NIOA VS-880 TIP 295-0002:

Clarify a Muddy Cassette Mix

A number of people expressed interest in the VS8F-1 patches I use to "pre-master" my work. I present them here in full-form, with the disclaimer that these will undoubtedly need to be drastically tweaked to suit the quality of the mix prior to the premastering phase.

If your mix is just about right, you'll want to tone down a lot of the enhancing and EQing that goes on in these patches. The application of the patches as you see here was to clarify a really muddy cassette mix, and these patches *definitely* *work* to do that. If nothing else, I hope they provide a few people with some creative ideas for how to use the VS8F-1 board, and inspire you to use whatever gear you have to do wonders for wonderful music.

Without further ado, here goes-

1) The EQs

The first thing you'll want to do is take your stereo mix (I'm assuming you have it on two adjacent tracks) and split it into frequency bands. There are two possibilities that these patches can do- split into LOW, MID, HIGH (3 band), and split into LOW, LOW-MID, HIGH-MID, HIGH (4 band). First, decide on whether you are going to use 3 or 4 bands of split. If the mix is very uneven, especially in the mids, I suggest 4 bands. If the signal only has big booms or bright clashes making it uneven, I suggest 3 bands.

PATCH: LOW EQ
BASED ON ALGORITHM: GRAPHIC EQ
EQLink ON
EQACH ON
InputG -12
FREQUENCY BANDS
     31.2 +12
     62.5 +12
     125  +12
     250  +12
     500  -12
     1k   -12
     2k   -12
     4k   -12
     8k   -12
     16k  -12
     Level   0

PATCH: MID EQ
BASED ON ALGORITHM: GRAPHIC EQ
EQLink ON
EQACH ON
InputG -12
FREQUENCY BANDS
     31.2 -12
     62.5 -12
     125  0
     250  +12
     500  +12
     1k   +12
     2k   +12
     4k   0
     8k   -12
     16k  -12
     Level     0

PATCH: HIGH EQ
BASED ON ALGORITHM: GRAPHIC EQ
EQLink ON
EQACH ON
InputG -12
FREQUENCY BANDS
     31.2 -12
     62.5 -12
     125  -12
     250  -12
     500  -12
     1k   -12
     2k   0
     4k   +12
     8k   +12
     16k  +12
     Level     0

PATCH: LOWMID EQ
BASED ON ALGORITHM: GRAPHIC EQ
EQLink ON
EQACH ON
InputG -12
FREQUENCY BANDS
     31.2 -12
     62.5 -12
     125  0
     250  +12
     500  +12
     1k   -12
     2k   -12
     4k   -12
     8k   -12
     16k  -12
     Level     0

PATCH: HIGHMID EQ
BASED ON ALGORITHM: GRAPHIC EQ
EQLink ON
EQACH ON
InputG -12
FREQUENCY BANDS
     31.2 -12
     62.5 -12
     125  -12
     250  -12
     500  -12
     1k   +12
     2k   +12
     4k   0
     8k   -12
     16k  -12
     Level     0

Program in each of the above effects. Save them as user effects. Now, program in each of the enhancer/compressor patches below:

PATCH: LOWCMP
BASED ON ALGORITHM: STEREO MULTI
NS (Noise Suppress)     OFF
CL (Comp/Limiter)       ON
        Level           -12 dB
        Thresh          -18 dB
        Attack          40
        Release         65
        Ratio           4:1
ENH (Enhancer)          ON
        Sens            100
        Freq            1.0kHz
        Mixlvl          100
        Level           100
EQ ON
        Low:            Peaking
                        +12 dB
                        100 Hz
                        Q 1.0
        Mid:            -12 dB
                        1000 Hz
                        Q 0.3
        High:           Shelving
                        -12 dB
                        1.4 kHz
                        Q 0.3
        Level           100

PATCH: MIDCMP
BASED ON ALGORITHM: STEREO MULTI
NS (Noise Suppress)     OFF
CL (Comp/Limiter)       ON
        Level           +12 dB
        Thresh          -20 dB
        Attack          0
        Release         60
        Ratio           4:1
ENH (Enhancer)          ON
        Sens            100
        Freq            1.3kHz
        Mixlvl          60
        Level           100
EQ ON
        Low:            Shelving
                        -12 dB
                        400 Hz
                        Q 10.0
        Mid:            +12 dB
                        700 Hz
                        Q 0.3
        High:           Shelving
                        -12 dB
                        4.0 kHz
                        Q 0.3
        Level           100

PATCH: HIGHCMP
BASED ON ALGORITHM: STEREO MULTI
NS (Noise Suppress)     OFF
CL (Comp/Limiter)       ON
        Level           -5 dB
        Thresh          -12 dB
        Attack          50
        Release         50
        Ratio           4:1
ENH (Enhancer)          ON
        Sens            7
        Freq            6.0kHz
        Mixlvl          100
        Level           100
EQ ON
        Low:            Shelving
                        -12 dB
                        400 Hz
                        Q 10.0
        Mid:            +12 dB
                        6250 Hz
                        Q 0.3
        High:           Shelving
                        -10 dB
                        20.0 kHz
                        Q 0.3
        Level           100

