamics" . . . but when you are trying to make up compilations of music from varioous sources, it's really hard to get the relative volume the same across all tracks.

 

Compression and Normalization can get you so far, but this is the first software I have seen with AGC.

 

I've only downloaded the trial version . . . . but there only seems to be a very limited choice as far as "SAVE AS" formats go.

 

Ideally I want a program that can save the file (after AGC) in the same WAV format and bitrate that it was originally ripped to . . . before I convert it to MP3.

 

Also, in the full version, is there any control of the AGC ? . . . . or is it simply on/off ?

[Guest Guest]

Whoops.

 

My mistake . . . found out the other SAVE AS options.

 

But I am still curious if there is any way of controlling the amount of AGC.

 

From what I've seen, the biggest problem with compression/AGC in this or any ony other program, is trying to get a balance between reducing the dynmic range while avoiding the "pumping" that can happen.

[nchtj]

hi,

 

no sorry there are no settings for AGC.

[musikone]

I finally found a feature that I've been looking for for a long time! The AGC feature makes my music come to life, what a difference! I listen to a lot of FM radio in California and always wanted my CD's to have the same sound quality as FM radio (Auto Level Control type sound) but was unable to find this type of feature anywhere for audio software programs. The NORMALIZATION or ENVELOPE feature never really did the trick for me. I used to have to manually fidget with the recording input level knob using a CD player and cassette deck simultaeously while hooked up to my computer turning up low parts of the song and turning down to high parts of the song and saving in my hard drive. And if I screwed up, I'd have to start all over again. I'm a SUPER PICKY perfectionist when it comes to sound (music fanatic!). With just a click of my mouse I can get the songs the way I want after activating the AGC feature. After purchasing WAVEPAD, I got rid of all the other crappy music editing type software and deleted them from my computer. I'm completely hooked on this AGC feature and spent the last 3 days re-doing 1200+ songs in my computer. It may take a couple of more days to complete, but it's worth it!

 

Thank you much Swift Sound!!!!!!!!!

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I also listen to a lot of FM radio (classical music) in California. What's more, _my_ CDs (and I have a great many of them) which I make from this music (without using the WavePad AGC feature) are indistinguishable from the original FM broadcast, even to my very finicky and well-trained ear. Therefore, I have great difficulty understanding why you need to degrade the quality of your music by subjecting it to AGC, unless the particular music that you are listening to is flawed to begin with; i.e., by having such a wide dynamic range (from soft to loud) that it cannot be accommodated without excessive distortion, etc., etc.

 

In other words, it has been my extensive experience that music that is broadcast via FM with an appropriate dynamic range can be recorded to CD without the need for compressing this range.

 

Musikone

[FightinFueler]

Hi Musikone. I'm still happy with the AGC function on WavePad. Been using it for over a year now. In my opinion, everything is completely level on the quality of sound after I use the AGC. I do not like the ups and downs of music where I have to constantly fiddle with the volume control. You quoted "music that is broadcast via FM with an appropriate dynamic range can be recorded to CD", .......can you elaborate on that, please? I can't record FM radio to a CD where the DJ is going to talk at the beginning of the song and talk at the end of the song and not be able to record the complete song without interruption. And second, I have so many out of print songs FM radio will not play anymore.

 

If you know something about recording FM radio type music to a CD (complete), I'd like to know more about that. I definitely agree with you though that FM radio is the best way to go and is more clear than anything. If there is a software program you know out there that does that or some type of program out there, please let me know. That would be outstanding!! Thanks for your input my friend.

