released: SlickHDR - Psychoaccoustic Dynamic Processor

[idfpower]

This plugin is absolutely great for people, who like mixing without knowing, what they're doing.

Here's a shocker: who cares Yes, a lot of ppl are not mixing/mastering experts. Now this thing is going to help cover that? Great

Man, so much negativity...I'd like to see each person thinking they can create better plugins take his/her shot, complete a project and then share it for free - win-win Turn your negativity into a positive endeavour, you know

[pc2000]

the background color of your DAW influences your hearing. try looking out of the window and then close your eyes: you will immediately hear a difference

LMAO... I sometimes look at my hardware equipment when I'm recording or mixing, which changes my perception for the better. Even adjusting settings on fx seem to sound better using knobs rather than a mouse.

[Agreed]

LOL... there's a Geek side to everything if someone wants to truly get anal about things. None of us are digital machines, so trying to quantify every little subject into minute particles is pointless especially since there are so many variables that make it mute. Ultimately, it still becomes a matter of your ears because that's what you use as a human when listening to or making music.

We are fooled in many ways that don't need to be quantified because who cares at the end of the day. Video is merely rapidly moving pictures or frames that your brain stitch together to give the allusion of fluid motion. Do you sit as you watch TV and geek out on what your brain is fooling you into believing? Do you say to yourself as you watch smut or sports that it's only frames of pictures, so why am I watching it? I mean...REALLY, you can geek out about a lot of things like whether there is any real difference between equally spec-ed digital TV's and whether your eyes are fooling you into thinking one is showing you a better picture. There are certainly geeks that can anal-ize why you think you see a better picture and various bench test that can be performed to show that from an engineering standpoint... but the reality is that your biological eyes are going to be the deciding factor, because you don't watch TV as a digital cyborg directly interfaced with the technology.

Last week, I decided to hook up my old ass, EMU ESI-2000 digital hardware sampler and test the sound difference between it and Kontakt 5 with the premise of the ESI having it's own converters imparting a type of sound compared to Kontakt. I put the same 4 bar sample of a Teddy P song in both and began my a/b test. Besides sound quality, I also tested the quality of the transposition of the samples to see if there was aliasing in the EMU which wasn't. I tested the entire octave range of the sample by alternating the same key for each sampler. I concluded from my test that it wasn't worth the hassle of using the EMU because there was no discerning difference in the sound Quality. Actually the samples sounded identical with no special mojo coming from the EMU because it's hardware. Even the filters didn't sound better!

This post doesn't mean anything. You say you have several DAWs and that plugins sound different in different DAWs. Okay, prove it easily: load up a track, process it with the plugin you're sure sounds differently. When you're done, do the same with identical settings (just max 'em all, this is a test after all, don't want knob variance in your DAW or whatever screwing it up ) in however many DAWs it is you say you have. At the end, you should have tracks that either ARE or ARE NOT sample identical.

Invert phase on them one at a time and see what happens.

If they ARE sample identical, they'll null. And you're wrong, but so are most of us much of the time, no need to get hysterical about it.

If they AREN'T sample identical, they won't null. And you're right, but so are most of us much of the time, no need to get hysterical about it.

It's just an opportunity for you to learn something if you want to. Nobody's a geek or a cyborg because they're not willing to let electronics become spiritual. That's a bit daft.

[Tricky-Loops]

This plugin is absolutely great for people, who like mixing without knowing, what they're doing.

It's for people who mix with their ears instead of thinking analytically for hours about the perfect attack, release times and ratios...

Close your eyes (but not your ears), adjust some knobs, listen to the sound - and either it sounds better or not. Then test some other adjustments. Repeat it. And most times it will sound better. Sometimes not. That's called mixing fun.

It's like driving to a different place for vacation than the last times. It's an adventure. You don't know anything. But you can get richer experiences.

[Frantz]

Close your eyes (but not your ears), adjust some knobs, listen to the sound - and either it sounds better or not. Then test some other adjustments. Repeat it. And most times it will sound better. Sometimes not.

That sounds like a very hit or miss approach.

When in doubt, I tend to leave it out. Generally I wouldn't use a plugin based on "mysterious" principles. I might try it as an experiment but it's the sort of thing I am going to be very skeptical of.

[Bronto Scorpio]

I only need to know what a plugin does sonically and not necessarily what exactly is going on under the hood.
I have no idea how most reverbs work, yet I'm using them every single day.

However, I think the manual is actually quite clear about the stuff that's going on here. I really don't need to know how exactly the network of the 3 processors is configured and so on.
It even gives an example (!!!) of how to set it up.

Many people seem to try to take the whole creative process out of the music making process. It always scares me how much the concept of subjectivity is lost on many people these days. Everyone seems to need an exact description of what plugin to use when and how to set it up, instead of just developing a unique toolbox and a unique list of tricks.
People use this and that compressor on drums because it's an emulation of a compressor that many people seemed to have used on drums, at least that's what they read on teh interwebz, probably from someone who also read it somewhere.

