Mp3 music players are quite useful devices, and people have found many diverse uses for what was once seen as a cute convenience for listening to a new form of digital music. Smartphones, automobiles, and netbook computers all have mp3 players built in, and listeners use them for podcasts, audio books, language tutoring, study notes, and all sorts of other things barely envisioned when the first Ipods went on sale.
One annoying aspect of listening to audio on an mp3 player is environmental - the listener is rarely in a quiet location. More often than not, there listener is outdoors, in a crowded building, on a plane, or on a noisy street. Considering that most sources of audio for mp3s are tailored for quiet listening environments, the dynamics are not suited for where people really listen. A solution is to the problem is to incorporate some dynamics processing in the production of the mp3 files. Read the instructions below for a method of mass editing audio tracks to make them suitable for comfortable listening in loud environments.
Note: Most audio workstations can multiple files in batches. Steps 1, 3, 4, and 7 generally are enough for most audio tracks if you automate the process.
Attack time: 5 to 30 milliseconds Release time: 200 to 500 milliseconds Compression ratio: 1.5:1 to 2:1 Threshold: -20 dB Make-up gain: +5 dB
Attack time should be set as fast as possible, and release time in the 200 to 500 millisecond range, to handle individual drum beats or syllables of speech. Most of the pertinent parts of a track are louder than -20 dB, so the threshold should be set no lower, to exclude background noise from the process.
Raw Audio - U2 Performing "Scarlet" during the 360 tour. | |
Processed Audio - U2 Performing "Scarlet" during the 360 tour. |
Following the method given above should result in a high quality sound which is at the same time easy to hear and dynamically pleasing in any environment. In an era when people must live with constant background noise, it is entirely possible to put on a good set of earphones and hear one\'s chosen programming at comfortable levels and without environmental interference.