Normalizer vs Maximizer vs Limiter: what's the difference? (With free Vst Plugin)

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are going to expand our knowledge about Limiters by clarifying a fundamental difference: the difference between a limiter and a maximizer.
Sometimes in mastering suites or in the plugin bundles that comes with a Daw these two concepts are exchangable, like they mean the same thing, but it's not exaclty like that, and today we are going to see why.

We have already covered what a Limiter is: it is a tool that takes a track at mixing volume (usually around -12db) and that sets a ceiling that cannot be surpassed, then with the gain control we can gradually rise the volume until it sounds on par with the commercial tracks (this is if we are using the limiter for Mastering, but we can use it also to tame certain single tracks in a mix).

A Maximizer instead is not only a limiter but it includes also one: it is a tool used to get the most volume out of our recording by applying 2 different processes to our track: a Limiter and a Normalizer.

A Normalizer is a processor that takes the loudest peak of our signal and boosts the whole track until this peak reaches the set ceiling, but the maximizer first applies a Limiter that levels down the loudest parts (according to the a selected threshold) and THEN applies a Normalizer, thus first reducing the dynamic range of the track and then rising the overall volume.
The reduced headroom creates more space in which we can pump up our track.

While a Limiter as we have said can be used also on single tracks during the mixing phase, a maximizer is used almost exclusively during mastering, therefore it often features dithering and other tools made to finalize the track: unless you are using it for mastering, you might want to turn these extra features off.

Which one to use? It depends on the type of music: if the music is very uncompressed and presents a lot of headroom, a maximizer can help in reducing the excessive dynamic range, but if the song is already quite compressed (e.g. edm) the dynamic range can be already little, and a maximizer can end up in creating distortion artifacts and messing with the low end, by producing a "pump" effect that is rarely desired.

My final suggestion is to use a Limiter as a general rule, and to switch to a Maximizer only if the mix sounds still weak and too many loud peaks that eats up too much headroom, but be always very careful in leaving enough dynamic range in your song, or it will become ear fatiguing and less enjoyable.

Today there are many maximizers available for download, both  free and paid, but a free example of limiter is the LoudMax by Thomas Mundt, that can be downloaded HERE.
Let me know what do you think about it!


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Mastering levels for streaming, cd and club play PART 2/2

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2


Now that we have a very basic explaination of the main values to check out we can see the chart with the suggested levels for the various environments: we should use good metering tools during mastering and keep in mind the main reproduction platform our mix will be played from if we want to optimize the quality:


Platform                                             Peak                   Loudness                 Dynamic Range


iTunes Store and Soundcloud        -1.0 dBTP           -9 to -13 LUFS                     min 9DR

iTunes Radio                                    -1.0 dBTP          -15 to 16 LUFS                     min 9DR

Youtube and Spotify                       -1.0 dBTP          -13 to -15 LUFS                    min 9DR             

CD                                         -0.1 to -0.5 dBTP               min -9 LUFS                    min 9DR

Club Play                                          -0.1 dBTP           -7.5 to -9 LUFS                    min 8DR         

     
Obviously these values can be modified according to the genre, just keep them in mind as maximum limits not to cross, then if you have for example a jazz song with 16db of dynamic range it's absolutely fine!

I hope this cheat sheet is useful (and I would like to thank also the Mastering the Mix website for the source of informations), let me know what do you think in the comments!


CLICK HERE FOR PART 1/2



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Mastering levels for streaming, cd and club play PART 1/2

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are going to expand our mastering articles about metering and the loudness war with some average guideline about the correct levels to use, in order to make our songs play at their best in the various environments.

Why do we need a specific type of mastering for a specific purpose? Why can't we use the classic cd mastering for all platforms?
Of course we can, the problem is that several platforms perform some processing to the track on their own, usually compression, or limiting/maximizing, to reduce the differences in level between the songs, and we need to anticipate those moves in order to avoid a mix that distorts, or that sounds too squashed.

Before getting into the numbers we need to get acquainted with 3 acronyms:

Loudness Units Full Scale (LUFS): it's the scale used to describe the perceived loudness of audio material. Until some year ago, due to the loudness war that was raging in radio and tv, mastering engineers were encouraged to push the perceived loudness as far as possible, while today streaming services lowers the volume of the louder tracks to make them all fit in a same standard, and this encourages the mastering engineers to do the exact opposite: the idea is to privilege sound quality over a song that's constantly on the verge of distortion.

