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LeifKeymaster
Here’s two more examples. In these ones, I didn’t add any distortion — these songs were mastered this way right on the CD. Thus, I can’t show you the before / after, but they should be rather obvious.
If it doesn’t seem all that bad, listen in headphones instead of speakers.
[attachment=0:2m096y8c]rascal_chunk.mp3[/attachment:2m096y8c]
[attachment=1:2m096y8c]xy_chunk.mp3[/attachment:2m096y8c]///Leif
LeifKeymasterTo illustrate what I mean, I ran a piece of music through BBP (Plutonium, 15us, all default).
I made two recordings — in one of them, I added a depressingly popular maximizer/limiter to the chain before Breakaway, and cranked up the song by 4dB.
4dB is quite a lot, but it makes for an apt demonstration — previously good sounding audio can be rendered completely unlistenable in a single, seemingly innocent step. Hell, if you’re a DJ and believe their marketing material, why shouldn’t you use it? It can only improve things, right? 🙂
"legendary combination of look-ahead brickwall peak limiting, level maximization, and ultra high resolution give you the power and extra gain you need with crystal-clear results every single time."
[attachment=1:64qhsjr9]clean.wav.mp3[/attachment:64qhsjr9]
[attachment=0:64qhsjr9]im.wav.mp3[/attachment:64qhsjr9]Compare the two — if you’re not previously familiar with IM distortion, notice how everything gets mashed together 😉. Also note how the distorted one is NO LOUDER than the clean one.
///Leif
LeifKeymasterI don’t know, I still hear IM — almost like a protection limiter being driven too hard, before it even hits Breakaway.. Could it be that every mix I’ve heard so far has been heavily pre-processed to the point of destruction?
Here’s a couple of other dance stations that use Breakaway:
http://stream.rawfm.com.au:8000/listen.pls
http://us.switch.fm:9462/listen.plsBest,
///LeifLeifKeymasterIt might be a bug on my part. For now, try pressing the "Reload" button to reload the encoder plugins — that should definitely make it save the settings. I’ll look into what goes wrong on shutdown.
///Leif
LeifKeymasterThank you very much for your purchase! You should have the key today or tomorrow. (Keith Edwards generates the keys — he’s on california time.)
It is not possible to make your own presets, but you can change a lot of things with the gui controls (range, power, speed).
We have plans to make an advanced version with full control in the future.
Best regards,
///LeifLeifKeymasterHey, could you update the manual to refer to 0.90.69 instead?
It’s not a good idea that it refers to such an old version, because of the huge performance improvements which have happened since then. High CPU usage was probably the #1 complaint before the optimizations, and there are still lots of people with older computers.
///Leif
LeifKeymasterThat is a PERFECT explanation, lpy. Now you’re speaking my language!
Your wish is my command 🙂. I’ll take care of it. It will have to be a compromise, but it makes sense to have at least one preset to pull the compromise in this direction.
Adam, thanks for the list! Will be very useful. And your last sentence made me chuckle 😉.. It’s so true.
Best,
///LeifLeifKeymasterHi lpy,
indeed, very similar. I thought I addressed that issue, a 90% improvement in both Live and Broadcast.. However, I haven’t updated Personal yet, so it has yet to receive that improvement. I’ve started working on an updated version of Personal, so it’s in the pipeline (no pun intended).
I’m certainly willing to look over the Input AGC settings again.
To make sure we’re on the same page, in my latest example mp3, which part are you finding objectionable? The slow gain-up during the quiet part, or the handling of the attack when everything kicks in again? Both?
Distortion is part of the original track by the way — one of the loudest mastered tracks I’ve ever seen.. It pushes the Input AGC down below -8, that’s rare! I’m sure it’ll be the norm soon enough 🙄.
Regarding starting with bypass enabled — this works for Personal and Live, but not for Broadcast, since Broadcast keeps the core running even in bypass mode. (Since pre-emphasis + the clipper must still run even in bypass, the core is a non-issue in comparison, so why not).
Best,
///LeifLeifKeymasterHi Luk!
-2.5dB ref level is a good, conservative setting level for aacplus. This way we can be pretty sure to avoid the protection limiter in the decoder.
I’d use 16 kHz bandwidth though. There is no need to use less, especially not with aacPlus, considering that the high frequencies are basically "free" in terms of bit-budget, thanks to SBR.
Best,
///LeifLeifKeymasterHi Adam!
Thanks for the comments. I see (hear) what you mean. I’ve definitely adjusted for this type of phenomenon before, but it’s always a tradeoff — for the Rock preset, it may indeed make sense to have even faster surprise-response.
How does this sound? This is my new modified Rock with all sliders at 50.
[attachment=0:35vlwwp9]rock_Default.wav.mp3[/attachment:35vlwwp9]It does still have the obvious AGC medium-speed release — in this particular song it takes roughly 5 seconds to reach full level in the quiet part.
For me personally, this only bothers me in processors that *invert* dynamics, so that when the song kicks in again, the output of the processor ducks to be quieter than it was during the quiet part of the song. That, I cannot stand, so I made sure Breakaway doesn’t do that. 😉
If you want the AGC not to gain up quite as much as what it’s doing, turn down Power a bit. Faster or slower, try the Speed control.
Range does not really enter into it. If you were to prevent the AGC from gaining up simply by turning range down, it would also be unable to turn up quiet program material.
By the way, your station sounds GREAT!
I liked it before too, but it’s great now as well. What made you change away from the New York preset?
///Leif
LeifKeymasterI’m afraid I have to agree – I can’t figure it out. With the -2dB final drive change, I see on my scope now that the final limiter in Breakaway is barely being touched.. And yet, it sounds the same! It sounds really dense and overprocessed — I have no idea where it’s coming from, Breakaway wouldn’t do that, not with the settings you’re using anyway.
Could it be the source material?
///Leif
LeifKeymasterHi Luk!
The Helix preset is similar to the Oldies preset, except Helix has more high-end and less noisegating.
Try Pre-emph 15, De-emph on, Helix, Final drive +1.5, Range 70, Power 70, Speed 80, Bass Cut -10, Shape -3.
///Leif
LeifKeymasterHi Scotty!
Intercepting would take a lot of programming — at that point it’d be easier to just write a new encoder instead of trying to work around Orban’s.
Shoutcast is slow indeed.
It will never be *low* latency, but you could make it a lot faster by using an Icecast2 server instead of a Shoutcast server. It has much less built in buffering — you should be able to get down to 2-3 seconds of latency this way.
///Leif
LeifKeymasterThere are known problems with Breakaway Pipeline (=VAC 4.x) on certain systems. It’s being worked on, but it’s a big project — apparently it’s hard problem to solve for Eugene.
You can also try VAC 3.12: [attachment=0:2417jdr6]vac312full_breakaway.zip[/attachment:2417jdr6]
Free to use for breakaway customers.
VAC 3.12 is a native wave driver, and works best with WAVE selected in Breakaway.
Best regards,
///LeifLeifKeymasterTuned in!
Works well, and sounds good other than the slight IM distortion.
How about setting Final Drive 1 or 2dB below where you have it now? It would probably take a load off.
The final limiters don’t sound good when having to ride peaks all the time — they’re not compressors.
LOL, nice liner 🙂. "I love this station, every time i tune in, my favourite song just happens to be on, even though they don’t play the same things over and over again"… It’s a miracle, I tell you 😀.
///Leif
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