Waves Audio Linear Phase Multiband Compressor User Guide
Waves – Linear-Phase MultiBand
Software Audio Processor
Users Guid e
version 2 Dec. 27
th
Waves LinMB software guide page 1 of 28
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Introducing Waves Linear-Phase MultiBand Processor.
The LinMB is an evolved version of the C4 MultiBand Parametric Processor. If
you are familiar with C4 you will fin d the Linear Phase MultiBand very similar,
adding some true breakthrough innovation and technology that yields superior
and purer results.
The LinMB has -
• 5 discrete bands each with its own gain and dynamics for equalizing,
compressing, expanding or limiting each band separately.
• Linear Phase crossovers allow true transparency when the split is active
but idle. The only effect is pure delay with no coloration of any sort.
• LinMB is equipped with the options for Automatic Makeup and gain Trim.
• Adaptive threshold behavior achieves most effective and transparent
multiband dynamics processing.
• LinMB has the visual interface of the award winning C4 with Waves’
unique DynamicLine™ display showing the actual gain change as an EQ
graph display.
Waves created the LinMB to answer to the most demanding and critical
requirements when Mastering any sound and genre of music.
While the Waves Masters bundle is focused to provide purist quality tools for
Mastering, there are many applications in which it may be very useful i.e.
Vocal processing, Transmission processing, Noise reduction, Track Strip.
The LinMB has a fixed amount of delay or fixed latency of about 70ms (3072
samples in 44.1-48kHz). Due to the intensive calculations required for the
Linear Phase crossover it is quite an achievement to have this work in realtime in both TDM and Native. Much effort was put to optimize the
performance for specific CPU’s using Co processors such as Altivec on MAC
and SIMD on x86 type processors. Processing higher sample rate such as
96kHz will definitely require m uch more CPU then 48kHz.
ULTIBAND DYNAMICS
M
In MultiBand Dynamics processing we split the wide-band signal to discrete
bands. Each band is sent to its dedicated dynamics processor to apply the
desired dynamic gain adjustment or static gain. Splitting the signal has
several major consequences as follows:
• Eliminates Inter Modulations between bands.
• Eliminates gain riding between different frequency bands.
• Allows setting each band’s attack, release times scaled to the frequencies
in that band.
• Allows setting different functionality (compression, Expansion, EQ) per
each band.
For example, its possible to compress the low frequencies with longer attack
release values, at the same time expand the mid range with shorter ones,
DeEss hi-mids with much faster attack and release and boost the super hi
frequencies without any dynamics.
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MultiBand devices are especially handy when dealing with the dynamics of a
full range mix. In a symphonic orchestra as well as in a Rock n Roll band
different instruments dominate different frequency ranges. Many times the low
range dominates the whole dynamic response while the higher frequencies
are riding on top. While it is the mixer’s or composer’s job to reach a desired
balance, mastering engineers often find they need to do something about the
dynamics of the mixed source. It may be to complement it further or indeed
improve its quality, or possibly just make it as loud as possible for competitive
level, with as little degradation as possible.
INEAR PHASE XOVERS
L
When the Li nMB is active but is idle, it presents only a fixed amount of delay.
The output is 24bit clean and true to the source.
When we use Xovers to split a si gnal we like to think that they are splitting the
input signal to bands leaving everything else untouched. The truth is that any
normal analog or digital Xover introduces different amount of phase shift or
delay to different frequencies. Further dynamic gain changes will cause
further modulation of the Phase shift introduced by the Xovers. This
phenomenon was treated in C4’s phase compensated Xovers but the initial
phase shift caused by the Xovers is still apparent in C4 and in its output all
frequencies are equal to the source in Amplitude but not in Phase.
When its important to achieve as much source integrit y as possibl e the LinMB
goes a long way and splits the signal to 5 bands maintaining a 24bit clean
starting point for applying different dynamics processing to each of the bands.
Transients are the main sonic events that bene fit fr om Linear Phase.
Transients contain a wide range of frequencies, and are highly “Localized” in
time. A non-linear phase filter that shifts the phase differently for different
frequencies will “smear” the transient over a longer p eriod of time. The Linear
Phase EQ will pass transients maintaining the ir full sharpness.
DAPTIVE THRESHOLDS AND DE-MASKING
A
When a sof t sound and a loud sound happen at the same time, the loud
sound has some Masking effect over the softer sound. The research of
Masking, articulated the Upward spread Masking, where loud low frequency
sounds mask higher frequency sounds. The Linear MultiBand provides a way
for each band to be sensitive to the energy in its “Masker” band. When the
energy in the Masker band is high the band’s threshold will rise to introduce
less attenuation and compensate for the masking, letting the sound in each
band come out as loud and as clear as possible. The Linear MultiBand is the
first processor to introduce this de-masking behavior, of which you can read
more in Chapter 3 of this guide.
