Example Filters

Example Filters

The best way to illustrate the power of the approach that Har-Bal 3 allows is through hearing the results obtained from well designed filters. This process is inherently subjective and the resulting sound is heavily influenced by the interpretation an expectation of the person constructing the filter. As such I would like to point out at the outset that these filters are a product of my personal expectations for the tracks in question.

What I have done you may or may not agree with, though that is beside the point. Rather, In listening to and assessing the example filters given, I suggest that you adjust your mindset from “which version sounds best” to “how much can we transparently change the sound of a track through filtering in Har-Bal without damaging its integrity”. Note that most of the filters have a degree of gain cut applied globally to ensure that what you are hearing is not overly coloured by limiting upon limiting.

The examples given are deliberately commercial releases to avoid the criticism of the examples being contrived and not “real world” cases. They have already been mastered by professional engineers of some standing and I shall resist the temptation of naming them. Should you wish to know, the necessary information should be discoverable on the net. As these are commercial releases they must be paid for. I apologise whole heartedly to you for having to pay for the tracks (we don’t have a distribution contract with the artists) but for less than the price of a good cup of coffee you can be hearing an example for yourself.

The only caveat I’d place on the examples is to ensure that you download the tracks from the links provided because a lot of material these days is re-mastered multiple times. As such, the only way you can be sure of having the same master as the one the filter was developed for, and hence being able to hear the same result, is if you download from the same location.

Feel free to download the player and give the filters a try. Please note that the OS X player must have the support files installed to be able to play the tracks.