10 May 2020
John S Dyson

There will be many people who say -- this isn't FeralA -- you are getting too much sibilance.
Early on, I lost some credibility because of mistuning and non-ideal EQ mechanisms.  These
problems ARE fixed, and more often than not, older POP CDs ARE FeralA.  Don't let someone
who 'knows all' tell you otherwise -- most likely, they are embarassing themselves.

There are three answers to the comment:

1) their statement might be wrong because
DolbyA HW units DO compress the high frequencies.  That is, the expansion is incomplete
and their lack of experience with the SPECIFIC RECORDINGS makes them misunderstand
what they are hearing.

2) The decoder might need adjustment.  Basically, in the --fa, --fb, --fc, --fD series of commands,
one of the available arguments is the '-' sign.  Sometimes the sibilance can be controlled and
produce normal sibilance after one, two or three '-'.  I have found that two '-' signs often helps.
So, instead of --fb=bX, you might try: --fb=--bX.  Also, try the '3' or '4' command
instead of the 'X' command...  These suggestions are where you have the most control.


3) Another problem, paradoxically, is that the calibration level might be too high.  Sometimes,
sibilance is over-enhanced by using a calibration of, say -12.85 when it should be -14.375 or
even -15.025 like on some HDtracks high res material.  By boosting the average level by using
a lower calibration (which sets the decoder higher on the gain curve), then there is a corrected,
less expansion of certain levels & frequencies.

But, very importantly, sometimes one CAN be fooled into thinking that unencoded material is
FeralA -- there are recordings that aren't FeralA, but not many CDs in the older POP realm are
properly mastered.  When you are getting too much sibilance, more often than not,
all is required is some retuning.  There are some distorted FeralA recordings that can
sometimes be finessed -- but it is best to simply find a better recording.