Decibel True Peak dBTP: when we record a sound with our audio interface, the analog curve (which is rounded) becames a serie of ones and zeroes, basically a ladder, and when we export the mix to reproduce it, the reproduction device (for example a stereo) needs to turn it back into a curve; doing so it rounds also the loudest parts (which sometimes can become flat in the digital realm), and this can result in a slight increase in volume.
This is the reason why we shouldn't master our tracks with output 0db, because with the conversion process, it can turn easily into distortion.
How do we solve? We need to master at a slightly lower peak (for example -0.5db) in order to avoid this "inter sample distortion".

Dynamic Range (DR): this third and last criteria is extremely important: it's the distance between the quietest (the "short term LUFS") and the loudest parts (the peaks) of our mix. If it's too reduced it means the song is overcompressed or overlimited, and this means that probably the transients, which are the punchiness of the song, are getting lost.
Nailing the right dynamic range is essential for a good mastering, and as a general rule we should never have a dynamic range lower than 8db: the lower the number, the minor the range.

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2/2


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Review: Audio Assault Druminator

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are reviewing a new drum sampler from Audio Assault: Druminator!

Druminator is a Vst drum sampler that features a drumkit with 2 snares and 2 kicks (with the possibility of retriggering), several routing and mapping options and a surprisingly complete array of in-built effects: Compressor, Clipper, Saturation, Transient shaping and Reverb, plus a quite complete mixer with independent channels (in which also the mic bleed is controllable).

  

The first thing that I have noticed is that this plugin shares the same clean and rational user interface style of other products of the brand (like the Grindmachine II); I appreciate it a lot because it tries to minimize the number of menus and to show everything in the most tidy and intuitive way possible.

Then I have started to fiddle around with the kit: unlike many other drum samplers that have only processed samples, Druminator samples are unprocessed, and the presets (like the Metalcore one I have used for the video) just use the bundled effects to get to the final result: this gives us an impressive flexibility, and basically lets us take care of the drum track without the need of any external plugin (another thing that I love). 

The sounds are good, very usable (in the video sample I have made I have just loaded a preset and left the sound completely untouched), balanced and clean, and it can be used with a wide range of genres, from rock to the most extreme metal.

Consideting the price, which is very affordable, this drum sampler is a great bang for the buck, probably the most feature packed drum vst in the price range, and I definitely suggest you to check it out (there is also a trial version).

Thumbs up!

Features taken from the website:

- Unprocessed Drumkit with 2 snares and 2 kicks

- 2 band parametric equalizers with shelves and filters for all channels

- Compressor, Clipping, Saturation, Transient Shaping & Reverb

- Trigger channels for snare and kick, blend your own samples!

- Multi-Output for mixing outside the plug-in.

- Editable mapping, various formats included

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free karaoke software and how to use it

Hello and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are talking about a topic that is not strictly tied to home recording, but that is another way to enjoy music together, so since I've been requested an article about it, I thought it's worth mentioning, once in a while.

Karaoke is a great way to have a fun evening with friends that doesn't play music, and the internet offers plenty of software, both free and paid, to load your lyrics and synchronize them with a music video or a static image.
There are several standards in which lyrics can be loaded (from huge archives that can be found online) in any software, and the most common is .KAR.

The plugin we are showing in the picture as example (but more or less they all work in the same way) is OkeOke.net, an open source karaoke program available also in portable version, that offers the essential features to enjoy an embarassing karaoke night.

What you need is the mp3 or the video of the song and a karaoke file supported by your karaoke software, and with the software you can run the song and it will sync it with the karaoke file showing the lyrics at the right moment.
Some file formats features also directly the Midi file alongside with the lyrics, so that no additional file is needed.

Another alternative is to go to one of those free Youtube to avi websites and download directly a karaoke video from Youtube, and to create a library of videos with the lyrics hard coded.


Here are some free karaoke players, but there are many others available online (a bit harder is to find the free version of the karaoke files, but there is some library around):

- Walaoke: a free karaoke player that also offers an android app to control it.

- Karafun: a karaoke player that supports also video and that offers an internal search engine.

- Okeoke.net: the aforementioned, free karaoke player, which is made by a media player and a part in which you can load .KTV files and let the two parts run together to sing synchronized with the lyrics (the portable version won't work on some computer).


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Review: Audio Assault Grindmachine II + Discharge Pack (with video sample)

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!

Today we are reviewing a new guitar amp simulator, the top of the line of the Audio Assault producer: Grindmachine II!

Grindmachine II is the successor of Grindmachine, which was a very popular guitar amp simulator, highly praised in the internet mixing community, and it offers something different from all the other virtual amps, which try to use scheumorphism to replicate the look of amplifier and pedals: the interface of Grindmachine 2 is similar to the one of a POD, in which you choose amp and cabinet, and the controls stays the same.
This is very effective once you get acquainted with the interface, because you only need to learn the interface once, and all the models will be controllable in the same way, making the tweaking faster and easier.