 

Mark (FIGHTINFUELER)

 

 

I finally found a feature that I've been looking for for a long time! The AGC feature makes my music come to life, what a difference! I listen to a lot of FM radio in California and always wanted my CD's to have the same sound quality as FM radio (Auto Level Control type sound) but was unable to find this type of feature anywhere for audio software programs. The NORMALIZATION or ENVELOPE feature never really did the trick for me. I used to have to manually fidget with the recording input level knob using a CD player and cassette deck simultaeously while hooked up to my computer turning up low parts of the song and turning down to high parts of the song and saving in my hard drive. And if I screwed up, I'd have to start all over again. I'm a SUPER PICKY perfectionist when it comes to sound (music fanatic!). With just a click of my mouse I can get the songs the way I want after activating the AGC feature. After purchasing WAVEPAD, I got rid of all the other crappy music editing type software and deleted them from my computer. I'm completely hooked on this AGC feature and spent the last 3 days re-doing 1200+ songs in my computer. It may take a couple of more days to complete, but it's worth it!

 

Thank you much Swift Sound!!!!!!!!!

================================================================================

=

I also listen to a lot of FM radio (classical music) in California. What's more, _my_ CDs (and I have a great many of them) which I make from this music (without using the WavePad AGC feature) are indistinguishable from the original FM broadcast, even to my very finicky and well-trained ear. Therefore, I have great difficulty understanding why you need to degrade the quality of your music by subjecting it to AGC, unless the particular music that you are listening to is flawed to begin with; i.e., by having such a wide dynamic range (from soft to loud) that it cannot be accommodated without excessive distortion, etc., etc.

 

In other words, it has been my extensive experience that music that is broadcast via FM with an appropriate dynamic range can be recorded to CD without the need for compressing this range.

 

Musikone

[musikone]

Hi Musikone. I'm still happy with the AGC function on WavePad. Been using it for over a year now. In my opinion, everything is completely level on the quality of sound after I use the AGC. I do not like the ups and downs of music where I have to constantly fiddle with the volume control. You quoted "music that is broadcast via FM with an appropriate dynamic range can be recorded to CD", .......can you elaborate on that, please? I can't record FM radio to a CD where the DJ is going to talk at the beginning of the song and talk at the end of the song and not be able to record the complete song without interruption. And second, I have so many out of print songs FM radio will not play anymore.

 

If you know something about recording FM radio type music to a CD (complete), I'd like to know more about that. I definitely agree with you though that FM radio is the best way to go and is more clear than anything. If there is a software program you know out there that does that or some type of program out there, please let me know. That would be outstanding!! Thanks for your input my friend.

 

Mark (FIGHTINFUELER)

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I believe that I can answer your concerns in the points that you have brought up here. But before I do this, I need to know whether you wish to record just a single FM station (in one recording session), or whether you wish to flip through the FM dial and select one station after another while continuing within a single recording session. Tell me which it is.....

 

And second, I do _not_ burn a CD directly from the FM input signal. I use WavePad to edit out the extraneous material (your "DJ" talk or my commercial inserts, station hype, classical music "moderator" stuff that I am not interested in, etc., etc. But to be able to do this, I have to first record the FM signal to a .wav audio file. So I don't believe that I am using any special process that is conceptually any different from that which you understand. However, as I have said previously here (but you may not have been around at that time) in this WavePad forum, I do _not_ use WavePad for recording the FM signal. Rather, I use Golden Records, which is also a Swift Sound product; you can download it in a trial version. After I record this signal in .wav format using Golden Records, I _edit_ it with WavePad (which is, after all, an editor) to remove all of the superfluous material that I do not want, just as you remove the junk that you do not want.

 

The problem here is of course to get that FM signal into a .wav format. So to continue with this discussion in an intelligible form, please answer the question with which I began this post. This will allow me to get straight to the heart of this issue. I think that I know why you are doing what you are doing, but I will not conjecture until I get your answer to this basic question.

 

Musikone

(who also lives in California, by the way)

[Naim]

Hi, I'm also facing a problem with some kind of sounds "shshshshshsss....". I recorded a English Language Learning Audio from Tape to my Laptop using "Sound Forge 6.0". Sound quality is perfect while playing with the Cassette Player and no any "shshshshshs...." sounds too.

 

It would gratefull for me if anyone help me know how to eliminate the shshshshs.... sounds.