I've chosen the highest available quality for the video's sound track, but I can hear that a compressor is being used during the burning process. This makes the music's volume "pump" audibly.
MP3 is a compressed audio format, and that's one thing - that's a process that simplifies a signal so the file is much smaller than the original full resolution audio. But a compressor is an audio production tool that pulls up the level of soft passages and squashes down the volume of louder passages. When over-used, it can squash the life out of music, make it all artificially about the same volume throughout. The dynamic range is greatly reduced, and so is the power of the music. Works OK for loud rock, but sounds horrible on music which is more subtle than rock.
This is music I've produced, and the original file is exactly the way I want. I know what MP3 copies of the original file sound like - they sound fine. But once I've produced a video using the music, the levels have been flattened, and it sounds pretty bad to my musical ears.
There are no controls for a compressor in PD9, no indication that a compressor is kicking in. A sound track which is mostly vocal can benefit from this kind of evening out, but music like what I've written greatly suffers.
Are there any users here familiar with what I'm talking about? And if so, do you have suggestions of how to reduce this horrible compression?----What I'm afraid of is that Cyberlink has that compressor in there, invisible, knowing it will mostly help home users, and that it can't be bypassed. But man it's pretty bad- and something that didn't happen with my previous Brand X video software - sound always came out just the way it went in, with that program.
Randy B.