Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
Volume limiter
Llorean:
It's not just a volume cap. It lowers global volume by a certain amount. Mathematically it's the same as a cap, but because it's a cut, that happens in advance (hence pre-cut) it can also prevent clipping within certain DSP processes.
It basically serves multiple functions, and its name reflects what it explicitly does. It serves perfectly fine as a volume cap, because a 3db precut lowers the maximum volume by 3db.
It may be confusing if you don't read what settings do before assuming the one you want doesn't exist. And there may be some benefit for creating a "volume limiter" section of the manual that explains that the precut can be used for such, or similar, but renaming it will just confuse the issue from another direction when the problem is (as is so often the case) people search for a specific term they know, and if they don't find it, don't look at other things to see if something else serves that purpose. If we renamed it, people would turn to requesting a precut.
Strife89:
--- Quote from: Llorean on July 27, 2011, 12:10:17 AM ---It's not just a volume cap. [...] Mathematically it's the same as a cap, but because it's a cut, that happens in advance (hence pre-cut) it can also prevent clipping within certain DSP processes.
It basically serves multiple functions, and its name reflects what it explicitly does. [...] If we renamed it, people would turn to requesting a precut.
--- End quote ---
Ah, that explains a lot. I retract my suggestions, then. :)
STU103:
--- Quote from: saratoga on July 26, 2011, 01:19:02 PM ---
--- Quote from: Datman on July 26, 2011, 01:11:56 PM ---I think he's asking for a compressor/limiter.
--- End quote ---
From his eventual description, I'm pretty sure he actually just wanted a way to lower the maximum volume level you could set, aka a precut option, which we do have. But yes its hard to say since he didn't really seem to understand himself what he was asking for.
Regardless, we have both precut and compression, so if the OP ever figures out what he wanted, hes welcome to use either!
--- End quote ---
I am not an expert on rock box, nor do I pretend to be. I understood what I was asking. People have suggested that I haven't read the manual. Well I have. There is no mention of a way to limit the maximum output volume contained in the manual. Now in relation to pre cut and I will quote
"Pre-cut. If too much gain is added through the graphical EQ, your music may distort.
The Precut setting allows you to adjust the overall gain of the EQ.
If your music distorts when using the EQ, trying changing this setting to a negative
value."
As for volume and I quote
"6.1. Volume
This setting adjusts the volume of your music. Like most professional audio gear and
many consumer audio products, Rockbox uses a decibel scale where 0 dB is a refer-
ence that indicates the maximum volume that the player can produce without possible
distortion (clipping). All values lower than this reference will be negative and yield a
progressively softer volume. Values higher than 0 dB are available and can be used to
raise the volume more than would otherwise be possible. These volume levels will ordi-
narily lead to distorted sound, but might work nicely for music that has an otherwise low
volume level. The volume can be adjusted from a minimum of -74 dB to a maximum
of +6 dB.
This is all that is mentioned about pre cut and volume in the manual.
Yes, perhaps the pre cut could function to limit the overall audio out put of the mechanical volume control, but there is certainly no mention of that.
Perhaps some amendments or updates should be made to the user manual. I would think that a fair amount people use an ipod with rock box. Someone who has used an ipod with original firmware would be aware of its ability to simply limit the volume that is being outputted when the mechanical volume control is used. This is a useful feature. It would be useful to include instructions in the manual how to achieve this in rock box.
Here is what I am talking about on an Ipod http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38403?viewlocale=en_US.
This visualisation may help people to understand what I am describing.
gbl08ma:
The volume limiter as those that are implemented by Apple in its firmware has been refused many times if I recall correctly. It's not something people want AFAIK.
Personally, I (and many other people) want to be able to turn the volume to the maximum without having to change some setting first. Higher volume level on both the 3.5mm jack and on the line-out, without volume limiter, were some of the reasons I switched to Rockbox.
Llorean:
As has been stated, it hasn't been rejected so much as it already exists as a feature. People just, perhaps, don't know what 'gain' means in an audio context.
The issue isn't a lacking feature, but a situation where documentation can be improved. Since it's open source, we welcome a patch for the manual from anyone who feels strongly about the issue to improve describing what precut is, and how it may be used for other purposes.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version