Yes, Har-Bal demo is crippled to 8-bit. I think this is a lousy idea, personally; they'd be better off with a limited-time or dropout demo.Frippertronix wrote:Two questions:
1. re: HarBal (I keep hearing that as someone from Alabama saying "hairball"). I tried the demo and it will only play back at 8 bit. I ran what I think was a 32 bit wav file through it and the output was full of crackles---not the kind I'm used to hearing, though, from digital clipping or buffer overload. Is this inherent in trying to play a 32 bit file at 8 bits? If so, it's going to make evaluating it pretty tough, unless dithering to 16 bit will clear up the issue.
Also, HarBal couldn't deal with the ASIO drivers on my M-Audio 24/96. Any specualtion as to why?
Re: AAMS---I haven't run the demo yet because I don't have too many mixes ready to test, but I was wondering if this thing requires that you process through it's internal EQ, or if it will offer the option of just getting data back so you can take it and adjust another EQ with those settings. Also, what kind of "suggestions" does it make---i.e. is it good at evaluating a wide range of material and are its suggestions fairly helpful and "on"?
Thanks for the info,
Dave
As for AAMS, there is no internal EQ in this version. It exports directly to Firium only, and offers EQ settings for Sony software, some common outboard gear and standard settings.
As for is it "good" or "on", well you can probably tell I like it. I find, at the very least, that it points out weaknesses in my mixes that I can go back and address. I encourage you to try it - just export part of a mix (as it takes a long time to analyze, which I always considered a good sign) and try it out. I do that often to get an idea of what it would sound like post-master.
