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Waves LinMB software guide

 

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Waves – Linear-Phase MultiBand

Software Audio Processor

Users Guide

Summary of Contents for Linear-Phase MultiBand Software Audio Processor

Page 1: ...Waves LinMB software guide page 1 of 28 Waves Linear Phase MultiBand Software Audio Processor Users Guide ...

Page 2: ...ications in which it may be very useful i e Vocal processing Transmission processing Noise reduction Track Strip The LinMB has a fixed amount of delay or fixed latency of about 70ms 3072 samples in 44 1 48kHz Due to the intensive calculations required for the Linear Phase crossover it is quite an achievement to have this work in real time in both TDM and Native Much effort was put to optimize the ...

Page 3: ...ut the initial phase shift caused by the Xovers is still apparent in C4 and in its output all frequencies are equal to the source in Amplitude but not in Phase When its important to achieve as much source integrity as possible the LinMB goes a long way and splits the signal to 5 bands maintaining a 24bit clean starting point for applying different dynamics processing to each of the bands Transient...

Page 4: ...OLS Each band of Waves LINMB has 5 adjustable dynamics settings Threshold Gain Range Attack Release Solo and Bypass These function similarly in most dynamics processors but in this processor they affect the dynamics of one of the 5 bands The Range may seem unfamiliar and basically it is in place of the well known Ratio but it defines both the intensity of gain adjustment and the limit of gain adju...

Page 5: ...ength providing slower settings to lower bands and faster values to higher Other controls are set in the presets to provide some showcase of possible modes and different combinations Start off using the Processor defaults Play Music through For general MultiBand Compression first set the Range in all bands to 6dB by dragging the Master Range control downwards This will assure that the gain adjustm...

Page 6: ...he special advanced features Generally it s important to remember that while the process is applied to split discrete frequency bands it affects the Whole WideBand sound Soloing each band and applying its compression in solo and then listening to the whole may prove unrewarding as a workflow Frequency Analyzers can be used to get visual feedback to validate or articulate what you hear but its most...

Page 7: ... the lower band falls the detail is revealed threshold goes back down and the attenuation goes back to normal Also there is a chain reaction that makes for subtle general looseness of compression to the higher bands whenever the low bands are with high energy Each band of the linear MultiBand has its own compression settings and the engineer may want to compress more when a band is exposed and les...

Page 8: ... MultiBand case It is designed to help maintain general level stability for better a b comparing While in a wideband compressor the overall level will be reduced in the LinMB only the gain of a certain band will be reduced in relation to the others It is much easier to hear the lost loudness then the actual compression so working with Auto Makeup the bands level remains similar and you can focus b...

Page 9: ... and then apply ARC to get even better results with less artifacts Alternatively you can just count on this technology set your release value to the desired ballpark or stick with the release scaling from a preset and rely on ARC to get it right ARC was so well accepted wherever we introduced it and in the LinMB it is ON by default ...

Page 10: ...e an EQ It is also used to adjust gain of the band that s being compressed or expanded to make up for the headroom created buy the compressors attenuation or make down to prevent clipping RANGE 24 0dB 18dB Default 6dB Sets the possible range of the dynamic gain adjustment and also its intensity replacing the classic Ratio control and adding a firm boundary to it Negative Range means that when the ...

Page 11: ... Pass filters that cross each other For the calculation intensive nature of the Finite Impulse Response filters the Xover controls will sound a click when they are reset to a new position When using the mouse to adjust the frequency or when grabbing the markers at the bottom of the Graph the new filter will be set only when the mouse is released to avoid zipper noise Using the arrow keys or contro...

Page 12: ... will be very low The dither however can let your 24bit result virtually have a perceived 27bit resolution Any introduced noise will be further boosted by Limiting the output With L2 off course so we did not want to commit the users to the dither noise and allow it to be turned off In any case the noise may prove to be well beneath the program s floor and audible only at extreme monitoring levels ...

Page 13: ...slow release times as it approaches zero GR This can be very beneficial for deeper compression applications Electro is a compressor behavior invention by Waves in that it is very much the inverse of the Opto mode As the meter comes back to zero the faster it moves This is once the gain reduction is 3dB or less Above 3dB of gain reduction the Electro mode actually has slower release times much like...

Page 14: ...n of the band by dragging up and or down and the band s width by dragging sideways THE OUTPUT METERS The Output meters show the master output of the processor Under each meter there is a peak hold indicator The Trim control under the meters shows the current margin between the peak and the full scale The holds and the Trim value are reset when clicking in the meters area BAND THRESHOLD METERS Each...

