Monday, May 08, 2006

Multiband Dynamics -- Samplitude

I'm just publishing this so I have a place to get to oit anytime I want.

Samplitude User Board -> Multiband Dynamics: "Sams MBD is better than a lot of expensive plugins when set up well.
Years ago it was said by mastering engineers to be worth the price or the program alone!

Unfortunately the presets are rotten and the default 'comp max' has wrongly implemented sliders.
- also in any mode the sliders don't represent the range that you can really adjust, so this makes it even more difficult to use.
Don't worry about the above though - the compressor mode rocks !

Here is a mastering setup mini micro tutorial:

First thing - set up a master limiter as MBD in 'compressor' mode doesn't have one by default.
I prefere the old limiter for this - go in the master routing section and uncheck 'use advanced dynamics' - close. Now right click the dynamics button in the master section.
Set threshhold to -0.01db .

Open MBD and change the mode to Compressor.
Choose four bands.
Set threshhold to around -15 or -20 depending on how loud your material is.
Set the ration to 3.8 for now.
Un-check 'link all' and set the outputs of each band to +8 +6 +5 +4 (left to right).
Now set the Attack and Release to 50/50, 30/30, 20/20 and 06/10
Adjust the frequency bands too - start with (top to bottom) 0.16, 0.64, 3.47
Use the 'OUT (All)' slider to get the output matched to the bypassed volume when comparing - don't forget that we're altering the EQ by compressing the bands seperatly but this isn't a problem, more a tool for smartening the sound up. Re-adjust the indiviual band-outputs to maintain the original frequency response.
Now for the fun (but very controversial) part!
Use the 'OUT (All)' slider to krank up the volume - watch the RMS display i"

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