But that's a topic for another thread

Sorry for the rant!
This annoys me for quite some time, I really don't want to offend anyone!
It's all cool as long as we are all having fun, let's just tune down the negativity a bit. If you don't like something, don't use it. It's much more fun to talk about stuff you like.

Cheers
Dennis

[Cyoon]

Will check it tomorrow, curious about the hype

[Frantz]

Many people seem to try to take the whole creative process out of the music making process. It always scares me how much the concept of subjectivity is lost on many people these days
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let's just tune down the negativity a bit.

Great post Dennis. First dismiss people as being uncreative. Then accuse them of not understanding what subjectivity is. And accuse them of mindlessly copying others on the internet. Finally tell them not to be so negative. You really put your straw men in their places.

[A.M. Gold]

There's nothing really mysterious about this plug-in, and it doesn't "mix things for you".

It uses compression and saturation in a multi-stage fashion to accentuate certain dynamics properties. It has knobs and three meters you can look at to make adjustments while you listen to the sound it makes.

What's the problem?

[Frantz]

What's the problem?

I don't have a problem but I have questions. There is not a comparable plugin that I'm aware of. There are large companies with lots of people working full-time on compressors, mastering plugins, etc. Why hasn't something similar been done before? Perhaps this is a true innovation. It's possible but I'm skeptical.

Here the manual is talking about a network of processors "highly interacting with each other." It sounds complicated and unusual to me but I am not a DSP expert.

Technically speaking, SlickHDR contains a coupled network of three dynamic processors with two of them running in a “stateful saturation” configuration and one based on look-ahead processing.Fixed amounts of the unprocessed signal are then injected into the network at several specific points and also mixed back into the networks output. Being networked, all processors are highly interacting with each other and this is utilized to cope with a wide variety of sound (sic!) to balance the perceived audio dynamic range.

How to use it according to the manual:

Using the device across a whole mix is a very good idea. For example, applying it on a mono bass track to make it appear more consistent and then the keys and the rhythms section in the very same fashion delivers sub-mixes with a great overall translation. Then apply it on the vocal group and the drum bus to manage all the micro dynamics there. This already makes mastering a lot easier.

Inserting it on the master bus upfront the final limiter is also not only possible but beneficial. In this case, increasing loudness of the whole mix is partly delivered by psychoaccoustic processing and so the final limiter has less work to do and can operate much more relaxed. However, this plug-in is not intended to be part of any loudness race.

To summarize, put it on individual tracks, sub-mixes, the drum bus, and the master. Just put it everywhere since it will improve everything.

[The_Hidden_Goose]

Offer me something for free and then not provide an essay explaining all the mathematics and under-the-hood schematics for my pointless (since I'm no DSP expert) reference?

Whatever next?

[CableChannel]

I like the smell of flame wars in the morning

[jens]

Here's a short example (before/after) with about the same RMS, either you like it or not (of course dynamic range decreases).
http://www.leinilive.at/hdr/example1_before.wav
http://www.leinilive.at/hdr/example1_after.wav
If you want to download and have problems to do this with your browser, click here:
http://www.leinilive.at/slickhdr.html

I don't hear much difference. Is that the final verdict that I am not pro audio?

There is a world of difference though - I even think it's a tad overdone here...

to hear best what it does, you need to try to listen as carefully as possible to the release portion of the guitar... i.e. not the beginning of every individual note but how it sounds after its attack-phase - there is much more detail i.e. it sounds much more vidid.

I haven't had a chance to try the plugin myself yet, but Peter's example imo showcases quite well what this is all about, as I got it just from listening to it and reading the technical explanation.

Regarding HDR images consider the earlier posted image of the snow and the trees. Normally, either the snow is too dark or the trees are too bright. No conventional photograph will ever be able to capture the real image, which you see with your eyes, even just halfway appropriately, as there will always have to be a trade-off between capturing the extreme darkness and the extreme brightness. This is why back in the day Ansel Adams developed his zone system ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_System ).

A similar problematic interdependency as with with darkness vs. brightness in photographs you have with transients vs. the release section of audio material and Bootsie's new baby deals with this problem.

[jens]

I'm speaking from the standpoint of what I can actually hear.

No at all, not at all!

You are merely speaking from the standpoint of what you believe you can actually hear.

If I told you I can actually see flying pigs, would you think flying pigs are real?

No? Why not?

Yes, exactly - because you know, that pigs can't fly.

Just as there are people who believe they see all sorts of things which in reality do not exist, there are people who believe they can hear all sorts of things which in reality do not exist.

And there is some strong evidence right here in this very thread, that you are one of them.

[jens]

Many people seem to try to take the whole creative process out of the music making process. It always scares me how much the concept of subjectivity is lost on many people these days
.
.
.
let's just tune down the negativity a bit.

Great post Dennis. First dismiss people as being uncreative. Then accuse them of not understanding what subjectivity is. And accuse them of mindlessly copying others on the internet. Finally tell them not to be so negative. You really put your straw men in their places.