The controls are very simple: there is an eq section with presence and master control, an intelligent noise gate, the amp and the cabinet section can be individually activated and deactivated (there is also an IR loader), and there are 2 more controls: Tight and Impact.
Tight is a switchable booster that adds gain and overall tightness to the sound, while Impact recreates the movement of the speaker, adding thump and low end, and it can be compared to the "resonance" control of the Peavey 5150.

The plugin comes with a wide range of amp simulations which are not directly a recreation of original amps but more a blend of some (for example PVGL, which is halfway between the lead channel of a 5150 and an Engl), and it has both clean and distorted tones, plus it has a serie of loaded Impulse Responses of different kinds, from 1x12 to 4x12 (and you can also load yours).
There are also original tones, which have been designed exclusively for Grindmachine II.

There are also currently 2 expansions: Discharge and Hidden Gems amp pack, which can be downloaded separately, and which expands furthermore the possibilities of this plugin: I had the chance to try the Discharge pack, which is focused on hi gain tones, and I must say that the tones are really brutal. In the video I have used the Ultra Jcm model, which recreates a modded Marshall Jcm with added gain to make it even more aggressive.
The sound that you can hear on the video is Grindmachine II with no booster (but I have used the Tight switch), and as you can hear the tone is really metal, with no other plugins needed.

The plugin sounds very well and it is very versatile, but here is some suggestion for a Grindmachine III: I would add a simple tuner, unite into it the Dirt Machine plugin to provide more boositng options, and I would add a simple effect section, so that we could add some delay or reverb to a solo without the need of adding an external plugin.

The only thing left to say is to go to the Audio Assault page and check it out, these plugins are a great bang for the buck and you will surely find a tone you like.

Thumbs up!


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How to clean up a distorted guitar and bass sound using eq

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's article!
The article of today is a focus on guitar and bass hi gain sound, so it should be used as addition to our article How to mix a rock/metal guitar and How to mix a rock/metal bass.

This article will only talk about the distorted, hi-gain guitar and the hi-gain part of a bass track (if you are using a dual or more tracks technique), and starts from the assumption that a distorted track has by nature a good part of noise and resonances, and we need, from that noise, to minimize the bad part and emphasize the useful one.

How do we tell the good part from the bad part?
By nature a distorted track adds a big amount of gain and saturation in all frequencies, therefore along with an important increase of level for what is the original sound of our instrument we end up with a lot of "dirt", which eventually might end up by covering the other instruments, or producing unwanted peaks that prevents us from rising the overall volume.

By finding and notching out those peaks and resonances we will free a considerable amount of headroom (very hard to point out at first listen, unless you have a trained ear) that will let us raise the volume of the track, making it more present and at the same time it will sit better in the mix. Sometimes, in facts, we might feel our guitars weak, low in volume, not very present, but if we rise the volume we will have it reaching the maximum level and clipping while it still sounds weak and low; that's because some frequency that we might even not notice at first is so high in volume that hits the ceiling before all the rest, thus keeping all the rest of the curve low.

How do we find these resonances to notch out?
The nature and the modern technology comes in our aid, with our ear (here's an ear training tutorial) and with frequency analyzers (here's a dedicated article).
Obviously frequency analyzers are importants because we can see right away if there are resonances and take them down some db until they are aligned with the rest of the curve, but the thing that makes the difference between a regular mix engineer and a good one is by using the ear to clean up the track.

It's very simple to do once you know how to do it: you create with an eq a narrow notch and boost it considerably, around 6/10db, then you start sweeping left and right through your distorted guitar and bass sound.
You will hear every kind of weirdness but what we are looking here are the frequency areas that does not resonate with the note that the instrument is playing in that moment (for example in a guitar riff with a sequence of notes), leave the parts in which you can hear strongly the note played and focus on the parts in which there is a noise, a weird sound, that remains the same regardless from the note played.
Those are the frequencies we are looking for, and once we isolate them, we must take them down 2 to 4db, until they are not so prominent anymore.

Think about those frequencies as junk to remove: what we are aiming here is to notch out 2 or 3 of these areas, quite surgically, in order to make room to the part of the sound that will be actually audible in the mix: the ones that comes with the note; the others are useless and eat up only headroom.
I'm not writing specific frequencies here because they vary according to an infinity of factors: guitar, pickups, string gauge, amplifier, and most importantly, the tuning.

I hope this was helpful!


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