spike-bender

This tool is desined for flattering the dynamics of the audio signal.

The overall behaviour is the following:

• Apply frequency weighting function to the input file. Available weighting functions are the following:
  • no weighting;
  • A-weighted (IEC 61672-1:2013);
  • B-weighted (IEC 61672-1:2013);
  • C-weighted (IEC 61672-1:2013);
  • D-weighted (IEC 61672-1:2013);
  • K-weighted (ITU-R BS.1770-4/2015).
• Determine the maximum RMS values of the frequency-weighted signal.
• Perform the following operation for the specified number of passes:
  • Estimate the short-time RMS value which is controlled by the reactivity parameter.
  • Configure the upward compressor according to the computed RMS value.
  • Adjust the volume of the audio file within the selected dynamics range to match the specified RMS value.
• Find the peaks that exceed the median peak value for more than configured threshold and eliminate them.
• Normalize the output file if required.
• Write the output file.

Using The Software

Help

Use the following command to see the software usage:

spike-bender --help

The available option list will be the following:

  -dr, --dynamic-range    Dynamic range of the compressor (in dB, 6 dB by default)
  -ep, --eliminate-peaks  The threshold above which all peaks are eliminated (in dB, 1 dB by default, off if not positive),
  -if, --in-file          The path to the input file
  -k, --knee              Knee of the compressor (in dB, 3 dB by default)
  -n, --normalize         Set normalization mode (none, above, below, always, none by default)
  -ng, --norm-gain        Set normalization peak gain (in dB, 0 dB by default)
  -np, --num-passes       Number of passes, 1 by default
  -of, --out-file         The path to the output file
  -r, --reactivity        Reactivity of the compressor (in ms, 40 ms by default)
  -sr, --srate            Sample rate of output (processed) file, optional
  -wf, --weighting        Frequency weighting function (none, a, b, c, d, k, none by default)

Requirements

The following packages need to be installed for building:

• gcc >= 7.5.0
• GNU make >= 4.2.1
• libsndfile
• libiconv

Building

To build the tool, perform the following commands:

make config # Configure the build
make fetch # Fetch dependencies from Git repository
make
sudo make install

To get more build options, run:

make help

To uninstall library, simply issue:

make uninstall

To clean all binary files, run:

make clean

To clean the whole project tree including configuration files, run:

make prune

To fetch all possible dependencies and make the source code tree portable between different architectures and platforms, run:

make tree

To build source code archive with all possible dependencies, run:

make distsrc