Where to patch Aphex Aural Exciter

V

VartRecords

New member
Please help in using aural exciter.

If using Aphex Aural Exciter how will my EQ setting change? How do they live together (EQ and Exciter)? Where to patch Exciter, before compressing and equalizing or after?

Thanks in advance
 
What are you trying to accomplish with the exciter? You'll find most pros don't use them, but they occasionally come in handy for adding upper harmonic content into old cassette tracks or dull synth sounds. What is your particular application?
 
Thanks for replying.

I have recorded classical piano on analog tape and cut down almost all high freqs to eliminate tape hissing, and now I would like to try to add some "air" in the sound. And I have also a lot of old records on analog tape and would like to remix them and think it will be the same problem with tape hissing. And I want to add some 'Big Bottom' to my existing recordings. For this purposes I have bought Aphex II Studio Aural Exciter. Does it make any sense?

Thanks again
 
It's worth a try. Personally, I always thought the BBE version of the exciter was a little more musical sounding, especially for the high frequencies, so you may want to borrow one and compare. (You could always buy one from a store, try it out, and return it).

As far as EQ goes, you're just going to have to try things out and listen to the results. I would tend to try and set the exciter first - let it do it's thing - and then add additional EQ only as needed. Working that way, i would tend to put it after compression, but before EQ and limiting.

The other issue you may want to look at is how you are getting rid of your hiss. Doing it with shelving EQ leaves you with, as you have discovered, dull sounding tracks. You may want to explore some of the more inexpensive noise reduction options which may do less musical damage.
 
I have one of the aphex exciters with the "big bottom" that I bought after reading a strong review. the purpose was to be for the additiona of bottom end in certain types of music, some sort of expansion. In any event, I rarely use the device. Ultimately, I just don't like adding it into the signal chain because the benefit does not outweigh the burden. I going to try using it for helping to fill out string lines and see if that is a good use for the device. Ultimately, and this is the most important point, a great EQ is a better bet. More versatile, more control.

By the way, when I purchased this particular thing, I was fairly new to the recording scene, in about three months. To figure out what to purchase, I did allot of reading. I did not catch onto the extent of the potential bias factors of the reviewers.

On e last thing, I recently did one of my best recordings and mixes ever and so far have not used the box in that particular mix.
 
I'd patch it right into the garbage can :cool:












Sorry... you knew someone would say something smartass... I was the one :o

:)
 
What type of analog tape are you using? If it is cassette then that is the real problem. I'd agree with everyone else that EQing out the highs then using the Exciter to bring them back is a bit self defeating. Particularly on acoustic, classical instrumentals where you really want a natural sound.
 
Thanks everybody for your replies.

I agree with you guys that recording acoustic piano on cassette tape is not a good idea, but at that time it was kind of urgent, out of my studio (where I use Roland VSR880), and I was out of other proper (movable) recorders, and was forsed to use Taskam's 4-track. In the future I am planning to use DAT recorder for "out-of-studio" sessions, but for now I'm just trying to fix what I have. I can not say that it sounds awful, at least my customer likes it, but I'd like to add some air and high EQs anyways.

Any comments?

P.S. BTW, does anybody know if any of those units could help?

Roland SN-700 Noise Eliminator
Behringer SNR2000 Multiband Denoiser
 
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