even & odd audio harmonic exciter - like triode tube ?

[kylen]

Still wait a proposition about features you've need to make it usable.

Hi decil - for SweetyVST would it be possible to put an on/off switch on each of the harmonic sliders. I don't know if other folks have this problem but, with exciters and EQs especially, my aural memory forgets what the original audio sounded like pretty quickly. After a few minutes I've made a real mess so I have to A/B compare pretty regularly - having a switch on each harmonic would let be A/B each one without having to set it back down to 0.
Thanks!

[decil]

No problem.

You can access me via ICQ or MSN and we can talk about features in private mode.

[kylen]

OK - I talked to Arboretum about trading in IonizerDX (doesn't work too well on PC's) for HyperprismDX. To my amazement they told me to keep the Ionizer license (since it does work a little) and gave me a free Hyperprism license for my troubles and to spread a little good-will!

Thanks cdunkeroo - you started the Hyperprism thing and it turned out fairly nicely for me. Also my opinion of Arboretum has strengthened. Now to see how well any of it works in Sonar5 and WinXP and DirectX9...

[robenestobenz]

OK - I talked to Arboretum about trading in IonizerDX (doesn't work too well on PC's) for HyperprismDX. To my amazement they told me to keep the Ionizer license (since it does work a little) and gave me a free Hyperprism license for my troubles and to spread a little good-will!

Jesus, that's really nice of them.

[wsaidah]

im bumping this thread because this plug was interesting is there any new developments

[kylen]

I talked with decil briefly via PM the other day - as far as I know he is working up something in the lab. Maybe he'll have the chance in the near future to post an update!

[Lagrange]

whoa hoa.. you guys actually have time to source code this stuff.. man I thought coding flash for my page was a time consumer... I give mad props to those coding out their plugs..





was cdukeroo now is lagrange....

[kylen]

whoa hoa.. you guys actually have time to source code this stuff.. man I thought coding flash for my page was a time consumer... I give mad props to those coding out their plugs..
....

I don't code dsp myself either...but this place is often visited by some of the most competent and active audio dsp developers in the world!

[kylen]

Here's an interesting little article (by Russell O. Hamm Journal of the Audio Engineering Society May 1973) that describes some of the interesting attributes of harmonics using common vocabulary...

Here's a short excerpt ( http://www.dwfearn.com/tvst1.htm ):

"...The second and third harmonics are the most important from the viewpoint of the electronic distortion graphs in the previous section. Musically the second is an octave above the fundamental and is almost inaudible; yet it adds body to the sound, making it fuller. The third is termed quint or musical twelfth. It produces a sound many musicians refer to as "blanketed." Instead of making the tone fuller, a strong third actually gives the sound a metallic quality that gets annoying in character as its amplitude increases. A strong second with a strong third tends to open the "covered" effect. Adding the fourth and fifth to this changes the sound to an "open horn" like character... "

At any rate I've been all over the internet discovering available VST/DX plugins that either allow the user to manually balance the harmonics or have taken the time to attempt to create a balance that works in most cases. Being a layman and basically just trying to understand harmonic balancing I just twist the knobs till it sounds good - one thing I have noticed is that for a full mix it is very handy to use something like energyXT or Art Teknika Console to break out a multi-band configuration. In other words exciting a certain harmonic balance in the bass may not be appropriate for mids and highs. BTW this concerns restoration and rebalancing of older tape archived mixes.

Today the top shelf plugin for harmonic rebalancing in my remastering chain:
Voxengo Tube Amp http://www.voxengo.com/product/tubeamp/
It is free and was under my nose this entire time!

Recently I picked up delaydots Phat and Phat Pro as an alternative for Voxengo LF-Max bass and sub-bass harmonic balancing.

In addition I auditioned a bunch of other stuff and if I get the time and vocabulary will publish a short list of about a dozen or so - nothing anyone else wouldn't be able to do with a few days on their hands. There's already some posts at KVR that gave me a few tips too! Searching the KVR plugin list for exciters works too.

I think I am still ignorant of how phase and harmonic exciting works - maybe next week for that one!

...anyway back to Tube Amp and my multi-band harmonic rebalancing hi-wire act!

[kylen]

Speaking of free plugins - hats off to Aleksey at Voxengo (SPAN) and Bram at Smart Electronics (sMexoscope) for tools to view frequency spectrum and waveshape:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1023.html free spectrum analyzer
http://www.kvraudio.com/get/971.html free oscilloscope

Looking at the oscilloscope I just noticed that Voxengo Tube Amp allows asyn wave distortion via the "Bias" control - I always wondered what that did - all of this can be pretty suble to my ears (2nd harmonics and async) in the beginning - till I learn how to hear and adjust this somewhat psychoacoustic stuff!

[kylen]

Well this article about wraps it up for me at this point in time I think, it's called "A Musical Distortion Primer":
http://www.geofex.com/effxfaq/distn101.htm

Working in the analog world musicians and engineers alike simply have to find the best sounding analog equipment for the job and get the natural sound from the device - in the case of this thread I mean tube based device or other analog devices that produce musical and natural harmonics. For example grab a black face super-reverb to make a particular type of sound, or a Manley Massive-Passive for another type of sound.

Moving into the digital world IMO we have to know a little more about distortion devices to produce musical results. Even if a plugin has a useful UI and great presets the chances of getting a nasty sound may still be pretty high for some reason. But I think my understanding of how to add harmonics and balance them in full mixes "in the box" has increased as well as my appreciation of coding the dsp and user interface and generic presets.

So my final setup for now is Tube Amp and LF-Max, tuned using test tones to balance harmonics and using the ear on the actual song, monitored via SPAN and oscilloscopes mentioned, configured in a multi-band environment to help with any intermodulation distortion (as slight as it may be) and to assist in overall balance. The only thing I haven't tried much is harmonic exciter in parallel - there's always tomorrow! Also I'll be looking for SweetyVST whenever it gets fixed up as that is fun too.

I think my goal of adjusting harmonic balance instead of simply boosting and cutting a dry digital eq is realized! It seems to help the bass, mids, and highs - during restoration anyway.

[Lagrange]

yea aww ok that helps ..... doesnt

[kylen]

yea aww ok that helps ..... doesnt

Well OK then, share the wealth!

What are you looking for, what have you discovered and used so far, what do you wish you had? Harmonically speaking...

We're all just trying to discover the best sounding and shortest route to aural nirvana...

[blaqjak9019]

where can i find SweetyVST?

and which company is it made by?

[moonlite]

ooh kewl stuff.

more control in harmonic exiters! i myself are especially interrested exiting the bass in a mix .. rbass and maxxbass does a good job but even more control would be teh roxorz.

i love quadrafuzz too, and have used it as eq, too .. but more control would be cool

ozone:s cool too.

more things like those! more control over the harmonics!