Har-Bal Users Forum BBS

I have recently purchased Har-Bal and I have been thrilled with the results. This program can show you a lot
about you mixes visually and sonically . I think it is as much as teaching aid as it is mastering program. I know my goal is to have my mix downs as close as I get to
an overall master. I have had a chance to here some recent mixes out of Nashville before they were mastered and after. I can tell you that the mixes were not that far off from the master other than the volume. Now if I could
only do that I would be happy. I think Har-Bal will
help me try to accomplish this even though I don't have
the expertise yet and will probably never have that kind of budget. I have used Har-bal on a couple of mix downs
along with wave for mastering then decided to remix after seeing and hearing my errors. The instrumentation
on the tracks began to become much more clear and defined and focused in the mix this is exactly what I was looking for but as that happened the lead vocal is begining to get crowded in the mix by the instruments. My question is has anyone else had such an experience with this or have any suggestions? This seems to be happening after the mastering process, waves slight EQ/ multiband/ har-bal/L2 . I realize my
mixes are not at the level I want them to be. In rotation
with commercial cd's they do stand up well though.

There is a correct method for using the Waves Mutilband Compressor. Here are the steps.

1. Go to the preset and choose Full Reset, then choose "Basic Multi"
2. On the bottom right of the plugin change "ADAPTIVE" to 12.
3.Preview The song and notice the changes taking place in the numbers at the bottom of the compressor.
4. When the song is finished, observe the numbers and change the "THRSH" to match them.
5. Click okay
You are done.

Try and remember this rule: When you look at a wave file the middle or (meat) of the song should be no more than half the size of the wave from top to bottom. If it is you may have a louder song but your dynamics will be lousy.
When you have completed the process above you then export your mix into har-bal to find any irregular peaks or wholes in the spectrum. When this is done you can then apply limiting to your track.
Please do the following.
If you get a chance extract the first song from Michael Jackson's album named Dangerous and really take a look at the wave file. This was done by not applying a bunch of compression.

You will also notice that the RMS power is only -17.48

Cheers

Earle

The following settings are from the Waves L2 manual

Here are the basic steps of using L2 in a 16-bit, 44.1/48kHz application.
These steps also apply to 24, 22 and 20- bit mastering.
• All processing, EQ, sample rate conversion, dynamic changes, etc. MUST
be done before L2 processing. The L2-Ultramaximizer should be the last
processing of the file. Ideally, dithering occurs only once.
• Using a 16 or higher bit input file, set the Threshold for desired peak
limiting.
In general, set
Threshold for about 4-6 dB of Gain Reduction in the Attenuation meter.
• Now take the Output Ceiling up to the maximum peak output you desire.
You can take this Output all the way to 0.0 dB without any clipping. For
CD’s, a recommended setting is -0.3dB; for more information read the
Peak Clipping section. Factory Presets already set the Out Ceiling control
to the recommended value.
• Leave the ARC (auto-release) button engaged all the time.
• Set Quantize output for 16-bit (for CD/DAT; or 22, 20, 18 for higher
archival or mastering medium if your hardware supports the transfer of 16+
bits).
• Set Dither type (type1 or type2). IDR type1 is recommended for most
high-resolution applications.
• Set Shaping (Moderate, Normal, Ultra, none). Ultra and Normal are
recommended for most high-resolution applications.

Thanks for the suggestions.I weill give them a try.Great support team.