Page 15: ...r In the LINMB the concept of Range and Threshold comes in very handy It lets you first define the maximum amount of dynamic gain change using the Range control and then determine the level around which you want this gain change to take place using the Threshold The actual values of these controls depend on the type of processing that you want If Range is negative you ll have downward gain change ...

Page 16: ...ow level compression set the threshold to a low level say 40 to 60dB Set Range to a small negative value such as 5dB and set Gain to the opposite value 5dB The audio around and below the Threshold value will be compressed upward a maximum of 5dB and the higher audio levels will be untouched including their transients This will cause high levels signals i e that are significantly above Threshold to...

Page 17: ...inverted to what you would expect For instance that a noise gate would have a positive Range If you just remember that when the signal goes around the Threshold then the Range becomes active and that the Threshold is the halfway point of the Range So whether Range is 12dB or 12dB then audio 6dB above and 6dB below the Threshold is where the knees of the dynamic change will occur Positive Range The...

Page 18: ...shold is 40dB The line is just curving a bit 3dB down point at the 40 input the scale at the bottom Output level is the scale on the right vertical edge and you can see that at about 20dB the line starts curving back to a 1 1 line So very high level audio peaks between 0 and 10dBFS are not touched at all audio between 10 and 40 is compressed and audio below 40 is not compressed but is clearly loud...

Page 19: ...or many applications 3 easy to hear on nearly any type of audio not only classical In the Load menu of the LinMB are a few factory presets with names beginning Upward Comp that are good points to learn more about this concept More presets are in the LinMB Setup Library In the next chapter there are more specific examples of using low level processing compression expansion that are very good starti...

Page 20: ...rrier of the so called Flat response of the program material This Flat response may well be further processed at the listener s side for boosting or cutting frequency ranges according to taste driven preferences While we can reach relative flatness with EQ devices it may sometimes be complementary and perhaps necessary to add some frequency range dependant push or pull to fit even better It s like...

Page 21: ...ifferent EQ curves low level EQ and high level EQ then set the transition point between them The transition is the Threshold control which sits at the halfway point of the Range value Of course it is not a morphing EQ but it most certainly is a dynamic process that moves between two different EQ settings Here s an example Load the Low level Enhancer factory preset from the Load menu You can see th...

Page 22: ...ut affecting the deep bass Band 2 is set rather wide to perform most of the work Band 3 is a de esser with a 1dB boost note that the Gain is 1dB higher than bands 1 and 2 Band 4 is just the air of the voice just a tad of compression and boost of 2dB above bands 1 and 2 Optionally you can set Band 1 GAIN to 10 with RANGE set to zero and the Low Crossover set to 65Hz This can low cut any pops or thu...

Page 23: ...egree In the case of hole punching this is when a compressor has overshoot of the gain reduction that is it over reacts to a peak signal and applies too much gain reduction to the signal Many times the peak itself was never compressed just the audio after the peak so you would want to use a slower attack time to avoid expanding the peak even higher and carefully adjust the release time to fill in ...

Page 24: ...tions As the thresholds are really program related the default will have all thresholds at 0dB and it is for the user to adjust the nominal thresholds The Factory presets when loaded will maintain the user defined thresholds and load all other parameters according to the preset Full Reset This is also the default setting that LinMB opens with when you first insert it on the TDM bus It is a easily ...

Page 25: ...and Band 4 is the air compressor These points give greater control over the bass dividing it into 2 bands but have no ess band range If upward compression provides too much of a boost in the highs a common result due to the lower overall energy of HF then simply lower the Threshold in the high band Upward Comp 5dB Similar to the previous setup but with different crossover points for different flex...

Page 26: ...per sensitive UNcompressor Since there has been so much work done in the direction of multiband compression and limiting it seemed only fair that a preset that tried to go in the other direction would be added Admittedly there is most likely a bigger challenge in undoing an over compressed signal than in the original mistake Wideband upward expansion is probably the first method you should try wit...

Page 27: ... time so that distortion is minimized too fast a Release will cause the compressor to follow the bass wave itself a form of modulation distortion that even multibands are susceptible to It s the same for Band 4 the Attack time at 12ms allows enough transients of the snare and consonants of the singer that there is not too much dulling of the sound but the sustained high frequency material such as ...

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