Har-Bal download anyone?

[G-Jay]

This thread got a little weird so I don't know if folks are still reading it.

I don't think Glen was trying to be superior or elitist and get the feeling that his views were misconstrued. However I do think his views on Har-Bal are a bit extreme.

Lets say someone mixes something and shoots for a modern commercially produced rock track sound. If this person thinks that their mix has hit that goal when it is obvious that they have missed it by miles then maybe Glen is right - that guy is wasting his time trying to mix music. If you can't at least hear that there is a problem then how can you set about fixing it? Obviously, if he's going for an avant-guard mix which defies commercial mixing trends then that is a different matter.

However, assuming the learner mixer can do a mix and realise something is wrong with it, maybe it's the midrange maybe even the low midrange.... What is wrong with them firing up Har-bal or any analyzer and comparing the visual representation of their mix against their commercial reference track? "Aah looks like my mix has to much 200-400hz content and is lacking around 1000 - 5000 range, maybe I should go back to my mix and make the guitars brighter and cut some 400 out of the bass and kick drum... Maybe that will take me closer to my aim."

Seems like a useful tool to me and for $99 it's cheaper than paying an experienced guy with great ears to point you in the right direction.

[mixmkr]

I think Harbal is a fine product for $99. It gets really slammed around here, but you can go to the Cakewalk forums, and it is fairly highly regarded.

I especially like the volume matching, as that seems to work pretty decent and I find the "limiter" feature works OK too. Certainly no worse than the Waves ultramaximizer. And honestly, I don't think the EQ sucks so bad either. I think why people diss it so much is they think people are led to it under false pretenses...which may be true. No argument there. But, as long as you no what you're doing, it's a great tool. Do I use it for home mastering...? Sometimes, but I'd like to think I'm not a recording idiot either.

Any rate, I guess I'm trying to say I subscribe to intellegent use, rather than the tools. If you know its' limitations, you can milk it right up to the ceiling.

oh... try "mastering" 6 songs recorded by 6 different people at 6 different studios and have them be in the same "ballpark". For a "non-critical" use, I could do that with hair-ball in about 30 minutes and for the "non-critical-listener", works like a charm.

[Sumibraxis606]

Free, no... gotta pay, as I'm sure you've already found out. Now, as for all the bullocks about how "shitty" the proggy is, let me say this; as someone that DOES get paid to produce and master albums, especially those in the electronic, and classical (contemporary) genre's. I use mostly external equipment. Har-bal, if one KNOWS HOW TO USE IT and HAS THE PROPER EQUIPMENT TO MASTER (in relation to sound card, speakers, etc) is absolutely SMASHING! I ran it against my MoTU gear, and software, and honestly, had I known about it before spending close to 12K I would have saved a lot of money. Granted, its not something you would produce/master for MAJOR labels, but then again, pop sucks something aweful anyway.

Point is; if you're on a budget, or just looking to learn, this programme is flawless. The only real things to remember are: 1) less is more; do EVERYTHING in small incriments. Dont just grab the eq and throw lines all willy nilly and expect a grand sound. 2) pay attention to your freq chart. it will tell you what needs to go where. You will find this out when you actually use the programme, because right now this is just useless info to shake your head at, but the manuals cover EVERYTHING you need to know. 3) DO NOT USE PRESETS FOR ANYTHING BEYOND A STARTING REFERENCE!!! if you are producing a song that sounds like... I dunno, Justin Timberlake or something equally deranged, fine. Take the song you have in mind that relates to YOUR PROJECT as closely as possible and use THAT SONG as a reference, BUT NOT A CURE-ALL SOLUTION. Har-bal allows you the ability to use your favourite song as a reference to guide you. THAT is what makes it stand out IMHO. and finally 4) if you are not sure how to even start with the programme, there are COUNTLESS videos out there on youboob, and various other sites that give you a GREAT place to start.


Cheers,
SD

[RAMI]

this programme is flawless............ pay attention to your freq chart it will tell you what needs to go where. .

Just those 2 statements alone makes anything else you said not credible. You look at a frequency chart to "tell you where everything goes"? That's ridiculous.

[miroslav]

God I love it when old threads that were dumb to begin with get brought back to life.

[RAMI]

God I love it when old threads that were dumb to begin with get brought back to life.

I agree 100%. But some declarations need to be addressed sometimes. I knew this thread was old, but not from 2009. I'm pretty sure someone revived this only a few months ago. Maybe it was stupid enough to get deleted.

[miroslav]

Oh I don't mind this one.....nothing like a good Har-Bal bashing to get things hopping.

I remember some great Har-Bal bashing threads we had on a few other forums....those were the days!

[diggy_dude]

Hair ball?

[GONZO-X]

i use an older version of it.

works great.

i use it as a EQ only....


it's the cleanest sounding EQ i've found, i use it to tweak master files before i bring them into WAVELAB.


you can listen to anything i post in the MP3 forum to hear the final results.