[78-L] audio "restoration" question

[David Breneman]

----- Original Message -----

From: Michael Biel <mbiel at mbiel.com>

> Limiting, or compression.  Or stupidity.  
> 
> Nothing should ever be done to vary the surface noise level...

The effect that Randy describes, "...as the volume of a recording
goes up and down, you can hear this
 effect kicking in and out..."
sounds like gating to me.  A gate will cut out audio completely
if it's below a certain threshold.  It's very irritating when
applied to music.  It's frequently used with PA systems to
limit feedback.  It sounds fine if you're at the venue, but if
you're listening on radio or TV, and no ambiance is added to the
mix, it's annoying as hell.  I occasionally will gate, then
compress, noisy audio I use as a bed in a mix, but the level 
of the bed is so low you don't notice it.  It sounds atrocious
by itself.