Waves LinMB software guide page 3 of 28
Chapter 2 – Basic Operation.
HE WAVES LINEAR PHASE MULTIBAND’S CONTROL GROUPS
T
HE CROSSOVER FREQUENCIES
T
The 4 Xover frequencies are set directly under the graph by grabbing their
graph marker or using the text button. These define the cutoff frequencies in
which the WideBand signal will be split into the 5 discrete bands.
NDIVIDUAL BAND CONTROLS
I
Each band of Waves LINMB has 5 adjustable dynamics settings.
Threshold, Gain, Range, Attack, Release, Solo and Bypass. These
function similarly in most dynamics processors but in this processor they
affect the dynamics of one of the 5 bands. The Range may seem unfamiliar
and basically it is in place of the well-known Ratio, but it defines both the
intensity of gain adjustment and the limit of gain adjustment. Read more In the
next chapter.
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LOBAL SETTINGS CONTROLS
G
In the Global section you can find master controls, which are ganged controls
for moving all the per band controls at once.
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Other deal with the overall processor output – Gain, Trim and Dither.
The Makeup control allows selection between manual mode and Auto
Makeup.
Finally there are 4 general compression behavior controls – Adaptive
(Explained further in the next chapter), Release – Select between Waves
ARC – Auto Release Control to a manually set release. Behavior – Opto or
Electro modes affect the nature of the release. Knee - soft or hard knee or
any value in between.
UICKSTART
Q
To start off, Waves provide a selection of factory presets. These can mostly
serve as good starting points for applying MultiBand Dynamics. As this is not
an effects processor the actual settings have to be program dependant and
most mastering engineers would prefer to manually set the processor and not
rely on ready made settings. The processor defaults and presets offer nice
scaling of the Time Constants Attack, Release in relation to their Band’s
Wavelength providing slower settings to lower bands and faster values to
higher. Other controls are set in the presets to provide some showcase of
possible modes and different combinations.
• Start off using the Processor defaults.
• Play Music through.
• For general MultiBand Compression first set the Range in all bands to –
6dB by dragging the Master Range control downwards. Th is will assure
that the gain adjustment will be Attenuation or Compression and the
maximal attenuation will not exceed a 6dB reduction.
• Now set your nominal per band thresholds. Use the peak energy in each
band to set the nominal threshold to the peak value.
• Now you can drag down the master Threshold to set the general
compression. You can choose to engage Auto Makeup after setting the
nominal thresholds and this way further threshold manipulation will
preserve relative loudness and you will hear the compression rather the
change in loudness.
• Adjust the per band gains to satisfy or qualify with your idea of “flat”
Equalization.
• Play the whole program, or at least the loudest passages and hit the Trim
button to makeup the global output gain buy the its Margin to the full scale.
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Note that this Quick Start routine is not the Golden recipe to mastering with
the Linear MultiBand, it does however provide a general type practice that
should let users new to MultiBand follow a recommended workflow. This
example only scratches the surface of possibilities with the Linear MultiBand
and there are more optional advanced features that may have implications on
the workflow method. Read on in this guide to learn about some of the special
advanced features.
Generally it’s important to remember that while the process is applied to split
discrete frequency bands, it affects the Whole WideBand sound. Soloing each
band and applying its compression in solo and then listening to the whole may
prove unrewarding as a workflow.
Frequency Analyzers can be used to get visual feedback to validate or
articulate what you hear but its most important to use the ears and work in a
good listening environment for critical reference.
Practice Makes Perfect!
This tool presents a lot of choice. Its not the Renaissance tools that help you
save time for great results. It’s a highly flexible, ultra professional, purist
quality tool.
Waves LinMB software guide page 6 of 28
Chapter 3 – Specialties of the Chef
DAPTIVE THRESHOLDS AND DE-MASKING
A
The effect of louder sounds on softer sounds has been researched for
decades. There are many classifications to masking and the most effective
masking is considered forward in time and upward in frequency. Simply put
loud lower frequencies affect the way we perceive higher softer frequencies.
The loud low frequency mask the higher frequencies. In the LinMB we can
consider each band to be the masker for the band above it, so when the
sound in a certain band is very loud it will have some masking effect to the
sound in the band above it. To address this we can introduce a little lift to the
threshold of the masked band and as result it will get less attenuation and be
a little louder or de-masked.