PATCH: LOWMIDCMP
BASED ON ALGORITHM: STEREO MULTI
NS (Noise Suppress)     OFF
CL (Comp/Limiter)       ON
        Level           -9 dB
        Thresh          -12 dB
        Attack          100
        Release         50
        Ratio           4:1
ENH (Enhancer)          ON
        Sens            100
        Freq            1.0kHz
        Mixlvl          100
        Level           100
EQ OFF
PATCH: HIGHMIDCMP
BASED ON ALGORITHM: STEREO MULTI
NS (Noise Suppress)     OFF
CL (Comp/Limiter)       ON
        Level           -11 dB
        Thresh          -12 dB
        Attack          20
        Release         50
        Ratio           4:1
ENH (Enhancer)          ON
        Sens            100
        Freq            2.8kHz
        Mixlvl          100
        Level           100
EQ OFF
PATCH: PREMASTER
BASED ON ALGORITHM: DUAL COMP/LIMITER
CLA (Channel A):        ON
Detect                  A
Level                   -3dB
Thresh                  -7dB
Attack                  40
Release                 0
Ratio                   100:1
NS (Noise suppress)     OFF
CLB (Channel B):        ON
Detect                  B
Same settings as channel A

OK. Now, you've spent a lot of time entering patches. Here's how to use them:

For each band you are going to compress:

1) Insert the appropriate EQ patch as EFFECT1 for the stereo mix. Then, as EFFECT2, insert the appropriate compressor patch. Forget about the "PREMASTER" patch I listed at the end, for now.

2) Listen to your stereo mix through the EQ and then the CMP patch. Does that band have the qualities you want? For example, if you've routed your stereo mix through LOWEQ -> LOWCMP, is the bass punchy? Is it boomy? Is it smooth? If it isn't what you want, fix it now. Add EQ on the channel.

Modify the EQ or the compressor or the enhancer settings. If you hear digital distortion, either cut the track level or modify the effects settings.

3) Once you have a band (in this case low-end) you are happy with, you have to bounce that band down from your stereo mix to two free tracks. Make sure to preserve the stereo image by panning your stereo mix hard left and hard right. Also, be aware that you have to pass judgement on the quality of that band without listening to your other bands. This is most difficult with the bass, since you haven't compressed any of the other bands yet. It is an unfortunate limitation, but you only have 2 effects to work with at a time, and compressing one band takes both!

4) After you have bounced the lows, bounce the mids and the highs, or the low-mids, high-mids, and highs, depending on your choice of 3 or 4 bands. Remember to save any effects changes you've made for the band you just finished. Choose the appropriate EQ patch and compressor patch for the new band. Bounce. Repeat.

I'm assuming at this point you have either 3 or 4 pair of stereo tracks corresponding to the 3 or 4 compressed frequency bands in your stereo mix. If you haven't already, you'll want to listen to them together. You may have to do some track exchanges to arrange the bands the way you want. I like to have tracks 1/2 set to lows, tracks 3/4 set to low-mids, tracks 5/6 set to high-mids, and tracks 7/8 set to highs.

Listen to the result. Adjust levels to get the right balance. Use channel strip EQ to correct any problems. Here's where you can mess with the stereo image. Say you want to center your bass. Simply pan both LOW channels near center. Although I advise against drastically altering the stereo image at this stage, it is nice to be able to move different frequency bands around. I would advise starting with each pair panned hard left/right to preserve the original image, and working from there.

At this point, your sound should hopefully be more even and clear than before. If it doesn't sound better, don't proceed. Go back and fiddle.

Next- Proceed two bands at a time. Assign EFFECT1 to PREMASTER and EFFECT2 to PREMASTER. Insert EFFECT1 into one stereo band, and EFFECT2 into another band. Bounce these four tracks down to a stereo pair.

Do the same for the remaining bands. If you are using four bands, you'll be bouncing LOWs and LOWMIDs together, then HIGHMIDs and HIGHs. If you are using three bands, you'll be bouncing LOWs and MIDs together, and then you can probably skip the bounce of HIGHs simply by leaving EFFECT1 assigned to HIGHs. However, this leaves you with only ONE effect to do all your final tweaking, and, as you'll see in a minute, we're going to use that effect.

At this point, you should have 2 stereo pairs. To the MASTER, assign the PREMASTER patch. This compresses the *whole* *mix* and can result in a really hot premaster. If you don't want that, skip this stage. You might also want to use a parametric or graphic EQ to even out any unevenness.

There are tons of other things that you can do to fiddle with your signal. When you've got your signal split into bands, you are god. You can make only minor adjustments, or you can perform hoola-hoops.

J Pekau

jipekau@engmail.uwaterloo.ca

4 Nov 1997

1997/12


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