I need some compression...

[johngalt47]

...because my ears have "issues". For whatever reason I can't tolerate very loud sounds. I received three Mapleshade CDs and they are nearly unlistenable because when I turn the gain up enough to hear the soft notes, the loud notes are wayyyy too loud.

Sure, the sound is awesome, even maybe the best I have ever heard but I can't take the loud notes.

Anyone else have this problem?

 

[chris661]

There's a setting on windows media player that allows you to do this to some extent. Named quiet mode. You can choose the difference between loud and quiet sounds. Dunno how well it works, though.

 

[jackinnj]

Thatcorp THAT4301 "IC Dynamics Processor" http://www.thatcorp.com/datashts/THAT_4301_Datasheet.pdf

 

[Charles Darwin]

If you don't want to build it yourself or go digital this one below is one of the most transparent (and, as a bonus, one of the cheapest) hardware stereo compressors:

FMR Audio RNC 1773 REALLY NICE COMPRESSOR

 

[infinia]

Do you need real time hardware compression?
Seems it would be easier to rip them to WAV
Apply compression with WAV software
Then make/ burn a copy.

 

[johngalt47]

For now I'm just going to listen to the music the way it is. These recordings are sooooo much better than anything I have EVER heard that I'll just enjoy them like they are.