Thread: HEAT in 2021
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Old 12-02-2021, 03:10 AM
noiseboyuk noiseboyuk is offline
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Default Re: HEAT in 2021

Interesting - my own gain reduction I have at group (aux) stage. On the loudest parts of the track I demoed, some tracks hit -5db on the meters. However I hear vocal distortion (the not pleasant kind) below that point. Presumably the effect of my gain staging is that HEAT is more aggressive as it's inserted in the audio tracks not auxes (and post-fader), not that it sounds different per se - essentially it's turning up the drive and tonal effects.

So. I moved the gain reduction from auxes to the audio tracks and repeated the exercise. First to test the LUFS on both mixes. With HEAT - -17.9db. Without - -21.1db . So as before, the mix needs to be knocked back about 3db. Interestingly, my first pass with HEAT when the channels were running hotter had LUFS at -18.4db - so something about changing the gain staging has had on overall effect. Still, both HEAT versions are within 0.5db of each other. [EDITIED THIS INFO]

The good news - the unpleasant distortion has gone. But the bad news - EVERYTHING has gone. I've spend ages A/Bing - closed eyes / open eyes to see the edits - and honestly I don't know if I can tell any difference with these settings. I don't know if I'm imagining it, but it's just possible there's an incredibly subtle increase in presence in the vocals, but I might be kidding myself. I'm going to test it on the singer who is super-sensitive to hearing variations in her voice, and see if she notices anything.

I've noticed this effect a lot with saturators. If you start to hear the effect, the LUFS will have increased. When you knock it back to compensate - as every streaming service / broadcaster will do - the A/B difference almost vanishes. Yes, you can of course make it sound more saturated by pushing it further, but you'll always take a LUFS hit. Oxford Inflator is exactly the same.

So I remain in the unconvinced camp at the moment...
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Last edited by noiseboyuk; 12-02-2021 at 04:08 AM.
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