New thoughts on T-RackS

[Chris Shaeffer]

If you've been around for a little while you may have noted that I am one of relatively few people who have nice things to say about T-RackS.

Well...

Last weekend I was visiting a friend who owns a small studio and I brought a mix that I had leveled with T-RackS and the original Pro Tools sessions (actually a manual transfer from Cubase SX).

We listened to the mix first. After listening for a few moments he got a strange look on his face and hit the mono button. The meticulously recorded stereo acoustic guitar nearly vanished from the mix. "You've got phase issues." he said.

Well, I've read Harvey's mic thread forward and backwards and I know that my X/Y micing was not to blame for the phase cancellation, but it was still there. The mix sounded like doggy doo in mono.

We loaded in the PT sesssion and there were indeed no problems- the tune sounded the same summed to mono. He asked me "Did you use any analog modelers or stereo enhancers?"

Bingo! I had used the T-RackS gain stage for its fat sound, just a touch of its compresssor to bring down the spikes and...

...its stereo expander. That must have been where the phase crap had come in. How silly. That cans one of my favorite features of the program.

He shrugged and said on most systems in wouldn't matter all that much- but it would nail you on things like MP3's and internet distibution and playback on cheap systems. It sent up a red flag for me because T-RackS is primarily aimed at home users who are likely to do just that- post MP3's and such.

So I recant most of my praise for the program. I still think its a fun tool for use at home, but probably not worth the expense when it comes down to it. Definately not the tool to use if you want to master your music for sale.

Too bad. I really do like the sound it has. Its no good, though, if it only sounds good on some systems. That runs exactly counter to the whole point of mastering.

Take care,
Chris

 

[Son of Mixerman]

How does a stereo mix sound the same when summed to mono?

SoMm

 

[Slackmaster2K]

Hmmm, but that's kind of what a stereo expander does. I wouldn't be upset with t-racks in general if your just not happy with the expander.

Slackmaster 2000

 

[jake-owa]

Slackmaster is completely right about that. That's what the stereo expander does, it screws with the right/left phase relationship to create a false stereo width. Just don't crank that knob if you are worried about that effect. I personally don't care if people have a hard time hearing certain things in lo-fi mp3, some lead nuance is the least of what they are missing. I always check the mix in two to three mp3 qualities before posting or burning cds anyhow...it's jsut part of the process.

I like T-racks anyway.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

SoMm- That was inaccurate, I suppose. Obviously it doesn't sound the same. With the phase wierdsness, though, the guitars lost most of their high mids and high end and were almost completely masked by the vocals and other instruments. They almost seemed to vanish. The original track's sound didn't change when summed to mono other than it was in mono- the various instruments all remained at the same relative loudness.

Slack and Jake- I guess so. I don't usually crank the expander too much, just a touch or two to draw the stereo guitar out a little more. I was just amazed at how absolutely crappy it sounded in mono. Maybe summing to mono isn't a critical aspect of the mix, but I was shocked at how pathetic it sounded, how drastically different. That can't be good for a transportable mix, especially since the acoustic is the primary element of most of my tunes.

I still love the sound of the gain stage in T-RackS. I'll have to play around with just using that to see what I get. I only use the gain stage, compressor, and stereo expander anyway, so losing the expander makes the program 1/3 less valuable to me.

Then again, if all stereo expanders have that effect I'll just focus on what I should have all along, perhaps: getting that wider stereo spread at the tracking stage instead of the mastering stage.

Take care,
Chris