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Started May 21st, 2008 · 36 replies · Latest reply by qubodup 14 years, 7 months ago
Bramhttp://freesound.iua.upf.edu/files/player/player.html
opinions?
I don't know if this would be easy/possible to implement but what if you could make the user choose whether to hear the previews as normalized or not?
Maybe default it to normalize, but people who don't want to hear the normalization can choose some setting to hear all previews unnormalized. The thinking here is amateur users would hear more sounds without constant volume changes, while the pros can choose to hear the sounds the way they actually are.(if they're logged in) My thought is that amateur users probably don't give low volume sound recordings as much of a listen, so normalize might give those sounds more of a chance. This would also make it less tempting for uploaders to normalize themselves(like they might do) when some users don't want something processed in any way.
Sounds like a pain to implement but maybe I'm wrong
RHumphries
I would choose not normalized because it is easier for me to tell what the resulting sound will be like in terms of volume and dynamics. Your normalized example suddenly looks very loud to me, even though it is not, and the resulting increase in frequency resolution, doesn't really tell me much more about the sound than the non normalized example.-Richard
I second that.
lonemonkAlso, Stickman said it right away. If preview listeners need to hear it louder then provide a scrollbar for volume on each preview.
The only problem with this is that flash does not let you add gain to a signal. It can only attenuate.
I don't think that normalizing is a good idea because of the vast range of sounds and the rich palette of use for them. Look/lListen to them as they are uploaded and intended by the creator without any interpretation by freesound.
Normalize the Preview and leave the waveform as is.
That way you can hear the sound and at the sametime know thats its either a very loud or low sound by just looking at the waveform.
The current way sucks because if I'm up at 4 in the morning going through some sounds,I totally hate having to constantly adjust the volume every time I encounter a really low or ear splitting sound.
When this topic first came up, I was in favor of no normalization. I have since changed my mind and think that your idea of normalizing all preview sounds is a good one.
And, heresy of heresy, storing all sounds in normalized form too. The main argument for this is that it is reversible if the user should choose, but convenient otherwise. I find that the first thing I always do with a downloaded sound is normalize, before any other processing, and I store sounds fully normalized. They can be mixed at lower volume if desired when used, but even here it helps to know that the sound is normalized so I can have a feel for how much volume to give automatically.
Parden my ignorence, but what does normalising a sound actually mean, and what is the difference between a normalised sound and a non-normalised one?
Explain someone please...
Cheers
It means two things:
1. Adjusting the center of the sounds waveform so it is at 0, that is removing any bias.
2. Finding the loudest frame in the entire sample and making that frame have the maximum volume, and letting every other frame be increased proportionally the same amount as the loudest frame. e.g. the loudest sound is at 80% maximum. Then it and all other sounds will be increased by 25% so it is 100% max and others are increased proportionally.
I have only found a few sounds on freesound that had bias in them, for most normalizing means increasing the volume of all the frames. Many are already normalized when they are uploaded.
So, usually, the only difference between a normalized sound and a non normalized sound is the volume, the loudness.
I spoke to Bram sometime ago about this in a PM and now I realize that I have to reverse my opinion on this.
It is better to leave the sounds as is to maintain the purity of the recorded sound.
Like some have stated,when they see a low waveform they automatically can tell that it is a low volumed sound.
By Normalizing all the sounds you will lose the Dynamics within those sounds,thus removing the essence or nuances the makes these sounds unique.
What I would like is for those users that are uploading their sounds [and maybe have a moderator post this as a requirement] is to edit the beginning of their sounds so that there is no silence at the beginning.
This of course would not apply to sounds that normally fade into the sound itself [like a passing Car, Plane or rising sounds].
The reason for this is that I have downloaded lots of sounds that have had long lengths of dead space at the beginning of the sound which waste space on the site as well as on the user's drive .
The other problem about this is that most of us don't want to waste time waiting for the sound to play,only to find out at times that they didn't like the sound to begin with.