The Vertical Scale

[ricstudioc]

Howdy -

Ok - bought HB yesterday, and gotta say I think it's a great piece of work. I'm not sure what all the "learning curve" comments I've noted are about - I find it to be almost ridiculously intuitive to use. (As in "It can't be this easy...)

But a question - without (please) getting into logarithms and all that stuff, what exactly does the vertical scale reference? I'm used to Sound Forge, Sonar, and other apps where it usually is referenced to -db (the closer you get to the top, the closer to "0" you're getting) or percentage of full code.

I'm betting on the latter (ie "7" indicates 70% and so on), but the fact that it goes way above 10, and even into negative numbers (less than -inf?) has me scratching my head.

Not gonna change the way I work, just want to understand what I'm looking at.

Great piece of work - I guess it CAN be this easy!!!!

Again - English please, keep the technobabble to a minimum.

Thanks!!

[har-bal]

Howdy -

Ok - bought HB yesterday, and gotta say I think it's a great piece of work. I'm not sure what all the "learning curve" comments I've noted are about - I find it to be almost ridiculously intuitive to use. (As in "It can't be this easy...)

But a question - without (please) getting into logarithms and all that stuff, what exactly does the vertical scale reference? I'm used to Sound Forge, Sonar, and other apps where it usually is referenced to -db (the closer you get to the top, the closer to "0" you're getting) or percentage of full code.

I'm betting on the latter (ie "7" indicates 70% and so on), but the fact that it goes way above 10, and even into negative numbers (less than -inf?) has me scratching my head.

Not gonna change the way I work, just want to understand what I'm looking at.

Great piece of work - I guess it CAN be this easy!!!!

Again - English please, keep the technobabble to a minimum.

Thanks!!

The vertical scale is in dBs so if you want to pull down a particular region by 3dB then you can use the scale as a guide.

It is no more than a ruler, and has no effect on the vulume of your track.

Glad you are enjoying the program. Most folks need to understand that not only does Har-Bal correct the rogue resonances in a track , it also insures that your track is balanced and transportable (sounds good) on all systems.

We have had a number of folks try and post Mp3's and ask for everyone's opinion as to which sounds better. Once you have a track balanced it is pretty much up to the client to decide if they want to tweak further to taste, and that is subjective. Some folks like their songs bassy and some don't, etc.

The sound of someone's track is always "subjective", but the transportability isn't . It should sound the same on all systems.

The true test is to burn the track to a cd and play it on a number of different systems

That is the mission and the true test

Cheers

Earle

[ricstudioc]

"The vertical scale is in dBs so if you want to pull down a particular region by 3dB then you can use the scale as a guide."

Hi -

Thanks for the fast reply - I've heard that about you guys...

So - each numbered line on the scale represents one db more or less than the adjacent number? Please confirm.

If so - my mixes must be better than I had thought, I never seem to be correcting peaks of more than, say, one line or so. Hmmm....

[HarBal]

To figure out what the dB value is take the axis tick value and multiply it by the axis scaling number (just next to the axis label). The value is something like +10dB[re 100p]. The text should have a multiplication sign immediately before the +10dB but it seems to have been lost in the last revision. I'll fix that up in the next release.

An easy way for you to get a good idea on the spectrum magnitude at various places is to look at the status line while moving the cursor around with either the parametric EQ or shelving tools selected. It tells you the frequency and magnitude of the value immediately below the cursor. I have a differential data cursor that is part of another software product that I wrote (AtSpec) which I can see could be useful so I'll add it in to the next revision since no "real" new coding is required.

Regards,


Paavo.

[ricstudioc]

Thanks guys, appreciate the info. According to the cursor info, when I'm looking at the full waveform the lines are 10 db apart - and that's all the reference I need.

.......course, that means my mixes ain't all that good, Shucks...