Managing a wide dynamic range without compression

I know that compression is the go-to tool for taming peaks in most types of music, and I understand the reasons for this. However, as somebody who has spent most of his life immersed in classical (I hate that term!) music and opera, and who is now attempting to record performers in this genre, I am curious as to how to approach the issue of preserving the widest possible dynamic range. To be honest, I'm struggling. My shelves are full of recordings of strident brass blasting the roof off and playing softly in the same piece. I have opera singers floating the softest pianissimi and then letting rip with window-rattling high notes. Being able to preserve those peaks and troughs is vital. Yet when I attempt to capture them myself I invariably find myself reaching for the compressor during mixing as it is the only way I can keep things under reasonable control.

Any insights into how the professionals cope with this would be greatly appreciated.

Steve S.

Not to be a wise-acre, but start with source material in a space that gives you the dynamic range you are looking for, and then be certain not to do anything to it electronically<G>!

Seriously, most of the dynamic range problems I've run across are caused by either poorly designed equipment or good equipment poorly configured.

You need to stay above the noise floor - and actually you don't HAVE to, but it's a good idea.

You need to stay below the point of clipping, and with the exception of some special cases for inter-sample clipping you really do need to watch this.

So you listen to a run-through and you notice that the ambient noise in the hall is on the order of 30 dB-SPL, and that the loudest sound you hear (trumpet, soprano, whatever) is around 96 dB-SPL. That's only a 66 dB ratio from loudest to quietest, and that is manageable without any compressors or limiters.

In fact it's a bit much for the average listening room, but you have to capture it faithfully first!

I'd expect most modern microphones, preamplifiers, and A/D converters to be able to manage a 60-70 dB dynamic range without a problem... provided they are optimized individually and as a system.

Once you have captured this then the challenges come by, as Jeff described so well. And that seems to be the root of your question...

I have not yet found a compressor that sounds as subtle as a person moving a fader (or even and automation system moving a fader<G>!) If you need more than about 6 dB of gain change there result too many artifacts (for lack of a better word) that scream out COMPRESSOR.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the listener in a home listening environment most likely has a much higher noise floor to deal with, and thus the quiet passages will get turned up. And if that happens without the required reduction for the really loud passages, well, it can get ugly, or really loud anyway!

So you need to decide just how wide a dynamic range you want to provide, and once you settle on that I think you'll find managing it a LOT easier...

Have fun!

The "riding the fader option" Jeff mentions above can be accomplished with volume envelopes

That doesnt make your sound have a wide dynamic range. It just makes your track louder or quieter. Dynamic range is in the performance itself. Its not just making a loud part quiet with an envelope and a quite spot louder with an envelope. It will just sound like a quiet part turned down or a loud part turned down.
 
 Dynamic range need to be captured during the Recording stage, Not Mixing stage
 
If i record a Violin with a constant  volume. Then i add volume envelopes to it. You wont be giving it a dynamic range , youll just be making it quiter or louder...
Cj

mike_mccue


Let's be real...

Speaking as an enthusiastic classical listener; This dynamic range we are speaking is rarely experienced.

There I said it.

In my opinion if you want a classical performance to sound great on a mid to kinda better stereo... you're going to have to squeeze some dynamic range into the box.

How far you go will directly relate to the practical use of the final product.

Some classical music recordings can only be listened to in earnest on an excellent system in very quiet *stereo* room... others are more easily presented on a mid grade system in a casual setting.

best regards,
mike

I was thinking this too. Having things go from a whisper to a scream is great in a concert hall where the music is your focus, but really annoying in a car or as background music during dinner.

But how do the pros do it? Do the performers just reduce their dynamics somewhat when recording? I would think that would be the best solution.

drewfx

Another thought...

As has been alluded to several times, the average home listening environment is not well suited for a performance with a wide dynamic range. So what we need to do is preserve the illusion of a large difference between the average perceived volume during the quietest passage and the loudest passage. AND, we need to preserve, within the dynamic range we can afford, and the headroom of the system, the peaks. Letting some peaks get through can really enhance the 'effect' of a larger dynamic range!

(In truth, preserving the peaks does increase the dynamic range - but it's a numbers game at that point, since the human ear does lots of pesky little integrations!)

Thanks for all the great replies. I guess the upshot is that the notion of preserving the full dynamic range of a performance isn't really achievable, and that I have to resign myself to some form of dynamics management, be it compression or fader-riding.

This thread has reminded me of some recordings from the 70s of Herbert von Karajan with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where it sounds very much as though the absolute extremes of the performance dynamics have been preserved. They are very hard to listen to without constantly fiddling with the volume control. QED, I guess.

Steve S.

ssilverm


 Being able to preserve those peaks and troughs is vital. Yet when I attempt to capture them myself I invariably find myself reaching for the compressor during mixing as it is the only way I can keep things under reasonable control.

Any insights into how the professionals cope with this would be greatly appreciated.

Steve S.

Well ,
what do you mean?
 
The facts are simple ,  a  5 lbs bag can't hold 7 lbs of whatever!!
 
 (  elaborate on what is your goal, or specifically where the stumbling blocks are ... Is it the dialing in of a compressor to be as transparent as is possible ??  As others have mentioned , whilst there are ways to" push from the top down"  fairly transpaently , it is even more possibly  transparent to "push the bottom up " ; cause you're not messing with transients that way .)
 
The facts are simple ,  a  5 lbs bag can't hold 7 lbs of whatever!! ( yup , i said it again !!)
 
The original dynamics processors came about because the full range of a audio  sound or sounds  was larger that could be stuffed into the medium ( or media , if you like )
 
 
So you have to limit the peaks  , or bring up the bottom , or both !! The challange is to do this sqeeze in an artfull manner...
 
Also , remember that when we make sound recordings , we are making  "loudspeaker " music .
Although you can try , you're not going to  get an exact reproduction  of real . 
 
 
 
Basically .................."you've got compromise" !!!!!