HEAT (Harmonically enhanced Algorithm Technology)

[SessionKat]

Originally Posted by Howardk

So from what I am reading, no HEAT on instrument tracks or Auxes. Why would Digi, Oops I mean Avid, miss out on that?

Its not that we "missed out" on these track types. It was certainly considered. Situations of varying track types and the "global approach" brought its own special-case usability issues, and the intent of adding HEAT to signal-source disk tracks (as in "from tape" ) and not through busses and auxes which would result in "doubling-up" on the effect.

Its rarely we "miss out" - at times its more like we "can't fit" !!!

Cheers,

-tv

[wizprodux]

Originally Posted by KingFish

Well, cause I'm an arrogant analog snob, still cascading my mixes, even if done 100% ITB, out an analog console, or in the least out my Dangerous 2Bus.

I'll take myself out of the picture for a second.

I just mixed a record, completely ITB, cascaded it out a Neve 8026 console, inserted a Manley Massive Passive EQ, added a little sparkle, took out a TINY bit of 250hz Mud, and hit it lightly with an ADL CL 1500 Tube Compressor.

Tweaking it along the way, to make it sound as good as possible, My Typical workflow.

THEN - I did an alt version.

I kept it ITB, Dialed H.e.a.t in, just left the ADL 1500 HW inserted in the Master, and bounced it out.

The Band (All members, undisputed), the Producer, and 2 other engineers, blindly picked the ITB H.e.a.t bounce - we actually JUST sent it out to radio.

So.... That's why I'm "A little surprised", not necessarily just that "I Like it", just that it sounds THAT good.

I'm really digging in now, and actually LOVE the fact, that just like HW inserting an API EQ in a Neve room, I can Bypass h.e.a.t on tracks I don't want colored, or saturated by it, and select Other HW, or Plugins for those elements of my mix. I'm really glad they didn't JUST make it's activation "Global" - as I love how I can change the sound of PT's Mixer, but sometimes it's color is perfect for everything BUT a vocal, or acoustic etc...

Nevertheless, GREAT new addition to HD, I take back all the other stuff I've whined about on here, stating there haven't been any HD only developments... glad to know you were working on something, new OMNI looks cool too, I'm gonna grab one for sure.

I like it when the significant changes are sonic, and good.

WAY COOOL

How can we find the song online (iTunes, etc....)
Would love to hear it

[Carl Kolchak]

Originally Posted by SessionKat

Its not that we "missed out" on these track types. It was certainly considered. Situations of varying track types and the "global approach" brought its own special-case usability issues, and the intent of adding HEAT to signal-source disk tracks (as in "from tape" ) and not through busses and auxes which would result in "doubling-up" on the effect.

Its rarely we "miss out" - at times its more like we "can't fit" !!!

Cheers,

-tv

Hi Tim,

it seems that on a conceptual level I've misunderstood what HEAT is trying to do.

I was under the impression that it was in response to frequent requests for a flavoured mixer - in which case a global approach would make sense.

Your above statement seems to imply that it is emulating analogue tape, as even MIDI instruments that might not have been recorded to tape would have to be summed through a mixing desk - and in the process have it's particular sonic flavour imposed upon it.

In which case you're sort of competing with you own Reel Tape suite plugins, but not addressing the flavoured mixer requests.

Or it is emulating analogue summing in a mixing desk, and it's being implemented in a slightly odd way.

I'm not knocking the product. The fact seems to be that the end result is very musically pleasing - so a job well done.

I'm just trying to get a clear grasp of what Avid believe they are marketing.

You could argue that a future update might divide the process in to three phases:

1. Mixer Input (to simulate the sonic character imposed upon signals that are being recorded through the mixer to tape).

2. Tape (to simulate tape characteristics - speed, bias , formulation options would be great).

3. Mixer Replay (to simulate the sonic character imposed upon signals that are being replayed off the tape, through the mixer).

Each of the above phases should be bypass-able for maximum flexibility.


Again, HEAT looks / sounds very appealing - so, congratulations!

Perhaps you can clear up some of my confusion, and also throw some light as to why the controls are so minimal in as much as they seem to force you to choose between tape emulation in one direction, or mixer summing emulation in the opposite throw of the same control?

Cheers!

[SessionKat]

Hey Carl,

As I do not serve as a marketing or sales role within Avid I should not attempt to riff on market intent. I can say that an overall usability and enginering goal of simplicity, (aka the "2-knob approach"), was there from the start and exists at the end of our effort. My response stems from my role as engineering, test, implementation and usability. I find it refreshing that we have a hybrid of use-intent. Mixer? Tape? From? To? Input? Summed? Indeed, the Pre/Post switch allows for the 2 drastically different points within a console.

Using HEAT personally reminds me of my "old analog days" when I would rent a hi-end stereo tube compressor and bounce tape tracks through it to DAT (ack!) and back to tape. So it was a hybrid console/tape approach.

In any regard, I hope you enjoy it!

-tv

[KingFish]

Originally Posted by wizprodux

WAY COOOL

How can we find the song online (iTunes, etc....)
Would love to hear it

Don't think it's released to iTunes yet - This is about it for Public / Online release (It's at Radio, but the Album doesn't drop to Stores and iTunes till Late Fall)

TRY THIS LINK Sadly, there's a bit of Compression / Codec Artifact - Nevertheless, this is the tune / Session I was talking about earlier, all ITB (Minus the ADL Compressor) - w/ h.e.a.t

[spicemix]

Ah I see:

A Note About Other Track Types
HEAT only affects audio tracks. It is not applied to Instrument, Auxiliary Input, or Master tracks. If you are using virtual instrument plug-ins on an Instrument or Auxiliary Input track and want to apply HEAT, you can either bus record audio from that track to an audio track, or you can bus the output of the track to the input of an audio track and enable Input monitoring.

How about releasing a plugin version to make people happy using it as they please where they please with whatever per-channel settings they please? It's just a saturation model.

The Dave Hill DSP code is treated as holy writ for whatever reason: no RTAS for Pheonix, no plugin for HEDD, and now HEAT is TDM-only and snuck into the UI and signal path via software foo.

Remember the wisdom of Bill Atkinson: "Too much magic causes software rot."

[spicemix]

Question: what are the Delay Compensation implications of using the suggested bus-to-audio-track-in-input-monitoring workaround to have HEAT on a VI track?

VIs are the things you'd most want some THD on as they are virgin digital. And timing of grooves is important to some.

[formfunction]

Originally Posted by Dism

One will also note that 8.1 will only work with Snow Leopard, and is the very last build for HD systems still on XP. Time to move on to the future, folks.

Ha, you tell us to move to the future.. and you are still on LE? Please, less "hot air" and more HEAT.

[anguswoodhead]

Hey guys
I would love someone to be able to compare HEAT with the McDSP Analog Channel...
Anyone got both?
Thanks,
Angus

[studiojimi]

Originally Posted by Dism
One will also note that 8.1 will only work with Snow Leopard, and is the very last build for HD systems still on XP. Time to move on to the future, folks.

woof woof little dog

Originally Posted by formfunction

Ha, you tell us to move to the future.. and you are still on LE? Please, less "hot air" and more HEAT.

LOL

The hit record engineers (for what that's worth) I've spoken so far to say HEAT is not all that.

the comment was "ehhh"

Not a big deal.

The crane song versions set the bar and this HEAT thing comes close to cloning what we've had available for some time already.

An engineer worth his salt will get the sound reasonablly close during the recording process to not have to resort to "make me sound like i know what i'm doing plugs"