Multiband Processing: Not Compression

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btswire
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Multiband Processing: Not Compression

Post by btswire » Wed Feb 17, 2016 6:31 pm

I was thinking earlier about the idea of using a saturation effect only on specific frequency ranges, and was wondering how to go about applying this.

For instance, if I like what an overdriven tube sound is doing to the lower frequencies, can I have it affect only those frequencies and not the rest of the signal? I use the WaveArts Multidynamics plugin for multiband compression, so maybe there is a way of incorporating that as a crossover, but not actually using its compression?

Anybody else using multiband techniques other than multiband dynamics processing, either via hardware or software?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:05 pm

I used to do this out of the box with a cross-over. In the box you could just duplicate the tracks, highpass one & lowpass the other at the same frequency. I used to do the crossover trick on drum machine tracks so I could treat the kick differently than the rest of the kit, or apply reverb to the toms, snare and cymbals but not the kick. It's also a great or bass tracks. You can overdrive the higher range while the low end stays untouched and huge.

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Post by Injured Ear » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:24 pm

Give Fabfilter Saturn a try. I was just reading about it on another engineer's recommendation.

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Post by btswire » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:47 pm

Thanks for the great tip Dave! I'd imagine this would work best with linear phase filtering. Any recommendations in the plugin world?

Now that I think about it, I could try what you're describing with the WaveArts Multidynamics plugin. This could work by having a duplicate plugin for each of the two tracks, and soloing the opposite bands for the duplicate track...

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Post by Snarl 12/8 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:34 am

For years, Quadrafuzz was my secret weapon on kick drum. It gives you 4 "bands" of distortion/fuzz that you can shape around any source. It came free with whatever DAW I was using at the time. I switched DAWs, lost Quadrafuzz and gradually recorded less and less. I wonder if it was all due to not having that plugin any more?
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Post by joninc » Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:15 pm

quadrafuzz is a older steinberg thing (cubase/nuendo). doesn't show up in my cubase 5 at all so i believe it's discontinued or no longer supported.

check out this: https://www.audiodamage.com/effects/pro ... ?pid=AD030

seems pretty cool and AD plugs are pretty cheap and awesome
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Post by ashcat_lt » Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:37 pm

Honestly, a lot of times you can get away with just putting complimentary EQ on either side of the non-linearity - what you could call "pre-emphasis/de-emphasis".

So, in the case of the OP, you'd either boost the low end or reduce the high end before the saturator, and then do (near) the opposite on the other side. It's not exactly the same as crossover - distort - mix, but it often works just fine, and can sometimes be a bit more natural sounding.

David - I like to actually lowpass going into the distortion on bass, and then high pass coming out, and combine that in with the full-range. Used in moderation, it adds just a bit of hair in that first octave or so above the fundamentals so that it speaks through on smaller/bass deficient systems without really sounding distorted OR creating a mess of the low end.

If that Wave Arts MultiDynamics thing lets you set Attack and Release to 0, then you can just use it as your saturator because compression that follows on a sample-by-sample basis is distortion/saturation. Adjust the knee to go from hard to softer clipping. Done.

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Post by floid » Thu Feb 18, 2016 2:56 pm

ashcat_lt wrote:Honestly, a lot of times you can get away with just putting complimentary EQ on either side of the non-linearity - what you could call "pre-emphasis/de-emphasis".

So, in the case of the OP, you'd either boost the low end or reduce the high end before the saturator, and then do (near) the opposite on the other side. It's not exactly the same as crossover - distort - mix, but it often works just fine, and can sometimes be a bit more natural sounding.
I used to do something similar to bass with a pair of Shure sr-107 graphics. Slam a few bands and kill others on the first, then set the second one opposite.
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Post by vvv » Thu Feb 18, 2016 4:49 pm

I do it in parallel - just mult (or copy) the bass track, distort the copy, bring it up from under using band-pass or whatever EQ.

I posted elsewhere that lately I've been recording DI bass through two separate chains: first is The Brick into an 1176 clone or dbx160XT or whatever, and splitting off to a VC3Q that I slam (gotta try the VTB1 what is silly when cranked), mixing in parallel with, as you've guessed, band-pass or whatever EQ.
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Post by mn412 » Thu Feb 18, 2016 10:09 pm

I would duplicate the track filter out everything you don't want and then effect the rest. Or use filters before the effect on a send.

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Post by Nick Sevilla » Mon Feb 22, 2016 8:18 am

I sometimes use the Aphex Aural Exciter as a parallel processing thing on the lead vocal. And also use a slightly different amount of either a chorus or reverb on that track.
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Post by cgarges » Tue Mar 22, 2016 7:46 am

Filter, then phase flip. Listen. Better or worse? Go with "better" 85% of the time.

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