The Linear Phase MultiBand processor lets each band be sensitive to the
energy in the band below it. The “Adaptive” control is a continuous scale of
sensitivity to the Masker scaled in dB’s. –inf. Adaptive = off, this means no
sensitivity and the threshold is absolute regardless of what’s happening in the
lower band. When increasing the value the band will become more and more
sensitive to the energy in the band below it, The energy ranges from –80dB tp
+12. We call 0.0dB Fully Adaptive and values above it are Hyper Adaptive.
When the energy in the Masker band is high the threshold will be lifted. When
the energy in the lower band falls, the detail is revealed, threshold goes back
down and the attenuation goes back to normal. Also there is a chain reaction
that makes for subtle general looseness of compr ession to the hi g her bands
whenever the low bands are with high energy.
.
Each band of the linear MultiBand has its own compression settings and the
engineer may want to compress more when a band is exposed and less when
its masked. In example a song starts with a solo vocal and then the Playback
comes in and the picture changes. The “presence” frequencies of the voice
become more significant then the lower “Warm” tones of the voice, so to
regain warmth we would want to attenuate it less when the playback kicks in.
This is a macro example that can easily be treated with a bit of automation but
in concept masking happens on the micro scale throughout the program. For
example a staccato bass line masks and exposes the higher band’s sound on
a scale where manual riding isn’t practical. The adaptive behavior is the
practical answer.
The Adaptive De-Masking behavior is new to almost all users, and some may
think it’s unnecessary. It is however interesting, effective and worth a try.
Others may find it useful but it may also call for some practice before you get
comfortable with it. Optionally, it may change they way you work.
As a first step, try to add adaptive behavior to ready made settings on material
that you know very well. Set the Adaptive control to –0dB at this setting you
will get very adaptive behavior. Do a bit of an A > B listening test. Try to pay
special attention to passages that have different spectral dynamic nature and
Waves LinMB software guide page 7 of 28
hear how the adaptive behavior responds to them adding a more dynamic
approach to dynamics. This example is somewhat extreme and it is
recommended to try settings around –12 dB for subtle adaptive de-masking. It
may also be interesting to lower the overall threshold of the top 4 “Adaptive”
bands by Multi-selecting their thre sholds and pulling them down to
compensate for the added looseness, In any case when they are exposed
they will be tighter and Looser when masked.
UTO MAKEUP
A
When Applying compression adjusting the threshold reduces loudness.
Indeed in most compressors we can hear the overall gain reduction and we
can apply makeup gain to regain the lost loudness.
In WideBand compressors we find auto makeup to be fairly straightforward.
The auto makeup will boost by the reverse value of the Threshold, or
sometimes have a threshold dependant makeup “range” that accounts for the
knee and ratio too. In MultiBand there are other considerations. The bands
energy is going to be summed with that of the other bands so it’s hard to
predict the part of the discrete band’s energy on the summed WideBand
signal.
The Auto Makeup in LinMB is somewhat similar in that it accounts for the
Threshold, Range and Knee. In wide band we would use the headroom to
boost the loudness further then was possible before compressing. In the
MultiBand case It is designed to help maintain general level stability for better
a/b comparing. While in a wideband compressor the overall level will be
reduced in the LinMB only the gain of a certain band will be reduced in
relation to the others. It is much easier to hear the lost loudness then the
actual compression so working with Auto Makeup the bands level remains
similar and you can focus better on the sound of the dynamics process for
that band. You can choose to use Auto Makeup as a work mode to help get
the per band compression to sound right, Then apply per band gain on top of
it. When disengaging Auto Makeup its effect will be updated into the per band
gains. It is recommended to first set nominal thresholds per band to the peak
energy in each band. Then engage auto makeup and continue to adjust the
desired dynamics.
Auto Makeup does not interfere with the per-band Gain control. Also it cannot
be clipping proofed and the overall Output gain will serve to trim the margin
between the peak and the full scale.
W
AVES
ARC - A
UTO RELEASE CONTROL
Waves ARC was designed and debuted in the Waves Renaissance
Compressor. This routine sets the optimal gain adjustment release time by
being program sensitive. The Auto Release Control still refers to its band’s
release time and optimizes it according to the actual attenuation assuring
maximal transparency. Before ARC there was always a need to trade
between grainy Distortion with short release times to Pumping when setting
longer release times. ARC helps lower the extent of these artifacts. For best
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results, you may set your release time for the best compromise between
Distorting and Pumping and then apply ARC to get even better results with
less artifacts. Alternatively you can just count on this technology, set your
release value to the desired ballpark or stick with the release scaling from a
preset and rely on ARC to get it right. ARC was so well accepted wherever we
introduced it and in the LinMB it is ON by default.
Waves LinMB software guide page 9 of 28
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