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CHANGING SETTINGS (PLEASE READ!)
I knew that you would come to this page to read it because I'm sure you are not satisfied with my presets, right?
Well, let me explain what I did and why I did it. I advice you to look both at the linedrawing and chain carefully before start reading here.
One of the most IMPORTANT things you have to keep in mind is that you have to be VERY careful with the volume settings of ALL plugins. Because everything is digital you don't have that much overhead as with analogue equipment so distortion is there before you realize it.
Click on the picture to see a linedrawing of the chain with the coresponding numbers
The first thing you will notice is that the chain has no AGC. I can give you one good and important reason for that: There's no plugin which can be used as AGC because they don't behave properly when using slow releasetimes (3-5 seconds). That's why I, Bob the Builder, uses a self-made AGC (Hope to get the pictures of that project online soon) until there will be a good plugin. By the way, I will exchange my self-made AGC for an Aphex Compellor somewhere in the upcoming months.
GENERAL TIPS! Try this first
Want to have a less (or more) compressed/agressive sound?
Increase/decrease the output volume of Plugin 3, Renaissance bass. Optimal settings: between -10 and -6dB)
Want to have a more limiting sound?
Increase the output volume of Plugin 21, The 8 band EQ. It has a major overhead and has a standard outputsetting of -10,5dB. Try a setting between -6 and -8 for example.
Want to get rid of the squashed high bands?
Try the settings on this page
Plugin 1 & 2
This is actually the most unneeded part of the chain. I once added these two per coincidence and it sounded a bit nicer than without them. I never tried to remove them again because my computer has enough processor power to handle all plugins. If your computer has hick-ups these plugins are the first two to delete. You can try to compensate the EQ and limiter by changing settings on e.g. the second EQ, limiter, 5- and 4 band compressor or dynamic EQ.
If you want to remove the Pre EQ and Pre limiter please set the output of Plugin 3 (bass enhancer) to a value so that the outputlevel is around -10dB to -8dB max. Then you still have got a 8-10dB overhead left if you aren't using an AGC.
Plugin 3 & 4
These are defenitely the best bassenhancer plugins I ever heard. It sounds much better than the normal Waves Maxxbass (you don't have try this one...) because of the warm analogue caracter of the plugin. The harmonics this enhancer produces are really delicious. I used two of them so I could create harmonics of two frequenties.
Plugin 5 - 7
This one is a bit tricky so let me explain what I did here. With a m/s encoder you can encode audio into two seperate parts: The mid- and the side chain. The Mid chain contains all Mono information (Technically: the sum of M and S signals) and the Side chain contains all the Stereo information (the difference of M and S signals). Once they are splitted you can do interesting things with just a simple EQ. After the m/s encoder has splitted the audio it sends M (Mid) to the left channel en S (Side) to the right channel, then to the EQ.
The most important reason why I took the Renaissance EQ is that you can set up the left and right channel seperately and that's what we want as we splitted the audio into M and S. The other reason is of course the soundquality of the plugin which is also very warm and analogue.
Before you start playing with the EQ don't forget to turn off the LINK button. If you leave it on you will make changes to the EQ on both the left and right channel at the same time.
A quick look at my preset shows you the HP- and LP filters and some boosts on certain frequenties. The reason that I took different frequenties for the low-pass filters is that stereo information holds more noise than mono information. That's why the cut-off frequentie of the right (Side) channel is set to 11500Hz. You can of course switch all filters off if you don't use it for FM broadcasting but I advice you to leave a hi-pass filter on at 20Hz as DC offset remover.
Because the audio is splitted the output just acts as a simple stereo enhancer. As you can see I boosted the right (Side) channel (is stereo information) with 3,5dB to get a slight stereo enhancement.
After the EQ it goes into a m/s encoder again to decode the audio back to normal.
Plugin 8 - 10
I gave it the name of 3 band 'Dynamic EQ' because it equalizes the sound slightly. Actually it is nothing more than 3 compressors splitted into 3 different bands using very slow upward compression. Via this way the sound gets a bit fatter and warmer. Also has some sort of small function as AGC.
Plugin 11 - 16
Defenitely the most important part of the chain which took me ages to get the right sound. The 5 seperate compressors function as a 5 band compressor followed by the Ultramaximizer which eliminates the peaks caused by the compressors. As you can see I didn't look very carefully to the settings of the filters. I didn't divide the compressor's filters correct but trusted mostly on my ears. Anyone who wants to try both setting the filters technically correct and keep a good soundquality may take the challenge. Oh yeah, don't forget to keep me informed. :-)
Plugin 17
There it is. I once started the chain around this 4band compressor. Good compressor but too clean to act as a broadcast compressor. Also misses coupling. Therefore I use both the 5- and 4band compressor. Play with this thing a lot, it's a very nice compressor! Remember: Watch the output volume!
Because it's the second compressor in the chain I chose for an 'open' caracter by giving all bands quite slow attack and release times, except for the high band which has a more limiting effect.
Plugin 18 - 20
2 compressors/expanders used as a 2 band HF clipper followed by another overshoot limiter. The audio first goes into the filters, then to the compressors (with the fastest attack/release times possible) and afterwards to the expanders. Because only the high frequenties go through the expanders they are a very useful noise reducer. Bye bye noisy noise!
Plugin 21 - 23
Almost there: Use the EQ, 3band limiter and the 1 band Bass EQ to make the last changes to your sound. A little explanation is needed here I think:
Before you start applying more limiting you have to know that this is not the best limiter there is so be careful it sounds tiring very easily. That's also why I set the bass EQ AFTER the limiter. The Final limiter/clipper does a much better job in here. The only reason why I use this 3 band limiter is because it's the only (!) direct-x multiband limiter there exists, at least, as far as I know.
Plugin 24
The Ultramaximizer used as final limiter/clipper. Releasetime is set to 0.01 ms to get the best peak control possible.
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