[LAD] Mixing audio: Noiseless volume changes

[Tim E. Real]

On March 18, 2013 11:58:48 PM Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 07:43:32PM -0400, Tim E. Real wrote:
> > Ah, I may have answered my own question when I said:
> > "(One cannot simply wait for the current data value to be 'zero' because
> > 
> >  for example with a perfect square wave signal the 'current' value will
> >  never approach zero, hence the zero-crossing detection requirement.)"
> 
> The analog waveform always 'approaches' zero - it's bandlimited and hence
> continuous - it just may not happen at a sample point. In fact the chance
> that it happens exactly at a sample point is zero.
> 
> > So having no choice but to apply the volume at this cross point the
> > popping
> > 
> >  noise might still be heard. I guess that's what Fons meant by
> >  'reduced'...
> >  and what Paul meant by... bogus. Right?
> 
> Imagine a signal slowly passing through zero, e.g. a low frequency
> sine wave. If you switch gain at an arbitatry point there will be
> a 'step', having a 1/F spectrum (just like a square wave). If you
> switch at a zero crossing there will be 'sharp corner', and this
> has a 1/(F^2) spectrum (like a triangular wave). So instead of a
> sharp click there will be something more like a 'thump'. The only
> real solution is to never switch the gain, but change it smoothly.
> 
> Caio,

Cool. Got it. And the response to James. Thanks very much. 
It is here at the mixing stage that I want to limit control motions.
All our controller graphs are sample-accurate and it's possible to
 deliberately draw sudden changes, also it's possible to suddenly
 change a GUI slider or knob's position.

Tim.