bx_XL manual
The New Loud
© 2010 by Brainworx Music & Media GmbH
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bx_XL manual
Index
1.0 bx_XL Quick Guide 4
2.0 What is the bx_XL limiter? 4
3.0 bx_XL Flow Chart 6
4.0 What is M/S technology? 7
4.1 What is M/S good for in Mastering? 7
5.0 But what´s so new about bx_XL then? 7
6.0 Features of bx_XL: 8
7.0 How do I get started with bx_XL 8
8.0 Overview and Details 10
8.1 Input Gains 10
8.2 Crossover Frequency Mid Lo/Hi & MonoMaker 11
8.2.1 Crossover Frequency: 11
Examples (for a standard pop / rock mix): 11
8.2.2 Mono Maker 12
8.3 Mid Lo/Hi and Side Sections 12
8.3.1 Gain Boost 12
8.3.2 Gain Reduction Meter 12
8.3.3 Threshold 12
8.3.4 XL 13
8.3.5 Attack time (0.1ms – 1.5ms) 13
8.3.6 Release time (0.01ms – 999ms) 13
8.3.7 Input, Output and Sidechain LED´s 14
Channel switches 15
8.3.9 Channel Active 15
8.3.10 Solo: 15
8.3.11 Fader Link: 15
8.3.12 Sidechain Active 15
8.4 Sidechain Mix 15
8.4.1 Pro Tip: 16
8.5 Master Section 16
8.5.2 Master Gain Boost: 16
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bx_XL manual
8.5.3 Master Threshold: 17
8.6 Solo buttons (with Auto mode) 17
8.6.1 Solo M: 17
8.6.2 Solo S: 17
8.6.3 Solo L & R: 17
8.6.4 Solo Sidechain: 17
8.6.5 Auto Solo 18
8.7 Stereo Master Output LED´s 18
8.8 The M/S Summing Amp 19
8.9 The L/R Stereo Peak Stop Limiter 19
8.10 Master Output Gain (-6dB/+6dB) 19
8.11 Master Metering 20
9.0 The Master Panel 20
9.1 Bypass 20
9.2 Undo / Redo (32 steps) 20
9.3 Settings (A/B/C/D) 20
9.4 Manual 21
9.5 Help/general info 21
10.0 Brainworx keyboard shortcuts 21
11.0 Troubleshooting 21
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bx_XL manual
1.0 bx_XL Quick Guide
• Insert bx_XL into the stereo master buss, place behind all EQs and
compressors!
• Play a stereo song you know well and press Solo M and Solo S
(center section) to understand what M and S are.
• Turn up the Input Gain until the Peak Meters of the stereo main
LED´s hit “0” (zero) on peaks.
• Turn up Master Gain Boost and note how your mix gets louder and
more squashed the more you crank up. The MidHi signal will most
likely hit the Max Gain ceiling now.
• Adjust the individual Gain Boost sliders of MidLo and S if necessary.
Watch the MidLo/MidHi and Mid/Side meters change.
• Turn down the individual Max Out sliders (of M low and S mainly)
to tighten up these channels by driving them “to the wall”. Do not
overdo this, too much gain reduction causes distortion.
• Play with the Crossover Frequency slider and use the “Solo MidLo”
feature to adjust precisely. Try to separate the bass drum with it!
• Adjust the individual Attack and Release times of the MidLo, MidHi
and Side channels. Use the individual Solo knobs to do so.
• Turn up the Master XL knob and/or the individual XL knobs in the
channel to saturate your mix or parts of the mix only for “more
perceived volume”/more loudness.
You cannot win the loudness war without the XL knobs! ;-)
• If the Peak Stop meters show too much gain reduction (> 4 - 6dB)
use the Summing Amp Gain to reduce the overall level. Use M & S
gains individually to adjust or correct the stereo image. Watch the
Mid/Side meter.
• Use the Master Out to turn your overall master output down by
- 0.2 dB if desired (many mastering studios do so to avoid clippings
at CD project crossfades, etc.).
Advanced steps:
• Sidechain mix:
Mix any combination of 2 signals (MidLo, MidHi, Mid, Side, or
External) to be your Sidechain signal and let this SC signal key the
MidLo channel, MidHi channel, Side channel or any combination/
all of them!
• Pan M and S to balance out uneven mixes.
• Watch the 4 big “needle VUs” as they display important level changes
between Mid and Side signal (=your stereo width!) and between
MidLo and MidHi, which affects your low end a lot.
• Use Level Link on MidLo and S channels to drive signals more into
the limiter without boosting the actual volume of that channel!
Be creative, follow your ideas. We believe that there is not really
much that you cannot do with bx_XL when it comes to levels and CD
loudness….
2.0 What is the bx_XL limiter?
bx_XL is a low latency M/S mastering limiter.
Its main purpose is to help you get your mixes loud and clear.
“As loud” as any major label production and less “squashed” (aka
distorted) than many of them.
While we developed the bx_XL processor I found myself wondering
several times why it seems to be a “must have” in the audio-world
today to “limit” your mixes to the extreme. While you can do so with
bx_XL we truly believe that there is a certain stage at which you should
STOP to squash your mixes more and more to eventually achieve “huge
loudness” or volume…
From a certain level on we at BX feel that too much loudness is a
true limitation for your music. Limitation in dynamics, in power and
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bx_XL manual
strength… Certain music styles seem to require that squashed sound
and“loudrstimpression”, butyoumight achieveabiggerandlonger
lasting impact with a powerful mix that is loud… not dead. Please do
keep this in mind when cranking up your mixes.
bx_XL internally converts stereo signals into M (mid / sum) and S
(side / difference) signals and splits the M channel into 2 bands (hi &
lo). This way you can limit and level 3 individual channels to increase
loudness and improve clarity of stereo mixes drastically – with much
less distortion artifacts and while keeping much more “punch” than any
other limiter system.
