TC electronic MD3 Owner's Manual

BUILT FOR POWERCORE

USER MANUAL

MD3 STEREO MASTERING

for POWERCORE

TC SUPPORT INTERACTIVE

The TC Support Interactive website is our online support and information center. At
the site you can find answers to specific problems regarding TC products 24/7. All
resolved problems are stored in a database searchable by product, category, keywords,
or phrases.

We constantly update the database and you will find the site to be a huge resource of
information. Browse through our Q&A's and discover new aspects of your TC product.
If you can't find an answer online, you have the option of submitting a question to our
technical support staff who will then reply to you by e-mail. The TC Support Team is
on constant alert to help you in any way they can.

URL : www.tcsupport.tc

CONTACT DETAILS

Alternatively, you may contact the TC Electronic distributor in your area, or write to:

International:

TC ELECTRONIC A/S
Customer Support
Sindalsvej 34
Risskov DK-8240
Denmark

USA:

TC Electronic, Inc.
5706 Corsa Ave. Suite 107
Westlake Village, Ca. 91362

www.tcelectronic.com

© BY TC ELECTRONIC A/S 2004. ALL PRODUCT AND COMPANY NAMES ARE
TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. VST IS A TRADEMARK OF STEIN­BERG A.G., AUDIO UNITS IS A TRADEMARK OF APPLE, COMPUTER. ALL SPECIFI­CATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TC
ELECTRONIC IS A TC GROUP COMPANY.

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

INTRODUCTION TO MD-3 Stereo Mastering Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

GETTING STARTED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

PROCESSING DELAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

POWERCORE REQUIRED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4

PARAMETER OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

MAIN PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

EXPANDER COMPRESSOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

EQ PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

NORMALIZER PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

EXPANDER PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

COMPRESSOR PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

OUTPUT PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

BRICKWALL LIMITER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20

PRESET MANAGEMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

QUICK PRESET COMPARISSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

MD 3

/

1

Introduction

TC Electronic is proud to introduce the MD-3 Stereo package for TC PowerCore. This
package includes both our MD-3 Multi-Band Dynamics and BrickWall Limiter algo­rithms, the finest stereo mastering tools from our award winning System 6000.

MAIN FEATURES

• Four band Parametric EQ (Dual Mono capability)

• Normalizer

• Three band Exp/Comp/Lim

• MS Encode/Decode

• Sample accurate BrickWall Limiter

MD-3

The MD-3 plug-in features both Dual Mono and Stereo dynamics processing in three
frequency bands. It's pristine signal-path uses 48 bit processing.

Make-up gain can be applied automatically or manually, so the algorithm can be set­up to do everything from strictly limiting to level maximization.

By offering a true side-chain split structure, MD3 is also capable of demanding mono
material compression/limiting on two separate channels , not found in other multi­band dynamics processors.

Look-ahead delay may be used for improved peak handling and low distortion opera­tion.

Used for mastering,MD3 can be regarded as a high-end mastering tool. M and S com­ponents of a stereo signal can be processed separately and provide even more control
making full use of the Spectral Stereo Enhancer.

I/O page / Head Room

In case you are working with very hot signal levels in your audio application, you might
experience clipping of the input of the MD-3 or BrickWall limiter algorithm.
In that case, we recommend that you lower the output level of the previous plug-in ,
or turn down your input channel or send level.

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

2/

MD 3

MD 3

/

3

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

Getting Started

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The Plug-In requires POWERCORE PCI or POWERCORE FIREWIRE version 1.9 or
later to be available in your system.

MAC OS X

• PowerCore PCI/Element or PowerCore FireWire running system 1.9 or later

• G4 or G5 (800 MHz or faster)

• 256 MB RAM (512 MB or more recommended)

• Mac OS X (10.2.6 or higher)

• Any VST or AudioUnits compatible host application

• System must meet requirements of the host application

• Internet connection for product activation

WINDOWS

• PowerCore PCI or FireWire running system 1.9 or later

• Pentium III 1GHz or faster

• 256 MB RAM (512 MB or more recommended)

• Windows XP

• Any VST-compatible application

• System must meet requirements of the host application

• Internet connection for product activation

If this does not help, you can use the build-in headroom parameter on the plug-in I/O
page, to get an additional head room. Please be aware that this results in a loss of bit
resolution.

Setting the Head Room parameter to a value different from 0 dB will change two
gains: the native input gain is set to reduce the signal level,
while the gain at the input to the 48 bit algorithm is set to make up that reduction.

The advantage of this is that any of the algorithm parameters (especially thresholds)
will affect the signal in the same way, independent of the headroom setting.
The disadvantage is that some of the lower bits are lost in the 24 bit path to the algo­rithm. On the other hand, the same loss would happen when you would reduce the
signal via an input level parameter.

PROCESSING DELAY

In addition to the typical latency delay associated with DSP Plug-Ins, MD-3 and
BrickWall Limiter also has an internal processing delay that will increase the latency.
Using a larger look-ahead delay in MD-3 will result in additional latency being intro­duced. Most host applications feature automatic plug-in delay compensation that will
adjust for any latency automatically. Check with your host application software manu­facturer whether plug-in delay compensation is supported.

POWERCORE REQUIRED!

The MD-3 Stereo Mastering package requires a PowerCore device to run on your sys­tem.

SCROLL WHEEL SUPPORT

If you are using a host application that supports this feature, all of the MD-3 and
BrickWall Limiter parameters support scrolling on both Windows XP and Mac OS X.
Simply roll your mouse over a knob and use the Scroll Wheel to increment / decre­ment the associated parameter.

TOOLTIPS

If you are just getting started with the MD-3 Stereo Mastering Package and you want
to know what all the parameters do, press the question mark Icon to activate the
tooltip function.When activated, moving the mouse over the different parameters will
display information about the parameter functionality. Of course you can disable the
tooltips, as soon as you know your way around.

DISPLAY DISABLED

Should your PowerCore be fully loaded and there is not enough free processing on
your DSPs, the plug-in will come up in a disabled state. Should this occur, it is
advised to remove the Plug-In from the mix.

The User Group - Assign key

You can group your own set of most important parameters into a user group at the bot­tom of the plug-in for having a better overview, without having to switch pages.

By pressing the Control Group Selector Up key you enter the User group. In this group
you can assign any parameter to any Control field in the group. The User Control
group is stored with a preset.

• Press the Link key.

• Select the Control field you wish to link a parameter to, by pressing the field.

• Press the parameter you wish to link to the selected Control field.

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

4/

MD 3

MD 3

/

5

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

PARAMETER OVERVIEW

The MD-3 is a 3-band 2-Channel Dynamics processing algorithm. The algorithm con­tains:

• Stereo four band precision EQ (Linked or Dual-mono operation)

• Stereo 3-band compression with linked or separate SideChains

• MS-Encode/Decode at the Input and Output

The MD-3 will run at sample rates up to 96kHz

Signal flow through the algorithm:

MAIN PAGE

EE NN GG LL II SS HH

6/

MD 3

The MD-3 algorithm occupies:

Sample Rate PCI/Element PowerCore FW

@ 44.1 khz 40 % of 1 DSP
@ 48 khz 44% of 1 DSP
@ 88.2 khz 92 % of 1 DSP 72 % of 1 DSP
@ 96 khz 100% of 1 DSP 79 % of 1 DSP

* Subject to change