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Ultra Weird Question about Dynamic Range Compression

Trdat

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I switch between my home theatre(Denon 1912) set up for television(don't watch movies) which is still stereo(considering a centre speaker) and to my Hi End stereo set up for two channel listening. This works well for me, as I use the home theatre receiver mainly for its Audyssey dynamic volume and options.

My main goal is twofold 1. Improve Dialogue 2. Reduce the volume of annoying loud sounds.

Now, I do not watch movies but improving dialogue volume for my television series is still an important goal. Also, TV channels I watch do not offer anything other than stereo so not sure how good up mixing is these days with receivers.

I'm still deliberating about a centre channel and curious what opinions are on how much improvement I will get from a centre channel, up-mixing the stereo content from my television channels to some type of 3.1 Dolby or whatever?

Now, the weird(big) question, my Denon doesn't exude performance and I am curious if there is computer software that can handle the compression of dynamic volume and improve dialogue? I came across this option in Jriver but routing my convolution through Jriver has lypsinc problems so that is out of question, but that's what prompted me to write to see if there is a software option that works in real-time this way I can use my Hi End set up.
 

waynel

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1. Add a center channel
2. Set your center level on your receiver to be up 3dB
 

andreasmaaan

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I agree with @waynel's advice, adding a centre channel should significantly increase speech intelligibility.

FWIW though, you can use Equalizer APO and any number of VST plugins to implement system-wide EQ and/or dynamic compression.

Tokyo Dawn offers an excellent free EQ and compressor.
 
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Trdat

Trdat

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I agree with @waynel's advice, adding a centre channel should significantly increase speech intelligibility.

FWIW though, you can use Equalizer APO and any number of VST plugins to implement system-wide EQ and/or dynamic compression.

Tokyo Dawn offers an excellent free EQ and compressor.

Ill take a look at the Tokyo Dawn looks interesting, curious if it works in real time without lypsync issues.

I will add a centre speaker plus I might stick to using my home theatre receiver after some research it seems that the receivers are better at handling these compression tasks. My biggest concern regarding the adding of the centre speaker is when up-mixing from stereo to Dolby Pro Logic does the encoding stick to the the same rules as if it were originally mixed in 5.1 or well at least as close as possible? What I mean is would the centre speaker still be the main channel for dialogue? Cause if it is just dividing the stereo than there really isn't a purpose for the centre speaker. From what I have read it seems it does up-mix properly and I will get dialogue from the centre speaker. Can anyone confirm that?
 

andreasmaaan

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Ill take a look at the Tokyo Dawn looks interesting, curious if it works in real time without lypsync issues.

I hope so. My experience with these two plugins is that the latency is not long enough to be noticeable, but it may very from PC to PC.
 

PierreV

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If you go through the initial setup, specify which speakers are connected, the rerun the microphone calibration, you should be mostly ok. I've use a marantz of that era in 3.1 mode in my gym and dialogue was ok, even when I was on a treadmill.
 

waynel

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If you go through the initial setup, specify which speakers are connected, the rerun the microphone calibration, you should be mostly ok. I've use a marantz of that era in 3.1 mode in my gym and dialogue was ok, even when I was on a treadmill.
After you do all this I recommend going into the settings and raising the center level by 3dB.
 
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