Re: 0.97 metering

On Mon, 2008-11-24 at 13:28 +0000, John Rigg wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 04:03:05PM -0600, Jan Depner wrote:
> > 
> > On Sun, 2008-11-23 at 21:39 +0000, John Rigg wrote:
> >     The two colors are still there.  My guess would be that you havce
> > set "Meter normal" and Meter warning" to the same colors in
> > "Edit->Preferences".  Adding a combo box to select whether you see peak,
> > rms, or both wouldn't be hard (I think) but I don't have time right now.
> > In addition, it's been so long since I modified anything that I can't
> > remember how to commit changes or my password has expired, or both ;-)
> 
> Sorry, my mistake. The two colours are there. A few more points:
> 
> I see there are now band delays, which are set by default at 2.00
> for low band, and 0.50 for mid band. Are these in milliseconds? There
> are no units displayed.

    The delays are not on unless you select them.  The units (ms) are in
the documentation in the Edit->Preferences dialog (click the Help
button).

> This feature is unlikely to be used in mastering. Default delay values 
> really need to be set at zero to prevent any nasty surprises.
> 

    I didn't expect anyone to use them for final mastering (although
some people use BBEs on their masters).  Because JAMin *is* a dedicated
mastering tool it has a lot of things that are difficult to understand
(like hard and soft knee, FFTs, attack, release, makeup gain, ad
infinitum).  If you want to use JAMin or WAVES or any mastering tool
(inclucing hardware tools) you need to do a lot of homework just to
figure out what you're trying to do.  I know I've spent many hours
reading everything I can find on the subject (and getting 15 different
opinions on every aspect).  I don't think anyone who is serious about
mastering will just enable the delays without finding out what they do.


> Group delay is larger in LF speaker drivers than HF ones, so I'd
> expect to see zero delay on LF and longest delay on HF (or is it
> showing the amount of delay compensation?)
> 

    Rane crossovers, Peavey crossovers (and others), and BBE Sonic
Maximizers give you the ability to set delays for low and mid
frequencies to compensate for speaker placement (both in the enclosures
and in space) and other issues.  The delays were added so you could play
around with those settings without buying a crossover or BBE.  Another
reason that I wanted to add them was to get a better handle on the
processing.  It forced me to actually run through the processing code
and see what was happening.


> I guess jamin is no longer a dedicated mastering processor.
> That aside, this is a nice interface (and I do appreciate that
> changes can only be made if and when time is available).
> 

    JAMin is still a dedicated mastering processor.  We're trying to
stay away from too many bells and whistles which is one of the reasons
there haven't been too many changes lately.  Almost everything that has
been added has been optional.  The RMS meters were requested by a fair
number of people so, IIRC, the concensus was that it was a good thing
(TM).  We keep getting requests to make it simpler and lighter so people
can use it as a plugin.  I think I can safely say that that ain't gonna
happen ;-)


    I do have a question though, since you seem to be a serious user, is
there a need for five compressor bands or more parametric controls on
the HDEQ?  Both of those have come up before and it seems like overkill
to me but I'm not a mastering engineer so I really don't know.  What's
your take?


Jan

-- 
Jan 'Evil Twin' Depner
http://www.thecfband.com


"Microsoft has a new version out, Windows XP, which according to
everybody is the 'most reliable Windows ever.' To me, this is like
saying that asparagus is 'the most articulate vegetable ever.'"

Dave Barry



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