Exciters for mastering

pingu

pingu

New member
Anyone use these things in mastering.

I used to use them, but i have not slapped one in an effects chain for a while now and cant see myself doing so too soon.

But i would like to know if any of you are using enhancers of any type.


If i had to choose from a couple id have to say i got pleasing results from voxengos tape bus.

CLAS aint bad

Magneto and vintage warmer.

ozone 3

These were the most pleasing for me when i did use them but i do not use them any more.

I am finding careful eq is a lot more ear pleasing in the long term.

But as i said its good to know what you chaps are up to.
 
"exciters" is probably a bad term, I would call it "harmonic enhancement".

The most notable of these used by many MEs is the Crane Song HEDD unit. Personally I use the Crane Song Phoenix plugs as I found them to be a bit more versatile at tape emulation than the HEDD, YMMV.

I've tried magneto in the past, but wasn't overly impressed. As far as using things like the BBE, Aphex, and other Exciters, never.
 
Maybe two years ago, I actually went out and brought back an Aphex 207 just to see if anything had changed in the Aural Exciter world... I took the BBE out of my touring rig, racked it up with the 207 and spent the afternoon experimenting.

I was quickly reminded why these units were so handy for putting some hair on 2nd generation cassette recordings...

Long story short, the 207 went back to GC and the BBE is in my garage somwhere.

"Handy" harmonic enhancement on the other hand... More Crane Song. The Ibis (EQ) has a "color" control that you can *just* touch onto either a specific frequency or group of frequencies. I don't use it often, but it can be just the right "magic" on certain material. And if we're throwing tape saturation emulation into this broad definition, Samplitude's built-in tape emulation is quite freakin' handy occasionally.
 
John,

Could you give an example of a situation where these tools come in handy.

Cheers.
 
pingu said:
Could you give an example of a situation where these tools come in handy.
Click to expand...


Not John, but I find they can be very handy as torture devices for Governements looking for a quick and easy method to extract sensitive information from suspected terrorists, war criminals, and the like.
.
 
chessrock said:
Not John, but I find they can be very handy as torture devices for Governements looking for a quick and easy method to extract sensitive information from suspected terrorists, war criminals, and the like.
.
Click to expand...
Oooh... That's a good idea. I could donate mine to Club Gitmo and write it off as a donation... Hmmm...
 
i had an aphex 104 with big bottom,
i found that it added noise and some distortion to my signal,
not nice,
i had a BBE 322 and it added hum to my mix !! (but sounded less agressive than the aphex)
had a BBE 422a and was just the same useless thing as the 322;,
nice for DJ's, for live gigs, put it on the vocals of a hiphopper and they feel proud since they sound FAT and BRIGHT

i dont want to use those things for recording,
i did play with the BBE sonic maximizer 2.0 plugin,
doesn't add the hum and hiss of the hardware versions i used,
but ....thats it, i'd rather EQ stuff,
i noticed that if you think you need a sonic enhancer...then there's something wrong with the mix or recording...

in 2005 i recorded about 6 little demo cds in my bedroom,
and honestly, i didnt master ONE cd !
just did the mixdown, put a very soft compressor and limiter on the main insert, thats it.
cause i'm a young recording/mix engineer, (if i even can call myself an engineer :o ) i dont even dare to dream about mastering :D
 
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