Har-Bal Users Forum BBS

I've managed to confuse myself. I've "mastered" a CD using a combo of Sound Forge, T-Racks, and CD Architect. It sounds pretty good and fairly consistent in volume. But there are some high end spikes that are giving me trouble. It seems that when I tame the high end, certain tunes loose their sparkle and sound dull.

In researching this I discovered har-bar. My question is:

Can I apply har-bal to the -0.1dB master files - tweaking eq and adding air?

Or should I start over with the -6.0 dB stereo mixes?

zelmobeaty wrote:
I've managed to confuse myself. I've "mastered" a CD using a combo of Sound Forge, T-Racks, and CD Architect. It sounds pretty good and fairly consistent in volume. But there are some high end spikes that are giving me trouble. It seems that when I tame the high end, certain tunes loose their sparkle and sound dull.

In researching this I discovered har-bar. My question is:

Can I apply har-bal to the -0.1dB master files - tweaking eq and adding air?

Or should I start over with the -6.0 dB stereo mixes?

zelmobeaty

I would advise that you start over with the -6.0 files. Start off by balancing the spectrum and then applying T-Racks. You definately don't want your files to sound overprocessed. You should first control the spikes inside of Har-Bal and then continue with your processing.

Cheers

Earle

Earle:

Thanks. You guys are cool. Should I adjust loudness and add air before going to T-racks.

CB

zelmobeaty wrote:Earle:

Thanks. You guys are cool. Should I adjust loudness and add air before going to T-racks.

CB

zelmobeaty

If you add air try to use between 12 and 20% and listen to the stereo separation.

I would only adjust loudness if the song has a very low RMS level going in like for instance -20rms. Otherwise one great thing about the limiter is if you load anything into Har-Bal that is too loud it will automatically correct the file to not exceed 0.0dBs. It will set it at -0.1dBs

Earle