brainworx's refinement = MAGIC? or just EQ?

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itbsystem wrote:Nothing special about this plugin. For my ears it sounds not that good.
I disagree. That is to say, for the stuff I've used it on I've been happy with the results.
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too. :lol:

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To make it sounding not so harsh, there is still this "Pultec trick" with cutting a bit the highs and the same time pushing about 10khz. Using some tape emulation etc does sometimes the same thing... not to mention to use a multibandcompressor or a dynamic EQ (like Voxengo GlissEQ).
I think that many will already have such tools/FX chain so it's more to think about different usage instead of buying yet another tool...
But if some people achieve better results with this refinement tool, why not.

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the thing is if you don't know how to get that effect without this plugin dind't mean that it is special. The effect is to drastic used just a little sounds ok but if you try more of the effect the sound lose the presence and everything sounds flat. You need a good speaker setup most people don't have the quality to hear everything at home. 2 Little near field is like hearing only a little part of the sound you need a fullrange speaker setup to hear everything well. Everytime people hear their stuff on a big speaker they realize ok not that good at all. At home everything sounded nice. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of special plugins out there but this is not one of them. And i really like the brainworks stuff it was possible to get professional nice sounding tracks before that plugin so there must be a way to get that effect without it. I tried it and get a quite similar effect so no need for this plugin.

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itbsystem wrote:the thing is if you don't know how to get that effect without this plugin dind't mean that it is special. The effect is to drastic used just a little sounds ok but if you try more of the effect the sound lose the presence and everything sounds flat. You need a good speaker setup most people don't have the quality to hear everything at home. 2 Little near field is like hearing only a little part of the sound you need a fullrange speaker setup to hear everything well. Everytime people hear their stuff on a big speaker they realize ok not that good at all. At home everything sounded nice. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of special plugins out there but this is not one of them. And i really like the brainworks stuff it was possible to get professional nice sounding tracks before that plugin so there must be a way to get that effect without it. I tried it and get a quite similar effect so no need for this plugin.
Yeah, I'd agree. As I said, I could get the similar effect with a high quality, saturater, EQ and compressor.

But you can do all that in quarter of the time with Refinement. I've also tested the results on a decent motoring system, and the lows and presence are still beefy, without any of the harsh frequencies.

The trick with the plugin is, a little goes a long way. Overdoing it makes the tune sound a bit flat, and flattens the dynamics. But that is going at it full pelt, where you only need a touch of it, and the results speak for themselves imo.

It's a very very nice need to have, but it's not essential, if you have a decent chain of plugins. :)
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too. :lol:

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how is it on the CPU?

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another way to get that effect is you need two eqs first eq highshelf or high cut on second eq you push the highs in the right frequencies. Tried it again and everything i do with normal eq and saturation is sounding much better than this plugin. It takes only 2 minutes to get this. don't get me wrong its a matter of taste but this plug is not sounding special in any way. Try for example uad multiband all you need. Sound much more detailed clear and punchy with the same effect. You don't need decent plugins or a hole chain to get this effect. Its daily buisness to get such a sound.

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sorry i forgot to mention if you lower the frequencies around 2 k - 3 k just a bit with an normal eq with wide q you get also that effect less harsh its just an sound ilusion not more. don't get fooled there are plenty of ways to get that effect.

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did you see on gearslutz how the dev gave an analysis of how the plugin works?
Finally!

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Robmobius wrote: But you can do all that in quarter of the time with Refinement.
The trick with the plugin is, a little goes a long way. Overdoing it makes the tune sound a bit flat, and flattens the dynamics. But that is going at it full pelt, where you only need a touch of it, and the results speak for themselves imo.
That is my experience with Refinement too.
I'm only using it on the stereo buss on mixes I think already sound good.
Rarely have I used more than say 2 db of soft damping with similar Dynamics reduction.
I leave the saturation at the default, I have other things for more intense saturation.
Likewise the Presence, I use other things for that.
I really did not want to buy this but, after the 14 day demo was up, I had no choice :wink:
I have regretted some Plugin Alliance purchases but I think this is one of their best.

UPDATE: yesterday I used this on something that benefitted from some of the Saturation (35%) and 1 db of Presence. Obviously what works depends on the source material.
Last edited by Beatworld on Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:24 am, edited 1 time in total.

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how about a before and after sound sample? :)

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ericzang wrote:how about a before and after sound sample? :)
How about you download the demo and try it yourself ? :)
That way if you don't like it you just saved yourself $199 :wink:

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im no pro in settings but i used around 5db dampening, +1 presence, mixing around 70 % and dynamics control around 6db.

https://soundcloud.com/mccaine/sets/refinement-test
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Caine123 wrote:im no pro in settings but i used around 5db dampening, +1 presence, mixing around 70 % and dynamics control around 6db.

https://soundcloud.com/mccaine/sets/refinement-test
Nice work, thanks for posting.
On test 2 have you compared the end results if you wound back the damping and Dynamics to each say around 3 and increased the wet/dry mix to say 85% ?
Those settings may work better, then again they may not :wink:

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Thanks for the post Caine! (I'm away from my music computer/studio for an extended time so can't demo for myself properly).

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It's just an equalizer with saturation. The trick of cutting the really highs with LPF and then boosting the "not so ultra high" works very well, those above 10khz frequencies need some cutting on lots of signals.

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