Dave Moulton

My measurements sought to examine the question of variance of audio levels between channels and how this variance has changed (or not) over time.

Stable, consistent and predictable bass is one of the hardest things to obtain in a monitoring situation.

You need good speakers, placed well in a good room.

One major determinant of timbre is the distribution of energy across the audio spectrum.

This process will have the effect of making your mixes clearer, more transparent, a little louder for a given maximum level and generally a little "nicer.

This month I’d like to spend a little more time discussing the center channel, concentrating on some of the production issues we have to deal with.

Last month, I reviewed the Modulation Sciences SpiderVision Surround Sound signal level meter. As the lead-in to that review, I noted Lord Kelvin’s dictum that to measure is to know.

Compressors go back and forth between the realm where the level change can occur to each individual sound and the realm where we are changing the overall level for a while.

Our perception of loudness varies as a function of amplitude, frequency, frequency bandwidth and time. It is a complex sensation.

Last month, I hinted at some of the things we can do to make our use of loudspeakers for audio monitoring more effective.

This column will be devoted to the basics of surround sound for video, as part of my series for non-audio folks.

Our Story To Date. Alert readers may recall my recent concern with the variance in audio levels as experienced by us home viewers.

Dave Moulton takes another look at TV audio levels in advance of the CALM Act next month.

“I’m a TV engineer from the old school, so of course I never read articles about audio. The CALM Act changes that, of course.”

You may recall that we’ve been grappling with the measurement of audio loudness and the implications of the ITU’s B.S. 1770-1 standard for the measurement of loudness, in support of the CALM Act.

As we've discussed, low frequencies don't do well coming out of small loudspeakers into smallish rooms.

This will actually take a couple of columns. I'll start with the idea of standing waves.

You need a room—pretty much all to yourself and big enough so others can join you on occasion.

It seems appropriate to me that we go a little further with the discussion, simply to clarify what seems to be meant and desired in practice by A/85 and its authors.