KVR Audio

Mr. Tunes · Post by **Mr. Tunes** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:36 am

i just bought it

distortions, phasers, and reverbs all sound the same to me but good mixing plugins are rare IMO so... i'm setback 30 bucks!

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Sat May 07, 2005 1:56 am

... more on this tool here

jason9 · Post by **jason9** » Sat May 07, 2005 2:12 am

I've seen that link (discussion) before, I personally don't care how it was made or even what it looks like (I actually really like the GUI and there is going to be a new version soon apparently). As far as I think if it works and is usable (which most certainly is) I'm a happy camper.

backpage · Post by **backpage** » Sat May 07, 2005 2:52 am

Am I the only one who can't stand xciter/vitalizer/spectalizer thingys? Do pros really use these? I think they sound tacky. And listening for an extended time really starts to grate on my ears. Seriously, I don't want to knock bbe sonic and all the others. I just don't get it. Maybe I'm not doing something right.

kilroy · Post by **kilroy** » Sat May 07, 2005 3:15 am

Sicklecell714 wrote:I was drunk and being very sarcastic when I wrote that last night.

He says, as if he actually needs an excuse to be sarcastic.

kilroy · Post by **kilroy** » Sat May 07, 2005 3:59 am

Mr. Tunes wrote:i know mastering engineers shreek at the idea of us buying these things to sort of replace them...

Never used such a thing for any mastering here. If such "enhancing" was desired in the first place, does it not make more sense that it should have been accomplished in the mixing stage with proper EQing, dynamics control etc? The whole notion that this could somehow be all sorted out on the final mix seems a wee bit...erm...ambitious.

Personally speaking, the idea of applying controlled distortion and/or phase manipulation processing to a *complete* mix in an effort to give it a "finished" sound, strikes me as rather an odd approach.

I have several Aphex and BBE hardware boxes. I very, *very* occasionally use them sparingly on single instruments...but on a whole mix? Not hardly likely. In a mastering chain?

If you do intend to send your mixes on to a mastering house...do not apply *any* such processing to your files. Ever. Just don't. When you start heating the levels up, and applying any subsequent post EQing or dynamics processing, quite often you will notice high frequency "hashiness" going on, in the case of exciters, or strange phase weirdness in the case of BBE type processes. The latter in particular can give a "sucked out" kind of sound that robs the mix from having the available smash it could have. The only way to get it back is to take the effect off...in other words, send the file back to the client/mix engineer. And that phone call is never fun.

If you absolutely can not get any love without doing this type of thing to your mix, then there is only one remotely logical approach...use waaaay less than you think you "need"...then take a bit more off.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Sat May 07, 2005 4:02 am

Sounds pretty good to me. One thing that bothers me. When I mute and unmute the effect it seems that there is a distinct boosting of the right channel with the effect on. Has anyone else noticed this?

Mr. Tunes · Post by **Mr. Tunes** » Sat May 07, 2005 4:56 am

woosh well that previous thread concerning this plugin was definitely more hostile than our's is. If it was 80 dollars I wouldnt buy it. The fact that is made with SynthEdit doesnt bother me at all- i once tried that program and got absolutely nowhere with it so if someone can make something like this with it then they deserve some money.

and yeah kilroy, I dont expect this plugin to be the be-all and end-all for my mastering needs although i made it seem this way. I still have a lot of work to do with T-Racks or great free tools like Endorphin. But I do like to experiment with different tools which is easy to do when something costs 30 dollars. Also keep in mind that I work on film and animation projects and I sometimes get some horribly dry sounds to work with(dialogue recorded in a booth, or generic explosion sfx). I find a lot of my guitar and vocal music tracks are dry too so...

But I will take your advice and use the tool with caution and try not to do anything too drastic with it!

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:09 am

morelia wrote:When I mute and unmute the effect it seems that there is a distinct boosting of the right channel with the effect on. Has anyone else noticed this?

Confirmed! When I take a centered track signal and add Spectralive, the right channel is louder. It depends on the "Stereo" button position: If I turn it all down the balance remains centered - if I crank this button up, the panning shifts to the right channel. Bug?

Something else.. Guys, I have a dumb question (coming from a hobbyist and addressed to the experienced mixing experts that fortunately are in this thread): Assume that I only want to use 2 mastering plugins in my master bus, no matter how dumb and amateurish that is, but to prevent CPU overload (I work with huge soundfonts and can only use effects I absolutely need). So... what is the "best" combination of 2 plugins can I use? I am trying to cover EQ, compression, limiter and exciter functions in maximum 2 plugins. Difficult?
- I tried FinalMix plus VintageWarmer, but I found FinalMix is complex and VW colours the mix.
- I tried Endorphin plus Spectralive, but this combination made me squash everything as I tended to overdo it with both plugins to get what I want.
- And now, I try TLs Mastering Maximizer plus Spectralive (after applying individual EQ and Blockfish compression settings on individual tracks). This seems to be close to what I need: Just adjust a few settings to get the overall sound I want.

Which 2 "mastering" plugins would you recommend if you could only use two? The pros will laugh about this and shake their heads, but please

Mr. Tunes · Post by **Mr. Tunes** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:15 am

sonicsmurf... are you bouncing your track down to a stereo wav/aiff before going at this? you would save a lot of CPU if you can do this first, start a new session and then you will have more horsepower.

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:18 am

Good idea Mr. Tunes, thank you! No I did not do that until now, always tried to do it all in one process so I still could adjust individual tracks *after* adding the mastering plugins.

morelia · Post by **morelia** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:21 am

sonicsmurf wrote:
morelia wrote:When I mute and unmute the effect it seems that there is a distinct boosting of the right channel with the effect on. Has anyone else noticed this?
Confirmed! When I take a centered track signal and add Spectralive, the right channel is louder. It depends on the "Stereo" button position: If I turn it all down the balance remains centered - if I crank this button up, the panning shifts to the right channel. Bug?

Thanks for confirming. It would have to be a bug I think. I personally don't want a plug that adjusts the left and right channels differently. It is pretty strange that (a)nobody here noticed it before now, and (b) the developer didn't notice it.

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:25 am

Cool you found that out morelia! I would give you a golden ear award if I had one.

Guess crysonic is following this thread and should say something about Spectralive's panning inconsistency.

kilroy · Post by **kilroy** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:27 am

sonicsmurf wrote:Which 2 "mastering" plugins would you recommend if you could only use two? The pros will laugh about this and shake their heads, but please

That's easy, mate.

A great EQ.

And a great compressor.

Unless your mix is totally fubared, these two tools should handle better than 90% of any mastering job worth attempting in the first place.

sonicsmurf · Post by **sonicsmurf** » Sat May 07, 2005 5:33 am

kilroy wrote: A great EQ.
And a great compressor.

Thanks kilroy! I see this makes sense and all the exciter stuff just tempts me do overdo it and ruin the mix.
But which ones? Not for a commercial artist but just for hobby work. The EQ I can work easiest with is LPGEQ2 (download) linear graphic EQ, and the compressor I like is the Kjaerhus classic but I am looking at the T-Sledge

Anyone already bought Crysonic Spectralive?