I just purchased Har-Bal, based on the SOS review. It’s awesome and deceivingly simple to use, this will be used extensively here on all of our future projects and for retouching past releases. The first ‘Harbalized’ release will be our BF003, house and tech-house. All tracks ‘Harbalized’ adding depth, transparency and a polished, professional character.

Thank you for making such a great product at such a great price.

(Finished, final mastered audio examples pre/post avail upon request, just let us know what format/resolutions Btw the audio on the sight is not ‘Harbalized’ yet)

Jordan Vesteyo,
Producer, Engineer
Blunted Funk Recordings
Brooklyn NYC
http://www.bluntedfunk.com/

There is an “old school” consensus that a mix needs to be mastered at traditional mastering houses where those with the “golden ears” can do their magic. This has unfortunately been true for the most part because the tools were just not available to do the same job at home or wherever there is a computer. Like any other groundbreaking product, Har-Bal changes the rules of the game by making a good mix dependant NOT on the “golden ears” of seasoned pro’s in the mastering business, but by anybody with a computer.

With Har-Bal the ears are working with our eyes. It is much easier to see where a mix needs adjustment than to trust the ears. Anybody can use this program on any source material and within seconds start improving the subtle dynamics in a mix that would take a set of “golden ears” many hours AND quite a lot of expensive equipment to accomplish. Har-Bal is an idea whose time has “finally” come.

Bravo!
Joe Pedi

When I first discovered Reason (by Propellerheads) I was blown away. Prior to that moment I’d been a hardware fan and a reluctant software user (mainly sequencer).

Then a few years went past. A couple of nice software packages came about, but nothing spectacular (mainly VST/VSTi, but *very* CPU hungry!).

Then I stumbled across Har Bal at some music forum. The person describing Har Bal hadn’t used it but was curious and wondered if anyone else had tried/seen it. To me it made perfect sense and seemed like it was the “missing link” to my set up.

Like a lot of semi pros I suffer from too much bass/treble in the mix and have all kinds of EQing problems. But with Har Bal all those problems are gone. And I mean “all”. When I explain how good this program is to other potential users I let them know that it’s the equivalent of having a recording engineer with the best ears in the biz with you 24/7. Or like someone’s taken their fingers out of my ears and now I can hear my mixes with so much more clarity.

Har Bal is up there with Reason as being a life changer in the way I can make music.

I salute all of you at Har bal and wish you success.

Cheers,
Derek aka kaom

It IS just as easy as it looks…can you imagine something this simple., This is unheard of, especially at this price! Har-bal is definitely going to change the game for the independent music community. This is only the FIRST version of it…CAN IT GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS? I’m glad to have been one of the first to experience it and actually was able to do it myself! Anyone that cares about their music should be harbalizing it!”

Mill Davis
Director
Society of Future Recording Artists & Songwriters (SOFRAS)

Earle and Paavo,

I am truly amazed by this product. My music is riding in a Bentley on Yugo Dollars. I’m telling all my friends to check out this software. For anyone that can read and use a mouse, it should be easy to manipulate. I think the results after Harbalization (w/digital audio limiting) is “Da Bomb”. I will be uploading my new Harbalized tracks to my mp3.com sight immediately and promoting this software. It takes a lot of guess work out the engineering process.

Sincerely,
Clinton “The Mayor” Crawford, C.E.O
CJC MUSIC
cjcmusic@Bellsouth.net
http://www.soundclick.com/mayor
Home.bellsouth.net/personalpages/PWP-cjc923

Hi,

You’ve achieved not one, but two firsts in the world:

1. A computer program that does what it says it does.
2. Software sold that doesn’t promise to enlarge your XXXXX.

The first of these must be regarded as a plus. I’ve owned your program for approximately 48 hrs. In a considerably shorter time than that I have managed to:

1. Make three tracks (which I previously wasn’t happy with) sound great.
2. Make a horribly cat-like DI Violin sound like a violin.

I would suggest you feature the latter on your web site: your program is good for more than mastering.

Example:
This violin. I had no choice in the initial sound – it was a live recording with no possibility of later replacement. It sounded dreadful. I’m sure you know. Ten minutes of frequency sculpting later – just filling in troughs and smoothing out peaks – it sounded like a violin! A real one!

Faults of this program:
The violin player still couldn’t play. Can you fix that?

Many Thanks for a program that is going to be really useful.

Best Regards,
Paddi Addison.
paddi@themobile.co.nz

I don’t usually do this but I wanted to let people know about this really great mastering tool.

After recording in Korg D16, exporting the wave files into my computer and mixing and mastering with N-Track studio, there is one more step I take which makes my songs perfect. I use something called Har-Bal.

This is a way to adjust the sound spectrum using a visual interface. It has produced remarkable results for me. You can set up filters for EQ, use reference audio from any type of CD and then adjust your settings to match the reference CD. The visual interface makes it very easy to use.

Once you have a good sound you record the mix and it adjusts your original file and makes a copy with the added adjustments.

The key of course to good recording is having a good source, hot levels, no distortion. In the Korg D16, I kept my source levels between -12 and -4 db. Once I exported the wave files I made sure that most eq adjustments in the NTrack were subtractions which allows me to boost where I need the extra punch. Less is best. The N-Track combined with a bunch of cool plugins mixes and masters the sound but the extra ability to then take the completed wave mix from the NTrack lets me polish this to sound like a commercial CD. Har-Bal was selling for $99 when I purchased it a few months ago. I have no affiliation with them but can tell you they are very responsive to questions. They even called me from Australia (I’m in So Cal) to make sure I received the link to the license code they sent. Great customer service and a ton of sound knowledge there.

Go here to listen to “Inner” or “You Are the One” both begun in D16 and finished with Har-Bal

http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=63679

http://www.mp3.com.au/track.asp?id=63184

I just had to drop your company a note! I must say that things have changed since I bought your program. I am a videographer, and my video and audio has to be just right for my clients. They expect their finished product to be perfect. I used to have a hard time getting my audio right…I no longer have that problem. It’s weird because some clients have given more compliments on my audio than video. Thanks to the genius that thought of this:) Now you guys need to make a program for video!

Demetria Clark
Guerrilla Le Femme

Hi Earle,

You and I talked back and forth several months ago and I mentioned I would buy your Har-Bal filter…. well, I did buy it, and I used it to help me master my latest self-released, self-recorded album. It helped me take average mixes and improve them slightly so they sound better on more speakers. Definitely worth the money. I’m not an expert yet, and I still have a long way to go to get my mixes exactly the way I want them, but Har-Bal did help me out quite a bit. My mixes would not have been even at the humble level they’re at without it. Thanks for the great product!

Take care and I’ll make sure to contact you again in the near future. Feel free to update my testimonial (James Durham ION1.COM Multimedia Development) with a link to my album — all of the final mixes on this album went through Har-Bal at some point in the mastering process:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/aeolianmay

Best Regards,
James Durham
ION1.COM Multimedia Development

I love Har-Bal. I’ve used it to fix a few of my past mastering crimes. How well could I have used it 10 years ago, when I mastered my first album. I’m looking forward to what you have in store for us in the way of updates.

Robert Schulze Lutum,
Mastering Engineer,
Selm, Germany