RyanMcQuinn
Grateful Member
Hi Everyone,
I've been mesmerized by the Alan Meyerson video like most of us here. I've googled and googled about using saturation instead of EQ (as he says he does regularly) and have turned up next to nothing. I'm very interested in this secret technique so I'm going to share my thoughts and research in hopes some veterans here can tell me what's right and wrong about my concepts and hopefully shed some light on this mysterious practice. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to share.
My working theory is this: In the same way that our brains find people more attractive who have symmetrical faces, our brains also find sounds more pleasing that seem real and authentic. It's like our brains are the customs line at the airport. If a sound can pass itself off as real, we accept it with open arms. The main items on the checklist for admission into our brain country are 1) binaural legitimacy (early reflections and various spacial processing) and 2) harmonic legitimacy (which gets us to the meat of this thread). (If you have more ideas for this checklist, please share!)
Sine waves don't pass the smell test of harmonic legitimacy to our brains. They have no harmonics. only fundamentals, and we immediately identify them as impostors that don't occur naturally in the world. Thus, they sound rather harsh and ugly when they are naked. Once we process them with harmonic distortion, it feels like the sound becomes smoother and more pleasing. To me, this seems amazing. The concept that distortion can create a smoothing sensation seems backwards, but my ears tell me it's true. I chalk this up to the creation of harmonic legitimacy. Our brains say, "Harmonic legitimacy: check!" and voila, the perceived smoothness is actually just the pleasant sensation of our brains deciding the sound is real and more natural than it seemed before.
If this is what harmonic distortion can do for a sine wave, it makes sense why Alan Meyerson would use it to add brain pleasing content to specific frequencies with saturation rather than simply turn these frequencies up with EQ. Enhancing a sound with adding density to the RMS and thus affecting the percieved volume rather than just a volume increase that affects peak and rms together. I haven't figured out how this would pertain to an eq cut yet though...
Today I did an experiment. My theory is that using saturation I can create the type of harmonic realism I seek in such a way that our brains subconsciously appreciate the additional rms/percieved volume harmonic content without it peaking obtrusively (similar to how we mix in early reflections in such a way that we feel them instead of hear them). I created a sine wave (around 500hz and then around 1000 khz) in Reaper and watched it through Izotope Insight as I pushed saturation hard first through Nomad Factory Magnetic 2 (Meyerson referenced Magnetic 1 in the video) and then tried a different saturation, Izotope Vintage Tape. I then did they same for a solo violin part. Honestly, I had meant to use Izotope's multiband exciter (from Ozone 7) instead of Vintage Tape and I forgot due to my rush of trying to finish this experiment while the kids napped. I will report my findings about the exciter when I am able to revisit it.
I found that with saturation i could easily create higher harmonics for the sine wave, but lower harmonics didn't really want to be just created out of thin air that way. Then with the violin, the harmonics were already plentiful and I didn't really find that I could control the frequency with any degree of accuracy. I could make the harmonics more transparent with the tape emulation and they became increasingly louder and more abrasive as I increased to tube/tape, and then tube only, but I couldn't really focus them around a certain area of the equalizer. I regret that I didn't get to the multiband exciter today. I have a hunch I could have had much better supplemental harmonic enhancement in specific frequencies with that plugin. This specific Izotope Harmonic Exciter plugin allows you to do warm, retro, tape, tube, triode, and dual triode, so the coloring options seem plentiful. I will revisit this for sure.
If I can find the breakthrough I am looking for here and become the color eq specialist of my dreams, my next research focus will be on vintage processing. My next theory is that a color eq specialist doesn't need vintage processing (specifically compressors) due to being able to color the sound masterfully through harmonic eq control and then use transparent compression. Additionally, vintage emulations even of channel strips that are supposed to be the canvas for our works of art seem like they should be achievable through deliberate harmonic enhancement. I don't have any experience with these classic pieces of hardware, so the learning curve has been quite steep to wrap my head around why to pick one or another. AND the good ones all cost a lot of money. So I wonder if looking forward toward a better understanding of harmonic manipulation and control is a smarter course for me, rather than spending the countless hours of research, trial & error, and monetary investment chasing vintage processing knowledge where I will never be as good as people who used the hardware for decades.
Sorry for the length of this post. These two questions are the driving force behind my joining the forum. I will be waiting on pins and needles for the experts here who will be so kind as to impart their knowledge first about the issue of enhancing eq perceived volume with saturation and exciters rather than an eq plugin, and then using this skill of harmonic mastery to eliminate the need for certain classic emulations.