Via the Crossover Frequency slider the “MidLo” channel can be used to
separate the bass drum and limit it different than the rest of your mid
signal easily! This is great for all kinds of dance, rap, techno and rock
music!
After these 3 channels have been mixed back together to a regular L/R
stereo signal internally the signal runs through an additional (fourth!)
nal standard brickwall peak stop limiter which offers an adjustable
master out level.
bx_XL also has a 3 band “psycho-acoustic” loudness maximizer built-in
and offers 4 automatable settings with copy & paste functionality. All
these features combined with 32 steps of Undo / Redo and various
detailed Level meters make for a sophisticated dynamics & loudness
control system second to none.
We recommend bx_XL to be used as the nal plugin on the stereo
master buss for mixing and mastering purposes and it can work great
on any stereo bus / stereo sub group as well.
bx_XL is based upon the M/S technology taken from our “modern
classic” M/S EQ bx_digital. We developed this hi-end analogue EQ
2006/2007 and we have offered a plug-in emulation of this EQ ever
since. Engineers and magazines around the globe rave about bx_digital
so we decided to develop a limiter that “teams up” perfectly with our EQ
in mastering situations.
Multiple Solo, Auto Solo and Link features enable the engineer to
precisely adjust all stages of this hi-end mastering limiter.
bx_XLlooksquitecomplexatrst,butonceyougettheinternalsignal
owandaudiosplitsyouwillbeabletouseitintuitiveandfast.
It might be worth taking a look at the graphical layout of the internal
signalow,seenextpage.
Please read about all the details in chapter 8.
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bx_XL manual
3.0 bx_XL Flow Chart
Below is an overview of the signal ow to help you understand the
concept and idea behind the bx_XL.
Maybeprintthispageandcheckitwhileusingbx_XLforthersttime!
x
x
x
x
+
Input
Left
Input
Right
Input
External
Sidechain
M/S
Encoder
Mono
Maker
Gain
Boost
Gain
Boost
Gain
Boost
Sidechain
Mix
Max
Out
Max
Out
Max
Out
XL
XL
XL
M/S
Pan
M/S
Decoder
Peak
Stop
Master
Output
Gain
Output
Left
Output
Right
Left Gain
Right Gain
M
S
M
S
Crossover
Frequency
Crossover
Frequency
Mid Lo
Mid Hi
Side
Input
Sidechain
Input
Sidechain
Input
Sidechain
M Gain
S Gain
M
S
L
R
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bx_XL manual
4.0 What is M/S technology?
Most engineers who are recording music know about the M/S microphone technique (2 different microphones for stereo recordings – they
have to be an OMNI or CARDIOID microphone for the M (mid) signal and
a “FIGURE-OF-8 microphone” for the S (side) signal).
Recording a signal with M/S microphone technique means to create
a stereo (L/R) signal by mixing the M and the S signals together in a
special way that will result in a very mono-compatible stereo signal. To
master your music in M/S you have to extract the M- and S- signals
from your stereo mix with an M/S matrix (we offer bx_control as a
plugin M/S matrix), then limit your M- and S- mono sums with 2 mono
limiters and bounce back to L/R stereo with a second M/ S matrix.
Sounds quite confusing?
Well, bx_XL does all that work for you internally, just feed it with a
stereo mix and you´ll be able to individually limit (and listen to!) your Mand S- signals. The input and output signals of bx_XL are always regular
L/R stereo.
For additional details about this technique you may have a look into
any decent audio book. Please do so if you want to learn more about
this method to create very mono-compatible stereo-signals, e.g. when
recording classical music, drums, choirs or acoustic instruments in
general.
4.1 What is M/S good for in Mastering?
Well, it may sound simple, but the bx_XL has a built-in M/S matrix
that will separate any stereo signal into its mono sum and the stereo
difference signals. Thus you are able to separately control these 2
signals which can be very useful when you work on a stereo mix that
has certain “problems” - or if you simply want to enhance the perceived
volume of your mix with as few audible artifacts as possible.
Ever tried to crank up the guitars and keyboards of your stereo mix while
keeping the punch of your drums and the power of your lead vocals?
With bx_XL and its built-in M/S technology you can do exactly that.
5.0 But what´s so new about bx_XL then?
First of all, bx_XL works different than any other limiter out there.
Different in a nice way…
The M/S mode and the internal split of the M-signal into 2 bands allow
for a huge increase of overall volume and perceived loudness while
keeping audible distortion and artifacts as low as possible.
bx_XL is the rst and only M/S mastering limiter that allows you to
listen to your M and S signals individually and phase corrected by using
the same solo knobs that have already made bx_digital the M/S EQ of
choice for many of the best engineers around the globe.
“Why is this so unusual?” you might ask now. Well, although the S signal
is included in any regular L/R stereo signal, it is not in phase on both
channels, so we had to come up with an easy way to phase correct it
each time you want to listen to your S-signal soloed.
Where do you start? Start by playing some stereo mixes through your
bx_XL plug-in and push the Solo button of the MidLo, MidHi and most
importantly the Side Section… you will be amazed of what you will hear…
you will be able to work on details you have never even heard before in
your mixes!
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