Winamp Compressor & Limiter Help needed for low powered FM station.
Glen Browning
Compressor & or Limiter Plugin. Here is a list of the Winamp DSP
Compressor and or limiter plugings I have found on www.winamp.com.
Please let me know which
one is best for a legal low powered FM station. I know that a hardware
Limiter is best but cost is an issue and I would like as muched done
in software as I can. So while hardware is best lets stick to software
for this posting.
Please comment or compare on any of the DSP software I have listed but
so far I believe that the Octimax program is more like the hardware
used in a real
FM radio station but it mainly has presets without many tweeking
controls. One of the other programs is a volume normalizer and keeps
the volume at a level setting even with low sounds (isn't that a
compressor?, what's the difference?)
I could not get Tomass'Limiter to work in Winamp version 2.79 but also
heard it's good.
What compressor has the best sound and don't add much or any
distortion. the Energize! program is NEW and the only comment I heard
was bad but it looks very very professional.
1 AudioStocker PRO (Compressor) OLD
Limiter and Compressor dsp plugin
2 Energize! (Compressor/Limiter) NEW
5-band (broadcast processor) limiter/clipper and a lookahead limiter
http://listen.to/energize
3 KMG DSP Dynamic Volume Don't know about this one.
Dynamically limits the volume range
4 TomSteady (Volume Normalizer?) Seems to work well.
Automatic Gain Controller Automatic Gain Controller and Stereo
Echoer
5 Tomass'Limiter V0.2 (Compressor/Limiter) I can't get this to work.
Useful dsp tool
6 OctiMax (Compressor/Limiter) Looks and sounds good but mainily
presets.
Real-time Digital Remastering!
7 RockSteady 2.1 (Compressor/Limiter) Looks Professional and claims to
be
better then Audiostocker in sound and CPU usage.
A nice volume equalizer (compressor)
Is a limiter all that useful if you only play prerecorded sound files
because the max sound level is know so if you adjust the max output
for just below
the max sound level why use a limiter. I would guess it's best for
live inputs, etc.
Also are any of the following in software for Winamp and is it useful
or needed?
I found this info in another post.
1 -Preemphasis
This is typically part of the stereo encoder itself, it raises level
of higher frequencies in audio. Higher frequencies are then attenuated
in receiver. This technique lowers level of noise in received signal.
2 -Low pass filters
Audio signal has to pass low pass filter before it goes into stereo
encoder. Audio signal should not appear close to 19KHz as this is
where stereo PILOT is and it would cause the Stereo LED on the
receiver to flicker as well as receiver shifting to MONO mode. Even if
you transmit in MONO, such low pass filter should be used. Why? To
limit space that your signal uses on the band. Your signal could
become wider than the standard deviation for FM broadcasting,
resulting in interference to other radio stations. Interference means
you can get busted!
So if you were going to setup a legal low poered FM radio station and
had to use a Winamp software compressor or limiter plugin Freeware or
not, which one
would sound and act more professional sounding and work well.
Thanks for all your help and please post the replies to the news
groups for all to read. I have seen other people post messages like
this but with little luck.