Thank you very much for your time.
Ryan
I've been mesmerized by the Alan Meyerson video like most of us here. I've googled and googled about using saturation instead of EQ (as he says he does regularly) and have turned up next to nothing. I'm very interested in this secret technique so I'm going to share my thoughts and research in hopes some veterans here can tell me what's right and wrong about my concepts and hopefully shed some light on this mysterious practice. Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to share.
My working theory is this: In the same way that our brains find people more attractive who have symmetrical faces, our brains also find sounds more pleasing that seem real and authentic. It's like our brains are the customs line at the airport. If a sound can pass itself off as real, we accept it with open arms. The main items on the checklist for admission into our brain country are 1) binaural legitimacy (early reflections and various spacial processing) and 2) harmonic legitimacy (which gets us to the meat of this thread). (If you have more ideas for this checklist, please share!)
Sine waves don't pass the smell test of harmonic legitimacy to our brains. They have no harmonics. only fundamentals, and we immediately identify them as impostors that don't occur naturally in the world. Thus, they sound rather harsh and ugly when they are naked. Once we process them with harmonic distortion, it feels like the sound becomes smoother and more pleasing. To me, this seems amazing. The concept that distortion can create a smoothing sensation seems backwards, but my ears tell me it's true. I chalk this up to the creation of harmonic legitimacy. Our brains say, "Harmonic legitimacy: check!" and voila, the perceived smoothness is actually just the pleasant sensation of our brains deciding the sound is real and more natural than it seemed before.
If this is what harmonic distortion can do for a sine wave, it makes sense why Alan Meyerson would use it to add brain pleasing content to specific frequencies with saturation rather than simply turn these frequencies up with EQ. Enhancing a sound with adding density to the RMS and thus affecting the percieved volume rather than just a volume increase that affects peak and rms together. I haven't figured out how this would pertain to an eq cut yet though...
Today I did an experiment. My theory is that using saturation I can create the type of harmonic realism I seek in such a way that our brains subconsciously appreciate the additional rms/percieved volume harmonic content without it peaking obtrusively (similar to how we mix in early reflections in such a way that we feel them instead of hear them). I created a sine wave (around 500hz and then around 1000 khz) in Reaper and watched it through Izotope Insight as I pushed saturation hard first through Nomad Factory Magnetic 2 (Meyerson referenced Magnetic 1 in the video) and then tried a different saturation, Izotope Vintage Tape. I then did they same for a solo violin part. Honestly, I had meant to use Izotope's multiband exciter (from Ozone 7) instead of Vintage Tape and I forgot due to my rush of trying to finish this experiment while the kids napped. I will report my findings about the exciter when I am able to revisit it.
I found that with saturation i could easily create higher harmonics for the sine wave, but lower harmonics didn't really want to be just created out of thin air that way. Then with the violin, the harmonics were already plentiful and I didn't really find that I could control the frequency with any degree of accuracy. I could make the harmonics more transparent with the tape emulation and they became increasingly louder and more abrasive as I increased to tube/tape, and then tube only, but I couldn't really focus them around a certain area of the equalizer. I regret that I didn't get to the multiband exciter today. I have a hunch I could have had much better supplemental harmonic enhancement in specific frequencies with that plugin. This specific Izotope Harmonic Exciter plugin allows you to do warm, retro, tape, tube, triode, and dual triode, so the coloring options seem plentiful. I will revisit this for sure.
If I can find the breakthrough I am looking for here and become the color eq specialist of my dreams, my next research focus will be on vintage processing. My next theory is that a color eq specialist doesn't need vintage processing (specifically compressors) due to being able to color the sound masterfully through harmonic eq control and then use transparent compression. Additionally, vintage emulations even of channel strips that are supposed to be the canvas for our works of art seem like they should be achievable through deliberate harmonic enhancement. I don't have any experience with these classic pieces of hardware, so the learning curve has been quite steep to wrap my head around why to pick one or another. AND the good ones all cost a lot of money. So I wonder if looking forward toward a better understanding of harmonic manipulation and control is a smarter course for me, rather than spending the countless hours of research, trial & error, and monetary investment chasing vintage processing knowledge where I will never be as good as people who used the hardware for decades.
Sorry for the length of this post. These two questions are the driving force behind my joining the forum. I will be waiting on pins and needles for the experts here who will be so kind as to impart their knowledge first about the issue of enhancing eq perceived volume with saturation and exciters rather than an eq plugin, and then using this skill of harmonic mastery to eliminate the need for certain classic emulations.
Thank you very much for your time.
Ryan