Software that can "restore" some dynamics from overly compressed recordings?

[63781]

Software that can "restore" some dynamics from overly compressed recordings?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I seem to remember that software exists that can do a qualified guess of what's missing in dynamics on most modern recordings, and can "restore" some of it?

Any ideas?

I rarely buy music these days because of the Loudness War, but I just had to have the latest Donald Fagen. And what a disappointment it was sonically.... 🙁

 

[davidsrsb]

I don't know anything to restore dynamic range intelligently, but Audacity has an effect to undo clipping damage. This can make the sound a lot less harsh.

 

[63781]

Yes, maybe it was to "undo" the worst brickwall limiting?

What is the name of the effect in Audacity that can do this?

I'm also interested in VST plugins that can do this.

 

[Aiace]

If the disk is affectet of loudness war as bad as the music is clipping, you can do nothing. You can't recover any information you lost (thermodinamic laws).
But, if you are lucky, and no clipping occurred, you can try with Audacy or others. It's hard to find the correct de-copmression curve, but you can follow your taste.
My experience is: if you can hear harsh in the voices this means that the disk is clipping affect and then you can do nothing.
Sorry

 

[63781]

The problem with the disc mentioned in post 1 is not harshness; rather the opposite. Its bass-heavy and muffled, and in lack of dynamics and openness.

 

[63781]

After some seach I found it, and its just declipping.
Silk: CuteStudio Ltd. Audio, electronics, graphics and embedded software - products/audio/seedeclip

I tested it, and it does not do any magic at all. Sadly....

 

[powerflux]

it tries to estimate the rise/time of the original unclipped signal. ofcourse, this works best with real clipping. compression isn't as sudden, but gradual..

 

[geraldfryjr]

Creatives Crystalizer does a pretty good job.
As far as I know it is only for the X-FI engine though.

FWIW

jer 🙂

 

[davidsrsb]

The Audacity effect is "clip fix"
Donald Fagens previous release Morph The Cat is bass heavy too, but not muffled.

 

[regal]

Recent trend is for the individual tracks of a multi-track to have the life compressed out of them, then the mix is made without clipping to claim "this isn't a loudness war mastering." Yea right.

 

[wwenze]

Yarrrrr it's called a dynamic range expander.

 

[63781]

The Audacity effect is "clip fix"
Donald Fagens previous release Morph The Cat is bass heavy too, but not muffled.

Yeah, its less bad, but not anywhere near "The Nightfly", a record that is 30 years old now.

The problem with "Sunken Condos" is not clipping, but too much track compression and very strange EQ.

I tried a little EQ on it, and just a little lift at the top end, and 4-5 shelf below 100 Hz helped a lot actually.

 

[Koenjer]

declipper

Heard it, and it works quite ok on old recorded stuff.

Perfect Declipper demo: Ending the loudness war - YouTube

 

[Telstar]

my favourite player, xxhighend, has a feature "peak extender" which I use and i think improves the sound in regards to dynamics.

If you find a foobar plugin that does a similar thing, please post it.

 

[Pano]

Ditto on "Perfect Declipper". It can help, but isn't a cure all when the mix is heavily layered and compressed at each step.

 

[regal]

Ditto on "Perfect Declipper". It can help, but isn't a cure all when the mix is heavily layered and compressed at each step.

Exactly the latest reaction for the studios is to compress the crap out of each track then mix without much compression keeping the final mix level lower and they think they've answered the cries to end the loudness wars.

 

[venomizer]

DIY Audio De-Mastering in the Time of The Loudness War

Hi all...

Here you can see what I did after the last months. Another kind of DIY project.
It will present you a way to deal with (some) overloud music productions.
You will be shown several very useful, free software/programs to help you find out some "sound tweak".

The Music Disease

Also you may have a look in the Clipping and Loudness Database, were I started to put up analyses of a few albums.
You will also find an example, which in the end became quite a long story for the Lana del Rey disc.


I hope you like it,...

ven

 

[Gary P]

Agreed, the loudness wars have made so I pretty much don't buy new music any more.

My daughter got me 2 CD's for Christmas that she thought I would like. We all were very disappointed with the CD's. Non-changing wall of noise is being kind. You can hear that the artists have some great talent, but the production process makes the recordings un-listenable.

I've been looking for a long time for a VST based dynamic range expander but have not found one yet...

There is still a link at the Gersic.com free plugin database for a multi band expander that looks like it was modeled after the old DBX dynamic range expanders. Unfortunately the developers site is gone.

 

[The golden mean]

At least you are able to measure recordings with this program and how about demanding
companies to publish graphs?

See if I can find the article from an English Hifi magazine where the author claimed (supported by some research) that excesses in using compression is coming from a false assumption about our hearing, i.e. reality is contrary to many technicans beliefs! Would education help in this respect?

MasVis - Ljudtekniska Sällskapet

 

[venomizer]

GaryP

I've been looking for a long time for a VST based dynamic range expander but have not found one yet...

read my link, there you will get "IT", for free! (and then maybe drop us a line, what you are planning to do with it, that would be nice! I like your McCoy-ish page btw.)

The golden mean

the article from an English Hifi magazine where the author claimed (supported by some research) that excesses in using compression is coming from a false assumption about our hearing

Yes, I would be interested in that...

Have a nice day!
ven (who also has a Christmas sampler, being one of the worst sounding discs EVER ;-)