geoff matters - 2000-03-15

pdorman said (elsewhere):

> I'd love there to be an option to limit the
> maximum gain in the wheels program. I also think
> the aim of the crossfade should be to maintain a
> constant gain level. If I'm sliding from one
> side to another I'm finding myself compensating
> for the level drop with my other hand.

The current behavior is as follows:  moving the
crossfader will adust the relative levels of the
two vertical gains such that the sum of their
volumes remains the same.  Adjusting one gain
filter won't ever cause the other channel's
gain to be changed.  The volume meters show
the sound before the gain filters are applied.

I agree that in practice, the behavior doesn't
always seem ideal.  I have been planning to add
max gains to the crossfader, so that you can
avoid ending up with 400% gain on one channel.
Another possibility would be to change the
response curve of the crossfade or gains..
i.e. to fade logarithmically instead of linearly.

Note that the gain filters affect the sound
by a constant amount regardless of the actual
volume of the input sound.  If you have
particularly loud or quiet songs, try adding
gain filters (with the builder) and fixing it.
If the levels going into the volume meters are
even for both channels, then the crossfade's
behavior produces reasonable results.

Also note that the effective level output by your
sound card is determined by the sound card volume;
A gain filter will only boost a sound as far as
it can given the sample structure it uses, and
compresses samples which overflow.  If you keep
your levels high within gdam, the level output
by your sound card should be about as loud as
it'll ever be, and unexpected volume peaks can
be avoided.

Thanks for the feedback,
i'm glad to hear user's thoughts on these issues.
let me know what behavior you  think would be
best.

  -geoff