My first experience using Har-Bal

[Gnu]

Hi all,

After much reading and reviewing, I purchased and installed Har-Bal this evening. My first test with it was to "re-master" The Doors tune "Cars Hiss By My Window". It's sparse - just guitar, bass, drums, and Jim in a straight-up blues track. The tune is a bit muddy mix-wise - after all, it was done in 1971.

So off I go, a fledgling Har-Bal-ist , figuring that if anything could put Har-Bal to the test (and myself), this would be it.

All told, I've spent about an hour on the tune - this includes several "user-error" incidents where I had to start again, getting used to the interface, concepts, etc. That's my fault, not Har-Bal's.

Within 40 minutes, I had cleaned out the "mud" in the original mix nicely - most of it was below 1k, which was not suprising.

One big problem remained, though. In cleaning out the mud, I lost the low-end harmonics of Jim's voice - a definite "not good". His voice went from robust to thin.

I had cleaned too much out the spectrum below 1k. I spent a few more minutes in the 500Hz to 1k range - an enhancement here, a nip there. Re-listen - A/B compare - rinse and repeat a couple of more times.

I've just finished the final tweak and I'm quite pleased with the results. The guitar and drums are very well defined in the mix now. Jim's voice is pretty much all there - the bass "booms" just a tad still but that was a tradeoff I had to make to get the fullest possible vocal sound.

And so I'm here. I rarely get effusive about a product, let alone post up anything, but my initial experience with Har-Bal has been very positive. I read all of the reviews and all of the K-v-R flame-fest before plunking down my money. The reviews were compelling - it's hard to argue with Sound On Sound and Craig Anderton, after all.

All of my doubts were erased in my very first Har-Bal session. I am by no means a "Stereo Mixmaster General" and I achieved some very nice results this evening. To anyone out there "on the fence", buy it - you'll be glad you did.

[Har/Bal]

Gnu

Thank you very much for your kind words. We appreciate those folks who are having a positive results that inform us of such. You will find the more you use Har-Bal the more you will start to understand the spectrum. We have a few great engineers that frequent this forum, so if you have major questions....fire away

It has been hard convincing folks that this tool really works and that an engineer need not spend a fortune.

Thanks for your support.

Earle

[zentatonic]

I've been having a lot of fun with this thing since purchasing it a week ago.
I basically have been downloading songs from all the major OMDs and improving everyone's mixes for my own amusement! hehe
I found once I learned what was considered a "bad spike" and got more subtle with my tweeks, I was able to come pretty close to the reference spectrums on my own!

Can't wait to try it on individual tracks. Do you apply the same principals on idividual tracks?

[zumbidoman]

"It has been hard convincing folks that this tool really works and that an engineer need not spend a fortune.
"

If you can convince a high-dollar mastering engineer this, then he'd be putting himself out of work. People really do believe that you 'get what you pay for'. This, unfortunately, is not always true.

Har-Bal DOES work.

But would Bernie Grundman endorse this?

[dbmasters1]

typically, you DO get what you pay for. It's a believed logic, because usually it is true.

[zumbidoman]

dbmasters,

I think we said the same thing.

Har-Bal does work!