Masterlink users (newbie question)

[David B]

I'm doing punchy, heavy guitar-oriented Dinosaur Rock.

What kind of settings should I be using for compression and or limiting for that professional-sounding "finishing touch"? (generally speaking)

Note: I'm not trying to "fix" anything that sounds bad.

What should I set the threshold at? How much of the signal am I looking to compress or limit?

I confess, the granularity that's possible, I'm not really hearing a lot of what's going on as I cycle through the settings.

[Blue Bear Sound]

Your questions are kind of like asking "how long is a piece of string?"

The answer is "it depends......" - on the material, the signal levels, a lot of things...

Your best bet is do exactly what you're already doing... play around with settings and see what can be done!


Bruce

[David B]

I understand --

But aren't there some guidelines for such things? Places to start?

[Blue Bear Sound]

No... not really, because if you want to tune your ears to what's going on, you have to hear the effect (I know, duh...) but you want to sit down with say ONLY the compressor... and futz around with levels listening to what the different settings do... oh, I take the threshold down "this far", and looks what happens to my sound!

Since the "this far" level is dependent on the current song levels, it will be meaningless for another song with different levels, but this exercise will give you a feel for the actual effect each setting has on the material.

Then you do the same for the EQ and the limiter... I don't think I've ever used the Normalize DSP -- it just isn't very useful...

This of course, takes time, but is necessary if you want to learn what these tools can do!

Bruce

[AEL]

The DSP on the Masterlink is quite effective. If you don't hear much difference, first make sure the effect is turned **ON** in the top right corner of the display. Al

[David B]

AEL: I know it's effective. And I know when it's OFF or ON.

It ain't the Masterlink -- it's ME. I don't know what the hell I'm doing!

I don't know how to HEAR what's going on.
I currently only hear at "musician level," not at "engineer level."

I've burned a CD with 5 different settings on the same song:

1: no DSP
2: subtle compression (1.2:1) and limiting
3: hard compression (3:1) and no limiting
4: subtle limiting only
5: no compression or limiting but small EQ cut at 300K

I don't like the results of #5.

With 1-4, they all sound pretty good, just different.

[AEL]

OK, David, here's what I do. And I'm not an engineer either. I play fiddle in a folk band. But I was able to record and master our band's new CD on the masterlink, and it sounds great.

First, adjust the input gain to give you about -4 db at the highest peaks. You can keep track of the highest peaks using the peak hold utility.

Next, set up the compressor. I have no idea what dinosaur rock is, but in my genre, occasionally getting too close to a mike when singing, or singing unevenly, doesn't sound good. For this problem I use a ratio of about 2 or 3 to one, and bring down the threshold until I see 3-4 db cut during the offending volume excursions. You have to set up your meter to read output/gain to see it. The compression will have reduced the peaks, so adjust the compressor's output gain to bring you back to around -4db. I use soft knee #1, and the other settings left at default most times. I know, the pros use a low ratio like 1.2:1 and run the threshold way down. To my ear, with my kind of music, this does diddleysquat.

Now add your eq settings. The way I do it is to play the tune on the link out to my mixer, which has graphic eq sliders, then back to my stereo amp. Playing with the sliders is easier than messing with the parametric settings on the link. Once you've got the eq you like, just transfer those settings to the masterlink.

Finally, I activate the limiter, and adjust the final output volume to -1db. Run the threshold down until it sounds right. It will be somewhere around -8db. Watch the meters. You want them to continue to bounce around a lot, indicating you are preserving some dynamic range. Don't compress everything so much that it sounds bad. A little goes a long way. In fact, that holds true for all this signal processing stuff.

Good luck. Keep experimenting.

Al

[Blue Bear Sound]

Just a point... all those settings you describe would be considered quite extreme for "mastering"!!!




Subtlety usually sounds pretty good...........

Bruce

[David B]

AEL
Thanks, man.

When you say:

First, adjust the input gain to give you about -4 db at the highest peaks.

What part of the Masterlink are you referring to?



When I say Dinosaur Rock, think Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc. Heavy guitar riffs, drums like cannons
--explosive music. However my stuff is also guitar instrumental -- kind of like Jeff Beck or Joe Satriani (but without that skill level )


Bruce -- hey, that's good to know too! With that CD I burned, I was just trying to train myself to hear what's going on. I certainly figured the 3:1 would be extreme, but I also wanted to know what "extreme" sounds like.

I'm not adverse to trying stuff. But there's an enormous range of possiblilties one could try. I cannot possibly mentally process "trying everything." With experience, I know I will learn, but I'm just at the beginning of the trip.

[AEL]

The input gain is in the upper right corner of the playlist edit screen. It is the first DSP function the signal sees before proceeding to the others. That's why it should be adjusted first.

Perhaps I should explain a little more about where I'm coming from regarding settings. We recorded our 4 piece acoustic band live in M-S stereo directly to the hard drive on the Masterlink. No multitracking, no panning, no mixdown, no single track processing. Thus, our recordings were probably more raw than if it had been through those processes first. Maybe that is why I had to use settings that others would consider "extreme". I do respect your opinions, Bruce, but this is what worked for me. Al