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anonymous 10 December 2004

Hello,

I've seen this feature on hi-end mastering consoles (Manley custom, Maselec, old Neumann desks) but is there any stand-alone equipment that can provide it?

thanks

tommaso

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Thomas W. Bethel Tue, 12/14/2004 - 05:41

Massive Mastering wrote: If you're in a DAW, you can just mult to another track and pull in the pan... Samplitude has a basic multi-band stereo enhancer that can be used in a similar fashion. Pre-fade aux send would work also...

There's a lot of ways to skin that cat...

According to what I know an elliptical equalizer is a special equalizer which causes the two channels of a stereo signal to be more nearly in phase at low frequencies, making the signal easier to cut into a record. So your suggestion would not be an elliptical equalizer unless I am missing something in your description. The elliptical equalizers I have used in record cutting allow you to chose the turnover frequency for the best results. Could you be more specific in what you are suggesting? Thanks

Massive Mastering Tue, 12/14/2004 - 08:42

1. Mult the signal (or an aux works well also) and EQ in a crossover point. High pass on the stereo track, low pass on the mult.

2. Bring in the pan however tight you want on the mult.

3. Tweak.

It works like a charm. I don't use it really often, but certainly on dance, trance, hip-hop and the like if the lows aren't centered well to keep the subs in the clubs happy.

The Samplitude "multiband enhancer" works in the same way - You can specify crossover points and adjust the stereo width to each section. I still prefer the "manual" approach though, as it easier to adjust the relative volumes between the lows and the rest. Also easier to compress the lows without the nastiness of the average multi-band compressor.

anonymous Tue, 12/14/2004 - 08:57

My understanding is that an elliptical equalizer sums the sides to mono for all freq's below the set crossover point. This way you can still get a decent stereo image from the more directional high freq's but correct for any phase problems that would make cutting a decently wide groove impossible in a transfer to vinyl master.

You could achieve the same thing in a DAW by multing to 2 tracks using a HPF on one track and an LPF on the other (probably using a Linear Phase algorithm for the crossover point would be the best bet) and summing to mono for the track with the low freqs. Whether the results would be as satisfying as an analog EE is definitely up for debate.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

anonymous Wed, 12/22/2004 - 11:31

The ADT W730 or W731 modules are what you are looking for. Both are analog units designed specifically for this purpose. Both units also have an M/S matrix, and the W731 also has parametric equalizer bands that allows you to EQ the M and S signals separately.

I have the W731 and it's a very nice piece of equipment.

http://www.adt-audio.com/UsProducts/V700/V700ModMastBase.html

iznogood Mon, 01/03/2005 - 11:04

too many buttons and knobs on their front panels....

and many buttons sends a message of complex circuits..... and complex circuits tend to sound worse than simple ones...

and.... i'm really into taking things apart these days..... and i must say i'm not impressed by many of the so called pro or mastering devices out there....

so.... nothing concrete... just my intuition..

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