8
S T E R E O
In live performance or in club installations, the S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
is a
powerful ally in maintaining speech intelligibility under difficult conditions.
It is also of great benefit in systems designed to play recorded music
because the illusion of loudness can be maintained at lower absolute SPLs.
This could be particularly beneficial with the introduction of new noise
level legislation. On the subjective side, the S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
helps produce
a detailed, tight sound, even from indifferent speaker systems giving an
improvement in perceived audio quality.
The S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
can be of great value when mixing under time-pres-
sure. You can almost leave the onboard EQs flat and create the FOH sound
with the S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
in the master inserts.
As in other areas, the S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
can be used to sharpen and enri-
chen dialogue, even when the microphone placement is less than optimum
as is often the case when filming due to the need to keep the mic out of
shot. Music soundtracks benefit in the ways already described for audio-
only applications and the fact that the S
TEREO
V
ITALIZER
is so quick to set up
can save a lot of wasted time spent tuning multi-band equalizers.
Time-compressed audio can also be treated to restore the lack of timbre
so often caused by such intensive processing. This is particularly valid in the
case of vocal narratives as even a relatively small amount of time-
compression or expansion can dramatically compromise the sound quality.
On the post production work on Spike Lee´s "Malcom X" movie the voice
of Denzel Washington playing Malcolm X was treated with the VITALIZER
for dramatical reasons:
"We wanted to make sure that there was a dramatic quality difference
between the voice-over and the sync dialog," Fleischman adds, offering a
mixer´s view. "You try to find a balance between two center mics then
balance that with whatever you´re using from left-right pair. We then
treated it with the SPL VITALIZER, a psychoacoustic equalizer. It brings a lot
more presence to the upper end of the spectrum and a very deep low end
so that the voice sounds full."
Mix Magazine, December 1992
Sound
Reinforcement
Video & Film
Post Production
