WaveLab 5.01 -- What does this mean?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Myriad_Rocker
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Myriad_Rocker

Myriad_Rocker

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Just bought WaveLab the other day. I got it by suggestion and reading posts around here and other forums. Mainly using it for editing but I was messing around the other day and thumbing through the manual and what not...came across this. What is this telling me exactly?

http://members.cox.net/myriad_rocker/images/FFT.jpg
 
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Looks like a spectrum analyzer to me. It's showing you the amplitude of each frequency as the audio is playing.
 
Yeah, that much I gathered. :p

I guess what I meant is, what should I be shooting for here? What SHOULD it look like? This is just a guitar track.
 
"FFT" stands for "Fast Fourier Transform". Don't worry too much about what that means, but if you're interested, I'm sure a web search for that phrase will turn up a lot of info.

Those graphs are what's called a "spectrum analysis", there's one for each channel, L & R. They are basically showing the loudness of sound (the height) across the entire audio spectrum (the width, with low bass on the left and sounds to make dogs howl on the right) for a particular point in the playback of the sound.

There is major disagreement among members of this board as to just how useful spectrum analyzers actually are. I am of the position that - with a few small exceptions - they are useful for impressing clients with pretty lights and little more. But others use them as a regular part of their toolset when mixing all the time. There have been a couple of long, good threads in these forums over the past few weeks about this topic. Do a search of these forums for "spectrum" to find them.

What "should" it look like? What should a picture look like? What should food taste like? What should clouds be shaped like? There is no "should" in this case.

HTH,

G.
 
Myriad_Rocker said:
Yeah, that much I gathered. :p

I guess what I meant is, what should I be shooting for here? What SHOULD it look like? This is just a guitar track.
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There is no ideal spectrum response pattern. There was a whole big thread about this recently.
 
Cool! I'll just use it for another tool in the bag then! Probably more of a comparison tool against some of my favorite tracks from bands I like.
 
Look at this thread here:

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=171577

And you'll see how I am using that exact tool to help analyze and calibrate my monitors and room response. FFT is VERY good at comparative frequency analysis.

In the context of a standalone mix, it is somewhat less useful. If your mix has gaping holes or giant peaks at certain frequencies, you can see 'em, but you'll probably hear 'em first. If your monitoring setup is poor in the bass frequencies, I can see where it would help a little.

Trying analyzing some reference recordings against your mixes, and see if you notice a difference. I find that most well-mixed full-range music will approximate pink noise on an FFT, but there's no prize for getting closer to the line :)
 
is there a plugin that will show this in real time? cubase has one but you have to do it to an already recorded audio track, and i don't think it shows the inserts
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Those graphs are what's called a "spectrum analysis", there's one for each channel, L & R. They are basically showing the loudness of sound (the height) across the entire audio spectrum (the width, with low bass on the left and sounds to make dogs howl on the right) for a particular point in the playback of the sound.

HTH,

G.
Click to expand...

Or accumulated over a period, which is often more useful.

Spectrum analysis has some good uses, but not so much in mixing, especially for the experienced AE. It's helpfull I think though for developing engineers to form a mental image of the spectral content of things. Even when you know what the fundimental frequency of a given event is, a spectrum analyzer really shows the spectral spread of all the associated harmonics, or the grouping and accumulation of energy at certain frequencies in a mix. It doesn't show anything you can't hear with yor ears, but some people benefit from a visual correlation.

-RD
 
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